HISTORY IN BRONZE by. D. Martin
10/27/2014
There are 21 persons around the column, including the winged angel of peace at the top.Bonifacio occupies, and rightly so, the central or dominant position, with Emilio Jacinto and a flag- bearer at his left. Bonifacio was the brains of the katipunan, Jacinto was the determined upholder of this principles. The dark beginnings of the glorious epic can be seen directly behind the figures of the priest, Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora tortured on the garrote as sacrifices in the right for freedom. On the right side of the shaft, we see the figure of a man extracting some drops of his blood from his arm, symbolic blood with which to sign the pledge in the secret enlistment in the Katipunan. On the front left corner of the shaft, next to the proceeding figures, we note an “ Indio” with his injured wife in this right arm and with his left upraised in protest against the oppression suffered not only by himself and his wife but also by his son his baby. On the opposite side of the column, the story is continued. Here a trussed-up man, dead or dying, shouts his “cry” against the cruelties of the rulers. Another man bids good-bye to his wife. While he is holding his baby in his arms and with a daughter clambering on him in pathetic leave-taking. As I. V. Mallari said, there is adagio, andante , and allegro in this sculptural story. We begin to approach the “allegro con forego” with the wounding in a fight, of a bolo-wellding Katipuneros. His son tries to lift him up on this knees. A slain soldier lies prostrate, but that does not impede the furious strides of another defiant boloman crying for revenge as the goes towards the side of the Leader.A youngman, just in these teens, also strides forwards to be at the left of Bonifacio, with no more than a bolo in his upraised hand. The success of the Katipunan was the prize for which Bonifacio and Jacinto were willing to pay with their lives. An angel of peace hovers over the whole scene. As epilogue to the story, the “call to arms” of Bonifacio, written in the secret Katipunan Code, is engraved below the figure. Here’s a brief translation! “Leader, members, and brothers. This notice is for you. It is most necessary that we stop without delay the nameless cruelties inflicted upon the people of “ The country who are inside the prisons.”
Source: This week, Nov. 26, 1950, pp. 9-11;3