Chapter 3

Early Education in Calamba and Binan

The Hero’s First Teacher

 His first teacher was her mother;

 On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers;
 Her mother encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the
ABCs and to stimulate his imagination, she related many stories;

Private Tutors that give Rizal lessons in Calamba:

1. Maestro Celestino
2. Maestro Lucas Padua
3. Leon Monroy

Jose Goes to Binan

 Sunday afternoon in June, 1869, Jose accompanied by Paciano left Calamba for Binan;
 In Binan, they proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was lodge.

First Day in Binan School

 The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of
Maestro Justiano Aquino Cruz;
 The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters
from the home of Jose’s aunt.

First School Brawl

 Fight with his classmate named Pedro (wrestled);

 Arm-wrestling match with Andres Salandanan;
 Two other fight with other boys.

*He was not quarrelsome by nature, but he never ran away from a fight.

Painting Lessons in Binan

 Old painter, Juancho, who was a father-in-law of the school teacher whose house was
near the school gave Jose lessons in drawing and painting;
 It was a free lesson together with Jose’s classmates, Jose Guevarra.

Daily Life in Binan

 Methodical life and almost Spartan in simplicity.

Best Student in School

 He surpassed the Binan boys in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects;

End of Binan Schooling

 Before Christmas season in 1870, Jose received a letter from his sister Saturnina,
informing him of the arrival of the streamer Talim which would take him from Binan to
Calamba;
 He left Binan on Saturday afternoon, December 17, 1870, after one year and a half
schooling in that town.

Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za

The Gom-Bur-Za

1. Father Mariano Gomez

2. Father Jose Burgos
3. Father Jacinto Zamora

Reason of Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za

 On January 20, 1872, two hundred Filipinos employed at the Cavite arsenal staged a
revolt against the Spanish government’s voiding of their exemption from the payment of
tributes. The Cavite Mutiny led to the persecution of prominent Filipinos; secular priests
Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora—who would then be collectively
named GomBurZa—were tagged as the masterminds of the uprising. The priests were
charged with treason and sedition by the Spanish military tribunal—a ruling believed to
be part of a conspiracy to stifle the growing popularity of Filipino secular priests and the
threat they posed to the Spanish clergy. The GomBurZa were publicly executed, by
garrote, on the early morning of February 17, 1872 at Bagumbayan.
http://malacanang.gov.ph/7695-the-martyrdom-of-the-gomburza/

Results of Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za

 The martyrdom of the three secular priests would resonate among Filipinos; grief and
outrage over their execution would make way for the first stirrings of the Filipino
revolution, thus making the first secular martyrs of a nascent national identity. Jose Rizal
would dedicate his second novel, El Filibusterismo, to the memory of GomBurZa, to what
they stood for, and to the symbolic weight their deaths would henceforth hold.
http://malacanang.gov.ph/7695-the-martyrdom-of-the-gomburza/
Injustice to Hero’s Mother

 Before June of 1872, Dona Teodora was suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that
she and her brother, Jose Alberto, tried to poison the latter’s perfidious wife.

Source: Gregorio F. Zaide and Sonia M. Zaide (1999). Jose Rizal: life, works and writings of a
genius, writer, scientist and national hero (Second Edition). Ouezon City: All-Nations Publishing
Co.,Inc,.