Chapter 4: University of Sto.

Tomas

Dominican University of Sto. Tomas

● Philippines sole institution of higher learning
● Enrolled in metaphysics, but also took land surveying course in Ateneo at the same time
● Teodora (mother) - after realizing that her child had extraordinary intellectual gifts, didn’t
want him to pursue further studies. “'Don't send him to Manila! He knows enough. If he
goes on to learn more, it will lead him to being beheaded."
● He felt unsure about what he wanted to do in life. He also felt “stupefied” in school.

Segunda Catigbac
 ● His first experience of love, he found a sense of purpose
● 14 yrs old, from a wealthy mestizo family in Lipa, Batangas
● Short, expressive eyes, rosy-cheeked, lovely teeth
● Courting then was strictly proper (like Victorian England) and the Rizals were very strict
● Segunda presented him with an artificial rose which she pretended that someone
else had made
● First love - “For weeks he could think of little else but Segunda,” even though she
was already almost formally engaged to the man she eventually married.
● 1877 Christmas vacation- Segunda had hoped to leave Manila with him (going home
through a route passing by Calamba), but he had made prior arrangements to leave a
day earlier. Segunda was very disappointed and became very pensive. He knew he
made a mistake. It was his first time to feel anguish because he knew he was
separating from her, and there he knew that he truly loved her.
● He still rode out to a road he knew the Catigbacs would take where he was invited by
Segunda’s father to come to Lipa, but he “acted against his disposition,” declined,
and took another road.
● Of all his loves, it is the only one of which he himself left a written description.

Decision to study medicine

● When he returned to Calamba, his mother did not recognize him because she was
going blind.
● His next year in UST, he decided to take up medicine, even though he was not
particularly interested in it. He loved literature, but decided to take medicine because
he felt it was the one he could be of most service to the people from the three
professions that were open to Filipinos (priesthood, medicine, and law).
● He was very disciplined in his studies- allocating a fixed time, down to the minute, for
all that he needed and wanted to do (acads, org, physical exercise, social relaxation,
poetry, sculpting, sketching, etc).
● He noticed during his classes that the Filipinos have been so accustomed accepting
injustice without criticism. He believed that the educated Filipino youth was the key to
stand up to oppression, but he was disappointed at how the “cream of the crop” in
UST just all wanted to stay out of trouble.

Literary Awards
● A la Juventud Filipina - won first prize in a public competition organized by the
Liceo Artistico-Literario in Manila - urged the educated Filipino youth, first time that
Rizal unambiguously written his concept of the Philippines as a nation distinct from
Spain
● The next year he won a more prestigious literary award in an open competition (no
separate entry for native writers). He surpassed even the Peninsular Spaniards in the
use of their own language. He was mocked by laughter when they saw an indio
receive the award.
The solemn bond between Rizal and his brother
● Paciano, Rizal’s older brother (older by 10 years), was also maturing in his thoughts
and acquiring defined direction
● Since they were the only two sons, one of them had to take care of their aging parents
● Paciano was struggling to take his final class at the College of San Jose not because
he wasn’t a good student, but because the friars knew of his former association with
Burgos and purposefully failed him in his final class for him not to have a career in
Manila.
● The older Rizal then realized that it was his duty to go back to Calamba and take care
of their parents. There was an unexplainable bond between the brothers. Paciano was
always somewhere in the background of Rizal’s development and accomplishments,
and he was not bitter at all.
● In 1878, the brothers made a verbal solemn bond. Jose had the duty of taking up the
Filipino cause, while Paciano had the duty of taking care of their parents and
supporting Jose in any way he could. Exact details unknown. Only Narcisa (sister)
was told of the secret pact between the brothers. This indirectly and unknowingly
affected their whole country.

Opinions
● His love with Segunda does show a significant trait of Rizal, he always had an
inward force that held him back (from love). Hindi niya pa clear sa kanya nung bata
siya, but eventually he knew his life had a purpose and that it was difficult to keep
the love of a woman in place.
● Grabe yung talent niya :( HAHA. He was really a well-balanced person and super
disciplined to have time for all he wanted to do (relatable to us college students trying
lol)
● He was a very observant person. He thinks differently. He questions the system in
place, instead of adhering to it.
● There were so many cases of the friars abusing and overstepping their power as
teachers (unfair grades, mockery, even choosing who graduates), but it was so
often that it was normal in society then. The friars knew the effect of what
education and a completed degree could give, so they used it to their advantage.
● The weight of a pact in modern times is very different from how it was before. “The
revolt of the Philippines against Spain is from end to end a tale of secret societies, of
hands clasped, of signatures written, in blood.”