Having only six years of life span, the organization of La Solidaridad has accomplished lots because of the contributions of its prominent members. These people with their trivial pen names are namely Dr. Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Antonio Luna, Mariano Ponce and Jose Maria Panganiban. The Pen names they used were Laong Laan (after a railway station) by Rizal, Plaridel by del Pilar, Taga-llog by Luna, Tikbalang by Mariano Ponce and Jomapa by Panganiban.
All of the members had one thing in common and that is that they were all liberals who were exiled in the year 1872. The La Solidaridad were also composed of students who attended universities in Europe. Their aim was to increase the awareness of the Spanish on the necessities of its colony in the Philippines. They also aimed to propagate smoother relationships between the Philippines and the Spanish if not closer. The La Solidaridad is a Spanish word which meant in English as the Solidarity. It was created on the 13th of December 1888 in Spain.
The organization was led by Galicano Apacible who was Jose Rizal’s cousin. La Solidaridad once issued a paper which had the same name. It was published on the 15th of February in 1889 at Barcelona, Spain. Graciano Lopez Jaena was the first editor of that paper and was later replaced by Marcelo H. del Pilar. The paper of La Solidaridad focused on nationalistic topics such as the political, cultural, social and economic conditions of a country specifically the Philippines and Spain. It contains articles and essays written by each prominent writer. Aside from that the paper also published articles concerning news and current events which are local and also foreign. They also included speeches coming from prominent leaders of Spain and which talked about the condition of the Philippines.
Aside from the first five mentioned, the other known members of La Solidaridad were Robert Lacamra, Jumar lim, Jose Alejandrino, Eduardo de Lete, Isabelo delos Reyes, Antonio Maria Regidor and Pedro Paterno. They also consisted of members which were foreign. The international members are the Austrian ethnologist Professor Blumentritt and Spanish Historian Dr. Miguel Sagrario.
The history of La Solidaridad take its roots back from the initial goals and aspirations of the Propaganda Movement. The Propaganda Movement in the past were looking for ways and venues to express their desires of the Philippines and Spain attaining a successful assimilation. They all then agreed that by creating the La Solidaridad they would be more effective in their mission and so it was established. The organization published their issues every after a week. It started its first publish in February 15, 1889. The La Solidaridad stood as one of the systems that helped the movement propagate for six years.
The Comite de Propaganda was the core provider and funder of the La Solidaridad. The editorship position was first offered to Jose Rizal which he declined. His reason was that it was due to his being so busy in the annotation of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de Morga on London. From 1889 up to 1895 the La Solidaridad kept publishing. But after six years they ran out of funds to support their activities and on November 15, 1895, it officially ceased its publication with a farewell note from Marcelo del Pilar.
