José Rizal

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Laong Laan" redirects here. For the railway station, see Laong Laan railway station.
"Philippine Propaganda Movement" redirects here. For the political reforms during late
stages of the Spanish Occupation, see Propaganda Movement. For the propaganda
movement during World War 2, see Philippine resistance against Japan.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mercado and the second or
maternal family name is Realonda.

José Rizal

Rizal c. 1890s

Born José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda[1]

 June 19, 1861[2]

Calamba, Laguna, Captaincy General of the

Philippines, Spanish Empire[2]

Died December 30, 1896 (aged 35)[3]

Bagumbayan, Manila, Captaincy General of the

Philippines, Spanish Empire[3]

Cause of death Execution by firing squad

Resting place Rizal Monument, Manila

 Daet, Camarines Norte

Monuments
 Luneta Park, Manila

 Calamba, Laguna

Other names Pepe, Jose (nicknames)[4][5]

Alma mater  Ateneo Municipal de Manila (BA)

 University of Santo Tomas

 Universidad Central de Madrid (MD)

Organization(s) La Solidaridad, La Liga Filipina

Notable work  Noli Me Tángere (1887)

 El filibusterismo (1891)

Movement Propaganda Movement

Josephine Bracken
Spouse
 

(m. 1896)
[6]

Parents  Francisco Rizal Mercado (father)

 Teodora Alonso Realonda (mother)

Relatives  Saturnina Hidalgo (sister)

 Paciano Rizal (brother)

 Trinidad Rizal (sister)
 Signature

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda [7] (Spanish: [xoˈse riˈsal, -

ˈθal], Tagalog: [hoˈse ɾiˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino
nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the
Philippines. He is considered the national hero (pambansang bayani) of the Philippines.
[8][9]
 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 broke out; it was inspired by his writings. Though he was not
actively involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which
eventually resulted in Philippine independence.
Rizal 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 wrote the novels Noli
Me Tángere (1887) and El filibusterismo (1891), which together are taken as a national
epic, in addition to numerous poems and essays.[10][11]

Early life

José Rizal's baptismal register

Francisco Rizal Mercado (1818–1898)

Teodora Alonso Realonda (1827–1911)

José Rizal in P2 note

José Rizal was born on June 19, 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 held 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 mestizo origin. José's patrilineal
lineage could be traced to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co,
a Hokkien 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 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 and Tagalog. 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 maternal grandfather was a half Spanish 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 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

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. By 1891, the year he finished his second novel El filibusterismo, his
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] He took the entrance examination to Colegio de San Juan de Letran, as his
father requested, but he enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He 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 studied 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, specializing later in ophthalmology. He received his
four-year practical training in medicine at Ospital de San Juan de Dios in Intramuros. In
his last year at medical school, he received a mark of sobresaliente in courses
of Patologia Medica (Medical Pathology), Patología Quirúrgica (Surgical Pathology) and
Obstretics.
Although known as a bright student, Rizal had some difficulty in some science subjects
in medical school such as Física (Physics) and Patología General (General Pathology).
[20]
Rizal as a student at the University of Santo Tomas

Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his
brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Madrid in May 1882 and studied medicine at
the Universidad Central de Madrid. There he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine.
He also attended medical lectures at the University of Paris and the University of
Heidelberg. In Berlin, he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society
and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the
famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he delivered an address in
German in April 1887 before the Anthropological Society on the orthography and
structure of the Tagalog language. He wrote a poem to the city, "A las flores del
Heidelberg", which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land
and the unification of common values between East and West.
At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal completed his eye specialization in 1887 under the
renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used the newly
invented ophthalmoscope (invented by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his
mother's eye. From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: "I spend half of the day in the
study of German and the other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the
bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends." He lived in a
Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl
Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhelmsfeld. There he wrote the last few chapters
of Noli Me Tángere, his first novel, published in Spanish later that year.
Rizal was a polymath, skilled in both science and the arts. He painted, sketched, and
made sculptures and woodcarving. He was a prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose
most famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tángere (1887) and its sequel, El
filibusterismo (1891).[note 2] These social commentaries during the Spanish colonial
period of the country formed the nucleus of literature that inspired peaceful reformists
and armed revolutionaries alike.
Rizal was also a polyglot, conversant in twenty-two languages.[note 3][note 4][21][22]
Rizal's numerous skills and abilities was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf
Bernhard Meyer, as "stupendous."[note 5] Documented studies show Rizal to be
a polymath with the ability to master various skills and subjects. [21][23][24] He was an
ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist.
Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in
architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics,
martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. Skilled in social settings, he became
a Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9 during his time in Spain; he became a Master
Mason in 1884.[25]

Personal life, relationships and ventures

Rednaxela Terrace, where Rizal lived during his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong (photo taken in 2011)

José Rizal's life is one of the most documented of 19th-century Filipinos due to the vast
and extensive records written by and about him. [26] Almost everything in his short life is
recorded somewhere. He was a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, and much of this
material has survived. His biographers have faced challenges in translating his writings
because of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to another.
Biographers drew largely from his travel diaries with his comments by a young Asian
encountering the West for the first time (other than in Spanish manifestations in the
Philippines). These diaries included Rizal's later trips, home and back again to Europe
through Japan and the United States, [27] and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in
Hong Kong.
Shortly after he graduated from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila
University), Rizal (who was then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano Katigbak, visited
Rizal's maternal grandmother in Tondo, Manila. Mariano brought along his sister,
Segunda Katigbak, a 14-year-old Batangueña from Lipa, Batangas.
It was the first time Rizal had met her, whom he described as
"rather short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at times and languid at others,
rosy–cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that revealed very beautiful
teeth, and the air of a sylph; her entire self diffused a mysterious charm."
His grandmother's guests were mostly college students and they knew that Rizal had
skills in painting. They suggested that Rizal should make a portrait of Segunda. He
complied reluctantly and made a pencil sketch of her. Rizal who referred to her as his
first love in his memoir Memorias de un Estudiante de Manila, but Katigbak was already
engaged to Manuel Luz.[28]

Business card showing Dr. José Rizal is an ophthalmologist in Hong Kong

From December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with his family in Number 2
of Rednaxela Terrace, Mid-levels, Hong Kong Island. Rizal used 5 D'Aguilar Street,
Central district, Hong Kong Island, as his ophthalmology clinic from 2 pm to 6 pm. In this
period of his life, he wrote about nine women who have been identified: Gertrude
Beckett of Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, Camden, London; wealthy and high-minded
Nelly Boustead of an English-Iberian merchant family; Seiko Usui (affectionately called
O-Sei-san), last descendant of a noble Japanese family; his earlier friendship with
Segunda Katigbak; Leonor Valenzuela, and an eight-year romantic relationship
with Leonor Rivera, a distant cousin (she is thought to have inspired his character
of María Clara in Noli Me Tángere).
Affair
In one account detailing Rizal's 1887 visit to Prague, Maximo Viola wrote that Rizal had
succumbed to a 'lady of the camellias'. Viola, a friend of Rizal's and an early financier
of Noli Me Tángere, was alluding to Dumas's 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about
a man who fell in love with a courtesan. While noting Rizal's affair, Viola provided no
details about its duration or nature.[29][30][note 6]
Association with Leonor Rivera
See also: Leonor Rivera
A crayon portrait of Leonor Rivera by José Rizal

Leonor Rivera is thought to have inspired the character of María Clara in Noli Me

Tángere and El Filibusterismo.[31] Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when Rivera was
14 years old and Rizal was 16. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was
16 years old. Their correspondence began after Rizal left a poem for her. [32]
Their correspondence helped Rizal stay focused on his studies in Europe. They
employed codes in their letters because Rivera's mother did not favor Rizal. In a letter
from Mariano Katigbak dated June 27, 1884, she referred to Rivera as Rizal's
"betrothed". Katigbak described Rivera as having been greatly affected by Rizal's
departure, and frequently sick because of insomnia.
When Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera and her family had
moved back to Dagupan, Pangasinan. Rizal's father forbade the young man to see
Rivera in order to avoid putting her family in danger. Rizal was already labeled by
the criollo elite as a filibustero or subversive[32] because of his novel Noli Me Tángere.
Rizal wanted to marry Rivera while he was still in the Philippines because she had been
so faithful to him. Rizal asked permission from his father one more time before his
second departure from the Philippines, but he never met her again.
In 1888, Rizal stopped receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although he continued to
write to her. Rivera's mother favored an Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway
engineer who fell in love with Rivera.[32][33] The news of Leonor Rivera's marriage to
Kipping devastated Rizal.
His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on
pieces of paper. He had visited Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, and impressed
the man's daughter, Consuelo, who wrote about Rizal. In her diary, she said Rizal had
regaled them with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his
research on Antonio de Morga's writings, he became a regular guest in the home
of Reinhold Rost of the British Museum, who referred to him as "a gem of a man." [26][note
7]
 The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts in Germany
saved even napkins that Rizal had made sketches and notes on. They were ultimately
bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of memorabilia.
Relationship with Josephine Bracken
Further information: Josephine Bracken

Josephine Bracken was Rizal's common-law wife whom he reportedly married shortly before his execution.

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong Kong.
She had accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eyes
checked by Rizal.[34] After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love. They applied to
marry but, because of Rizal's reputation from his writings and political stance, the local
priest Father Obach would hold the ceremony only if Rizal could get permission from
the Bishop of Cebu. As Rizal refused to return to practicing Catholicism, the bishop
refused permission for an ecclesiastical marriage.[6]
After accompanying her father to Manila on her return to Hong Kong, and before
heading back to Dapitan to live with Rizal, Josephine introduced herself to members of
Rizal's family in Manila. His mother suggested a civil marriage, which she believed to be
a lesser sacrament but less sinful to Rizal's conscience than making any sort of political
retraction in order to gain permission from the Bishop. [35] Rizal and Josephine lived as
husband and wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a
son, but he lived only a few hours. Rizal named him after his father Francisco. [36]

In Brussels and Spain (1890–1892)

In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was preparing for the publication of his
annotations of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609). He lived in the
boarding house of the sisters, Catherina and Suzanna Jacoby, who had a niece
Suzanna ("Thil"), age 16. Historian Gregorio F. Zaide says that Rizal had "his romance
with Suzanne Jacoby, 45, the petite niece of his landladies." Belgian Pros
Slachmuylders, however, believed that Rizal had a romance with the 17-year-old niece,
Suzanna Thil, as his other liaisons were all with young women. [37] He found records
clarifying their names and ages.
Rizal's Brussels stay was short-lived; he moved to Madrid, giving the young Suzanna a
box of chocolates. She wrote to him in French: "After your departure, I did not take the
chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long
writing us because I wear out the soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if
there is a letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in
that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back…" [37] In 2007,
Slachmuylders' group arranged for an historical marker honoring Rizal to be placed at
the house.[37]
He published Dimanche des Rameaux (Palm Sunday), a socio-political essay, in Berlin
on 30 November 1886. He discussed the significance of Palm Sunday in socio-political
terms:
"This entry [of Jesus into Jerusalem] decided the fate of the jealous priests,
the Pharisees, of all those who believed themselves the only ones who had the right to
speak in the name of God, of those who would not admit the truths said by others
because they have not been said by them. That triumph, those hosannas, all those
flowers, those olive branches, were not for Jesus alone; they were the songs of the
victory of the new law, they were the canticles celebrating the dignification of man, the
liberty of man, the first mortal blow directed against despotism and slavery". [38]
Shortly after its publication, Rizal was summoned by the German police, who suspected
him of being a French spy.[39]
The content of Rizal's writings changed considerably in his two most famous
novels, Noli Me Tángere, published in Berlin in 1887, and El Filibusterismo, published in
Ghent in 1891. For the latter, he used funds borrowed from his friends. These writings
angered both the Spanish colonial elite and many educated Filipinos due to their
symbolism. They are critical of Spanish friars and the power of the Church. Rizal's
friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, a professor and historian born in Austria-Hungary, wrote
that the novel's characters were drawn from life and that every episode could be
repeated on any day in the Philippines. [40]
Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-
Hungarian Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade
him from writing the preface of El filibusterismo, after he had translated Noli Me
Tángere into German. As Blumentritt had warned, these books resulted in Rizal's being
prosecuted as the inciter of revolution. He was eventually tried by the military,
convicted, and executed. His books were thought to contribute to the Philippine
Revolution of 1896, but other forces had also been building for it.
Leaders of the reform movement in Spain. Left to right: Rizal, del Pilar, and Ponce (c. 1890).

As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, Rizal contributed

essays, allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La
Solidaridad in Barcelona (in this case Rizal used pen names, "Dimasalang", "Laong
Laan" and "May Pagasa"). The core of his writings centers on liberal and progressive
ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He
shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: Rizal wrote that the
people of the Philippines were battling "a double-faced Goliath"—corrupt friars and bad
government. His commentaries reiterate the following agenda: [note 8]

 That the Philippines be made a province of Spain (The Philippines was a

province of New Spain – now Mexico, administered from Mexico City from
1565 to 1821. From 1821 to 1898, it was administered directly from Spain.)
 Representation in the Cortes
 Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars – Augustinians, Dominicans,
and Franciscans – in parishes and remote sitios
 Freedom of assembly and speech
 Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)
The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms. Such Spanish
intellectuals as Morayta, Unamuno, Pi y Margall, and others did endorse them.
In 1890, a rivalry developed between Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar for the leadership
of La Solidaridad and the reform movement in Europe.[41] The majority of the expatriates
supported the leadership of del Pilar.
Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by writing an
insulting article in La Epoca, a newspaper in Madrid. He implied that Rizal's family and
friends had been evicted from their lands in Calamba for not having paid their due rents.
The incident (when Rizal was ten) stemmed from an accusation that Rizal's
mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin, but she said she was trying to
help. With the approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she was ordered
to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871. She was forced to walk the ten miles (16 km) from
Calamba. She was released after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court.
[24]
 In 1887, Rizal wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year
led them to speak out against the friars' attempts to raise rent. They initiated litigation
that resulted in the Dominicans' evicting them and the Rizal family from their homes.
General Valeriano Weyler had the tenant buildings on the farm torn down.
Upon reading the article, Rizal sent a representative to challenge Retana to a duel.
Retana published a public apology and later became one of Rizal's biggest admirers.
He wrote the most important biography of Rizal, Vida y Escritos del José Rizal.[42][note 9]

Return to Philippines (1892–1896)

Exile in Dapitan

Bust of Padre Guerrico in clay, by Rizal

Rizal's pencil sketch of Blumentritt

Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina.
The league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was
disbanded by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the
state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novel.
Rizal was implicated in the activities of the nascent rebellion and in July 1892, was
deported to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga, a peninsula of Mindanao.[43] There he
built a school, a hospital and a water supply system, and taught and engaged in farming
and horticulture.[44]
The boys' school, which taught in Spanish, and included English as a foreign language
(considered a prescient if unusual option then) was conceived by Rizal and
antedated Gordonstoun with its aims of inculcating resourcefulness and self-sufficiency
in young men.[45] They would later enjoy successful lives as farmers and honest
government officials.[46][47][48] One, a Muslim, became a datu, and another, José Aseniero,
who was with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga.[49]
[50]

In Dapitan, the Jesuits mounted a great effort to secure his return to the fold led by Fray
Francisco de Paula Sánchez, his former professor, who failed in his mission. The task
was resumed by Fray Pastells, a prominent member of the Order. In a letter to Pastells,
Rizal sails close to the deism familiar to us today.[51][52][53]
We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt His when I
am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt
God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt
everything; and then what is life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a
ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither
believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to Him; before theologians' and
philosophers' definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find
myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme
Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: ‘It could be’;
but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!...I believe in
(revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to
possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one
cannot avoid discerning the human 'fingernail' and the stamp of the time in which they
were written... No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a
distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may
be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished,
and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I
believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in
that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the
being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us
from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the
goodness of God, His love, His providence, His eternity, His glory, His wisdom? ‘The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. [54]
His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European
friends and fellow-scientists who wrote a stream of letters which arrived in Dutch,
French, German and English and which baffled the censors, delaying their transmittal.
Those four years of his exile coincided with the development of the Philippine
Revolution from inception and to its final breakout, which, from the viewpoint of the court
which was to try him, suggested his complicity in it. [26] He condemned the uprising,
although all the members of the Katipunan had made him their honorary president and
had used his name as a cry for war, unity, and liberty. [55]
He is known to making the resolution of bearing personal sacrifice instead of the
incoming revolution, believing that a peaceful stand is the best way to avoid further
suffering in the country and loss of Filipino lives. In Rizal's own words, "I consider
myself happy for being able to suffer a little for a cause which I believe to be sacred [...].
I believe further that in any undertaking, the more one suffers for it, the surer its
success. If this be fanaticism may God pardon me, but my poor judgment does not see
it as such."[56]
In Dapitan, Rizal wrote "Haec Est Sibylla Cumana", a parlor-game for his students, with
questions and answers for which a wooden top was used. In 2004, Jean Paul
Verstraeten traced this book and the wooden top, as well as Rizal's personal watch,
spoon and salter.
Arrest and trial
By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become
a full-blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising.[57][self-published source?] Rizal had earlier
volunteered his services as a doctor in Cuba and was given leave by Governor-
General Ramón Blanco to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Rizal and
Josephine left Dapitan on August 1, 1896, with letter of recommendation from Blanco.
Rizal was arrested en route to Cuba via Spain and was imprisoned in Barcelona on
October 6, 1896. He was sent back the same day to Manila to stand trial as he was
implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan.
During the entire passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had
many opportunities to escape but refused to do so.
While imprisoned in Fort Santiago, he issued a manifesto disavowing the current
revolution in its present state and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their
achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom.
Rizal was tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy, and was
convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Blanco, who was sympathetic to
Rizal, had been forced out of office. The friars, led by then-Archbishop of Manila
Bernardino Nozaleda had 'intercalated' Camilo de Polavieja in his stead as the new
Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines after pressuring Queen-Regent Maria
Cristina of Spain, thus sealing Rizal's fate.

Execution

A photographic record of Rizal's execution in what was then Bagumbayan

Moments before his execution on December 30, 1896, by a squad of Filipino soldiers of
the Spanish Army, a backup force of regular Spanish Army troops stood ready to shoot
the executioners should they fail to obey orders. [58] The Spanish Army Surgeon General
requested to take his pulse: it was normal. Aware of this the sergeant commanding the
backup force hushed his men to silence when they began raising "vivas" with the highly
partisan crowd of Peninsular and Mestizo Spaniards. His last words were those
of Jesus Christ: "consummatum est" – "it is finished."[21][59][note 10]
A day before, Rizal's mother pleaded with the authorities to have Rizal's body placed
under her family's custody as per Rizal's wish; this was unheeded but was later granted
by Manuel Luengo, the mayor of Manila. Immediately following the execution, Rizal was
secretly buried in Pacò Cemetery (now Paco Park) in Manila with no identification on his
grave, intentionally mismarked to mislead and discourage martyrdom.
His undated poem Mi último adiós, believed to have been written a few days before his
execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove, which was later handed to his family with his
few remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests. [60]: 91  During
their visit, Rizal reminded his sisters in English, "There is something inside it", referring
to the alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his
execution, thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was
followed by another, "Look in my shoes", in which another item was secreted.
Rizal's execution, as well as those of other political dissidents (mostly anarchist) in
Barcelona was ultimately invoked by Michele Angiolillo, an Italian anarchist, when he
assassinated Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Canovas del Castillo.[61]
Exhumation and re-burial

An undated photo of Rizal's original grave in Paco Park. Note the date written in Spanish.
The grave in Paco Park after its renovation. Note the date repainted in English and the bust added with some
lampposts.

Rizal's sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites only for her efforts to end in vain. On
one day, she visited Paco Cemetery and discovered guards posted at its gate, later
finding Luengo, accompanied by two army officers, standing around a freshly-dug grave
covered with earth, which she assumed to be that of her brother's, on the reason that
there had never been any ground burials at the site. After realizing that Rizal was buried
in the spot, she made a gift to the caretaker and requested him to place a marble slab
inscribed with "RPJ", Rizal's initials in reverse.
In August 1898, a few days after the Americans took Manila, Narcisa secured the
consent of the American authorities to retrieve Rizal’s remains. During the exhumation,
it was then revealed that Rizal was not buried in a coffin but was wrapped in cloth
before being dumped in the grave; his burial was not on sanctified ground granted to the
'confessed' faithful. The identity of the remains further confirmed by both the black suit
and the shoes, both worn by Rizal on his execution, but whatever was in his shoes had
disintegrated.
Following the exhumation, the remains were brought to the Rizal household in Binondo,
where they were washed and cleaned before being placed in an ivory urn made by
Romualdo Teodoro de los Reyes de Jesus. The urn remained in the household until
December 28, 1912.
On December 29, the urn was transferred from Binondo to the Marble Hall of the
Ayuntamiento, the municipal building, in Intramuros where it remained on public display
from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., guarded by the Caballeros de Rizal. The public was given
the chance to see the urn. The next day, in a solemn procession, the urn began its last
journey from the Ayuntamiento to its last resting place in a spot in Bagumbayan (now
renamed as Luneta), where the Rizal Monument would be built.[24] Witnessed by his
family, Rizal was finally buried in fitting rites. In a simultaneous ceremony, the corner
stone for the Rizal monument was placed and the Rizal Monument Commission was
created, headed by Tomas G. Del Rosario.
A year later, on 30 December 1913, the monument, designed and made by Swiss
sculptor Richard Kissling, was inaugurated.

Works and writings

Rizal wrote mostly in Spanish, the lingua franca of the Spanish East Indies, though
some of his letters (for example Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos) were written in
Tagalog. His works have since been translated into a number of languages including
Tagalog and English.
Novels and essays
 "El amor patrio", 1882 essay[62]
 "Toast to Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo", 1884 speech given at Restaurante
Ingles, Madrid
 Noli Me Tángere, 1887 novel (literally Latin for 'touch me not', from John
20:17)[63]
 Alin Mang Lahi ("Whate'er the Race"), a Kundiman attributed to Dr. José
Rizal[64]
 "Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga-Malolos" (To the Young Women of Malolos),
1889 letter[65]
 Annotations to Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, 1889[66]
 "Filipinas dentro de cien años" (The Philippines a Century Hence), 1889–90
essay
 "Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos" (The Indolence of Filipinos), 1890
essay[67]
 "Como se gobiernan las Filipinas" (Governing the Philippine islands), 1890
essay
 El filibusterismo, 1891 novel; sequel to Noli Me Tángere[68]
 Una visita del Señor a Filipinas, also known as Friars and Filipinos, 14-page
unfinished novel written in 1889[69]
 Memorias de un Gallo, two-page unfinished satire[69]
 Makamisa, unfinished Tagalog-language novel written in 1892 [70]

The Triumph of Science over Death, by Rizal

Poetry
 "Felicitación" (1874/75)
 "El embarque"[71] (The Embarkation, 1875)
 "Por la educación recibe lustre la patria" (1876)
 "Un recuerdo á mi pueblo" (1876)
  "Al niño Jesús" (c. 1876)
 "A la juventud filipina" (To the Philippine Youth, 1879)
 "¡Me piden versos!" (1882)
 "Canto de María Clara" (from Noli Me Tángere, 1887)
 "Himno al trabajo" (Dalit sa Paggawa, 1888)[72]
 "Kundiman" (disputed, 1889) - also attributed to Pedro Paterno
 "A mi musa" (To My Muse, 1890)
 "El canto del viajero" (1892–96)
 "Mi retiro" (1895)
 "Mi último adiós" (1896)
 "Mi primera inspiracion" (disputed) - also attributed to Antonio Lopez, Rizal's
nephew
Plays
 El Consejo de los Dioses (The Council of Gods)[73]
 Junto al Pasig (Along the Pasig)[74]: 381 
 San Euistaquio, Mártyr (Saint Eustache, the Martyr)[75]
Other works
Rizal also tried his hand at painting and sculpture. His most famous sculptural work
was 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. The woman
symbolized the ignorance of humankind during the Dark Ages, while the torch she bore
symbolized the enlightenment science brings over the whole world. He sent the
sculpture as a gift to his dear friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, together with another one
named The Triumph of Death over Life.
The woman is shown trampling the skull, a symbol of death, to signify the victory the
humankind achieved by conquering the bane of death through their scientific
advancements. The original sculpture is now displayed at the Rizal Shrine Museum at
Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. A large replica, made of concrete, stands in front of
Fernando Calderón Hall, the building which houses the College of Medicine of the
University of the Philippines Manila along Pedro Gil Street in Ermita, Manila.
Rizal is also noted to be a carver and sculptor who made works from clay, Plaster-of-
Paris and baticuling wood, the last being his preferred medium. While in exile in
Dapitan, he served as a mentor to three Paete natives including José Caancan, who in
turn taught three generations of carvers back in his hometown. [76]
Rizal is known to have made 56 sculptural works, but only 18 of these are known to be
still existing as of 2021.[76]

Reactions after death

An engraving of the execution of Filipino insurgents at Bagumbayan (now Luneta)

Historical marker of José Rizal's execution site

Retraction controversy
Several historians report that Rizal retracted his anti-Catholic ideas through a document
which stated: "I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications
and conduct have been contrary to my character as a son of the Catholic Church." [note
11]
 However, there are doubts of its authenticity given that there is no certificate [clarification
needed]
 of Rizal's Catholic marriage to Josephine Bracken. [77] Also there is an allegation that
the retraction document was a forgery.[78]
After analyzing six major documents of Rizal, Ricardo Pascual concluded that the
retraction document, said to have been discovered in 1935, was not in Rizal's
handwriting. Senator Rafael Palma, a former President of the University of the
Philippines and a prominent Mason, argued that a retraction is not in keeping with
Rizal's character and mature beliefs.[79] He called the retraction story a "pious
fraud."[80] Others who deny the retraction are Frank Laubach,[21] a Protestant
minister; Austin Coates,[33] a British writer; and Ricardo Manapat, director of the National
Archives.[81]
Those who affirm the authenticity of Rizal's retraction are prominent Philippine
historians such as Nick Joaquin,[note 12] Nicolas Zafra of UP[82] León María Guerrero III,[note
13]
 Gregorio Zaide,[84] Guillermo Gómez Rivera, Ambeth Ocampo,[81] John Schumacher,
[85]
 Antonio Molina,[86] Paul Dumol[87] and Austin Craig.[24] They take the retraction document
as authentic, having been judged as such by a foremost expert on the writings of
Rizal, Teodoro Kalaw (a 33rd degree Mason) and "handwriting experts...known and
recognized in our courts of justice", H. Otley Beyer and Dr. José I. Del Rosario, both of
UP.[82]
Historians also refer to 11 eyewitnesses when Rizal wrote his retraction, signed a
Catholic prayer book, and recited Catholic prayers, and the multitude who saw him kiss
the crucifix before his execution. A great grand nephew of Rizal, Fr. Marciano Guzman,
cites that Rizal's 4 confessions were certified by 5 eyewitnesses, 10 qualified witnesses,
7 newspapers, and 12 historians and writers including Aglipayan bishops, Masons and
anti-clericals.[88] One witness was the head of the Spanish Supreme Court at the time of
his notarized declaration and was highly esteemed by Rizal for his integrity. [89]
Because of what he sees as the strength these direct evidence have in the light of
the historical method, in contrast with merely circumstantial evidence, UP
professor emeritus of history Nicolas Zafra called the retraction "a plain unadorned fact
of history."[82] Guzmán attributes the denial of retraction to "the blatant disbelief and
stubbornness" of some Masons.[88] To explain the retraction Guzman said that the
factors are the long discussion and debate which appealed to reason and logic that he
had with Fr. Balaguer, the visits of his mentors and friends from the Ateneo, and the
grace of God due the numerous prayers of religious communities. [88]
Supporters see in the retraction Rizal's "moral courage...to recognize his mistakes," [84][note
14]
 his reversion to the "true faith", and thus his "unfading glory," [89] and a return to the
"ideals of his fathers" which "did not diminish his stature as a great patriot; on the
contrary, it increased that stature to greatness." [92] On the other hand, senator Jose
Diokno stated, "Surely whether Rizal died as a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts
nothing from his greatness as a Filipino... Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal – the
hero who courted death 'to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how to
die for our duty and our beliefs'."[93]
"Mi último adiós"
Main article: Mi último adiós
The poem is more aptly titled "Adiós, Patria Adorada" (literally "Farewell, Beloved
Fatherland"), by virtue of logic and literary tradition, the words coming from the first line
of the poem itself. It first appeared in print not in Manila but in Hong Kong in 1897, when
a copy of the poem and an accompanying photograph came to J. P. Braga who decided
to publish it in a monthly journal he edited. There was a delay when Braga, who greatly
admired Rizal, wanted a good facsimile of the photograph and sent it to be engraved in
London, a process taking well over two months. It finally appeared under "Mi último
pensamiento," a title he supplied and by which it was known for a few years. Thus,
the Jesuit Balaguer's anonymous account of the retraction and the marriage to
Josephine was published in Barcelona before word of the poem's existence had
reached him and he could revise what he had written. His account was too elaborate for
Rizal to have had time to write "Adiós."
Six years after his death, when the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 was being debated in
the United States Congress, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin rendered an
English translation of Rizal's valedictory poem capped by the peroration, "Under what
clime or what skies has tyranny claimed a nobler victim?" [94] Subsequently, the US
Congress passed the bill into law, which is now known as the Philippine Organic Act of
1902.[95]
This was a major breakthrough for a U.S. Congress that had yet to grant the equal
rights to African Americans guaranteed to them in the U.S. Constitution and at a time
the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in effect. It created the Philippine legislature,
appointed two Filipino delegates to the U.S. Congress, extended the U.S. Bill of Rights
to Filipinos and laid the foundation for an autonomous government. The colony was on
its way to independence.[95] The United States passed the Jones Law that made the
legislature fully autonomous until 1916 but did not recognize Philippine independence
until the Treaty of Manila in 1946—fifty years after Rizal's death. This same poem,
which has inspired independence activists across the region and beyond, was recited
(in its Indonesian translation by Rosihan Anwar) by Indonesian soldiers of
independence before going into battle.[96]
Later life of Bracken
Josephine Bracken, whom Rizal addressed as his wife on his last day, [97] promptly joined
the revolutionary forces in Cavite province, making her way through thicket and mud
across enemy lines, and helped reloading spent cartridges at the arsenal in Imus under
the revolutionary General Pantaleón García. Imus came under threat of recapture that
the operation was moved, with Bracken, to Maragondon, the mountain redoubt in
Cavite.[98]
She witnessed the Tejeros Convention prior to returning to Manila and was summoned
by the Governor-General, but owing to her stepfather's American citizenship she could
not be forcibly deported. She left voluntarily returning to Hong Kong. She later married
another Filipino, Vicente Abad, a mestizo acting as agent for the Tabacalera firm in the
Philippines. She died of tuberculosis in Hong Kong on March 15, 1902, and was buried
at the Happy Valley Cemetery.[98] She was immortalized by Rizal in the last stanza of Mi
Ultimo Adios: "Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy...".
Polavieja and Blanco
Polavieja faced condemnation by his countrymen after his return to Spain. While
visiting Girona, in Catalonia, circulars were distributed among the crowd bearing Rizal's
last verses, his portrait, and the charge that Polavieja was responsible for the loss of the
Philippines to Spain.[99] Ramon Blanco later presented his sash and sword to the Rizal
family as an apology.[100]

Criticism and controversies

Attempts to debunk legends surrounding Rizal, and the tug of war between freethinker
and Catholic, have kept his legacy controversial.
Rizal Shrine in Calamba, Laguna, the ancestral house and birthplace of José Rizal, is now a museum housing
Rizal memorabilia.

National hero status

The confusion over Rizal's real stance on the Philippine Revolution leads to the
sometimes bitter question of his ranking as the nation's premier hero. [101][102] But then
again, according to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP)
Section Chief Teodoro Atienza, and Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, there is no
Filipino historical figure, including Rizal, that was officially declared a national hero
through law or executive order,[103][104] although, there were laws and proclamations
honoring Filipino heroes.
Made national hero by colonial Americans
Some[who?] suggest that Jose Rizal was made a legislated national hero by the American
forces occupying the Philippines. In 1901, the American Governor General William
Howard Taft suggested that the U.S.-sponsored Philippine Commission name Rizal a
national hero for Filipinos. Jose Rizal was an ideal candidate, favourable to the
American occupiers since he was dead, and non-violent, a favourable quality which, if
emulated by Filipinos, would not threaten the American rule or change the status quo of
the occupiers of the Philippine islands. Rizal did not advocate independence for the
Philippines either.[105] Subsequently, the US-sponsored commission passed Act No. 346
which set the anniversary of Rizal's death as a “day of observance.” [106]
Renato Constantino writes Rizal is a "United States-sponsored hero" who was
promoted as the greatest Filipino hero during the American colonial period of the
Philippines – after Aguinaldo lost the Philippine–American War. The United States
promoted Rizal, who represented peaceful political advocacy (in fact, repudiation of
violent means in general) instead of more radical figures whose ideas could inspire
resistance against American rule. Rizal was selected over Andrés Bonifacio who was
viewed "too radical" and Apolinario Mabini who was considered "unregenerate."[107]
Made national hero by Emilio Aguinaldo
On the other hand, numerous sources[108] quote that it was General Emilio Aguinaldo,
and not the second Philippine Commission, who first recognized December 30 as
"national day of mourning in memory of Rizal and other victims of Spanish tyranny. As
per them, the first celebration of Rizal Day was held in Manila on December 30, 1898,
under the sponsorship of the Club Filipino. [109]
The veracity of both claims seems to be justified and hence difficult to ascertain.
However, most historians agree that a majority of Filipinos were unaware of Rizal during
his lifetime,[110] as he was a member of the richer elite classes (he was born in an affluent
family, had lived abroad for nearly as long as he had lived in the Philippines) and wrote
primarily in an elite language (at that time, Tagalog and Cebuano were the languages of
the masses) about ideals as lofty as freedom (the masses were more concerned about
day to day issues like earning money and making a living, something which has not
changed much today).[111]
Teodoro Agoncillo opines that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other
countries, is not "the leader of its liberation forces". He gives the opinion that Andrés
Bonifacio not replace Rizal as national hero, as some have suggested, but that be
honored alongside him.[112]
Constantino's analysis has been criticised for its polemicism and inaccuracies regarding
Rizal.[113] The historian Rafael Palma, contends that the revolution of Bonifacio is a
consequence wrought by the writings of Rizal and that although the Bonifacio's revolver
produced an immediate outcome, the pen of Rizal generated a more lasting
achievement.[114]
Critiques of books
Others present him as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in "Rizal: the
Tagalog Hamlet", said of him, “a soul that dreads the revolution although deep down
desires it. He pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair.” [115] His critics
assert this character flaw is translated into his two novels where he opposes violence
in Noli Me Tángere and appears to advocate it in Fili, contrasting Ibarra's idealism to
Simoun's cynicism. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced when Simoun is
struck down in the sequel's final chapters, reaffirming the author's resolute stance, Pure
and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable. [116]
Many thinkers tend to find the characters of María Clara and Ibarra (Noli Me Tángere)
poor role models, María Clara being too frail, and young Ibarra being too accepting of
circumstances, rather than being courageous and bold. [117]
In El Filibusterismo, Rizal had Father Florentino say: “...our liberty will (not) be secured
at the sword's point...we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a
people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered,
tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first
dawn.”[116] Rizal's attitude to the Philippine Revolution is also debated, not only based on
his own writings, but also due to the varying eyewitness accounts of Pío Valenzuela, a
doctor who in 1895 had consulted Rizal in Dapitan on behalf of Bonifacio and
the Katipunan.
Role in the Philippine revolution
Upon the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, Valenzuela surrendered to the
Spanish authorities and testified in military court that Rizal had strongly condemned an
armed struggle for independence when Valenzuela asked for his support. Riz