José Rizal, born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Laguna, was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. Known for his literary brilliance, he authored Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, inspiring Filipinos to seek reform and independence. His vision and sacrifice made him a symbol of freedom in the Philippines.
The house where José Rizal was born is located in Calamba, Laguna. It was here that Rizal spent his early years, which played a significant role in shaping his character and intellect. The house has been preserved as a national landmark, symbolizing the roots of his revolutionary spirit. It now serves as a museum where visitors can learn more about his early life and the environment that influenced his patriotism and literary works.
Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandroa was born in Biñan, Laguna. Francisco Mercado was the father of the Philippines' national hero, José Rizal. At the age of 30, Francisco married Teodora Alonso Realonda on June 28, 1848. The couple resided in Calamba, Laguna, and built a successful business in agriculture. Together, they had 11 children, including Saturnina, Paciano, Trinidad, and the national hero, José.
Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos was a wealthy woman in the Spanish colonial Philippines. She was best known as the mother of the Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal. Realonda was born in Santa Cruz, Manila. She was also known for being a disciplinarian and hard-working mother.
José Rizal attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1872 at age 11, where he excelled in his studies. Over the next 5 years, he became the top student, winning numerous medals and prizes. He was inspired by his Jusuit professors, particularly Father Sanchez. Rizal graduated in 1877 with highest honors at age 16.
José Rizal took the entrance exam for Colegio de San Juan de Letran but was not accepted because a Dominican priest found him too small and frail
Rizal studied medicine, agriculture, surveying, philosophy, and letters from 1879 to 1882. He performed above average in his medical studies, but his grades in the and letters were higher.
José Rizal received practical training in medicine at Ospital de San Juan de Dios in Intramuros for four years.
José Rizal arrived in Madrid in 1882 to pursue higher education at the Universidad Central de Madrid. During his time there, he excelled in his studies, undertaking courses in medicine and philosophy. His intelligence and passion for learning earned him recognition among his peers.
February 3, 1886 - Rizal arrived in Heidelberg, a historic city in Germany famous for its old university and romantics sorroundings. He became popular among the Germans because they found out that he was a good chess player. He worked at the University Eye Hospital under the direction of Dr. Otto Becker, distinguished German ophthalmologist.
Rizal went to paris and Germany to specialize in ophthalmology. He chose this branch because he wanted to cure his mother's eyes. He served as assistant to the famous oculists of Europe. He also continued his travels and observations of European life and customs in Paris, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Berlin.
Rizal lived in Berlin for several years in the 1880s. He studied ophthalmology, science, languages and observed German politics and economy. He attended lectures at the University of Berlin and practiced speaking German, French and Italian daily.
First love never dies they say - unless your first love is already engaged to be married when you meet. Then you have to let it go really fast. Such was the case of José Rizal
and Segunda Katigbak, a Batangueña, whom Rizal met when he was only a 16-year-old boy.
They met when the young hero visited his grandmother with his friend, Mariano Katigbak, Segunda's brother. The Katigbaks were close to Rizal's grandmother, and coincidentally,
Segunda was at the grandma's house when Rizal and Mariano arrived. It was attraction at first sight. Segunda was also a close friend of Rizal's sister, Olympia (Olimpia), whom he visited
every week at the La Concordia College. The two became very close. Hwoever, Segunda was already engaged to be married to a man who lived in her town, and Rizal had to stop pursuing her.
Rizal wrote about the incident years later:
"Ended, at an early house, my first love! My virgin heart will always mourn the reckless step it took on the flower-decked abyss. My illusions will return, yes, but indifferent, uncertain, ready for the first
betrayal on the path of love"
Leonor "Orang" Valenzuela, Rizal's second object of affection, is literally the girl-next-door. They met when Rizal was a sophomore medical student at the University of Santo Tomas, during which time he also lived at Doña Concha Leyva's
boarding house in Intramuros, Manila. Orang, who was then 14 years old, was his neighbor.
During the courtship, Rizal was said to have sent Leonor private and secret love letters, which he wrote using invisible ink made with water and salt - he was adept in chemistry, too. To read the letters, Orang had to heat the letter over a candle or a lamp.
Rizal also frequented the Valenzuelas' home, which was a hang out place of the students in the area.
There are, however, documents that may serve as proof that Rizal's efforts were not effective. Some accounts say he was courting Leonor Valenzuela and his second cousin Leonor Rivera at the same time - thus the need for invisible letters Rivera apparently knew of this and gave way to Rivera's
attraction for Rizal. When Rizal left for Spain in 1882, it was said that he did say goodbye to Orang, but kept in touch with the help of Rizal's close friend, Jose "Chenggoy" Cecilio.
Chenggoy was the ultimate teaser - and maybe wingman? - who was amused with the "rivalry" of the namesakes. On one of Chenggoy's letters to Rizal, he wrote:
"...nagpipilit ang munting kasera (Leonor Rivera) na makita si Orang, pero dahil natatakpan ng isang belong puti, hindi naming nakilala nang dumaan ang prusisyon sa tapat ng bahay. Sinabi sa akin ni Orang na sabihin ko raw sa munting kasera na hindi siya kumakaribal sa pag-iibigan ninyo. Que gulay, tukayo,
anong gulo itong idinudulot natin sa mga dalagang ito!"
Lest it be forgotten, while he was pursuing the two Leonors, Rizal was in Europe taking courses in medicine at Univesidad Central de Madrid and painting at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Calle Alcala. Maybe he still had time on his hands?
Leanor Rivera and Jose Rizal lived the tragedies of Shakespeare's poems. They met when Rizal was 18 and Leonor was 13, at the boarding house of Rizal's uncle in Intramuros, Manila. Leonor was Rizal's second cousin.
It was a perfect love story in the beginning: he, the intelligent charmer, and she, the beautiful student who had a beautiful singing voice and was a talented piano player. Soon, they fell in love. But as tragic love stories go, they were besieged by obstacles.
Leonor's parents highly disapproved of their relationship as they were wary of Rizal being a "filibuster." In his letters, Rizal called Leonor "Taimis" to hide her identity.
Before leaving for Europe in 1882, Rizal said that he had found the woman he wanted to marry. But even his brother, Paciano Rizal, disagreed with the idea, saying that it would be unfair to Leonor if he were to leave her behind after getting married.
But their love - as young loves are - wanted to go against all that stood in the way. Although they did not get married, they tried to continue sending each other love letters, a lot of which were intercepted and kept hidden by Leonor's mother.
In 1890, Leonor wrote a letter to Rizal saying that she was engaged to be married to a British engineer named Henry Kipping. That same year, the wedding pushed through.
Upon the coercion of her mother, Leonor burned Rizal's letters to her - but it was said she kept the ashes of those letters. A story goes that she hid some of these ashes in the hem of her wedding gown.
But their dark romance didn't end there.
In 1893, Leonor died during second childbirth. Documents show that when Rizal heard of the news through his sister, Narcisa, he didn't speak for a few days.
It is believed that Rizal immortalized Leonor through the character Maria Clara in Noli Me Tangere. Like we said, it's a Shakespearean kind of dark - and no love story is more intense than the one that lost the battle with circumstances.
Consuelo Ortega Y Rey was the daughter of Don Pablo Ortiga Y Rey, who was Mayor of Manila when Carlos Maria dela Torre was the governor. While Rizal was in Madrid, he would hang out at Don Pablo's house, which became a place where Filipino students would often get together.
Through one of these gatherings, Rizal met Consuelo.
He showed affection towards Consuelo but was not serious in his pursuit as he was still engaged to Leonor Rivera at the time. Yes, he loved the company of women, but during that brief period, he too was lonely and yearning for the physical void left by Leonor.
Although most accounts say the dalliance didn't turn serious, Rizal wrote a poem for her, entitled, "A La Señorita C.O.y.P." Of course, these days, when you write a poem for someone, that's like a marriage proposal.
In the end, Consuelo got engaged to Rizal's friend, Eduardo de Lete. It is said that Eduardo's love for Consuelo was also the reason Rizal didn't pursue the mestiza. Or maybe, in modern parlance, theirs was a classic case of a rebound fling.
In many of his diary entries, Rizal wrote about how he was charmed by Japan's beauty, cleanliness, and peace and order. But if there was one thing that almost kept him in the country where cherry blossoms bloom most beautiful, it was a woman named Seiko Usui, affectionately called O-Sei-San.
It was in 1888. Rizal had just arrived in Japan from Hongkong upon an invitation to take a job offer at the Spanish Legation. One day, while he was in the office grounds, he saw O-Sei-San walk past the legation's gate and was immediately enthralled by her beauty.
With the help of a Japanese gardener, he asked to be introduced to the woman who captured his eyes - and the gardener acquiesced. Rizal spoke little Japanese at the time, so the gardener had to serve as a translator.
However, a few minutes into the conversation, they both found O-Sei-San spoke English and French, which was a relief as Rizal spoke both languages. When the language barrier broke, they started to build a relationship.
As days went by, O-Sei-San taught Rizal the ways of the Japanese. They went gallivanting, visiting museums, galleries, and universities.
They talked about the arts and culture, switching their language from French to English and back as they pleased.
Their love was childlike and spirited. According to many accounts, Rizal was ready to move to Japan, stay with O-Sei-San, and live a peaceful life with his love.
Unfortunately for this relationship, country-saving duties would call and he had to leave Japan for San Francisco. He never saw O-Sei-San again. Their affair lasted for around two months. It's shorter than an average season of a Netflix series, but you know Rizal and his intensity.
In the same year he began and ended his relations with O-Sei-San, our JR, then 27, went to London and met a woman named Gertrude Beckett, the eldest daughter of his landlord. Gertrude showered Rizal with all the love and attention of a girl who is hopelessly in love.
She even assisted Rizal as he finished some of his popular sculptures, "Prometheus Bound," "The Triumph of Death over Life," and "The Triumph of Science over Death." He called her Gettie, she called him Pettie. But all documents lead to say one thing: the feelings weren't mutually shared.
In 1889, Rizal left London, and left Gettie a composite carving of the heads of the Beckett sisters. Marcelo del Pilar, Rizal's friend, said Rizal left London to move away from Gertrude, whose idea of their relationship was more than what it really was - the most tormenting kind: an unrequited love.
Maybe Rizal was repulsed with the idea of having an idle mind. With all the loneliness and anxiety from the turmoil of his country and family, he was even able to fill his resting moments learning new things - like flirting with women. When he arrived in Belgium in 1890, he lived at a boarding house that was run by two sisters whose last name was Jacoby.
The sisters had a niece named Suzanne. You probably can guess now what happens with Rizal and his caretaker's kin. If it's not a neighbor, it's a caretaker's kin. Are we seeing a trend here? Obviously the guy is too busy to explore beyond a one-kilometer radius.
The relationship was probably a fling, too, as Rizal made no mention of Suzanne when he wrote letters to his friends about his stay in Belgium. Rizal left the country in August that year. Suzanne was heartbroken. Rizal continued writing El Filibusterismo, writing for La Solidaridad, and worrying about his family back home.
It was said that Suzanne wrote Rizal letters. Rizal may have replied once. In 1891, Rizal went back to Belgium - not for Suzanne - but to finish writing El Filibusterismo. He stayed for a few months, left, and never returned. Maybe she got the point after that.
Remember that famous time when Antonio Luna and Jose Rizal almost got into a duel because of a girl? The girl in the middle of that madness was Nellie Boustead. Rizal and Nellie met in Biarritz, where Nellie's wealthy family hosted Rizal's stay at their residence on the French Riviera.
Before Biarritz, Rizal already made friends with the Boustead family a few years back, and even played fencing with Nellie and her sister.
During his stay at the beautiful Biarritz vacation home, Rizal learned of Leonor Rivera's engagement and thought of pursuing a romantic relationship with Nellie, who was classy, educated, cheerful, and athletic. After strengthening their relationship, Rizal wrote letters to his friends, telling them about his intention to marry her.
They were all supportive, including Antonio Luna.
Although they seemed like the ideal couple, marriage for Rizal was still not meant to be. First, Nellie's mother did not think Rizal had the resources to be a good provider for her daughter. Second, Nellie wanted Rizal to convert to Protestantism.
Rizal refused. But their friendship must have been strong enough because they ended up being friends after all the drama.
Before Rizal left Paris in 1891, Nellie wrote him a letter:
"Now that you are leaving I wish you a happy trip and may you triumph in your undertakings, and above all, may the Lord look down on you with favor and guide your way giving you much blessings, and may your learn to enjoy! My remembrance will accompany you as also my prayers."
Josephine Bracken was the woman who stayed with Rizal until his execution in 1896. She was also, allegedly, the woman whom Rizal married. However, accounts of their marriage have been much-debated over the years.
Josephine was the adopted daughter of one George Taufer, whom she lived with in Hongkong for years before she needed to seek help from an ophthalmologist due to George's blindness.
They then sought the help of Jose Rizal, who was already exiled in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte at the time. Rizal and Josephine fell in love and in a month made the announcement that they wanted to get married.
But just like the other Rizal great loves, this one was once again complicated. No priest would marry the two, for reasons that are still unclear - but perhaps it was because of Rizal's status in politics.
Without a legal paper, Rizal and Josephine lived together, and had a son, who died a few hours after birth. Rizal named his son after his father, Francisco.
Up to this day, there is no legal proof that Josephine and Rizal ever got married.
In retrospect, maybe Rizal was not meant for a long commitment, like marriage - with all his travels and freedom-fighting obligations. Maybe heroes can only be alone with their thoughts. Left alone, they will naturally think too much, and thinking for an entire country, we assume, can be exhausting. Maybe Rizal just always needed a companion.
But if there's one thing his dalliances and longings and pursuits remind us, it is that heroes are humans, too. Humans have needs. And he did die for our country. He gets a pass - even when he was a master in ghosting.
Noli Me Tángere (Latin for "Touch Me Not") is a novel by Filipino writer and activist José Rizal and was published during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It explores inequities in law and practice in terms of the treatment by the ruling government and the Spanish Catholic friars of the resident peoples in the late 19th century.
Originally written by Rizal in Spanish, the book has since been more commonly published and read in the Philippines in either Tagalog (the major indigenous language), or English. The Rizal Law requires Noli, published in 1887, and its 1891 sequel, El filibusterismo, to be read by all high school students throughout the country.
Noli is studied in Grade 9 and El filibusterismo in Grade 10. The two novels are widely considered to be the national epic of the Philippines. They have been adapted in many forms, such as operas, musicals, plays, and other forms of art.
El Filibusterismo (transl. The filibusterism; The Subversive or The Subversion, as in the Locsín English translation, are also possible translations), also known by its alternative English title The Reign of Greed,[1] is the second novel written by Philippine national hero José Rizal. It is the sequel to Noli Me Tángere and, like the first book, was written in Spanish. It was first published in 1891 in Ghent.
The novel centers on the Noli-El Fili duology's main character Crisóstomo Ibarra, now returning for vengeance as "Simoun".
The novel's dark theme departs dramatically from the previous novel's hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying Ibarra's resort to solving his country's issues through violent means, after his previous attempt in reforming the country's system made no effect and seemed impossible with the corrupt attitude of the Spaniards toward the Filipinos.
The novel, along with its predecessor, was banned in some parts of the Philippines as a result of their portrayals of the Spanish government's abuses and corruption.
These novels, along with Rizal's involvement in organizations that aimed to address and reform the Spanish system and its issues, led to Rizal's exile to Dapitan and eventual execution. Both the novel and its predecessor, along with Rizal's last poem, are now considered Rizal's literary masterpieces.
Both of Rizal's novels had a profound effect on Philippine society in terms of views about national identity, the Catholic faith and its influence on the Filipino's choice, and the government's issues in corruption, abuse of power, and discrimination, and on a larger scale, the issues related to the effect of colonization on people's lives and the cause for independence.
These novels later on indirectly became the inspiration to start the Philippine Revolution.
"Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" (English: To My Fellow Youth) is a poem about the love of one's native language written in Tagalog. It is widely attributed to the Filipino national hero José Rizal, who supposedly wrote it in 1868 at the age of eight.[1] There is not enough evidence, however, to support authorship by Rizal and several historians now believe it to be a hoax.
The poem was widely taught in Philippine schools to point out Rizal's precociousness and early development of his nationalistic ideals.
A passage of the poem often paraphrased as "Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, masahol pa sa hayop at malansang isda" (English: "He who knows not to love his own language, is worse than beasts and putrid fish") is widely quoted in order to justify pressuring Philippine citizens into using Tagalog; this ironically includes its majority of nonnative speakers.
It is encountered most frequently during the Buwan ng Wika ('Language Month'), a commemoration of the establishment of the Filipino language as the national language of the Philippines.
"Mi último adiós" (transl. "My Last Farewell") is a poem written by Filipino propagandist and writer Dr. José Rizal before his execution by firing squad on December 30, 1896. The piece was one of the last notes he wrote before his death. Another that he had written was found in his shoe, but because the text was illegible, its contents remain a mystery.
Rizal did not ascribe a title to his poem. Mariano Ponce, his friend and fellow reformist, titled it "Mi último pensamiento" (transl. "My Last Thought") in the copies he distributed, but this did not catch on. Also, the "coconut oil lamp" containing the poem was not delivered to Rizal's family until after the execution as it was required to light the cell.
Rizal was a prominent advocate for peaceful reforms rather than violent revolution. He called for the recognition of the rights of Filipinos, including representation in the Spanish Cortes and the secularization of the clergy.
He founded the La Liga Filipina (The Filipino League) in 1892, a civic organization aimed at promoting social reforms through peaceful means.
Rizal emphasized the importance of education and enlightenment for national progress. He believed that education was essential for the empowerment of Filipinos and the development of a national identity.
His writings inspired the Philippine Revolution against Spanish rule. He advocated for the rights and dignity of Filipinos, promoting the idea of a free and independent nation.
Rizal's ideas influenced other reformists and revolutionaries, including leaders like Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo.
Rizal was executed by the Spanish colonial government on December 30, 1896, for his alleged role in the revolution. His death galvanized the Filipino people and intensified the struggle for independence. He is often viewed as a martyr for freedom.
Rizal's legacy continues to inspire Filipinos and people around the world. His life and works are celebrated annually in the Philippines, particularly on Rizal Day, which commemorates his execution.
He is remembered not only as a writer and thinker but also as a symbol of the fight for justice and equality.
Developed by: Keith Vladimir Enorio Estante
Last updated: November 27, 2024