osé Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda[7] (Spanish pronunciation: [xo

ˈse riˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino
nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of
the Philippines. He is tagged as the national hero (pambansang bayani) of the
Filipino people.[8] An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and
a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, which
advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.
He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime
of rebellion after the Philippine Revolution, inspired in part by his writings,
broke out. Though he was not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he
ultimately approved of its goals which eventually led to Philippine
independence.
He is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has
been recommended to be so honored by an officially empaneled National
Heroes Committee. However, no law, executive order or proclamation has
been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as
a national hero.[9] He was the author of the novels Noli Me Tángere and El
filibusterismo, and a number of poems and essays.[10][11]

Contents

 1Early life
 2Education
 3Personal life, relationships and ventures
o 3.1Affair
o 3.2Association with Leonor Rivera
o 3.3Relationship with Josephine Bracken
 4In Brussels and Spain (1890–92)
 5Return to Philippines (1892–96)
o 5.1Exile in Dapitan
o 5.2Arrest and trial
 6Execution
 7Works and writings
o 7.1Novels and essays
o 7.2Poetry
o 7.3Plays
o 7.4Other works
 8Reactions after death
o 8.1Retraction controversy
o 8.2"Mi último adiós"
o 8.3Later life of Bracken
o 8.4Polavieja and Blanco
 9Criticism and controversies
o 9.1National hero status
 9.1.1Made national hero by colonial Americans
 9.1.2Made national hero by Emilio Aguinaldo
o 9.2Critiques of books
o 9.3Role in the Philippine revolution
 10Legacy and remembrance
o 10.1Species named after Rizal
o 10.2Historical commemoration
 11Rizal in popular culture
o 11.1Adaptation of his works
o 11.2Biographical films/TV series
o 11.3Other
 12See also
 13Notes and references
 14Sources
 15Further reading
 16External links

Early life

José Rizal's baptismal register

Francisco Rizal Mercado (1818–1898)

José Rizal was born in 1861 to Francisco Rizal Mercado y

Alejandro and Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos in the town
of Calamba in Laguna province. He had nine sisters and one brother. His
parents were leaseholders of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by
the Dominicans. Both their families had adopted the additional surnames
of Rizal and Realonda in 1849, after Governor General Narciso Clavería y
Zaldúa decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames among the Filipinos for
census purposes (though they already had Spanish names).
Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizals were of mixed origin. José's
patrilineal lineage could be traced back to Fujian in China through his father's
ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese merchant who immigrated to the Philippines in
the late 17th century.[12][13][note 1][14] Lam-Co traveled to Manila from Xiamen, China,
possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his home district, and more probably
to escape the Manchu invasion during the Transition from Ming to Qing. He
finally decided to stay in the islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the
bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the Philippines, he converted
to Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo Mercado and married the
daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co. On his mother's side, Rizal's
ancestry included Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog blood. His mother's
lineage can be traced to the affluent Florentina family of Chinese mestizo
families originating in Baliuag, Bulacan.[15] He also had Spanish ancestry.
Regina Ochoa, a grandmother of his mother, Teodora, had mixed Spanish,
Chinese and Tagalog blood. His grandfather was a half Spaniard engineer
named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.[16]
From an early age, José showed a precocious intellect. He learned the
alphabet from his mother at 3, and could read and write at age 5.[13] Upon
enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he dropped the last three names
that made up his full name, on the advice of his brother, Paciano and the
Mercado family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, he
later wrote: "My family never paid much attention [to our second surname
Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate
child!"[17] This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his
brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino
priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly known
as Gomburza) who had been accused and executed for treason.

Rizal's house in Calamba, Laguna

Despite the name change, José, as "Rizal", soon distinguished himself in

poetry writing contests, impressing his professors with his facility with
Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing essays that were
critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine
societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his El filibusterismo, this
second surname had become so well known that, as he writes to another
friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because
the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be
worthy of this family name..."[17]

Education
Rizal, 11 years old, a student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila

Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna, before he
was sent to Manila.[18] As to his father's request, he took the entrance
examination in Colegio de San Juan de Letran but he then enrolled at
the Ateneo Municipal de Manila and graduated as one of the nine students in
his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at
the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor's
degree, and at the same time at the University of Santo Tomas where he did
take up a preparatory course in law and finished with a mark of excelente or
excellent. He finished the course of Philosophy as a pre-law.[19] Upon learning
that his mother was going blind, he decided to switch to medicine at
the medical school of Santo Tomas sp