Dr. Jose Rizal

Since it's Independence Day here (12 June), let me tell you about the closest our country's gotten to a real-life Sherlock Holmes. Who also wrote our fave classic lit gay ship. Who also might be Hitler's secret dad (?!?!?!?!)

Dr. Jose Rizal

Mainly, he was a genius, reformist, and author of two revolutionary novels: Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and its sequel, El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster). His novels inspired the Filipinos to fight against our Spanish colonizers.

Similiarities:

He was a fucking genius in all fields. If he wanted to be a detective instead of a freedom fighter he could have.

HE KNEW 13 FUCKING LANGUAGES. THIRTEEN.

A doctor that specialized in ophthalmology. He finished his licensure exam before 18, but he couldn't get his license until he was an adult

Also a boxer! Also good at martial arts! Also a swordsman!

Also a scientist! This dude got exiled because of his treasonous writings, and guess what he did in exile? He fucked off and discovered three new species of animals

He lived in the same year range as Holmes, around 1860s to 1890s! Only he was executed at 35 y/o.

We have tons of theories about him. There's a conspiracy theory that he's Hitler's father because he was in Germany at the time of his birth.

Another is he's queer or bi because he wrote very intimate letters to his friend, Blumentritt, who he only met irl once (!) We also have a street named after his pen pal bf

Another argument is he wrote our first bury your gays trope with Elias x Ibarra (Elibarra), who have fanfic on AO3 as well.

In book 1, the MC, Ibarra, gets his ass saved again and again by a stranger, Elias, who wants to persuade him to help reform the country. To do so they meet up secretly, a lot. Mostly intimate boat rides. However Elias finds out that his tragic backstory (entire family died due to oppression) was caused by Ibarra's family! He nearly kills Ibarra. But he still forgives him. He breaks him out of prison, but Ibarra makes a stopover to say goodbye to his gf. So they get caught and Elias sacrifices his life for him.

Other fun facts:

We have a cult that worships him as their deity

He's really fucking tiny at 4' 11" or 1.5 m

By law everyone has to learn about him in school and read his two books. We spend two years of high school for his life and books, and then in college we study about him again

Wanna learn history and ship tragic gays? Both books in English translation can be found at gutenberg.org under the titles: The Social Cancer and The Reign of Greed.