Crisóstomo Ibarra- Also known in his full name as Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, a Filipino who studied in

Europe for 7 years, the love interest of Maria Clara. Son of the deceased Don Rafael Ibarra; Crisostomo changed his
surname from Eibarramendia to Ibarra, from his ancestor's surname.

Elías- Ibarra's mysterious friend, a master boater, also a fugitive. He was referred to at one point as the pilot. He
wants to revolutionize his country. Ibarra's grandfather condemned his grandfather of burning a warehouse,
making Elias the fugitive he is.

María Clara- María Clara de los Santos, Ibarra's sweetheart; the illegitimate daughter of Father Dámaso and Pía
Alba.

Father Dámaso- Also known in his full name as Dámaso Verdolagas, Franciscan friar and María Clara's biological
father.

Don Filipo- A close relative of Ibarra, and a Filibuster.

Linares- A distant nephew of Don Tiburcio de Espadana, the would-be fiance of Maria Clara.

Captain General (no specific name)- The most powerful official in the Philippines, a hater of secular priests and
corrupt officials, and a friend of Ibarra.

Captain Pablo- The Leader of the rebels, whose family was destroyed because of the Spanish.

Tarcilo and Bruno- Brothers, whose father was killed by the Spaniards.

Sisa- The mother of Basilio and Crispín, who went insane after losing her sons.

Basilio- The elder son of Sisa.

Crispín- The younger son of Sisa who died from the punishment from the soldiers from the false accusation of
stealing an amount of money.

Padre Sibyla- Hernando de la Sibyla, a Filipino friar. He is described as short and has fair skin.

Kaptain Tiago- Also known in his fullname as Don Santiago de los Santos the known father of María Clara but not
the real one; lives in Binondo.

Padri Salví- Also known in his full name as Bernardo Salví, a secret admirer of María Clara.

Pilosopo Tasyo- Also known as Don Anastasio, portrayed in the novel as a pessimist, cynic, and mad by his
neighbors.

The Alférez- Chief of the Guardia Civil ; mortal enemy of the priests for the power in San Diego.

Don Tiburcio- Spanish husband of Donya Victorina who is limp and submissive to his wife; he also pretends to be
a doctor.

Doña Victorina- Victorina de los Reyes de De Espadaña, a woman who passes herself off as a Peninsular.
Doña Consolación- Wife of the Alférez, another woman who passes herself as a Peninsular; best remembered for
her abusive treatment of Sisa.

Pedro- Abusive husband of Sisa who loves cockfighting.

Old Tasio- An older man who Ibarra seeks advice from. The town thinks him mad, but in actuality he is quite wise.
Noli Me Tangere (English Summary)
A summary in English of the classic Philippine novel Noli Me Tangere, written in Spanish by Filipino
national hero Jose Rizal
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino who, after studying for seven years in Europe, returns to
his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner, has died in prison as the result of a quarrel
with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre Damaso. Ibarra is engaged to a beautiful and
accomplished girl, Maria Clara, the supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don Santiago de los
Santos, commonly known as “Capitan Tiago.”

Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people. To show his good
intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public school in his native town. He meets
with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s successor, a young and gloomy
Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread.

At the laying of the cornerstone for the new schoolhouse, a suspicious accident, apparently aimed at
Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly
insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and
is about to kill the friar, who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.

Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is forced to break the
engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a young and inoffensive Spaniard
provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her reputed father’s command and influenced by her
mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara consents to this arrangement, but becomes seriously ill,
only to be saved by medicines sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl friend.

Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can explain matters, an
uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about through agents of Padre Salvi, and the
leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned by a mysterious friend, an outlaw called
Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but desiring first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make
his escape, and when the outbreak page occurs, he is arrested as the instigator of it and thrown into
prison in Manila.

On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate his supposed
daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and succeeds in seeing Maria Clara
alone. He begins to reproach her because it is a letter written to her before he went to Europe which
forms the basis of the charge against him, but she clears herself of treachery to him. The letter had
been secured from her by false representations and in exchange for two others written by her mother
just before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real father. These letters had been
accidentally discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who made use of them to intimidate the girl
and get possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he forged others to incriminate the young man. She
tells him that she will marry the young Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name
and Capitan Tiago’s honor and to prevent a public scandal, but that she will always remain true to
him.
Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the Pasig to the Lake,
where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps into the water and draws the
pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.

On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and dying,
to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who had been
driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, her younger
son having page disappeared some time before in the convento, where he was a sacristan. Basilio,
who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the
madwoman’s are to be burned.

Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria Clara becomes
disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put her in a nunnery. Unconscious
of her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks down and confesses that all the trouble he
has stirred up with the Ibarras has been to prevent her from marrying a native, which would condemn
her and her children to the oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties and she
enters the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon assigned in a ministerial capacity.
Simoun- Crisóstomo Ibarra reincarnated as a wealthy jeweler, bent on starting a revolution
Basilio- Sisa's son, now an aspiring doctor

Isagani- poet and Basilio's best friend; portrayed as emotional and reactive; Paulita Gómez' boyfriend before being
dumped for fellow student Juanito Peláez

Kabesang Tales- Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former cabeza de barangay (barangay head) who resurfaced as the
feared Luzón bandit Matanglawin (Tagalog for Hawkeye); his father, Old Man Selo, dies eventually after his own
son Tano, who became a guardia civil, unknowingly shoots his grandfather in an encounter

Don Custodio- Custodio de Salazar y Sánchez de Monteredondo, a famous journalist who was asked by the
students about his decision for the Academia de Castellano. In reality, he is quite an ordinary fellow who married a
rich woman in order to be a member of Manila's high society

Paulita Gómez- the girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doña Victorina, the old India who passes herself off as a
Peninsular, who is the wife of the quack doctor Tiburcio de Espadaña. In the end, she and Juanito Peláez are wed,
and she dumps Isagani, believing that she will have no future if she marries him

Father Florentino- Isagani's godfather, and a secular priest; was engaged to be married, but chose the priesthood
instead, the story hinting at the ambivalence of his decision as he chooses an assignment to a remote place, living
in solitude near the sea.

Huli- Juliana de Dios, the girlfriend of Basilio, and the youngest daughter of Kabesang Tales

Ben Zayb- Abraham Ibañez is his real name. He is a journalist who thinks he is the only one thinking in the
Philippines

Placido Penitente- a student of the University of Santo Tomas who is always miserable, and therefore controls his
temper

Quiroga- a Chinese businessman who dreamt of being a consul of a Consulate of China in the Philippines. He hid
Simoun's weapons inside his house

Old Man Selo- father of Kabesang Tales. He raised the sick and young Basilio after his mother Sisa had died

Father Fernandez- the priest-friend of Isagani. He promised to Isagani that he and the other priests will give in to
the students' demands

Attorney Pasta- one of the great lawyers of mid-Hispanic Manila

Captain-General- (no specific name) the powerful highest official of the Philippines

Padre Sibyla- Hernando de la Sibyla, a Filipino friar and now vice-rector of the University of Santo Tomas (U.S.T.)
El Filibusterismo (English Summary)
A summary in English of the classic Philippine novel El Filibuterismo, a sequel to Jose Rizal’s Noli
Me Tangere

The protagonist of El Filibusterismo is a jeweler named Simoun. He is the new identity of Crisostomo
Ibarra who, in the prequel Noli, escaped from pursuing soldiers. It is revealed that Crisostomo dug up
his buried treasure and fled to Cuba, becoming richer and befriending Spanish officials.

After many years, the newly fashioned Simoun returns to the Philippines, where he is able to freely
move around. He is a powerful figure not only because of his wealth but also because he is a good
friend and adviser of the governor general.

Outwardly, Simoun is a friend of Spain; however, in secret, he is plotting a terrible revenge against
the Spanish authorities. His two obsessions are to rescue his paramour Maria Clara from the
nunnery of Santa Clara and to foment a Philippine revolution against Spain.

The story of El Filibusterismo begins on board a steamer ship sailing up the Pasig river from Manila
to Laguna de Bay. Among the passengers are Simoun; Doña Victorina, a pro-Spanish native
woman who is going to Laguna in search of her henpecked husband, Tiburcio de Espadaña, who
has deserted her; Paulita Gomez, her beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram of Ibañez), a Spanish
journalist who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-rector of the University of
Santo Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of Tiani; Don Custodio, a pro-Spanish
Filipino holding a position in the government; Padre Salvi, thin Franciscan friar and former cura of
San Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the Filipino students; Padre Florentino, a
retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a poet-nephew of Padre Florentino and a lover
of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising medical student, whose medical education is
financed by his patron, Capitan Tiago.

A man of wealth and mystery, Simoun is a very close friend and confidante of the Spanish governor
general. Because of his great influence in Malacañang, he was called the “Brown Cardinal” or the
“Black Eminence”. By using his wealth and political influence, he encourages corruption in the
government, promotes the oppression of the masses, and hastens the moral degradation of the
country so that the people may become desperate and fight. He smuggles arms into the country with
the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who aspires to be Chinese consul of Manila. His first
attempt to begin the armed uprising did not materialize because at the last hour he hears the sad
news that Maria Clara died in the nunnery. In his agonizing moment of bereavement, he did not give
the signal for the outbreak of hostilities.

After a long time of illness brought about by the bitter loss of Maria Clara, Simoun perfects his plan to
overthrow the government. On the occasion of the wedding of Paulita Gomez and Juanito Pelaez, he
gives a wedding gift to them a beautiful lamp. Only he and his confidential associates, Basilio (Sisa’s
son who joined his revolutionary cause), know that when the wick of his lamp burns lower the
nitroglycerine, hidden in its secret compartment, will explode, destroying the house where the
wedding feast is going to be held killing all the guests, including the governor general, the friars, and
the government officials. Simultaneously, all the government buildings in Manila will be blown by
Simoun’s followers.

As the wedding feast begins, the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita because of his
liberal ideas, is standing outside the house, sorrowfully watching the merriment inside. Basilio, his
friend, warns him to go away because the lightened lamp will soon explode.

Upon hearing the horrible secret of the lamp, Isagani realizes that his beloved Paulita is in grave
danger. To save her life, he rushes into the house, seizes the lightened lamp, and hurls it into the
river, where it explodes.

The revolutionary plot is thus discovered. Simoun is cornered by the soldiers, but he escapes.
Mortally wounded, and carrying his treasure chest, he seeks refuge in the home of Padre Florentino
by the sea.

The Spanish authorities, however, learns of his presence in the house of Padre
Florentino. Lieutenant Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that he will come at eight
o’clock that night to arrest Simoun.

Simoun eludes arrest by taking poison. As he is dying, he confesses to Padre Florentino, revealing
his true identity, his dastardly plan to use his wealth to avenge himself, and his sinister aim to destroy
his friends and enemies.

The confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when Padre Florentino,
wiping the sweat from his wrinkled brow, rises and begins to meditate. He consoles the dying man
saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun. He knows that we are fallible. He has seen that you have
suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults should come as death from the very
ones you have instigated to crime, we can see His infinite mercy. He has frustrated your plans one by
one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara, then by a lack of preparation, then in some
mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and render Him thanks!”

Watching Simoun die peacefully with a clear conscience and at peace with God, Padre Florentino
falls upon his knees and prays for the dead jeweler. The priest then takes the treasure chest and
throws it into the sea.