Elena (play)
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Elena is a Cebuano play in three acts written by Vicente Sotto.[1] It was first performed at the Teatro Junquera (in what is now Cebu City) on May 18, 1902. The play established Sotto's reputation as a playwright.
The dedication of the play by the playwright reads, "To My Motherland, that you may have remembrance of the glorious Revolution that redeemed you from enslavement. I dedicate this humble play to you."
The play depicts the last few days of Spanish rule in a town in Luzon, before the capture by revolutionary forces. The curtain opens on a young mestiza, Elena, asking for and gaining the consent of her mother, Salvadora, to her planned elopement with and marriage to Marcial, an insurrecto and son of an insurrecto general. It is immediately clear that both women live in dread of the Spanish father, Ciriaco, the commander of the voluntarios (volunteers) of the town. Ciriaco hates Marcial and looks at him as a traitor to the flag of Spain and a dark-skinned upstart who has dared to fall in love with his daughter. He planned to marry off Elena only to a Spaniard.
Elena shows her mother a letter from Marcial. The letter describes how he is to descend from his mountain hide-out and steal her from her house. The letter is discovered by Ciriaco. Marcial is captured, beaten up, and thrown into prison.
Elena and Salvadora steal the prison key from Marcial's room and release Marcial. They intend to go with Marcial to the mountains. But the guard wakes up on them. Marcial seizes the guard's gun and shoots him. The gunshots rouse the other soldiers from their sleep. In the commotion Marcial escapes, although wounded. The women are caught. An infuriated Ciriaco orders them thrown into Marcial's cell, not knowing they were his wife and daughter (they covered their faces).
Marcial heals his wound in the mountain hide-out and persuades his father to permit him to join Commander Kidlat (a reference to Leon Kilat, the leader of anti-Spanish rebels in Cebu), the leader of the siege on the town.[original research?] His father refused. Kidlat arrives and reports that the town is theirs for the taking because the Filipino soldiers have defected to the side of the rebels, the townspeople have openly declared their support to the attackers, and Ciriaco and his soldiers are just holding up in the tribunal, the seat of Spanish rule in the town.
In the tribunal, Ciriaco is compelled by his friends to bring down the Spanish flag and raise a white handkerchief. Then he signs a peace treaty with Commander Kidlat. After the commander leaves, Ciriaco contemplates a dim future for himself and all other Spaniards who, like him, have sought and found their fortunes in the colonies. But the hardest blow to his Spanish pride is having fallen prisoner to mga ulipon sa España (slaves of Spain). He shoots himself to death.
The insurrectos enter the town with solemn ceremony. Elena and Salvadora exults that the General (who is Salvadora's brother) has saved them all. But the General says, "It isn't so. Because your true savior is that flag which is now being raised," and he points to the Philippine flag which was slowly raised up the pole over the town. While the band plays Marcha Nacional Filipina revolutionaries execute present arms. The Spaniards lower their eyes.
Notable characters
- Elena - a young mestiza (daughter of a Spanish father and an indio)
- Marcial - Elena's lover
- Ciriaco - Elena's father
- Salvadora - Elena's mother
- Commander Kidlat -The General
Analysis
The conclusion of the play underscores its real theme of Motherland Filipinas and brings the development of the theme into full circle. Early in the plot, Salvadora's embittered confession to Elena about the real state of her marriage to a Spanish husband describes the unhappy state of the Motherland under Spanish domination: "I want you to know Elena how deeply I regret having married your father. He is making it clear to me now that my wealth was all he was after; my wealth that he has dissipated in gambling, drinking, and wenching. He snarls at me all the time. At the slightest pretext, he kicks me like an animal. He has brutalized over me most severely. In his eyes, I'm nothing but a lowly servant, a slave, now that he has dissipated the money that I've made. This is what I've got for marrying a man of alien race, blood, language, and culture.
Background
It took nothing less than heroic courage for Sotto to write and produce this play when he did. At this time, the Filipinos were still seething with resentment at the American betrayal of their hopes and the new colonizers were retaliating with restrictions on the freedom of expressions.