Plot: Having completed his studies in Europe, young Juan Crisostomo Ibarra
comes back to his motherland after a 7-year absence. In his honor,
Capitan Tiago (Don Santiago de los Santos) throws a get-together party,
which is attended by Father Dámaso, Fray Sibyla, Lieutenant Guevarra,
Doña Victorina, and other prominent figures. In an unfortunate
incident, Father Dámaso, former curate of San Diego, belittles and
slanders the young man. But the ever-gracious and diplomatic Ibarra
brushes off the insult and takes no offense; he instead politely
excuses himself and leaves the party because of an allegedly important
task. Ibarra''''s sweetheart, Maria Clara, an extraordinarily beautiful
lady is known as the daughter of Capitan Tiago, an affluent resident of
Binondo. The day after the humbling party, Ibarra goes to see Maria
Clara. Their long-standing love is clearly manifested in this meeting,
and Maria Clara cannot help but reread the letters her sweetheart had
written her before he went to Europe. Before Ibarra left for San Diego,
Lieutenant Guevarra (a Guardia Civil), reveals to him the incidents preceding the death of his father Don Rafael. Don Rafael was a rich haciendero of the town.
According to the Lieutenant, Don Rafael was unjustly accused of
being a heretic, in addition to being a filibuster--an allegation
brought forth by Father Dámaso because of Don Rafael''''s
non-participation in confession and mass rites. Father Dámaso''''s
animosity against Ibarra''''s father is aggravated by another incident.
Once Don Rafael saw a tax
collector and a student fighting. Out of
compassion, he helped the child. The tax collector was greatly irked
and picked a fight with Don Rafael. Unfortunately, the Spanish tax
collector fell, hit his head against a rock, and died. The collector''''s
death was blamed on Don Rafael, and he was arrested. Suddenly, all of
those who thought ill of him surfaced with additional complaints. He
was imprisoned, and just when the matter was almost settled, he got
sick and died in jail. Still not content with what he had done, Father
Dámaso arranged for Don Rafael''''s corpse to be dug up and transferred
from the Catholic cemetery to the Chinese cemetery, because he thought
it inappropriate to allow a heretic such as Don Rafael a Catholic
burial ground. Unfortunately, it was raining and because of the
bothersome weight of the cadaver, the men in charge of the burial
decided to throw the corpse into the river.
Revenge was not in Ibarra''''s plans; instead he carries through his
father''''s plan of putting up a school, since he believes that education
would pave the way to his country''''s liberation.
During the inauguration of the school, Ibarra would have been killed
in a sabotage had Elias not saved him. Instead the hired killer met an
unfortunate incident and died. The sequence of events proved to be too
traumatic for Maria Clara who got seriously ill but was luckily cured
by the medicine Ibarra sent her.
After the inauguration, Ibarra hosts a luncheon during which Father
Dámaso again insults him. Ibarra ignores the priest''''s insolence, but
when the latter slanders the memory of his dead father, he is no longer
able to restrain himself and lunges at Father Dámaso, prepared to stab
the latter for his impudence. His beloved Maria Clara stops him just in
time.
As a consequence, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church
excommunicates Ibarra. Father Dámaso takes this opportunity to persuade
the already-hesitant father of Maria Clara to forbid his daughter from
marrying Ibarra. The priest wishes Maria Clara to marry a Spanish named
Linares who just arrived from Spain.
With the help of the Captain General, Ibarra''''s excommunication is
nullified and the Archbishop decides to accept him as a member of the
Roman Catholic Church once again. But, as fate would have it, some
incident of which Ibarra had known nothing