Language Is Identity: Rizal’s Warning for a Forgetful Nation

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“While a people preserves its language; it preserves the marks of liberty.” José Rizal

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By Pinoybuilt

Filipinos today speak English with ease. Taglish dominates daily life. Our media is Americanized—our humor, our slang, even our dreams. But national hero José Rizal gave us a warning that still echoes in 2025: the death of a language is the death of identity—and, soon after, liberty.

🇵🇭 Language = Identity = Freedom

In works like Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, and his letters to the Women of Malolos, Rizal made this clear: a people who forget their language are easy to colonize again—mentally, culturally, economically.

“Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa hayop at malansang isda.”
(“He who does not love his native language is worse than a beast and a stinking fish.”)

This well-known line, traditionally attributed to Rizal’s youth, reminds us that language isn’t just a tool. It is a weapon of resistance. A map of memory. A symbol of unity.

🌐 The Diaspora and the Filipino Tongue

For many Filipino-Americans and OFWs, Filipino is a language heard but not always spoken. Families who fled for opportunity sometimes left behind more than land—they left behind the very sound of who they are.

And yet, as Rizal implies: we cannot be fully free if we do not know how to name ourselves in our own tongue.

💬 What Can We Do?

• Teach and speak Filipino and regional languages (Ilokano, Bicolano, Kapampangan) at home.
• Support content creators who produce in native languages.
• Honor our ancestors by keeping their words alive.
• Use Filipino not just on holidays, but in love, protest, prayer, and play.

✊🏽 Final Word

Rizal’s revolution wasn’t just political—it was cultural.
If we want a liberated future, we must defend our past.
And that starts with our language.

Ang wika ay susi sa pagkakaisa. Sa wika, may dangal. Sa wika, may diwa. Sa wika, may kalayaan.

#Pinoybuilt #Rizal2025 #FilipinoLanguage #FilAmIdentity #WikaNgKalayaan #JoseRizal

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“I’m Filipino / I eat adobo / I use a tabo.” -- Mikey Bustos, "FILIPINO"

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