The Real Powers Behind the Throne — Noli Me Tángere

Rizal asks who truly rules San Diego and answers with a satirical tour of impostors. Don Rafael, though richest and most generous, never became a cacique because he would not perform power. Capitan Tiago is feted by debtors yet mocked behind his back as Sacristan Tiago. The gobernadorcillo commands nothing while answering to the alcalde for orders he never gave, having paid five thousand pesos for an office that earns its cost. Even God, Rizal adds, disturbs no one's sleep in San Diego because the saints keep everyone busy enough.

Real authority splits between Fray Salvi, a thin Franciscan who fines instead of flogging but terrifies through quality of punishment, and the alferez, a drunk officer who beats his painted wife Doña Consolacion while she terrorizes girls from her window with a cigar. Salvi locks church doors during sermons; the alferez jokes that chocolate called with ah is watered while eh means rich.

Priest and soldier feud through curfews, trapped sermons, arrested sacristans, and goats released in gardens, then shake hands politely afterward. Rizal compares the town to a nipa Rome where curate plays pope and alferez plays king. Colonial rule here is petty theater: titles without agency, violence without vision, and ordinary people ruled by rivals who hate each other more than they serve anyone.