The pride of the Malay race and the greatest hero of a nation.

A person of broad intellectual and

cultural interests encompassing the full spectrum of available knowledge.

In 1849, Governor Claveria issued a decree directing all Filipino families to choose and adopt new surnames. The marriage of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo Realonda

were blessed with eleven children two boys and nine girls.

At 8, he wrote the poem Sa Aking Kabata (To My Fellow Children).

At 11, mourned the execution of

Gom-Bur-Za.
At 15 and while studying at Ateneo,

he wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town).

While at Ateneo, Rizal wrote the poem My First Inspiration as an expression of good wishes which was full of endearing filial affection on his mothers birthday.
Prize-winning pieces were To the

Filipino Youth (a poem) and The Council of Gods (an allegory).

 Rizals poem on education Through

Education Our Motherland Receives Light

Rizals artistic skill in sculpture. Rizals

famous sculptural work as The Triumph of Science over Death, a clay sculpture of a naked young woman with overflowing hair, standing on a skull while bearing a torch held high.

At 16, enroled in pontifical USTSeg. Fell in love to the fourteen-year-old Segunda Katigbak.