Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 17
possible alternately to portray the American colonial system as the
Rizal in the Context of
Nineteenth-Century
Philippines
Though the .origins and development of Filipino nation-
alism cannot be understood simply by studying Rizal and his
nationalist thought, neither can it be understood without giving
him central attention. But like any seminal thinker's, Rizal's evolv-
ing nationalist thought must be studied within the context of his
times. The purpose of this essay is to single out some major eco-
nomic, political, cultural, and religious developments of the nine-
teenth century that influenced Rizal's growth as a nationalist and
conditioned the evolution of his thought. Without an understanding
of that milieu one can scarcely understand Rizal's enduring impor-
tance to the Filipino people nor the relevance of his ideas and ideals
today. One of the ironies of the cult rendered to Rizal as a national
hero is that often his words, rather than his thoughts, have been
invoked without any consideration ofthe historical context in which
they were spoken or of the issues they addressed. Thus, it has been
, __ .. _ --
. - - -- - -- - - -- - -- - -
fulfillment of Rizal's aspirations, to picture him as an ineffectual
reformist unable to bring himself to accept the national revolution
envisaged by Bonifacio, and to invoke him as patron of the ideals
of the Marcos New Society.' To sum it up in a phrase used by
Renato Constentino ill a different context, it has often been "ven-
eration without understanding," hence, no veneration at all.
Economic Development
The flowering of the nationalist movement in the late nineteenth
century could scarcely be possible without the economic growth
which took place in nineteenth-eentury Philippines, particularly
after about 1830. The growth of an export economy in those years
brought increasing prosperity to the Filipino middle and upper
classes who were in a petition to profit by it, as well as to the
Western-chiefly British and American-merchants who organized
it. It also brought into the Philippines both the machinery and the
consumer goods which the industrialized economies of the West
could supply, and that Spain could not, or would not, supply. The
figures for Philippine foreign trade for the beginning, middle, and
end of this peri od are significant of what was happening."
Year Exports Imports Total Trade
(i n peeoe) (in pesos) (in pesos)
1825 1,000,000 1,800,0 00 2,800,000
1875 18,900,000 12,200,000 31,100,000
1895 36,600,000 25,400,000 62,000,000
Philippine exports in thi s burgeoning economy were agricultural
products, and a rapidly STowing popul ation ne eded increased
amounts of rice. Thus, those who controlled large rice-, sugar-, and
abaca-growing lands in Central Luzon, Batangas, parts ofthe Bikol
region, Negros, and Pariay profited the most. These included not
only the Filipin o hacenderos of Pampanga, Batangas, and Western
Visayas, and th e friar orders owning the large haciendas of Bulacan,
Laguna, and Cavite, but also the inquilinos of the friar haciendas.
fly this time, many of these inquilinos were equivalently hacen-
deros in their own right, passing on from one generation to the next
the lands they rented from the friar hacienda, and farming them
hy means of their sh are-tenants or ka sama. To the latter they stood
in a semifeudal relati onship little different from that which existed

18 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context
between owner-hacenderos and their tenants.' The prosperity which
the new export economy had brought to some may be illustrated by
the case of Rizal's Chinese ancestor Domingo Lam-co. When he had
come to the Binan hacienda in mid-eighteenth century, the average
holding of an inquilino was 2.9 hectares; after Rizal's father had
moved to the Calamba hacienda, the Rizal family in the 1890s
rented from the hacienda over 390 hectares.'
But on the friar haciendas, rising prosperity h ad also brought
friction between inquilinos and haciendas as lands grew in value
and rents were raised. A combination of traditional methods and
modernizing efficiency led to disputes, ultimately over who sh ould
reap the larger part of the fruits of the economic boom. Eventually,
this would lead to a questioning of the friar s' rights to the hacien-
das. But it is a gross misnomer to speak uf the Revolution as an
"agrarian revolt" in the modern sense. For it would not be the
kasama who would challenge friar ownership, but the prosperous
mquilinos. And their motive would be as much political as eco-
nomic-to weaken the friars' influence in Philippine political Iife .f
Political Developments
Economic development, as it largely took place under non-Span-
ish initiatives, had important political conse quences as well. Mod-
ernizing Filipinos saw the colonial policies of Spain as not only not
the causes of the existing economic prosperity, but increasingly as
positive hindrances preventing further progress and even threaten-
ing what had already been achieved. In Spain Liberals succeeded
Conservatives at irregular intervals as one or the oth er proved
incapable of coping with the problems of governing the nation, The
instability of these governments mads it impossible to develop any
consistent policy for the overseas colonies, Worse, both parties used
the Philippines as a handy dumping ground to reward party hangers-
on with jobs. Hence, each change of government brought another
whole new mob of job-seekers to the Philippines, ready to line their
pockets with Filipino money before they would be replaced by still
others. Thus, Filipinos were deprived of those few positions they
had formerly held in the bureaucracy while the vast majority 0
Spanish bureaucrats had no interest. in, or even knowl edge of, the
country they were supposed to be govern ing. If the Spanish bu-
reaucracy had always been characterized by graft and corruption,
at least those bureaucrats of an earlier day had often remained i
the country. If they too had often lined their own pockets, they ha
- , -- - -
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 19
not been completely indifferent to the welfare of the Philippines
where they were making their home. But with the opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869 and relatively easy passage between Spain and
the Philippines, most became birds of prey, staying only long enough
to feather their nests."
Far worse in many ways than the corruption of the government
was its inability to provide for basic needs of public works, schools,
peace and order, and other prerequisites to even a semimodern
economy. Created to rid the provinces of the bands of tulisanes, the
Guardia Civil not only failed to achieve this end, but became an
oppressive force in the provinces, harassing farmers and using their
position for personal profit, as Rizal depicts so vividly in his nov-
els.? The antiquated system of taxation in effect actually penalized
modernization, and the taxes never found their way into the roads,
bridges, and other public works needed for agricultural progress."
Finally, highly protective tariffs forced Filipinos to buy expensive
Spanish textiles and other products instead of the traditional cheaper
British ones.' In the face of a system that was both exploitative and
incapable of producing benefits for the colony, liberal nationalists
and even conservative upper-class Filipinos increasingly no longer
found any compelling motive for maintaining the Spanish colonial
regim e, as it becam e more and more clear that reforms would not
be forthcoming. To a nationalist like Rizal the decision to separate
from Spain had been made long since; it was, as the Spanish
prosecutors noted in 1896 (with substantial correctness though with
little respect for due legal process) a matter of when and how the
Revolution should come.P
Cultural Development
A key factor in the em ergence of nationalism in the late nine-
teenth century was the cultural development consequent on the
rapid spread of education from about 1860. It has become a com-
monplace to speak of the role of ideas learned by the European-
educated ilustrados in t.he emergence of the nationalist movement.
But it was not just this handful of Filipinos who were important,
nor was it only the European intellectual atmosphere which stimu-
lated nationalism. In many respects, the spread of higher education
am ong middle- and lower-middle-class Filipinos who could not afford
to go abroad was more important for propagating the liberal and
progressive ideas written about from Europe by Rizal or Del Pilar.
The creation of a limited but substantial number (some 5 percent
- --'-

20 Rizal in Nineteenth·Century Context
perhaps) of Filipinos in all parts of the country who c~uld ~ommu·
nicate in Spanish made possible for the first time In history a
movement that was both regional am', national in scope. '!
One of the major influences on the educational developments of
the nineteenth century was the return of the Jesuits. Expelled from
the Philippines and the rest of the Spanish empire in 1768: they
finally returned in 1859 to take charge of. the evan gelization of
Mindanao. Having esca ped, because of their expulsion, fr om the
general decline that in the early part of the nineteenth .century
afflicted the Philippine church and the system of education that
depended on it, they returned with ideas and method~ new to the
Philippine educational system. Asked by the Ayuntamiento to take
over the municipal primary school in 1859, th ey renamed it, Ateneo
Municipal and opened it to Filipino students as well as the Spa n.
iar ds for whom it had been founded. By 1865 It h a d been tra~ s.
formed into a secondary school that offered a level of instr uction
beyond the official r equirements and more approximated today's
college than high school. Aside from Latin and Spanish , Greek,
French and English were studied. At the same time such a r ole was
given to the natural sciences that Rizal h as the Fil6sofo Ta sio say,
"The Philippines owes [th e J esuits] the begmnmgs of the Natural
Sciences, soul of the nineteenth century."!
Under the direction of the Jesuits t oo was th at oth er n ew edu -
cationa l in stitution, the Escuela Normal de Maestros. It wa s opened
in 1865 to provide Spani sh-sp eaking teach ers for the projected new
primary school system . The Escuela Norm al represen ted a h ope of
progress in the minds of many Filipinos, just as it would be opposed
by those for whom m odern education f?r ~ilipino s pose d a danger
to the continuance of Spanish rule." Rizal s picture of the tria ls of
the schoolteacher in th e N oli, if n ot perhaps typical, wa s certainly
not completely a caricature. Jesuit sources frequen tly complain about
the opposition that the graduates of the Normal Sch ool ~let from
many pari sh priests." If further concrete proof were required, one
need only read the book published in 1885 by the !ranclscan Fr.
Miguel Lucio y Bustamante. Here he denounced . [itongl ~anga
maestrong bagong litao ngayon, na ang pangala.i , normal 8:"d
proclaimed the danger of studying, and especially of learnmg
Spanish. For, he declared, "ang mga tagalcg, ang rnga indio baga,
aniya na humihiualay 0 pinahihiualay sa calabao, ay ang cadalasa,
" . H '''15
i, naguiguing masama at palamarang tauo sa DlOS a~ sa an.
More than in the primary schools, however, It. was m the secon-
dary schools that the ideas of nationalism were to awak~, ev~n
among those who had never gone to Europe. While still a university
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 21
student in Manila, Rizal would write in his Memorias that through
his studies of literature, science, and philosophy, "the eyes of my
intelligence opened a little, and my heart began to cherish nobler
sentiments." And more explicitly, speaking of his fifth year at the
Ateneo, through these studies "my patriotic sentiments greatly de-
veloped."" When already in Europe, he would write to his Austrian
friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, concerning the YOW1g Filipinos in
Spain:
These mends are all young men, criollos, mestizos, and Malays; but we
call ourselves simply Filipinos. Almost all wore educated by the Jesuits.
The Jesuits have surely not intended to teach us love of country, but
they have showed us all that is beautiful and all that is best. Therefore
I do not fear discord in our homeland; it is possible, but it can be
combated and prevented."
It was not that the Ateneo taught nationalism or the liberal
principles of progress. But in imparting to its students a humanistic
education in literature, science, and philosophy, in inculcating
principles of human dignity and justice and the equality of all men ,
it effectively undermined the foundations of the Spanish colonial
regime , even without the Spanish Jesuits wishing to do so. If they
did n ot draw all the conclusions to their principles, many of their
Filipino students would do so. The eyes of th ese Filipinos had been
opened tc a much wider perspective than their narrow Philippine
experi en ce before they ever set foot in Europe, and they no longer
would accept th e establish ed or der.
As the chapter of Rizal in El Filibusterism o on a class in the
university or hi s passing r emarks in the Noli sh ow, the Filipino
nationalists were much le ss appreciative of th e other educational
in stitutions, run by the Do minica ns. No doubt the weight of tradi-
ti on hun g much h eavier on these than on th e newly founded J esu it
school s and it would only be later in th e century that they would
begin to mcd er nize. P Yet. one has to remember that the early
nati onali st leaders am ong the Filipin o clergy, like Fr. Jose Burgos
and Fr. Mariano Sevilla, came from the University of Santo Tomas
without ever having studied abroad. Moreover, such later key fig-
ures as Marcelo del Pilar , Emilio Jacintc, and Apolinario Mabini
obtained th eir educa tion in San Jose, S an Juan de Letran, and
San to Tomas. As early as 1843 , the Spanish offi cial Juan de la
Matta had proposed th e closing of these in stit ut ions as being
"nurseries . . . of su bversive ideas."!" Though the accusation of
subversion was often rashly bestcwed on Filipinos, especially priests,

22 Rizal in Nin eteenth-Century Context
it is clear that th e university was communicating something tha
stirred up the sparks of nationalism.
Nonetheless a maj or factor in giving nationali sm the form i
actually took w as the experience of Filipino students in Spain
Seeing th e liberties enjoyed in the Peninsula, they becam e all th
more conscious of the servitude which their people suffere d. On th
other hand , the more perceptive saw the backwardness of Spain . i and Jacin to show. These ilustrados were increasingly antifriar, at
compari son with other European countries, th e con',;ptIon .a~
futility of the Spanish politi cal system, a nd the system s inabilit
to promote even th e welfare of Spain, much less that of her colom.es
Many who came to Europe still in hope of ~eform and mod ermz~tlO
in the Philippines cam e t o realize that this could never be achieve
under Spanish rul e and that the Filipinos must look to th em sel ve~.
"Umasa [Filipina s) sa sari ling lakas," as Rizal would say, tur mn
his back on Europe and returning to hi s own country to carry 0
the struggle there." . .
One final cultural factor involved in the ri se of nationalism was
the interest in th e Filipino past, largely inspired by th e European,
especially German, preoccupation with history and eth nology. I
the German universities of the nineteenth century, and to a lesse
extent in other European countries, modern hi storical method wa
examining the origins not only of the European nations themselves
but of other peoples as well. Rizal was the principal , th ough by n
means the only, Filipino to see the importance of such hi s tori c~
investigation for the creation of a nat ional consciousness a mong hi
countrymen." Fr. Jose Burgos had already emph asized the ne ed,fo
Filipinos to look to their heritage, and it was fr om him that Rizal
had learned that concern. To thi s concern Rizal joined an historical
consciousness formed by German historiography, applying modern
historical method to the investigation of that heritage. In the preface
to his edition of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,
his most important hi storical work, Rizal outlines the process by
which he had come to seek a foundation for his nationalism in the
historical past and emphasizes the importance of history to the
national task."
In hi s annotations to the book, Rizal seek s ou t all the evidence
of a Filipino civilization before the coming of the Spaniards and
tries to show how the intervening three centuries have meant decline
rather than progress. At the same time he emphasizes Filipino
values contrasting them with the Spanish and extolling the accorn-
plishmants of his people. Iffrom a scientific historical point of view,
Rizal proves too much and veers toward the opposite distorti?n
from that of friars who had denied all civilization to the pre-HIS
( -
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 23
panic Filipin os, he did lay a historical foundation in his Morga and
oth er essays for a national con sciousness and pride in the race
which was to prove important for the future.
Religious Developments
The growth of education was producing an i1ustrado class, not to
be completely identified with the wealthy, as the examples ofMabini
times even anticlerical or anti-Catholic, A simplistic historiography
has attributed this hostility to the "abuses of th e friars" or to the
influen ce of Spani sh anticlericalisrn." Both of th ese factors no doubt
played th eir part. There were indeed abuses on the part of some
friars . There is, however, little or no evidence that these were
committed more in the latter part of the nineteenth century than
at an earlier peri od, rather the contrary.P The reason for this attitude
among th e ilust rados is t o be sough t elsewhere-in th e intermin-
gling ofthe political and the religious so characteristic of the Spanish
Patronato Real , most especially in the latter half of the nineteenth
century.
As S pain became less and less willing or able to promote th e
happiness and prosperity of the Philippines, the Spanish colonial
gover n me nt lean ed more heavily on what had always been a
mainstay of Spanish rule--the devotion of Filipinos to their Catho-
lic faith. Th e sentiment th a t animated many a Spanish official was
expressed with brutal frankness by Gov. Valeriano Weyler in 1891:
Far fr om relizi ous exagger ati on being a n obstacle in th e Ph.ilippines, it
sh ould be su pported, so that the influence of the parish pnest may be
what it shoul d be. .. . Religion can and should be in Lu zon an d the
Bisayas a rnear.s of government which is to be taken a dvantage of, and
whi ch ju sti fi es th e n ecessi ty of the reli gious or ders .P
For thi s reason, even the most anticlerical of Spanish governors
maintained th a t it was ne cessary t o support the friars by every
means. Writing " cc nfl dent ial memorial for th e use of his successor
in 1872, Ra fael l?']lJiordo expressed the key ideas of this policy:
The religiou s orde-rs have th eir defects, their vices and their difficulties,
bu t in the Phil ippines they have two qualities which from the political
poin t of vie w n rc so grea t nnd so important tha t they oblige us to
presciri d from whatever may be alle~e d agains~ them. One ~f the~
qualities is thei r un shakeable devo:lon to Spain; the oth~r 18 .the~r
infl ue nce on thfl! nati ves , which even In the weakened state In which It
is today, is still su fficiently great to consider it a preserving factor. 27

24 Rizal in Nin eteenth-Centu ry Context
His successor, Juan Alaminos, likewise an anticlerical, could no
sufficiently emphasize the importance of the friars. No one, h e fel
could deny their pat riotism, "wh ich verges on fa naticism, and the
make the Indio believe that only in loving t he Spaniards can h
save his soul in the next Iife."28
That patriotism and the undeniable infl uence that the friar pari s
priest had on the ordinary Filipino, r ather than those often-recit
but little-documented abus es of the friars, explain wh y the fri ar
inevitably became the main t arget of th e Filipino natio nalists, an
of Rizal in particular." Th e same may be said conce rni ng th e fria
haciendas. For instance, a lthough the Rizals had a land disput
with the Dominican hacienda of Calarnba, t h e r eal is sue wa
something bigger-to be able to show that th e F ilipino wa s th
equal of the Spaniard, even if the Spaniards be friar s. For Filipino
to win a lawsuit against a powerful friar order meant eventually
nullify that influence of the friars wh ich th e Spanish governmen
so emphasized a s a means t o control the indios?" On that poin
Rizal and his fellow nationalists were in agreement-from a differ
ent point ofview-with Governors Weyler, Izquierdo, a nd Alami nos
A letter of Paciano Rizal to h is br other J ose in Europe, writte
at the h eight of the Cala mba h acienda dispute, is sign ificant in thi
regard. He wrot e in r eference to a rumor h e had h eard that Arch
bishop Nozaleda, th en in Europe, h a d proposed fri a r support fo
reforms to the Filipino nationalists t here, in the person of Del Pilar
in order to end t he antifriar campaign of La Solidaridad.
If the Hacienda of Calamba has any part in the compromise, I will tel
you the opinion of the majority of the people. The peop le do not ~esiTe
to appropria te to themselves this H a cien da, because ... th e h aciend
was handed over to the order in [1833J a pproxi mate ly by Asanza. Bu
they likewise know (because of the leek of title-deeds) that those land
did not have the extension which they now WIsh to gr ve them . In thir
situation the most just and equitable thing is to mark the limits of thi
Ha cienda so as to declare free of a ll Tent those lands not include d in th
sale or cessi on a nd to return the m oney wrongly coll ected for these . Thi
is what ought'to be done in s trict jus tice . . . . If th e com promise in the
above sense will not injure the ca use w hich y ou are upholding, you can
propose it so as to put a h a lt to the u nbearabl e sit ua t ion in which the
people fin d themselves; if it would be harmful, I will always believe tha
interests of a secon dary order should be subordi nated."
The cause that Rizal is spoken of as upholding, and to which economi
interest s were to be subordinated, was of cour se the opport unity fo
Filipinos to run t heir own affairs a nd eventually to throw off th
yoke of Spain completely.
\ , , - -- _ .~ -- -- -- -- -- -- ----
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 25
On e can see here t he paradox of Philippine Cath olicism at the
en d ofthe nineteenth century. On the one h a nd, the ordinary Filipino
who h ad not gone to Manila or abroad for higher edu cat ion r e-
ma ined in the traditional religious practices and beliefs ' of his
forefathers and continued to look up to his friar parish priest as
fath er of hi s people and protector against oppressive government
officials. So much was t h is true that duri ng th e Revolution one of
th e great sources of division was the sorrow with which th e ordi-
nary Filipino saw hi s friar parish priest imprison ed and taken
away." In some cases, notably a mong the Guardia de Honor, this
even led to vi olent oppositio n to the Revolution ; in others, to such
a paradoxical situation a s that of the Dominican parish pri est of
Orio n , Bata an, wh o had taken refuge in th e church tower with
Spanish soldie rs when the figh ting broke out. Wh en the Spanish
troops could n o longer h old out, Father Herrero came down to
a rrange for su rrender. As h e h imself later told t he story,
On seeing me, as if at a s ignal a ll immediately sh ea th ed their bolos,
knelt down , and brok e forth in a deafe nin g sh ou t: "Viva a n g Santisirno
S a cramento, s ala m a t sa Diosl, because-they added in t h e same
language-in spite of ou r continuous rapid-fir e, th e Father is unharmed."
As I came down from t h e choir to pass to th e! con vento, another
spontaneous shout broke forth from all who filled the place, as they
separa ted into two files, sh outi ng: "Viva an g Paring Cura! Viva!"33
On th e oth er han d, th e Fi lipino ilustrado educated in Europe
found th e Catholic practice of his day childish and incompatible
with modern ideas. As Rizal puts it thr ough the mouth of Elia s in
the Noli:
Do you call those externa l practices fa ith? Or that b usiness in cor ds and
scupul nrs, religion? Or the s tor-i es of mi ra cles and oth er fairy tales th at
w {> h oa r (·ver y day, tru t h? Is t h is tbo la w of .lesus Ch rist? A God did not
_ha ve t o let Himself be cru cifi ed for this, nor we as sum e th e obliga ti on
of eterna l gra tit ude. Su perstiti on existed long befor e this; all that was
needed wns t o per fec t it lind to r ni se th e price of th e mercha ndi se."
What wa s m ore, for th e nat.ionalists religi on had come to signify .1
mean s to perpetuate the s ta tus qu o, to mainta in Spanish power
in th e Philip pines. Rizal expre ssed his own mind in a letter to
B1umentritt:
I wanted to hit t he fri a rs [but] since t h e fria rs are a lways making use
of religion, not only as a shi eld bu t also as a wea pon , protection, citadel,
for tress, armor, etc ., I was the re fore force d to a tta ck their fa lse a n d

26 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context
superstitious religion in order to combat the enemy who hid behind this
religion.... God must not serve as shield and protection of abuses, nor
must religion."
The picture of the religious environment in which nineteenth
century nationalism came to maturity would be incomplete, above
all for Rizal, without the Filipino clergy. Not only were Rizal and
his fellow Propagandists partly the heirs of the conflict between
Filipino secular priests and Spanish friars that had led to the
martyrdom of Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora in 1872; it was
also in that conflict that the seeds of nationalism, which were to
come to full flower among the Propagandists, had first been sowed.
Just as one cannot understand Bonifacio without knowing Rizal,
whose thoughts he imbibed and rephrased in more popular lan-
guage, so one cannot understand Rizal without knowing the influ-
ence of Burgos on him. Rizal prolonged the incipient national
consciousness, of which Burgos was the most articulate spokesman,
into the full-blown nationalism which led to the Revolution. He
would hint at that influence in a slightly fictionalized passage in an
early chapter of the Noli. In the novel Ibarra, just back from his
studies in Europe, passes hy Eagurnbayan, where the three priests
had been executed in 1872. Though in the novel the priest is re-
ferred to as an old man for the sake of the story, Burgos, with whom
Rizal was acquainted both personally and through his brother
Paciano, is clearly the one intended. He writes of the priest as:
the man who had opened the eyes of his intel1igence, and had made him
understand the good and the just, giving him only a handful of ideas,
yet these not commonplaces but COf. victions that had stood up well
under the glare of all that he had learned later . . .. [His] parting words
still resounded in his ears. "Do not forget that if wisdom is the patrimony
of all men, only those of good heart can inherit it. I have tried to
transmit to you what I in turn received from my teachers, adding to that
legacy as much as I was able in handing it on to the next generation.'
You must do the same with your own iriheri tance: increase it threefold,
for you go to countries that are very rich." And the priest had added with'
a smile: "They came here seeking gold; go you to their countries in
search of the treasures we lack. But remember all that glitters is not
gold." The priest had died on a scaffold on that hill."
What heritage had Burgos passed on to the next generation? He
transformed the century-old dispute between the Spanish friars
and the Filipino secular clergy from an intramural ecclesiastical
controversy into a clear assertion of Filipino equality with the
Spaniard, into a demand for justice to the Filipino." A century
earlier the court prelate, Archbishop Basilio Sancho de Sta. Justa,
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 27
had attempted to subject the religious orders to his own jurisdiction
and to that of the government whose creature he was, by the
overnight creation of a Filipino clergy who would take their places.
The chief victims of this power play had been the Filipino clergy,
whose slow but steady growth had been accelerated at the expense
of quality. When the Archbishop's crash program produced unwor-
thy priests, whose behavior led to the Spanish joke that there were
no more oarsmen for the Pasig river boats because the archbishop
had ordained them all, a permanent prejudice was created against
the Filipino clergy."
The lack of friars at the beginning of the nineteenth century led
to turning over many parishes to the Filipino priests. But once the
number of friars began to increase again after about 1825, a series
of moves to deprive the Filipinos of the parishes once more suc-
ceeded each other for the next fifty years. Just when a new genera-
tion of Filipino priests under the leadership of Fr. Pedro Pelaez
were attempting to disprove the age-old accusations against them
by showing that they were equal in ability to the friars, the govern-
ment hardened its position, filled with suspicion that these priests,
as had earlier happened in America, might become the leaders of
Filipino emancipation from Spain. Pelaez died in the earthquake of
1863, accused as a subversive." His role in fighting for the rights
of the Filipino clergy was taken over by one of his young disciples,
Jose Burgos, who published an anonymous pamphlet the following
year, defending the memory of Pelaez and calling for justice to the
Filipino clergy." Burgos's defense of the rights of the secular clergy
in his Manifiesto, however, goes beyond the scholarly arguments
from canon law used by Pelaez to urge the rights of the Filipino
clergy to the parishes; it blazes forth in a passionate challenrrs to
the whole notion of inferio:ity of the Filipino, whether of Spanish
blood or indigenous, to the European Citing a long list of Filipino
pnests and lawyers from the past, he insists:
If in ~ur days we do not see more Filipinos outstanding in the sciences,
let this not be attributed to their character nOT to their nature nor to
the inf1~ence of the climate nor much less that of the race, but rather
to the discouragemen t which for some years now has taken possession
of the youth, because of the almost complete lack of incentive. For as a
matter of fact, what young man will still make efforts to excel in the
science of law or of theology, if he does not see in the future anything
but obscurity and indifference?'!
With Burgos we see the first articulation of national feeling, of
a sense of national identity. One cannot speak of nationalism in the

28 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Cont ext
full sense. In spite of the accusations made against him , fo~ which
he was executed, there is no evidence that Burgos ever aimed at
separation of the Philippine s from Spain ," Rather, hl.swas the fir st
step, the expression of a sense of those born ~n the Philippines being
one people, with a nati onal identity a~d ~atJonal righ t s, even under
the sovereignty of Spain. From this in itial articulation of national
feeling, Rizal and others would m,o~e towar~ what they had ~o~e
to see was the only way of maintammg th at iden tity and obt aining
those rights-separation from Spai n ; if n eed be, by means of a
revolution" It is n ot any accident that we find numerous close
connections between th e activist Filipino clergy led by Burgos a nd
the next generation of Filipinos wh o would lead the Propag~nda
Movement of the 18805 and 1890s-that Rizal's brother, Paciano,
was living in the h ouse of Burgos in 1872; an d that am ong those
exiled t o Guam in the aftermath of Burgos's executio n would b~ Fr.
Toribio H. del Pilar, older brother of Marcelo,. and Fr. Mariano
Sevilla, in whose h ouse Marcelo del Pil ar was living as a student
in 1872." The Propaganda Movement would b e th e heir of th e
movement of the Filipino clergy, and would carry the Ideas ofnatJo.nal
identity ar ticulated by Burgos to their ne xt step and their logical
conclusion . . the garrison of Cavite , within h ours all had been arrested. Before
The Propagandists would also be heirs to another a llied move-
t b u t one distinct fr om tha t of the clergy-the liber al r eformist s
men , " h d . d t
of the 18605. These were the "modernizers, men w 0 esrr e 0
bring to the Philippines economic progress, a m odern legal s~s te m
and, the "modem liberties"-freedon: of the press, of assoclatJon, 0
speech , and of worsh ip. All of these goals would of course be pa
of the goals of the nati onali st movement, bu t th ey were n ot confi ned
to nationalists. Indeed, most of th e men who a ppear proml.nent~y
am ong the lib er al r eformists who eme rged in to th e pu~li c light m
1869-72 were criollos, Spania rds born in the Philippines. Th ese
criollcs had little or n o desire to see th e Philippines separ ated from
Spain , but rather wished to see the liberties that ~ad bee~ I~tro­
duced into the Peninsula also extended to Spanish Philippines.
Su ch were men lik e J oaquin Pardo de 'I'avera, Antonio Regidor, an
oth er lawyers a nd merchant s. (Bu r gos h imself wa s a Spa nish
mestizo but h e had identified him self cl ea rly with all those born
in the Philippines, wh eth er of Spanish or M a~ay blo?d-"sean esto,
10 que son, filipinos 0 indigenas," as h e puts It m his M an ifi esto).
Gen erally antifriar, th ese rsformists saw in the fn ~rs obstacl ~s
progressive r eforms and modern liber ties. It was WIth en th uslas
therefore that they welcomed the r ew governor , Carl os Ma . de I.
Torre, wh o arrived in Manila in 1869, th e appointee of th e an ti
•
•
Rizal in Nin eteenth-Century Context 29
clerical liberals who had made the Revolution of 1868 in Spain.
When de la Torre opened to Manila some of the freedom of expres-
sion proclaimed by the Revolution, an d ann ounced his intention of
introducing r eforms into the government, these reformists cheered
him on and were joined in their demonstration by Father Burgos.
The latter saw in the new liberal government, with its proclaimed
r espect for liberty and equality, the h ope of gaining recognition for
the justice of the Filipino priests' cause. Both the clergy and the
r eformists were deceived. In spite of the governor's professed liber-
ali sm and his cordiality, h e was suspicious of both groups and had
put them un der secr et pol ice surveilla n ce." Before long he was
succeeded by another a ppointee of th e Revolution, Gen. Rafael
Izquierdo. Even more than with De la Torre, for Izquierdo liberal
r eforms were for the Penin sula , not the colonies. He did not even
keep up the pretense of h is predecessor, but quickly suppressed the
reform committees and ended even the appearances of liberty of
expression allowed by De la Torre. The clergy and the reformi sts
continued their struggle through fri endly political influence in
Madrid, little realizing that their steps were watched. <7
Wh en finally the opport unity cam e, with the outbreak of what
was to all evidence a mer ely local mutiny over local grievances in
the m onth was over three priests h ad gon e to their death by the
garrote, while their colleagues a n d their r eformist allies were on
their way to exile in Guam, despite th eir political influences in
Madrid. It is n oteworthy th at it was th e three priests who were
execu te d, not the reform ist lawyers a nd mer chants" Th eir execu-
tion manifested Izquierdo's conviction th at th e fria rs were a neces-
sary political instrum ent for ma in ta inin g th e loyalty of the Filip i-
nos to Spai n; th er efore, by th e sa me t ok en , the Filipino priests who
migh t re pla ce th em in th e pa rish es must be eliminated. Those who
cla mored for libe ral r efor ms wou ld be silenced, but they were on lv
a pa ssing an noyan ce; th e clergy wh o represente d the growing Filipi no
con scious ness of thei r r igo t s a s equal to any Spaniard must be
cr us hed. With th e dea th of it s leaders a nd th e exile of their follow-
ers, th e movem en t of the Filipi no priests was indeed crush ed.
When th e exiles fin ally r etu rn ed to Man ila, th ey kn ew better
th an to expose th em selves a seco nd tim e. Only with the Revolution
wou ld th e survivors , Fr. Pedro Dandan an d Fr. Mariano Sevilla,
r eappear in t.he public eye. Fath er Danda n wou ld die fighting in the
moun tain s in 1897. Fath er S evilla would work to rally Filipinos to
resist the Americans, anti. once more be condemned- though even-
tually r eprieved-to exile in Gua m, th is tim e by th e American s."
- -- -_. ~ - - - - - - -- - - -

30 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context
Many of the liberal reformists of 1872, on the other hand, no long~
returned to the Philippines once they were free, but made thei
homes in Hong Kong or in Europe. For them the issue had bee
precisely that-liberal reforms, rather than ~ilipino rights-:an
when they could not obtain these in the Philippines, they live
elsewhere. 60
Since the Propaganda Movement was also heir to the Iibera
reformist tradition the degree to which the Propagandists were
truly nationalists, iike Rizal and Del :ilar, or merely liberal reo
formists like many of their colleagues m the campaign of La Soh
daridad' would only be made clear once war had broken out with
the Americans, and the latter were offer ing the reforms which .h ad
been sought in vain from Spain. To the reformists, the Am.encan
offer would be enough; it was what they had really been lookm.g f~r
all along. For the nationalists, the struggle would go on till I
became h opeles s.
Faced with a new colonial power, th e clergy continued to play its
role in the rise of nationalism. The Americans directing the crush-
ing of guerrilla r esistance, whether civilian like Governor Taft, or
military like Gen . J. Franklin Bell in Batangas and Gen. J acob
Smith in Samar, all singled out th e Filipino priest a s the mos
dangerous enemy and the sou l of the Filipino resis~n ce51 At the
height of the guerrilla war in 1901 nU,merous p:, e 't~ m all parts 0
the country were in prison, and not a lew, espe cially 10 the Vls~yas,
suffered torture and even death for complicity with the guerrillas,
Though the initiative in th e nati onalist movement had passed fr~m
the Filipino priests to the young ilustrados in Europe and Mantia
in the 1880s, the cl ergy remained a powerful force in the RevolutJOn
and the major factor in k eeping the masses loyal.
Main Current. of the Nationalist Movement
In recent years certain gen eralizations have been used concern-
ing the nationalist movem ent of the nineteenth c en~ury and the
revolution th at emerged from It. Such catchwords a s the sscu lari-
zation movement," "the reform movement," "the revolt of the masses,"
and "the betrayal of th e ilustrados" obscur e mo:e than clarify the
character of Filipino nationalism. The same might be said of at-
tempts to describe the Revolution as " proletarian or lower:middle-
class movement captured by the bourgeois ilustrado reformists, and
other such explanations that come more from ideological constr~cts
than from an examination of historical realities. These generahza-
tions may not entirely be false. But by oversimplifying compie
~ ~ ~
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 31
events in a complex society, they fail to give an account of the
reality thnt was.
To understand what happened in the nineteenth-century Glove-
ment culminating in the Revolution, it is necessary to distinguish
the several different currents that went into movement. At least
five can be considered-s-the reformist, the liberal, the anticlerical,
the modernizing, and the strictly nationalist. Each individual need
not be placed under one of these categories, for they certainly
overlapped. Almost all n ation alist s were liberal s in some respect;
a lmost all were in favor of modernization. So too most liberal s were
also anticleri cal, or at least antifriar. But it is necessary to distin-
l:Ui sh what was really most im por tant for individu a ls or groups in
orde r to u nd erstand wha t they aimed at in su ppor ti ng the Revolu-
tion, and why th ey did or did not con ti nue to do so wh en certain
ends had been a chieved,
Probably most Filipin os, certainly all thinking ones, and even
Spaniards with any interest in the country, can be called reformists
in some sen se in the late nineteenth century; th e Spanish colonial
regime obviously failed any longer to satisfy basic needs and desires
of the Filipino pe ople. As intimated in th e letter of Paciano Rizal
we have quoted, many of the friars them selves de sired reform s.
They even appear to have offered to make joint cause with the
Filipinos in Spain to obtain su ch reforms, for all suffered from the
inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy, from the antiquated and contra-
dictory laws, from the exploitation of the Philippine treasury by the
mother country, and from the inability of t he gove rn ment to main-
tain peace an d or der.'·2 Indeed, in an ea rlie r period the harshest
condemnation of Spanish misgovernment came fr om the friars. It
was onIy when th e cau se of reform began to t ak e on antifriar and
nationalistic overtones that they opposed it.53
Though by no means 811 reformists were liberals. liberals were
almost by definition reformi sts as well. For the safeguards of personal
liberty-freedom of speech and of the press , freed om of association,
freedom of religion, and r-specially freedom from arbitrary arrest
and detenti on and exile or imprisonment without a trial-s-could
only be obt.ained with major reforms in the existing colonial govern-
ment. With the partial exception of freedom of religion, those lib-
erties were the a spiration of all the activist Filipinos who partici-
pated in the Propaganda Movement." Together with the demand
for representation in the Spanish Cortes, they h eaded the list of
reforms demanded by La S olida ridad. As Rizal would write B1umen-
tritt, these liberties were an essential component of any progress
worth the name. 55 So integra] were the aspirations to civil liberties
~~----~--

32 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context
to the program of the Propagandists, that it is difficult to see how
anyone with any knowledge of our history and heritage could ~ema::k,
as some did in the Marcos years, that democracy and CIV11 liberties
were an American import which can n ow be dispensed with. Notto
the men who created a Filipino nati on long before the Americans
ever established them selves."
In the circumstances of the time, to be a liberal very often meant
to be anticlerical or at least antifriar. Such anticlericali sm was not
so much due to obscurantism, which certainly existed in some sectors
of the clergy as it wa s to the well-justified fear that ecclesiastical
power would' be used to suppress liberal progress. The influence ?f
the friar orders in the Philippin es was not rarely used for this
purpose, whether successfully or not, th ough the r eligious orders'
fear of liberalism was not without basis. For church property had
so often been confiscated in Europe and the personal rights of
ecclesiastics so often violated in the name of the n ew fre edom."
- Whether or not they fully agreed with the liberal s, the Filipino
clergy were much less likely to be the target of liberal antipathy.
This was true even on the part of those liberals who cared little for
the bond of common nationality, since the Filipino clergy were
powerless to block liberal reforms, even if they had wanted to.
Modernization was a desire of all liberals, as it would be of
nationalists in general. But the converse was by no means true.
Modernization was primarily an economic goal, and many of those
who were deeply interested in progressive economic measures sought
them for the profit they themselves would derive, not for the co~~ry.
Many of these men were conservative politically. Though desiring
far-reaching economic changes in Philippine society, just as the
British, American, and other foreign entrepreneurs did, they had no
desire to create a new nation.58 When the Spanish regime fell under
the onslaught of the Revolution, conservative modernizers had no
regrets, for th ey realized how little hope there wa s of Spain ever
doing away with all the archaic obst.acles to economic progre ss.
When the Philippine Republic emerged, they supported it cautiously,
intending to control it. When they saw they very likely could not,
or that an American regime promised more in the way of immediate
peace and order and ultimate economic growth than could the
newborn Revolutionary government, they had few Qualms about
accepting positions in the new colonial regime, even while still
holding positions in the Revolutionary government. Such were men
like T. H. Pardo de Tavera, nephew of the exile of 1872, friend of
Rizal and the Lunas in Paris. Although a bitter enemy of the friars
and high.ranking anticlerical Mason, he was among the first to
Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context 33
accept a position in the American government. He would be one of
the first Filipino members of the Philippine Commission, though he
had been named Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the government of
Aguinaldo." A similar case was Jose Ma. Basa, exile of 1872, who
perhaps did more than any other individual to promote the cam-
paign against the friars in the 1880s and 1890s. He was also the
main source by which the writings of Rizal, Del Pilar, and others
of the Propaganda Movement were smu ggled into the Philippines.'"
Together with Doroteo Cortes, former head of the Comite de Propa-
ganda in Manila which had supported Del Pilar and La Solidaridad
fo r five year s, Basa W R S among the first to petition the American
consul in Hong Kong for a n Am erican protectorate over the Phil-
ip pin es."
The esta blishm ent of an Am erica n colonial government would
sort out those wh o had b een agitating openly or se cr et ly during the
decade before the Revolution. It would mak e cl ear who were only
r eformists, or liberals, or anti clerical s, or modern izers, but not truly
nationalists. For all of the former th e American government gave
assurance that th eir main goals would b« achieved-modernizing
r eform s in governm ent an d the economy, civil liberties, and the
elimin ation of theocratical contr ol over Philippin e society; only the
real nati onali sts would see th e fru strati on of the principal goal for
which they had st ruggled. During the ear lier years of st r uggle this
line of nation alist thought leading from Burgos to Rizal to Bonifa-
ci o, Jacinto, and Mabini , had a ttracted n ot only th ose wh o yearned
for an independent Phil ippines, but numerous oth ers wh ose goals
were at lea st partia lly differen t, or who su ppor ted only part of the
nationalist program. Now th e real n atio na lists were left to them-
se lves . It woul d be a n exaggeration to say that th e ma sses as a
whole stood behind t h e na tionalist st ruggle, but large numbers of
th em did . Th e kalayaan th ey looked for might not be the same
concept a s th e ind ependencia conceived by Rizal, Bonifacio, a nd
Mabini. But th e freedom th ey longed for was fa r nearer to the
na tion alists' idea of independ ence than wore the goa ls of economic
progress, political r eforms, an d moder nizat ion sought by many of
th e ilu strados wh o h a d supoorted th e Propaganda Movement, only
to shift t h eir loya lties in th e hour of crisis " For the goa ls now
achieved from the Americans h ad only partially coincided with those
of leader s like Riza J wh o had seen th e st ruggle primarily a s a
movement ai med at th e creati on of a national consciousness, th e
mnkinrr of t he Revolu tion .
Rizal of course favored reforms in Philippine society, not only by
Spania rds, but by t he F'i lipn os the mselves. He oppos ed the influ-
~--- ~ ~------- I
34 Rizal in Nineteenth-Century Context

ence of the friars on that same society, for he saw them as

obstacle to freedom and to progress. He was devoted to the moderni
zation of his country, so that, as he put it, she might take her plac
among the proud nations of Europe. But what he sought above all
was that his country should be free, free from tyrants from abroad
or at home, a country where there would not be any tyrants because
Filipinos would not allow themselves to be slaves. It was the growth
of a free people, proud of its past, working for its future, united in
a common set of ideals.'"' This vision it was which made him the
center of the nationalist movement of hi s day and the principal
Higher Education and the
inspiration of the Revolution . Origins of Nationalism

To write of hi gh er education and the beginnings of nation-

alism must seem a parad ox to one acquainted with the nationalist
literature of th e last two decades of the nineteenth cen tury.' To say
nothing of Ri zal's scathing caricatures of the University of Santo
Tomas ill his EI Fili bueierismo, Jose Ma. Panganiban's harsh and
detailed dissection in La Solidaridad of the university education
open to Filipinos of the ;,880s is only th e most systematic of the
critiques of Philippine higher education that regularly appeared in
the pages of this organ of the Propaganda Movement," Even the
Ateneo Municipal, which Rizal took delight in contrasting with the
other schools of Manila, did not escape the jabs of his pen . For as
the Fil6sofo Tasio drily observed to Don Filipo, the Ateneo repre-
sen ted progress only because the Philippines was still emerging
from the darkness of th e Middle Ages.' Later, writing to his friend
Ferdinand Blumentritt, Rizal would expl icitate, describing his
Chapter 1: My Birth – Early Years
I was born in Calamba on 19 June 1861, between eleven and midnight, a few days before full
moon. It was a Wednesday and my coming out in this vale of tears would have cost my mother
her life had she not vowed to the Virgin of Antipolo to take me to her sanctuary by way of
pilgrimage. (02) All I remember of my early days is I don’t know how I found myself in a town
with some scanty notions of the morning sun, of my parents, etc. The education that I received
since my earliest infancy was perhaps what has shaped my habits, like a jar that retains the odor
of the body that it first held.

I still remember the first melancholy nights that I spent on the terrace [azotea - Zaide] of our
house as if they happened only yesterday -- nights full of the saddest poem that made
impression of my mind, the stronger the more tempestuous my present situation is. I had a
nurse [aya - Zaide] who loved me very much and who, in order to make me take supper (which I
had on the terrace on moonlit nights), frightened me with the sudden apparition of some
formidable asuang, [ghosts], of a frightful nuno, or parce-nobis, as she used to call an imaginary
being similar to the Bu of the Europeans. They used to take me for a stroll to the gloomiest
places and at night near the flowing river, in the shade of some tree, in the brightness of the
chaste Diana. . . . . Thus was my heart nourished with somber and melancholic thoughts, which
even when I was a child already wandered on the wings of fantasy in the lofty regions of the
unknown. I had nine sisters and one brother. My father, a model of fathers, had given us an
educational commensurate with our small fortune, and through thrift he was able to build a
stone house, buy another, and to erect a little nipa house in the middle of our orchard under the
shade of banana trees and others. There the tasty ate [atis] displays its delicate fruits and bends
its branches to save me the effort of reaching for them; the sweet santol, the fragrant and
honeyedtampooy, the reddish macupa, here contend for supremacy; farther ay are the plum
tree, the casuy, harsh and piquant, the beautiful tamarind, equally gratifying to the eyes and
delightful to the palate, here the papaya tree spreads its broad leaves and attracts the birds with
its enormous fruits, yonder at thenangca, the coffee tree, the orange tree, which perfumes the air
with the aroma of its flowers; on this side are the iba, the balimbing, the pomegranate with its
thick foliage and beautiful flowers that enchant the senses; here and there are found elegant and
majestic palm trees loaded with enormous nuts, rocking its proud crown and beautiful fronds,
the mistresses of the forests. Ah! It would be endless if I were to enumerate all our trees and
entertain myself in naming them! At the close of the day numerous birds came from all parts,
and I, still a child of thee years at the most, entertained myself by looking at them with
unbelievable joy. The yellow caliauan, the maya of different varieties, the culae, the maria capra,
themartin, all the species of pitpit, joined in a pleasant concert and intoned in varied chorus a
hymn of farewell to the sun that was disappearing behind the tall mountains of my town. Then
the clouds, through a whim of nature, formed a thousand figures that soon dispersed, as such
beautiful days passed away also, leaving behind them only the flimsiest remembrances. Alas!
Even now when I look out the window of our house to the beautiful panorama at twilight, my
past impressions come back to my mind with painful eagerness! Afterwards comes night; it
extends its mantle, sometimes gloomy through starred, when the chaste Delia (03) does not
scour the sky in pursuit of her brother Apollo. But if she appears in the clouds, a vague
brightness is delineated. Afterwards, as the clouds break up, so to speak, little by little, she is
seen beautiful, sad, and hushed, rising like an immense globe, as if an omnipotent and invisible
hand is pulling her through the spaces. Then my mother would make us recite the rosary all
together. Afterward we would go to the terrace or to some window from which the moon can be
seen and my nurse would tell us stories, sometimes mournful, sometimes gay, in which the
dead, gold plants that bloomed diamonds were in confused mixtures, all of them born of an
entirely oriental imagination. Sometimes she would tell us that men lived in the moon and the
specks that we observed on it were nothing else but a woman who was continuously spinning.
When I was four years old I lost my little sister (Concha) and then for the first time I shed tears
caused by love and grief, for until then I had shed them only because of my stubbornness that
my loving proving mother so well knew how to correct. Ah! Without her what would have
become of my education and what would have been my fate? Oh, yes! After God the mother is
everything to man. She taught me how to read, she taught me how to stammer the humble
prayers that I addressed fervently to God, and now that I’m a young man, ah, where is that
simplicity, that innocence of my early days?

In my own town I learned how to write, and my father, who looked after my education, paid an
old man (who had been his classmate) to give me the first lessons in Latin and he stayed at our
house. After some five months he died, having almost foretold his death when he was still in
good health. I remember that I came to Manila with my father after the birth of the third girl
(Trinidad) who followed me, and it was on 6 June 1868. We boarded a casco, (04) a very heavy
craft. I had never yet gone through the lake of La Laguna consciously and the first time. I did, I
spent the whole night near the catig, (04) admiring the grandeur of the liquid element, the
quietness of the night, while at the same time a superstitious fear took hold of me when I saw a
water snake twine itself on the bamboo canes of the outriggers. With what joy I saw the sunrise;
for the first time I saw how the luminous rays shone, producing a brilliant effort on the ruffled
surface of the wide lake. With what joy I spoke to my father for I had not uttered a single word
during the night. Afterward we went to Antipolo. I’m going to stop to relate the sweetest
emotions that I felt at every step on the banks of he Pasig (that a few years later would be the
witness of my grief), in Cainta, Taytay, Antipolo, Manila, Santa Ana, where we visited my eldest
sister (Saturnina) who was at that time a boarding student at La Concordia. (05) I returned to
my town and I stayed in it until 1870, the first year that marked my separation from my family.
This is what I remember of those times that figure in the forefront of my life like the dawn of the
day. Alas, when shall the night come to shelter me so that I may rest in deep slumber? God
knows it! In the meantime, now that I’m in the spring of life, separated from the beings whom I
love and most in the world, now that sad, I write these pages. . . let us leave Providence to act,
and let us give time to time, awaiting from the will of God the future, good or bad, so that with
this I may succeed to expiate my sins. 8 Dulambayan, (06) Sta. Cruz, Manila, 11 September
1878. (01) P. Jacinto was the first pen name used by Rizal in his writings. His other pen names
were Laong-Laan and Dimas Alang. (02) Filipinos, Spaniards, and Chinese venerated the Virgin
of Antipolo since Spanish colonial days. The month of May is the time of pilgrimage to her
shrine. She is also called Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, the patron saint of travelers. One
legend says her image saved from shipwreck the crew of a ship that bore her from Acapulco to
Manila many years ago. (03) The name of Diana, goddess of the moon and of hunting. (04)
Casco is a Philippine river craft, made of wood, used for passengers and freight. The catig is the
vessel’s outriggers made of bamboo canes. (05) A well-known boarding school for girls, the
Sisters of Charity administered La Concordia College. It was founded in 1868 by Margarita
Roxas de Ayala, a wealthy Filipino woman, who gave her country home called La Concordia in
Sta Ana, Manila to the school and hence its popular designation. Its official name is Colegio de la
Immaculada Concepcion. (06) Rizal Avenue, named for the national hero, absorbed this old
street. At that point its name was dropped.

Chapter 2: My Life Away from My Parents / My Sufferings

It is true that the memory of past days is like a gentle balm that pours over the heart a
melancholy sweetness, so much sweeter and sadder the more depressed the one remembering it
is. Turning my eyes, my memory, and my imagination towards the days past, that I don’t wish to
remember for being very painful, the first that I discovered is Biñan, a town more or less an hour
and a half distant from mine. This is my father’s birthplace and to which he sent me to continue
the study of the rudiments of Latin that I had begun. One Sunday, my brother took me to that
town after I had bade my family, that is my parents and brothers [sisters -- Zaide] goodbye, with
tears in my eyes. I was nine years old and already I tried to hide my tears. Oh, education, oh,
shame, that obliges us to hide our sentiments and to appear different! How much beauty, how
many tender and pathetic scenes the world would witness without you! We arrived at Biñan at
nightfall and we went to the house of an aunt where I was to stay. The moon was beginning to
peep, and in the company of Leandro, her grandson, I walked through the town that seemed to
me large and rich but ugly and gloomy. My brother left me afterwards, not without having first
introduced me to the teacher who was going to teach me. It seemed to me that he had also been
his. He was tall, thin, long-necked, with a sharp nose and body slightly bent forward, and he
used o wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by
heart the grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this his severity that in my judgment was
exaggerated and you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but I remember
only this. When I entered his class for the first time, that is, in his house, which was of nipa and
low, about thirty meters away from my aunt’s (for one had only to pass through a portion of the
street and a little corner cooled by an apple tree,) (07) he spoke to me in these words: “Do you
know Spanish?” “A little sir,” I replied. “Do you know Latin? “A little sir,” I answered again. For
these replies the teacher’s son Pedro, the naughtiest boy in the class, began to sneer at me. He
was a few years older than I and was taller than I. We fought, but I don’t know by what accident
I defeated him, throwing him down some benches in the classroom. I released him quite
mortified. He wanted a return match, but as the teacher had already awakened, I was afraid to
expose myself to punishment and I refused. After this I acquired fame among my classmates,
perhaps because of my smallness so that after class, a boy invited me to a fight. He was called
Andres Salandanan. He offered me one arm to twist and I lost, and almost dashed my head
against the sidewalk of a house. I don’t want to amuse myself by narrating the whacks that I
suffered nor describe what I felt when I received the first beating on the hand. Some envied me
and others pitied me. Sometimes they accused me wrongly, sometimes rightly, and always the
accusation cost me half a dozen or three lashes. I used to win in the gangs, for no one defeated
me. I succeeded to pass over many, excelling them, and despite the reputation I had (good boy)
rare was the day when I was not whipped or given five or six beatings on the hand. When I went
in the company of my classmates, I got from them more sneers, nicknames, and they called me
Calambeño, (08) but when only one went with me, he behaved so well that I forgot his insults.
Some were good and treated me very well, like Marcos Rizal, son of a cousin of mine, and others.
Some of them, much later, became by classmates in Manila, and we found ourselves in very
changed situations. Beside the house of my teacher, who was Justiniano Aquino Cruz, stood that
of his father-in-law, one Juancho, an old painter who amused me with his paintings. I already
had such an inclination for this art that a classmate of mine, called José Guevara and I were the
“fashionable painters” of the class. How my aunt treated me can be easily deduced from the
following facts: We were many in the house: My aunt, two cousins, two nieces, Arcadia and
Florentina, and a nephew, Leandro, son of a cousin. My aunt was an old woman who must be
seventy or so years old. She used to read the Bible in Tagalog, lying down on the floor. Margarita
(Itay), my cousin, was single, very much addicted to confessing and doing penance. Her brother
Gabriel was a widower. Arcadia was a tomboy, of an inflexible character and irritable, though
she had a simple and frank nature. The other, Florentina, was a little girl of vulgar qualities. As
to Leandro, he was a capricious, papered little boy, a flatterer when it suited him, of an
ingenious talent, a rascal in the full meaning of the term. One day when we went to the river,
which was only a few steps from our house, inasmuch as we passed beside an orchard, while we
were bathing on the stone landing, for I did not dare go down as it was too deep for my height,
the little boy pushed me so hard that had not one of my feet been caught, without doubt I would
have been drowned for the current was already pulling me. This cost him some lashes with a
slipper (09) and a good reprimand by my aunt. Sometimes we played in the street at night for
we were not allowed to do so instead the house. Arcadia, who was two or three years older than
I, taught me games, treating me like a brother; only she called me “Uncle José”! In the
moonlight I remembered my hometown and I thought, with tears in my eyes, of my beloved
father, my idolized mother, and my solicitous sisters. Ah, how sweet to me was Calamba, in spite
of the fact that it was not as wealthy as Biñan! I would feel sad and when, least expected, I
stopped to reflect. Here was my life. I heard the four o’clock Mass, if there was any, or I studied
my lesson at that hour and I went to Mass afterwards. I returned home and I went to the
orchard to look for a mabolo (10) to eat. Then I took breakfast, which consisted generally of a
dish of rice and two dried small fish, and I went to class from which I came out at ten o’clock. I
went home at once. If there was some special dish, Leandro and I took some of it to the house of
her children (which I never did at home nor would I ever do it), and I returned without saying a
word. I ate with them and afterwards I studied. I went to school at two and came out at fie. I
played a short while with some nice cousins and I returned home. I studied my lesson, I drew a
little, and afterwards I took my supper consisting of one or two dishes of rice with an ayungin.
(11) We prayed and when there was a moon, my nieces invited me to play in the street together
with others. Thank God that I never got sick away from my parents.
From time to time I went to Calamba, my hometown. Ah, how long the way home seemed to me
and how short the way back was! When I sighted from afar the roof of our house, I don’t know
what secret joy filled my heart. Moreover I used to leave Biñan early in the morning before
sunrise and I reached my hometown when its rays already were shining obliquely over the broad
meadows. And I used to return to Biñan in the afternoon with the sad spectacle of the
disappearance of the sun king. How I looked for pretexts to stay longer in my town; one more
day seemed to be a day in heaven, and how I cried -- though silently and secretly -- when I
would see the calesa (12) that was going to take me. Then everything seemed to me sad, that I
might not see them again upon my return. It was a new kind of melancholy, a sad pain, but
gentle and calm that I felt during my early years. Many things that are of no importance to the
reader happening to me until one day I received a letter from my sister Saturnina advising me of
the arrival of the steamer Talim that was to take me on a certain day. It seemed that I had a
presentiment that I would never come back so that I went very often and sadly to the chapel of
the Virgin of Peace. I went to the river and gathered little stones to keep as a souvenir. I made
paper fish and readied everything for my departure. I bade my friends and my teacher farewell
with a pleasant and profound sadness, for even sufferings, when they have been frequent and
continuous, became so dear to the heart, so to speak, that one feels pain upon leaving them. I
left Biñan, then, on 17 December 1870 [sic. 1871 - Zaide]. I was nine years old at one o’clock on
the afternoon of Saturday. For the first time I saw a steamer. It seemed to me very beautiful and
admirable when I heard the conversation of my cousin, who took me, with the boatman on its
manner of running. It was the only one they were waiting for. Two sailors put my things in a
cabin and I went to see it. I thought I was going alone, without a companion, but a Frenchman
called Arturo Camps, my father’s friend, was in charge of accompanying me. The trip seemed to
me very long, according to my beliefs with regard to a steamer. At sea, I remember I spilled the
chocolate. Finally we arrived at Calamba. Oh, my joy on seeing the beach! I wanted to jump at
once into a banca, but a crewman took me in his arms and put me in the captain’s boat.
Afterwards the Frenchman came and four sailors rowed us to the beach. It was impossible to
describe my happiness when I saw the servant with the carriage waiting for us. I jumped and
here I’m again in my house with the love of my family. Everything was for me joy, days of
happiness. I found a little house with lie rabbits, well decorated and painted for the pre-
Christmas Masses. My brothers [brother and sisters -- Zaide] did not stop talking to me. This is
the end of my remembrance of that sad and gay time during which I tasted strange food for the
first time. . . Alas, it seems that I was born destined to painful and equally bitter scenes! I have
withheld nothing important. My situation, how different from that one! Salcedo Street, No. 22
Monday, 28 October 1878 (01) This so-called “apple” tree is locally named manzanitas for it
bears very tiny apples. (02) That is a native (masculine) of Calamba.
(03) In Spanish, chinelazos, literally, lashes administered with a slipper with a leather sole, a
common way of punishing children in Filipino homes. (04) Mabolo or mabulo (Diospyros
discolor, Wild.) is a tree that bears fruits of the same name. When ripe, it is fragrant, fleshy,
sweet, and satisfying. (05) Ayungin is the name of a small (about 12 centimeters long), fresh
water, inexpensive fish (Therapon plumbeus Kner). (06) A horse-drawn vehicle, light and airy.

Chapter 3: From January 1871 to June 1872

[NOTE: In his letter to Blumentritt, written at Geneva, June 10, 1887, Rizal said that he stayed
in Biñan for “a year and a half.” (The Rizal-Blumentritt Correspondence, Part 1, p 100. Rizal
began his studies in Biñan in June 1870 and returned to Calamba in December 1871 -- really one
year and a half.]

I don’t know how to describe to you my past days. I would not have been able to furnish you
with anything notable had not something occurred that was truly unpleasant and sad that I
could not forget it. Have you ever felt your honor outraged, your name tarnished, by persons
who owed you many favors? My pen refuses and would have refused forever to put on paper
some remembrances that I should like to forget if my purpose were not to make a succinct
narration of my joys and misfortunes. I will tell you that a few days after my arrival at my town,
it was decided to make me stay there and send me to Manila later. The day came when I had
desired to study under a teacher of the town. Of course, I learned nothing more than the
multiplication table. During this time an uncle of mine (Mr. José Alberto) arrived from Europe.
During his absence his wife failed lamentably in her duties as mother and wife. He found his
house empty and his children abandoned two or three days before by the culprit. Frantic the
poor man set out to look for the whereabouts of his wife until at last he found her. He thought of
divorcing her but at my mother’s pleading, he agreed to live with her again. He passed through
Calamba on his way to Biñan, where he resided. A few days later the infamous woman, in
connivance with a lieutenant of the civil guard, who was a friend of our family, accused her
husband of being a poisoner and my mother as his accomplice for which my mother was
imprisoned by Mr. Antonio Vivencio del Rosario, a fanatical mayor, (13) a servant of the friar. I
don’t want to tell you our resentment and profound sorrow. Since then, though still a child, I
have distrusted friendship and doubted men. We were nine brothers [brother and sisters -
Zaide] and our mother was unjustly snatched away from us and by whom? By some men who
had been our friends and whom we had treated as sacred guests. We learned later that our
mother got sick, far from us and at an advanced age. Oh, God. I admire and respect your most
sacred will! The mayor, at the beginning, deluded by the accusations, and cautioned against
everything that is noble, treated my mother rudely, not to say brutally, and later made her
confess what they wanted her to confess, promising to release her and to let her see her children
if she would say what they wanted her to say. What mother could resist, what mother would not
sacrifice her life for her children? My mother, like all mothers, deceived and frightened (because
they told her that if she did not say what they wanted her to say, they would declare her guilty)
submitted to the will of her enemies and weakened. The question became complicated until, oh,
Providence! The mayor himself asked my mother for pardon, but when? When the case was
already in the Supreme Court, (14) he asked for forgiveness because he suffered remorse and he
was horrified by his vileness. Messrs. Francisco de Marcaida and Manuel Marzan, the most
famous lawyers of Manila, defended my mother. She finally succeeded to be acquitted and
vindicated in the eyes of her judges, accusers, and even her enemies, but after how long? After
two and a half years. In the meantime they discussed my career and they decided that I should
go to Manila with my brother Panciano to take the entrance examinations and study the
secondary course at the Ateneo Municipal. (15) I therefore went down to Manila on June 10,
1872 and took an examination on the Christian Doctrine, arithmetic, and reading at the College
of San Juan de Letran. They gave me a grade of “Approved” and with this I returned to my
hometown happy, having for the first time experienced what examinations were. A few days
later the town feast was celebrated, after which I went down to Manila, but with sad feelings that
I would again become unhappy. 22 Salcedo Street 1 November 1872 (01) In Spanish, alcalde who
exercised the combined functions of town executive and judge. (02) This was called the Real
Audiencia de Manila. (03) This was the famous school conducted by the Jesuit Fathers,
renowned for their educational work.

Chapter 8: My First Reminiscence

When I had not yet seen other rivers except the river of my town, crystalline and gay in its
winding course, shaded by murmuring bamboo groves; when my world was only circumscribed
by the bluish mountains of my province and the white surface of the lake that I discerned from
after through some ruins, sparkling like a mirror and filled with graceful sails, I like stories very
much and I believed with all my heart everything the books contained, convinced that what was
printed must perforce be the truth. And why not, since my parents, who punished me for the
smallest lie, emphatically enjoyed me to attend to my books, to read them diligently and
understand them. My first remembrance concerning letters goes back to my earliest age. I must
be very small yet because when they polished the floor of our house with banana leaves, I would
still fall slipping on the shiny surface as did the little skilled skaters on ice. It was still difficult
for me to climb up a chair, I went down the stairs step by step, holding on to every baluster, and
in our house as in the whole town, petroleum was unknown, or had I seen until that time any
quinque, (34) nor had any carriage ever passed through the streets of my town that I believed to
be the summum(35) of joy and animation. One night, when everybody at home was already
asleep, when all the lights in the globes (36) had already been put out by blowing them off by
means of a curved tin tube which seemed to me the most exquisite and wonderful toy in the
world, I don’t know why my mother and I had remained watching beside the only light that in all
Philippine houses burned all night long, and that went out precisely at dawn waking the people
with its cheerful hissing. My mother then was still young. After a bath her hair which she let
down to dry, dragged half a handbreadth on the floor, by which reason she knotted its end. She
taught me to read in Amigo de los Niños, a very rare book, an old edition, which had lost its
cover and which a very industrious sister of mine had covered again by pasting on its back a
thick blue paper, the remnant of the wrapper of a bolt of cloth. My mother undoubtedly annoyed
at hearing me read pitifully, for, as I didn’t understand Spanish, I could not give meaning to the
phrases, took away the book from me. After scolding me for the drawings I had made on its
pages, with legs and arms extended like a cross, she began to read asking me to follow her
example. My mother, when she cold still see, read very well, recited, and knew how to make
verses. How many times during Christmas vacation afterwards, she corrected my poems,
making very apt observations. I listened to her full of childish admiration. Marveling at the ease
with which she made them and at the sonorous phrases that she cold get from some pages that
cost me so much effort to read and that I deciphered haltingly. Perhaps my ears soon got tired of
hearing sounds that to me meant nothing. Perhaps due to my natural distraction, I gave little
attention to the reading and watched more closely the cheerful flame around which some small
moths fluttered with playful and uneven flight, perhaps I yawned, be it what it might, the case
was that my mother, realizing the little interest that I showed, stopped her reading and said to
me: “I’m going to read to you a very pretty story; be attentive.” Upon hearing the word story I
opened my eyes expecting a new and wonderful one. I looked at my mother who leafed through
the book as if looking for it, and I got ready to listen with impatience and wonder. I didn’t
suspect that in that old book that I read without understanding, there could be stories and pretty
stories. My mother began to read to me the fable of the young and the old moths, translating it
to me piece by piece into Tagalog. At the first verses my attention redoubled in such a way that I
looked towards the light and fixed my attention on the moths that fluttered around it. The story
could not have been more opportune. My mother emphasized and commented a great deal on
the warnings of the old moth and directed them to me as if to tell me that these applied to me. I
listened to her and what a rare phenomenon the light seemed to me more beautiful each time,
the flame brighter, and I even envied instinctively the fate of those insects that played so
cheerfully in its magical exhalation. Those that had succumbed were drowned in the oil; they
didn’t frighten me. My mother continued her reading, I listened anxiously, and the fate of the
two insects interested me intensely. The light agitated its golden tongue on one side, a singed
moth in one of these movements fell into the oil, clapped its wings for sometime and died. That
assumed for me that the flame and the moths were moving far away, very far, and that my
mother’s voice acquired a strange, sepulchral timbre. My mother finished the fable. I was not
listening; all my attention, all my mind and all my thoughts were concentrated on the fate of that
moth, young, dead, full of illusions. “You see?” my mother said to me taking me to bed. “Don’t
imitate the young moth and don’t be disobedient; you’ll get burned like it.” I don’t know if I
replied, promised something, or cried. The only thing I remember is that it took me a long time
before I could sleep. That story had revealed to m e tings unknown to me until then. To me
moths ceased to be insignificant insects; moths talked and knew how to warn and advise as well
as my mother did. The light seemed to be more beautiful, dazzling, attractive. I understand why
moths fluttered around lights. Advices and warnings resounded feebly in my ears. What
preoccupied me most was the death of the imprudent, but at the bottom of my heart, I didn’t
blame it. My mother’s solicitude didn’t have all the success that she hoped it would. No; many
years have elapsed; the child has become a man; has plowed [sailed -Zaide] the most famous
foreign rivers and meditated besides their copious streams. The steamship has taken him across
the seas and all the oceans; he has climbed the region of perpetual snow on mountains very
much higher than the Makiling of his province. From experience he has received bitter lessons,
oh, infinitely more than the sweet lesson that his mother gave him, and nevertheless the man
preserves the heart of a child and he believes that light is the most beautiful thing there is in
creation and that it is worthy for a man to sacrifice his life for it. (34) This word is derived from
the name of the first maker of that lamp, Quinquet, a Frenchman. Quinque refers to a petroleum
lamp.
(35) The utmost. (36) Globes were appliances made of crystal in which were placed the vessels
containing oil for lighting. They are hung from the ceiling with iron chains .

MY CHILDHOOD IMPRESSIONSby José Rizal

I spent many, many hours of my childhooddown on the shore of the Lake, Laguna de bay.I was
thinking of what was beyond.I was dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the
waves.Almost every day, in our town, we saw the Guardia civil lieutenantcaning and injuring
some unarmed and inoffensive villager.The villager’s only fault was that while at a distancehe
had not taken off his hat and made his bow.The alcalde treated the poor villagersin the same
way whenever he visited us.We saw no restraint put upon brutality.Acts of violence and other
excesses were committed daily.The officers whose duty it was to protect the peopleand keep
the public peace were the real outlaws.Against such lawbreakers, our authorities were
powerless.I asked myself if, in the lands which lay across the lake,the people lived inthe same
way.I wondered if there they tortured any countrymanwith hard and cruel whips merely on
suspicion.Did they there respect the home?Or over yonder also, in order to live in peace,would
one have to bribe tyrants?
 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

WEEK NO. 3

MODULE NO. 3: Birth, Childhood and Family of Rizal

Guided Exercises / Learning Activities

Please read Chapter 1, 2, 3, and 8 of the “Memoirs of a Student in Manila”

including the short additional chapter below entitled: “My Childhood Impressions.“
For better understanding, read it again and again as you dissect the events in Rizal’s
childhood and reflect on them by answering the guide questions below. After
answering all questions, please review your work in preparation to do an
asynchronous QUIZ.
NOTE: All answers are found in the memoirs.

Chapter 1 – My Birth and Early Years

1. When and where was Rizal born? Calamba on June 1861, between eleven
and midnight, a few days before full moon. Wednesday.

2. According to Rizal, what were the earliest childhood memories (name at least
three)? – 1. Him in a town with some scanty notions of the morning sun. 2.
First melancholy night he spent on the terrace of their house. 3. His nurse
telling scary stories to make him eat supper

3. What were some of the interests of Rizal, that even at an early age piqued his
curiosity? – wings of fantasy in the lofty regions of the unknown

4. What childhood experience made him cry for the first time out of love and
grief? How old was he at the time? – the death of his little sister (Concha), He
was 4 years old

5. All the other times he cried as a child, according to Rizal was because of
what? – only because of his stubbornness that his loving mother so well knew
how to correct

Life and Works of Rizal 1

 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

6. Storytelling and learning were very much part of his childhood, who were the
major influence of Rizal as a child? – his mother

Chapter 2 – My Life Away from Parents / My Sufferings

1. Rizal opened this chapter by describing a painful memory, what was the
childhood experience that was always painful to him even to remember? – the
day he had to leave his family in calamba to study in binan

2. When Rizal was separated from his parents, where did he go, who was with
him and for what purpose? How old was Rizal at this time? Where did he live?
– in binan, his brother brought him, to study, he was 9 years old he lived there
with his aunt,

3. Based on Rizal’s account, how would you characterize his first experience as
a schoolboy? – it was hard, he was a fighter even though he was a good boy
before

4. What was he studying, where was the class held and who was his teacher? –
rudiments of Latin that he had begun, in his teacher’s house (a nipa and low),
his teacher was Justiniano Aquino Cruz

5. Whose house was beside his teacher’s house and what did Rizal learn or
discovered there? Who was his classmate in Art? – the father-in-law of his
teacher (one Juancho), painting, his classmate was Jose Guevara

6. What did Rizal do afterschool, how would you describe his daily routine? What
did he usually eat for breakfast and dinner? – four o cluck mass and study,
and then eat, productive (sanaol) dish of rice and two dried small fish

7. What would usually make him sad as a boy? In general, how would you
characterize Rizal’s childhood? - missing his family and his hometown, it was
sad because he miss his family but still fun because he still got to enjoy his life
as a kid

Chapter 3 - From January 1871 to June 1872

Life and Works of Rizal 2

 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

1. What tragic event happened to Rizal’s mother when he returned home from
Binan? – she was accused of being an accomplice in poisoning which got her
imprisoned

2. What was the charge and who was the accuser? Who were the other people
involved in this accusation? – accused of being an accomplice in poisoning,
wife of his uncle, mayor, people they trusted

3. How did this experience affect Rizal? – though still a child, he distrusted
friendship and doubted men

Chapter 8 – My First Reminiscence

1. In the footnotes of Chapter 8, what are a quenque and a Globe? – Quenge –

the utmost. Globe – appliances made of crystal in which were placed the
vessels containing oil for lighting, they are hung from the ceiling with iron
chains

2. In this particular memory of Rizal, what was his mother trying to teach
him…was he listening? – to read in amigo de los ninos, he was not listening

3. What was distracting Rizal and how did his mother tried to get his attention? –
cheerful flame around which some small moths fluttered with playful and
uneven flight, her mother told that she’s going to read him a very pretty story

4. What was the story his mother read to him? What was the title of the book? –
fable of the young and the old moths, amigo de los ninos

5. What was the moral lesson of the story? – do not be like the young moth and
be obedient or you’ll get burnt

People mentioned in from the above chapters

1. Who was his Art teacher? – one Juancho

2. Which sister did Rizal visit in Santa Ana? – Saturnina that was boarding at
that time at La Concordia

3. Name of Rizal’s Uncle whose wife accused his mother? – Jose Alberto

Life and Works of Rizal 3

 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

4. The accuser of Rizal’s mother conspired with whom? – lieutenant of the civil
guard who was a friend of rizal’s family

Additional Reading – My Childhood Impressions

I spent many, many hours of my childhood down on the shore of the lake, Laguna de
Bay. I was thinking of what was beyond. I was dreaming of what might be over on the
other side of the waves. Almost every day, in our town, we saw the Guardia
Civil lieutenant caning and injuring some unarmed and inoffensive villager. The
villager’s only fault was that while at a distance he had not taken off his hat and made
his bow. The alcalde treated the poor villagers in the same way whenever he visited
us.

We saw no restraint put upon brutality. Acts of violence and other excesses were
committed daily. The officers whose duty it was to protect the people and keep the
public peace were the real outlaws. Against such lawbreakers, our authorities were
powerless. I asked myself if, in the lands which lay across the lake, the people lived in
this same way. I wondered if there they tortured any countryman with hard and cruel
whips merely on suspicion. Did they there respect the home? Or over yonder also, in
order to live in peace, would one have to bribe tyrants? Rizal, J. (Feb. 1908). Rizal’s
Own Story of His Life. Gutenberg.org

Reflections Questions:
1. As a boy, where did Rizal spend many hours and what was he dreaming or
wondering about? – shore of the lake Laguna de Bay, thinking of what was
beyond and dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the waves

2. What daily occurrence did Rizal observed in his town even as a boy? –
guardia civil lieutenant caning and injuring some unarmed and inoffensive
villager

3. With such observation and dreaming, what questions were formed in his
young mind? – he wondered if the people living across the lake tortured any
countryman with hard and cruel whips merely on suspicion and if they there
respect the home, or over yonder also, in order to live in peace, would one
have to bribe tyrants?

References
Life and Works of Rizal 4
 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

Memoirs of a Student in Manila by P. Jacinto (a Pen Name of José Rizal) | OurHappySchool. (2017). Ourhappyschool.com.

https://ourhappyschool.com/philippine-studies/memoirs-student-manila-p-jacinto-pen-name-jos%C3%A9-rizal

Rizal, J. (n.d.). Rizal’s Own Story of His Life. Www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved February 13, 2021, from

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48438/48438-h/48438-h.htm#boyhood

Life and Works of Rizal 5

Chapter 4: 1872 – 1875
Today I’m going to relate to you my studies. As I had expected, I was introduced at the Ateneo
Municipal to the Rev. Father Miniter [administrator - Zaide] who at that time was Father Magin
Ferrando. At first he did not want to admit me either because I had come after the period of
admission was over or because of my rather weak constitution and short stature: I was then
eleven years old. But later, at the request of Mr. Manuel Jerez [Manuel Xeres Burgos - Zaide],
nephew of the ill-fated Father Burgos (16) and now Licentiate in Medicine, the difficulties were
removed and I was admitted. I dressed like the rest, that is, I put on a coat with a ready-made
necktie. With what fervor I entered the chapel of the Jesuit Fathers to hear Mass, what most
fervent prayers I addressed to God, for in my sadness I didn’t know whom else to invoke. After
Mass, I went to class were I saw a great number of children, Spaniards, mestizos, (17) and
Filipinos, and a Jesuit who was the professor. He was called Father José Bech. He was a tall
man, thin, with a body slightly bent forward, with hasty pace, an ascetic, severe and inspired
physiognomy, sunken, small eyes, sharp Grecian nose, fine lips forming an arch whose ends
turned towards his beard. The Father was somewhat a lunatic so that one should not be
surprised to find him sometimes disgusted himself, playing like a child. Among my
classmates I should mention to you some were quite interesting and perhaps would be
mentioned by me frequently. One boy or young man of my own province called Florencio
Gavino Oliva had an excellent mind but was of ordinary studiousness. One Joaquin Garrido, a
Spanish mestizo, with poor memory but bright and studious. Resembling him very much was
one Moises Santiago, mathematician and penman. One was Gonzalo Marzano, who then
occupied the canopied throne of a Roman Emperor. You should know that in the Jesuit
colleges, in order to stimulate students, they put up two empires, one Roman and the other
Carthaginian or Greek, constantly at war, and in which the highest positions were won through
challenges, the winner being the one who made three mistakes less than his rival. They put
me at the tail end. I scarcely knew Spanish but I already understood it. After retreat (18) I left
and I found my brother waiting for me to take me home, which I was about twenty-five
minutes from the college for I didn’t want to stay in the walled city (19) which seemed to me
very gloomy. I found a companion called Pastor Millena, a boy of my own age. The house was
small, located at Caraballo Street. A river ran alongside two corners. The house consisted of a
dining room, a drawing room, a sleeping room, and kitchen. A bower covered the small space
between the gate and the stairs. My landlady was an unmarried woman called Titay, who
owed us over 300. Her mother lived with us, a good old woman, almost harmless insane, and
some young Spanish mestizos, the fruits of frail love affairs. I shall not tell you how much I
suffered, nor shall I tell you of my displeasures and joys. I will only tell you what happened to
me in the class during that year. At the end of one week, I was promoted and I stayed at noon
at the Colegio de Sta. Isabel, (20) paying three pesos there. I lived with Pastor. A month later I
was already the emperor. Ah, how happy I was when for the first time I got a religious print for
a prize! In the first quarter I won a first prize with the grade of excellent, but afterwards I was
disgusted on account of some words uttered by my professor, and I did not want to study
hard any more, so that at the end of the year, to my misfortune, I obtained only accessit (21) in
all my subjects, grade of excellent without getting any first prize. I spent my vacation in my
hometown and I accompanied my elder sister Neneng to Tanauan for the town feast. This
happened in 1873. But my happiness was never complete for my mother was not yet with us. I
went to visit her then alone without telling my father about it. This was after the school term
and I told her that I received accessit. With what delight I surprised her! But afterwards we
embraced each other weeping. It was almost more than a year that we had not seen each
other. Even now I remember with sad pleasure the mute scene that occurred between us. Ah,
how cruel men are towards their fellow men! I visited her again. When vacation was over, I had
to return to Manila to enroll for the second year course and to look for a landlady inside the
walled city, for I was tired living outside the city. I found one on Magallanes Street, number 6,
where lived an old lady called Doña Pepay, widow, with her daughter, also a widow, called
Doña Encarnacion with four sons. José, Rafael, Ignacio, and Ramon. Nothing extraordinary
happened to me this year. I only had other classmates, or rather, I encountered again three
who were my classmates in Biñan. They were called Justiniano Sao-jono, Angel and Santiago
Carrillo. At the end of the year I won a metal and I returned to my hometown. I visited my
mother again alone and there, like another Joseph, I predicted, interpreting a dream of hers,
that within three months, she would be released, a prediction that was realized by accident.
But this time I began to devote myself to my leisure hours to the reading of novels, though
years before I h ad already read El Ultimo Abencerraje, (22) but I didn’t read it with ardor.
Imagine a boy of twelve years reading the Count of Montecristo, (23) enjoying sustained
dialogues and delighting in its beauties and following step by step its
hero in his revenge. Under the pretext that I had to study universal history, I importuned my
father to buy me Cesare Cantu’s work, (24) and God alone knows the benefit I got from its
perusal, for despite my average studiousness and my little practice in the Castilian tongue, in
the following year I was able to win prizes in the quarterly examinations and I would have won
the medal were it not for some mistakes in Spanish, that unfortunately I spoke badly, which
enabled the young man M. G., a European, to have an advantage over me in this regard. Thus,
in order to study the third year course, I had to return to Manila and found Doña Pepay without
a room for boarders. I had to stay at the house of D. P. M. together with a rich fellow
townsman called Quintero. I was discontented because they were strict with me but I kept
regular hours, which was good for me. I prayed and played with the landlord’s children. My
mother was not delayed in coming out free, acquitted, and vindicated, and as soon as she was
out she came to embrace me. I wept. . . . After two months and a half, I left that house and
returned to the recently vacated room in the house of my landlady, Doña Pepay, and returned
also to the same life as before. As a result of what happened to me in my studies, as I have
already narrated, I received only the first prize in Latin, that is, a medal, not like last year, so
that I returned to my hometown discontented, though I knew that many would have danced
with joy for less. My family resolved to put me in the college as a boarder. Indeed it was time
for I was giving very little attention to my studies. I was already approaching thirteen years
and I had not yet made any brilliant showing to my classmates. Until here lasted my happiest
days, though short; but what does it matter if they were short? Calamba, 7 April 1879. (01)
Father José A. Burgos (1837-1872) and two other Filipino clergymen Jacinto Zamora (1835-
1872) and Mariano Gomez (1799-1872) were garroted on the 17th of February 1872 on
Bagumbayan Field Manila falsely charged of complicity in the mutiny at the Cavite Arsenal in
1872. (02) Mestizo in the Philippines to Filipinos of mixed parentage; hence, Spanish mestizo
is the offspring of a Spaniard and a Filipino; a Chinese mestizo, of a Chinese and a Filipino;
American mestizo, of an American and Filipino, etc. A Catholic practice consisting of a certain
number of days devoted to religious meditation and exercises. This is the Walled City of
Manila or intramuros where many churches and convents and government buildings were
found. This was a large boarding school for girls in front of the Ateneo. Apparently it then
admitted boys as day boarders. Second prize. Spanish version of Le Denier des Abencer ages
a novel by Viscount Francios Rene de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) A novel of Alexander
Dumas, father (1802-1870) (03) (04) (05) (06) (07) (08)
(09) Cantu’s book was entitled Universal History.

Chapter 5: Two Years in College

Soon to become eighteen years old and disillusioned, scarcely have I stepped on life’s
threshold, I direct my glance toward the first time the breath of the tempest, already engulfed,
turns his glance toward the shore and reminds him of his peaceful hours. Ah, I weep for you,
placid hours that disappeared from the scene of my life more rapidly and fugaciously than
lightning that shines on the dark road of the traveler. So sad is my situation that I doubt if I
had ever been happy at all for I doubt if those days had ever existed. During vacation my
sisters made clothes for me and during that time also my sister made clothes for me and
during that time also my sister Narcisa married . . . I cannot portray here what I felt on seeing
the separation of a sister whom I loved so much . . . and notwithstanding it had to be thus. I
entered college then on 16 June 1875. My classmates received me well. The brother
wardrobe-keeper assigned to me an alcove located in the corner of the dormitory looking out
to the sea and the embankment. It consisted of a space of about two square varas, (25) an
iron bedstead on which they placed my bedding, a small table with a basin, which a servant
filled with water, a chair and a clothes rack. I forgot to say that in the little table I had a drawer
with soap, comb, brushes for the hair and for the teeth, powder, etc. My little money that
amounted to some eight pesos, I kept under my pillow. We didn’t go to the alcove but twice a
day regularly, once at siesta to wash and again at night to sleep. On holidays, in the
afternoons, we dressed and we went out for a stroll. The rest of the time we spent in the study
hall, at recess, in the classes, in the dining room, and in the chapel. In spite of my thirteen
years to fourteen, I was still very small, and as it is known that new students, especially the
small ones, are received by the big ones with jokes, so it was on my first day, my pranks
having attracted their attention. In a chorus they teased me and when they calmed down I told
them in a tranquil voice: “Gentlemen, thanks.” Since then they respected me and they didn’t
tease me maliciously. Excepting a few, all my companions were good, simple, pious, just, and
amiable. There was no one among us who would want to control the rest by force, for power
is achieved through skill. I had the luck to win if not the love at last the esteem of all of them.
The names of some of my classmates shall never be eased from my memory; among them
that of one Jovellanos, of one Lete (Enrique) and of others whose enumeration would be very
pleasant for me but I foresee will be vexing to the reader. Our Professor was a model of
uprightness, earnestness, and love of the advancement of his pupils; and so much was his
zeal that I, who scarcely spoke very ordinary Spanish, at the end of a short time, succeeded
already to write it moderately well. His name was Francisco de Paula Sanchez. With his aid I
studied mathematics, rhetoric, and Greek with some advantage. Often I got sick with fever
despite the gymnastic exercises that we had, in which I was very much behind, though not so
in drawing under a teacher worthy of his name and under whose guidance I still continue to
study. I’m proud to tell you, reader, that I spent this year better than anybody else as a student,
as a man, and as a Christian. Ten months passed that I haven’t written anything in my diary
because I don’t want to relate to you inspired occurrences, and
thank God I won five medals with an immense pleasure for with them I could somewhat repay
my father for his sacrifices. What sentiments of gratitude did not then spring from my heart
and wit what sad delight I kept them still! After having bidden farewell to my superiors,
teachers, and companions, I left. . . Who has not felt the vague melancholy that seizes the
heart upon separating from one’s companions? Who, at the age of fourteen years, if he has
enjoyed the favor of the Muses, does not shed tears on the transition from childhood to young
manhood? My arrival at my hometown in the company of a father who idolized me mitigated
somewhat my sorrow, and I spent my vacation in the best way possible. I retained to college
after three months and I began to study again, though the subject that I took was different. I
was in the fifth year and already I was a philosopher. I had other professors, called Fathers
Vilaclara and Minoves, the first one of whom liked me very much and to whom I was
somewhat ungrateful. Although I was studying philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural
history and in spite of the fact that Father Vilaclara had told me to give up the society of the
Muses and give them a last goodbye (which made me cry), in my leisure hours, I continued
speaking and cultivating the beautiful language of Olympus under the direction of Father
Sanchez. So sweet is their society that after having tasted it, I cannot conceive how a young
heart can abandon it. What matters, I said to myself, the poverty that is the eternal companion
of the Muses? Is there anything sweeter than poetry and sadder than the prosaic positivism of
metallic hearts? Thus I dreamed then! I studied the fifth year course with the same success as
the previous one, though under other circumstances. Upright, severe philosophy, inquiring into
the why of things attracted also my attention as did poetry, beautiful as she alone can be,
playing with the charms of nature and leaving traces that breathe sublimity and tenderness.
Physics, lifting up the veil that covers many things, showed me a wide stage where the divine
drama of nature was performed. The movement, sound, warmth, light, electricity, a thousand
varied phenomena, the most beautiful colors and delicate beauties entertained me during my
free hours. Polarization plunged me into a world of mysteries from which I have not yet
emerged. Ah, how beautiful is science when the one teaching it knows how to embellish it!
Natural history seemed to me somewhat antipathetic. Why, I asked myself, if the perusal of
history and the description of the birds and flowers, of animals and of crystals captivate me
so much, why do I loathe seeing them reduced to a harsh order and wild animals mixed with
tame ones? Shells pleased me very much for their beauty and because I knew that they
inhabited the beaches of which my innocent imagination dreamed and treading on them I
imagined the most beautiful waters of the seas and lakes lapping my feet. Sometimes I
seemed to see a goddess with a shell that I saw in the shelf. At last the end of the term came
and the same thing happened to me. I carried away another five medals due to the indulgence
with which my superiors treated me and to my no little luck in winning them.
The day before the distribution of prizes, a feeling tormented me, the saddest and most
melancholy that I had ever felt. On thinking that I had to leave that asylum of peace in which
was somewhat opened my mind and my heart began to have better sentiments, I fell into a
profound sadness. The last night on going to my dormitory and considering that night would
be the last I would spend in my peaceful alcove, because, according to what they said, the
world was waiting for me, I had a cruel presentiment which unfortunately was realized. The
moon shone mournfully,
illuminating the lighthouse and the sea, presenting a silent and grand spectacle that seemed
to tell me that the next day another life awaited me. I was unable to sleep until one o’clock in
the morning. It dawned and I dressed. I prayed fervently in the chapel and commended my life
to the Virgin so that when I should step into that world which inspired me with so much terror,
she would protect me.
The prizes were distributed, they gave me the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and I believe that
any young man who was fifteen years old, loved by his companions and professors, with five
medals and the degree of Bachelor of Arts, the dream of the student of the secondary course,
should be very much contented. (26) But, alas, it did not turn out that way! I was sad, cold, and
pensive. Two or three tears rolled down my cheeks, tears offered as in farewell to the time
past, to my good luck that would never come back, to my peace that soared to heaven leaving
me alone on earth. Imagine it and you will feel if, if you have a heart. Now it remains for me to
evaluate the two years that I consider the happiest of my life, if happiness consists in living
without vexatious cares. In what way have I advanced, that is, what had I learned during the
first year of my residence in college? What did I get from what I had learned? I entered college
still a child with very little knowledge of Spanish, with a moderately developed mind, and
almost without refined sentiments. By force of study, of analyzing myself, of aspiring higher,
of a thousand corrections, I was little by little transformed thanks to the beneficent influence
of a zealous professor. My mortality of that time makes me now sigh on remembering that
state of sweetest tranquility of my spirit. By cultivating poetry and rhetoric, my sentiments
were further elevated and Virgil, Horace, Cicero, and other authors showed me another road
through which I could walk to attain one of my aspirations. I don’t know if my present state
makes me see the beauty of the past and the sadness of the present, but the truth is that
when I was a college student, I never wanted to leave college and that now I would give
anything to get over this terrible age of youth. Had I been perchance like the brook that, while
following its delightful way amidst willows and dense flowers smiles and frolics and upon
being converted into a torrent angrily and turbulently flings itself until it is buried in the sea?
My second year in college resembled the first with the difference that patriotic sentiments as
an exquisite sensibility had been greatly developed in me. It passed like the first among
principles of logic, physics, and poetical compositions. I had advanced somewhat in the
cultivation of the Muses so much that I had composed a legend that suffered very slight
correction by my professor and a dialogue that was staged for the first time at the end of the
school term, alluding to the students’ farewell. Goodbye then, beautiful, unforgettable period
of my life, brief twilight that will not shine again! If my eyes no longer shed tears upon
recalling you, my heart melts and seems to be oppressed! I have your memory here in my
heart, in my mind, in my whole being. Farewell fortunate hours of my lost childhood; fly to the
bosom of pure Innocence that created you to sweeten the moments of tender hearts. Manila,
1 December 1879. (01) A vara is a measure of length, about 32 inches. (02) W. E. Retana,
Rizal’s Spanish biographer, writes in his Vida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal(Madrid, 1907, p. 30)
“. . . Rizal at the age of scarcely sixteen years, or rather when he left the Ateneo with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts in his pocket, was studious, very
studious; reflective, modest, of great moral honesty; and besides having passed with the
grade of excellent in all subjects and won through competition almost all the prizes, had
shown signs of being a poet, and designer. In truth, the same cannot be said of all men.
Chapter 7: From January to December 1878
The short vacation ended without any important happenings. On the 6th of January I took
leave of my parents and returned to Manila, my second hometown. The old house on
Magallanes Street received again the guest who since childhood had taken shelter in its
shelter in its shadow. An indefinable malaise and sadness like remorse took hold of my heart.
I spent the night in vague, most melancholy reflections. It dawned. I sat down on my chaise
lounge and I almost cried on remembering my family and my old friends. My roommate found
me praying. The days of January, February, and March passed almost without any incident. I
was waiting only for some news from her. During these months I had the discussion of
Metaphysics, that is, I maintained most intricate, vyingly complicated questions in Latin.
I came out very middling for I had not prepared as I should. I took the examination in
Metaphysics in March and I obtained the grace of excellent. I had the same success in the
examinations in topography, winning two medals in this and in agriculture. My mother had
given me for expenses that month something like 15.00 I bought a little tortoise-shell box and
presented it to my professor of drawing. (33) And not having anything more to do, I went
home to spend the long vacation. (1)Don Augstine Saez, eminent painter in Manila.
Looking back to Chapter 1 in his Memoirs, answer the following questions:
1. Who was the first teacher of Rizal? – His mother?
2. What were the important things taught to Rizal by his mother? How old was
he at the time? – alphabet and prayers

3. In Chapter 8, what was his mother trying to teach him that became a life
lesson for Rizal? What was the fable about and from what book it was? – be obedient, do not
be the young moth. fable of the young and old moths from amigo de los ninos

4. Who were the private tutors of Rizal as young boy growing up in Calamba?
What did they teach Rizal? (you may search the internet to find answers). – maestro celestino,
maestro lucas padua, maestro leon Monroy . They teach Spanish and latin

5. In Chapter 2 of his memoirs, how old was Rizal when he first left home to
study? Where did he go? Who were the teachers and what were the lessons
taught to Rizal? – 9 years old. Binan. Justiniano aquino crus teach him latin, Juancho teach
him painting

6. What happened to him on the first day of school? – he fought someone

7. What did Rizal do afterschool, how would you describe his daily routine?
What did he usually eat for breakfast and dinner? – four o clock mass, study, productive, rice
and two dried small fish

8. How long did Rizal stay in Binan for his studies and what year? – 1 and a half year or 2
years?

9. After his studies in Binan, where and when did Rizal take an entrance exam
for his secondary education? Who was with him? – Manila on June 10, 1872 at college of San
juan de letran with his brother panciano.

10. What were the subjects given in the entrance exam and how did Rizal do? – Christian
doctrine, arithmetic, and reading. He got a grade of “approved”.

Chapter 4 – 1872 – 1875

1. Although he passed his entrance exam in College of San Juan de Letran,
where did Rizal go for his secondary schooling? At what age? – Ateneo Municipal, 11 years
old?

2. Was Rizal readily admitted in the Municipal school? Why? – No, because he had come after
school period of admission was over or because of his rather weak constitution and short
stature.

3. Who does not want to allow Rizal to be admitted in school? Who helped Rizal
to get in the school? Who were the other students in the school? – Rev. Father Miniter does
not want to admit him. With the request of mr. manuel jerez, nephew of the ill-fated father
burgos, he was admitted. Great number of children, Spaniards, mestizos and filipinos.

4. Name the students Rizal mentioned and including the qualities. Who do you
most identify with? - Florencio Gavino Oliva had an excellent mind but was of ordinary
studiousness. One Joaquin Garrido, a Spanish mestizo, with poor memory but bright and
studious. Resembling him very much was one Moises Santiago, mathematician and penman.
One was Gonzalo Marzano, who then occupied the canopied throne of a Roman Emperor.

5. Who was the first professor of Rizal in Ateneo? Describe briefly the way
Jesuits motivate the students to excel. - He was called Father José Bech. He was a tall man,
thin, with a body slightly bent forward, with hasty pace, an ascetic, severe and inspired
physiognomy, sunken, small eyes, sharp Grecian nose, fine lips forming an arch whose ends
turned towards his beard. The Father was somewhat a lunatic so that one should not be
surprised to find him sometimes disgusted himself, playing like a child.

6. What was Rizal’s class standing in the beginning and how long did it take
before he was Emperor and what did he to do excel? – he was at tail end and it took him a
month later to become an emperor. At the end of 1 week he was promoted and stayed at noon
at the colegio de sta. Isabel paying three pesos tjere

7. Where was Rizal staying when he first came to study in Ateneo, what was the
location? – house 25 mins away from school with pastor millena at Caraballo street.

8. During his vacation from Ateneo, where would he go and what would he do? – go to his
hometown to visit his family, accompany his sister neneng to Tanauan for the town feast, to
visit his mother din ata

9. According to Rizal, he devoted his leisure time doing what? – reading of novels

10. How did Rizal rate himself as a student during this time? – He was discontented

Chapter 5 – Two Years in College

1. When (date) did Rizal enter college and how old was he at the time? – June 16 1875, 13
years to 14 years old or was he soon to be 18? idk

2. How was his stature or built at this age and how was he treated by classmates because of
it? – he was still very small, small new students often received jokes from big ones, rizal got
pranked and teased him in chorus

3. Briefly relate what Rizal did in one incident that made this kind of treatment
stop. – he talked to them in tranquil voice and said “gentlemen, stop”
4. What was Rizal referring to when he said, “I could somewhat repay my father
for his sacrifices.” - What sentiments of gratitude did not then spring from my heart and wit
what sad delight I kept them still! To pay his father for making his study?? For his tutors?? Idk
lol

5. Rizal had a unique way of defining the college courses he was taking, how did
he describe philosophy, physics and science, just to name a few? - philosophy, inquiring into
the why of things attracted also my attention as did poetry, beautiful as she alone can be,
playing with the charms of nature and leaving traces that breathe sublimity and tenderness.
Physics, lifting up the veil that covers many things, showed me a wide stage where the divine
drama of nature was performed. The movement, sound, warmth, light, electricity, a thousand
varied phenomena, the most beautiful colors and delicate beauties entertained me during my
free hours. Polarization plunged me into a world of mysteries from which I have not yet
emerged. Ah, how beautiful is science when the one teaching it knows how to embellish it!

6. Which subject or study was his favorite in college? Who was the professor he
really admired? How did he describe the professor? – His favorite subject was society of
muses??? Language of Olympus??? Francisco de paula sanchez. He was a model of
uprightness, earnestness, and love of the advancement of his pupils; and so much was his
zeal that I, who rizal spoke very ordinary Spanish, at the end of a short time, succeeded
already to write it moderately well.

7. How old was Rizal when he graduated from Ateneo? What degree was
awarded to him and how many medals he received? – 15 years old, degree of bachelor of arts,
5 medals

8. What emotion overcame Rizal upon graduation and why? What year was
this? – feeling tormented me, the saddest and most melancholy that I had ever felt. On
thinking that I had to leave that asylum of peace in which was somewhat opened my mind and
my heart began to have better sentiments, I fell into a profound sadness. The last night on
going to my dormitory and considering that night would be the last I would spend in my
peaceful alcove, because, according to what they said, the world was waiting for me, I had a
cruel presentiment which unfortunately was realized.

He was sad, cold, and pensive. Two or three tears rolled down my cheeks, tears offered as in
farewell to the time past, to my good luck that would never come back, to my peace that
soared to heaven leaving me alone on earth. Imagine it and you will feel if, if you have a heart.
Now it remains for me to evaluate the two years that I consider the happiest of my life, if
happiness consists in living without vexatious cares.

It was year 1877??

9. In Chapter 7, what other two examinations Rizal took in 1878 and what was
the result? – January 6. Metaphysics and topography winning 2 medals in this and in
agriculture