La Solidaridad was an organization created in Spain on December 13, 1888. Composed of Filipino liberals exiled in 1872 and students attending Europe's universities, the organization aimed to increase Spanish awareness of the needs of its colony, the Philippines, and to propagate a closer relationship between the Philippines and Spain. Headed by José Rizal's cousin, Galicano Apacible, it also issued a newspaper of the same name which was published in Barcelona, Spain on February 15, 1889. It was edited by Graciano López Jaena and later on by Marcelo H. del Pilar. The social, cultural, and economic conditions of the colonial Philippines were published in La Solidaridad. Speeches of the Spanish liberals about the Philippines were also featured in the newspaper.
La Solidaridad was established to express the goal of the Propaganda Movement towards achieving assimilation with Spain. The first issue of La Solidaridad came out on February 15, 1889. A fortnightly and a bi-weekly newspaper, La Solidaridad serves as the principal organ of the Reform Movement in Spain. Comite de Propaganda in the Philippines funded the publication of the La Solidaridad. The editorship for the newspaper was first offered to Rizal. However, he refused because during that time he was annotating Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in London. After Rizal, Graciano López Jaena was offered for the editorship of La Solidaridad and he accepted. On April 25, 1889, La Solidaridad published the letter entitled "The aspirations of the Filipinos" which was written by the Asociación Hispano-Filipina de Madrid. It pursued desires for:
An expressed and definite prohibition of the existing practices of exiling residents by purely administrative order, and without a writ of execution from the courts of justice.
On December 15, 1889, Marcelo H. del Pilar replaced Graciano López Jaena as the editor of La Solidaridad. Under his editorship, the aims of the newspaper expanded. His articles caught the attention of Spanish leaders and ministers. Using propaganda, it pursued desires for:
That the Philippines be a province of Spain
Representation Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars — Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans — in parishes and remote sitios
After years of publication from 1889 to 1895, funding of the La Solidaridad became scarce. Comite de Propaganda's contribution to the newspaper stopped and del Pilar funded the newspaper almost on his own. Penniless in Spain, del Pilar stopped the publication of La Solidaridad on November 15, 1895, with 7 volumes and 160 issues. In del Pilar's farewell editorial, he said :
