VALENTIN VENTURA
Don
Valentine Ventura financed the publication of Rizal’s El Filibusterismo in the same way that Viola shouldered the
expenses for Noli Me Tangere.
Accounts
of ancestry and childhood have remained unknown. He was the brother of Don
Balbino, father of the late Secretary of Interior, Don Honorio Ventura. All of
them were native of Bacolor, the former capital of Pampanga.
Don
Balbino, the wealthy property owner and benefactor of the local parish, urged
him to work with the other Filipinos fight for reforms in the government in the
Philippines. He left the island primarily to
obtain higher education. He stayed for about 30 years abroad, in Barcelona, in Paris and other European cities. When the
movement for reforms began to stir, he was sufficiently entrenched in Europe to help nurture it.
In
Paris, Rizal lived for some time with him.
Their friendship gave him an opportunity to listen to Rizal’s ideas which he
greatly admired. He used to read the chapters of the Noli and Fili. When the
printing of El Filibusterismo was
suspended for lack of funds, he offered to publish the second novel out of the
money sent by his brother.
In
1881, when Rizal was in Ghent, he sent him financial aid in the
amount of one hundred fifty pesos. He promises more money so that Rizal would
not have to be soliciting help.
Don
Valentine was so impressed by Rizal’s novel that he read the Fili all over again so he could say
something other than that it was perfect, correct, vigorous, poetic, and deeply
felt.
The
Spanish-American Museum offered $12,000 for the original of El Filibusterismo but Don Valentine
preferred to keep it as a souvenir for his family. However, he said that
whenever the Philippine Government desired to posses that book, he was willing
to offer it as a donation. This was affected later through Dr. Trinidad H.
Pardo de Tavera.
In Spain, he married Carmen Tobar, a Spanish
mestiza. The couple lived in Barcelona with their four children; Jose,
Valentine, Carmen and Maria. Jose married and stayed in Aparri, Cagayan, where
he lived a quite and prosperous life. Don Valentine came back to the Philippines with his family in the late 1920’s.
However, finding the local conditions unsatisfactory, he went back to Spain with his family. He died in the early
1930’s and was buried in Barcelona.