Life, Death and Publications
Marcelo Hilario del Pilar y Gatmaitan (August 30, 1850 - July 4, 1896) was a Filipino writer, journalist, satirist, and revolutionary leader and one of the leading Ilustrado propagandists of the Philippine War of Independence.
Del Pilar was born in Cupang, Bulacan, Bulacan, on August 30, 1850, to Don Julián Hilario del Pilar and Doña Blasa Gatmaitan.[3] He was the last child and the fifth son among the ten children. His elder brother, Toribio del Pilar, was exiled to Guam for his involvement in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny. The family adapted the surname Del Pilar in 1849 pursuant on the decree issued by Governor-General Narciso Claveria.[4] Del Pilar was descended from the illustrious lineage of Gatmaitan, one of the sons of the pre-colonial ruling families of Bulacan and Pampanga. He learned his first letters from his paternal uncle Alejo. Because his family was highly cultured, it was not long before he played the piano, violin, and flute. In Manila he took a Latin course in the school of José Flores and then transferred at the Colegio de San José, where he finished his Bachelor of Arts degree. .
As a student, he favored overthrowing the Spanish government. Often, he met with his classmates like Mariano Ponce and Apolinario Mabini in his Binondo house, and expounded on the need to peacefully fight Spanish rule. His mastery of Spanish language would help hasten development led him to teach Spanish to children in his neighborhood while he was a boarder of Mariano Sevilla, a Filipino secular priest. TFortunately, suspicion was not turned on him and he escaped prosecution in 1872. He worked as oficial de mesa in Pampanga and Quiapo in January 1878. He also worked for the Manila Royal Audiencia and at the same time he spread nationalist and antifriar ideas in Manila and in towns and barrios of Bulacan. He married his second cousin Marciana in February 1878. They had seven children and five died of infancy.
Driven by his sense of justice and his own bad experiences with the clergy, del Pilar denounced in his publications on the violations of the clergy, the narrow-mindedness. On August 1, 1882, he put out Diariong Tagalog, a nationalist newspaper. Here he publicly denounced Spanish mal-administration of the Philippines. His attacks were mostly directed against the friars whom he considered to be mainly responsible for the oppression of the Filipinos. La Soberanía Monacal en Filipinas was among the first pamphlets he wrote in Spain. The others included Dasalan at Tocsohan, Pasióng Dapat Ipag-alab nang Puso nang Tauong Babasa, Cadacilaan ng Dios (God’s Goodness), Sagot ng España sa Hibic ng Pilipinas, Dudas, and Caiingat Cayo (Be Careful) - del Pilar’s defense of Rizal against a friar pamphlet entitled Caiiñgat Cayó denouncing the Noli Me Tangere.