What is La Solidaridad: Its history and Founders.

Simply, the Solidaridad is the official newspaper that initiate and communicate reforms sought by its founders for independence from the Spaniards. 

The last two decades of the nineteenth century were characterized by political activities never before witnessed among the Filipinos. It was an era of growing political and social consciousness and discontent which found expression in the works of Lopez Jaena, Rizal, del Pilar, Eduardo de Lete, Pedro Govantes and others, who left the Philippines in search of freedom elsewhere. Lopez Jaena and other reformers found the Filipino circle in Madrid in 1882 and even published its mouthpiece to bring to the attention of the peninsular Spaniards the so-called Philippine problem. But the Minister of the Colonies discouraged the circle and its mouthpiece, with the result that the reformists were forced to disperse. In 1887, however, Eduardo de Lete and other Filipinos put out the newspaper Espana En Filipinas which was to voice the desires of the Filipinos. The patriotic Filipinos at home collected funds as advanced subscription, but before the money could reach the editor, Eduardo de Lete, the newspaper had already passed out of existence. It was at this point that the reformists in Spain thought of publishing an official organ. On the suggestion of Mariano Ponce, it was agreed to continue the publication of the Espana En Filipinas, but the failure of the paper was taken a reason against reviving it. In 1888, the expatriates in Spain proposed to the reformists at home that a new organ be founded, a proposal that was accepted by the Manila end of the reform movement. Rizal, chosen to manage the proposed periodical, but then in London busy copying and annotating the Morga's Sucesos de las Islas de Filipinas, turned down the offer. With the arrival of Marcelo H. del Pilar in Barcelona in New Year's day of 1899, the founding of the Filipino organ gained acceptance from all Filipinos in Spain. It was agreed to finance the first numbers of the periodical by the contributions of the Filipino expatriates. 

On February 15, 1899, the first number of Solidaridad came out in Barcelona. The paper was a fortnight ly dedicated to the exposition of conditions in the Philippines, the defense of the Filipinos against the malicious and slanderous attacks of the hired writers of the friars, and the publication of studies about the Philippines and the Filipinos. 

The first editor of La Solidaridad was Lopez Jaena but he turned over his management to del Pilar in December 1899. The news of the birth of the La Solidaridad reached the Philippines within two months and soon the nationalists began sending contributions to Spain. The periodical came out regularly every fifteen days, thanks to the patriotism of the Filipinos in Spain and those in the Philippines. 

In writing for the La Solidaridad, the Filipino reformists used pen names for obvious reasons. Rizal used Dimas Alang and Laon Laan; Mariano Ponce hid under the pen names Tikbalang, Naning and Kalipulako; Antonio Luna used Taga-Ilog; Marcelo H. del Pilar wrote under the pen name Plaridel and Jose Ma. Panganiban wrote as Jomapa. 

The Spaniards in the Philippines naturally forbade the reading of the periodical, but their vigilance was not enough to discourage the Filipinos from smuggling in copies of the forbidden newspaper. The Solidaridad may not have succeeded in influencing the Peninsular Government to grant the reforms demanded by the Filipinos, for it was not disposed, in the first place to humor them, but in its more than six years of existence, the Solidaridad represented the ideas of the Filipino reformist group. At the same time it also succeeded exposing the evil in Philippine society and in belying the claims put forth by such anti-Filipino writers as Wenceslao E. Retana, Vicente Barrantes, and Pablo Feced that the Filipinos have no civilization before the coming of the Spaniards. Thus, when Barrantes claims that the Filipinos has no theater, Rizal writing, in the La Solidariad, ridiculed him and exposed not only his prejudice but also his profound ignorance. The Solidaridad then, represented in that age of the Filipinos. having played its role creditably, the newspaper bowed out of existence in Madrid with its last number dated November 15, 1895.

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