REVIEW OF FRAY BOTOD

FRAY BOTOD

Fray Botod, meaning Big-Bellied Friar, is a character sketch written by Graciano Lopez Jaena in 1874 when he was only eighteen years old. In this work, he caricatured the typical friar of the day as abusive, cruel, lazy, indifferent, greedy and lustful. He particularly abhorred the abuses and greediness of the friars that his first written work was against this group of people.Graciano Lopez Jaena's "Fray Botod" portrays a bloated, hypocritical priest as a metaphor for the abuses of the Catholic Church as part of Spanish rule in the Philippines. Jaena is, to this day, a beloved figure in the Philippines and considered a father of the revolution against Spanish rule.

Today in 2016, we are ages away from the days of Fray Botod.  However if you start reading Fray Botod bearing in mind that Fray is your Congressman, you will really have a laugh.A man of vast and morally questionable appetites, he takes advantage of his position to pursue everything from drunkenness and gluttony to exploitative relationships with young girls. As a caricature and satire on Spanish rule in the Philippines, and the oppressive influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the story was symbolic and became an irritant to the Spanish authorities and an inspiration to the Philippine Propaganda movement.