 Chapter 2 (Childhood Years in Calamba)

Jose Rizal had many beautiful memories of his childhood in his native town Calamba. It’s scenic beauties
and it’s industrious, hospitable, and friendly folks profoundly affected his mind and character. The
happiest period of Rizal’s life was spent in this lakeshore town.

 Jose Rizal’s Home Town

Calamba was an hacienda town belonged to the Dominican Order, which also owned all the lands
around it.

Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)

A poem wrote by Jose Rizal when he was 15 years old
(about the beauty of his home town and his happy memories )

Earliest Childhood Memories

 Happy days in the family garden

 Daily Angelus Prayer

 Happy moonlit nights at the azotea

 Fabulous stories/fairy tales

 Nocturnal walk in the town

The Hero’s First Sorrow

 The death of her sister Concha.

 Died of sickness in 1865 when she was three years old.

Devoted Son of the Church

 Rizal grew up a good catholic.

 At the age of three he began to take part in the family prayers.

 When he was five years old, he was able to read haltingly the Spanish family Bible.

 He love to go church to pray, to take part in the novenas and to join the religious processions.

Pilgrimage to Antipolo

 June 6, 1868 – Jose and his father left calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo.

 After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila to visit
Saturnina, a boarding student at La Concordia College in Santa Ana.

The Story of the Moth

 What is the story all about? (Its all about the tragic fate of the young moth).
  What is the lesson of the story? (We should listen and don’t be disobedient, just like the moth
burnt as it did).

Artistic Talents

 At the age of five he began to make sketches with his pencil and mould in clay and wax objects.

 Anecdote about Rizal: “All right laugh at me now! Someday when I die, people will make
monuments and images of me!”

Rizal’s First Poem

To My Fellow Children

(Sa Aking Mga Kababata)

The love of ones language….

The first Drama by Rizal was staged in a Calamba festival. It was a Tagalog comedy.

 The gobernadorcillo from Paete purchased the manuscript from Rizal for two pesos and it was
staged in Paete during its town fiesta.

Influences on Hero’s Boyhood

1. Hereditary Influence

- Qualities inherits from his ancestors or parents

2. Environmental Influence

- Includes places, associates, and events.

 Uncle’s of Rizal who exerted a good influence on him:

a. Tio Jose Alberto – inspired him to develop his artistic ability.

b. Tio Manuel – encouraged him to develop his frail body by means of physical exercises.

c. Tio Gregorio – intensified his voracious reading of good books.

3. Aid of Divine Providence

- Without aid of divine providence he cannot attain greatness in the annals of the nation.

- God had endowed Rizal with versatile gifts of a genius, the vibrant spirit of a nationalist and the valiant
heart to sacrifice for a noble cause.