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EARLY CHILDHOOD OF RIZAL

Calamba, Binan
19 June 1861
JOSE RIZAL, the seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y
Quintos, was born in Calamba, Laguna.

Francisco Mercado Rizal had studied Latin and Philosophy at the College of San
Jose in Manila. He became a tenant-farmer of the Dominican-owned hacienda.

Teodora Alonso Realonda was educated at the College of Santa Rosa. She had
literary talent, business ability, a mathematician and has read many books. She was
a devotee of San Jose (Saint Joseph).

He was baptized JOSE RIZAL MERCADO at the Catholic of Calamba by the parish
priest Rev. Rufino Collantes with Rev. Pedro Casañas as the sponsor.

Father Collantes impressed by the baby’s big head told the members of the family
who were present: “Take good care of this child, for someday he will become a
great man.”

The parochial church of Calamba and the canonical books, including the book in
which Rizal’s baptismal records were entered, were burned.

Barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet from his mother.

When he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child in the Rizal family,
died at the age of three. It was on this occasion that Rizal remembered having shed
real tears for the first time.

Rizal was their second surname given by a Spanish alcalde mayor in Laguna; it
means a field where wheat, cut while still green, sprouts again

Rizal Children
1. Saturnina - Neneng
2. Paciano - after Jose’s execution, he joined the Philippine Revolution and became
a combat general
3. Narcisa - Sisa, married to Antonio Lopez (nephew of Father Leoncio Lopez0
4. Olimpia - Ypia
5. Lucia
6. Maria - Biang
7. Jose - Pepe
8. Concepcion - Concha, her death was Rizal’s first sorrow in life
9. Josefa - Penggoy
10. Trinidad - Trining
11. Soledad - Choleng

Rizal’s Ancestry
In his veins flowed the blood of both East and West - Negrito, Indonesian, Malay,
Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. Predominantly, he was a Malayan and was a
magnificent specimen of Asian manhood.
Domingo Lameo Ines de la Rosa
Lakandula
(Chinese) (Chinese)

Eugenio Ursua Benigna

(Japanese) (Filipino)
Francisco Mercado Cirila Bernacha
(Chinese) (Chinese-Filipino)
Regina Ursua Manuel de Quintos
(Japanese-Fil) (Filipino-Chinese)

Juan Mercado Cirila Alejandro

(Chinese-Filipino) (Chinese-Filipino) Brigida de Quintos Alberto Alonso
(Jap-Fil-Chinese) (Spanish-Filipino)

Francisco Mercado Teodora Alonso

(Chinese - Filipino) (Chinese - Fil-Jap-Spanish)

The Rizal family belonged to the principalia, a town aristcracy in Spanish Philippines.
They owned a carriage, which was a status symbol of the ilustrados and a private
library (the largest in Calamba).

Uncle Manuel Alberto, seeing Rizal frail in body, concerned himself with the physical
development of his young nephew and taught the latter love for the open air and
developed in him a great admiration for the beauty of nature.

Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, instilled into the mind of the boy love for education. He
advised Rizal: "Work hard and perform every task very carefully; learn to be swift as
well as thorough; be independent in thinking and make visual pictures of
everything."

The Hero’s First Teacher

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good
character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet
and the prayers. "My mother," wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, "taught me how to
read and to say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God."

As tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she
who first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she
encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s
and to stimulate her son’s imagination, she related many stories.

As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home.
The first was Maestro Celestino and the second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old
man named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the boy’s
tutor. This old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and
Latin. Unfortunately, he did not lived long. He died five months later.

After a Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents decided to send their gifted son to a
private school in Biñan.

The Story of the Moth

Of the stories told by Dona Teodora, that of the young moth made the profoundest
impression on him.

The tragic fate of the young moth, which “died a martyr to its illusions,” left a deep
impress on Rizal’s mind. He justified such noble death, asserting that “to sacrifice
one’s life for it,” meaning for an ideal, is “worthwhile.” And, like that young moth, he
was fated to die as a martyr for a noble ideal.

Jose Goes to Biñan

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was a typical schooling that
a son of an illustrado family received during his time, characterized by the four R’s-
reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge
was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the tedious memory method
aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the defects of the Spanish system of
elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction
preparatory for college work in Manila. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a
physical weakling, rose to become an intellectual giant not because of, but rather in
spite of, the outmoded and backward system of instruction obtained in the
Philippines during the last decades of Spanish regime.

First Day in Biñan School

The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of
Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30
meters from the home of Jose’s aunt.

Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him
before. He introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return to
Calamba.

Jose described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with
sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt,
woven by the skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by the heart the
grammars by Nebrija and Gainza. Add to this severity that in my judgement was
exaggerated and you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but
I remember only this."

First School brawling - the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was
having his siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun
of him during his conversation with the teacher in the morning.

Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could
easily beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and younger.
The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates.
Jose, having learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the
bigger boy. For this feat, he became popular among his classmates.

After the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged
him to an arm-wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled
with their arms. Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on
the sidewalk.

In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not
quarrelsome by nature, but he never ran away from a fight.

Best Student in School

In academic studies, Jose beat all Biñan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish, Latin,
and other subjects.

Some of his older classmates were jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly
squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and even
told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes. Consequently the teacher had to
punish Jose.

Early Schooling in Biñan

When he was nine years old, his father sent him to Biñan to continue studying Latin,
because his first teacher had died. His brother Paciano took him to Biñan one
Sunday, and Jose bade his parents and sisters good-bye with tears in his eyes. Oh,
how it saddened him to leave for the first time and live far from his home and his
family! But he felt ashamed to cry and had to conceal his tears and sentiments. "O
Shame," he explained, "how many beautiful and pathetic scenes the world would
witness without thee!"

His teacher in Biñan was a severe disciplinarian. His name was Justiniano Aquino
Cruz. "He was a tall man, lean and long-necked, with a sharp nose and a body
slightly bent forward. He used to wear a sinamay shirt woven by the deft hands of
Batangas women. He knew by memory the grammars of Nebrija and Gainza. To this
add a severity which, in my judgement I have made of him, which is all I remember."

The boy Jose distinguished himself in class, and succeeded in surpassing many of his
older classmates. Some of these were so wicked that, even without reason, they
accused him before the teacher, for which, in spite of his progress, he received
many whippings and strokes from the ferule. Rare was the day when he was not
stretched on the bench for a whipping or punished with five or six blows on the open
palm. Jose’s reaction to all these punishments was one of intense resentment in
order to learn and thus carry out his father’s will.

Jose spent his leisure hours with Justiniano’s father-in-law, a master painter. From him
he took his first two sons, two nephews, and a grandson. His way life was methodical
and well regulated. He heard mass at four if there was one that early, or studied his
lesson at that hour and went to mass afterwards. Returning home, he might look in
the orchard for a mambolo fruit to eat, then he took his breakfast, consisting
generally of a plate of rice and two dried sardines.

After that he would go to class, from which he was dismissed at ten, then home
again. He ate with his aunt and then began at ten, then home again. He ate with his
aunt and then began to study. At half past two he returned to class and left at five.
He might play for a short time with some cousins before returning home. He studied
his lessons, drew for a while, and then prayed and if there was a moon, his friends
would invite him to play in the street in company with other boys.

While he was studying in Biñan, he returned to his hometown now and then. How
long the road seemed to him in going and how short in coming! When from afar he
descried the roof of his house, secret joy filled his breast. How he looked for pretexts
to remain longer at home! A day more seemed to him a day spent in heaven, and
how he wept, though silently and secretly, when he saw the calesa that was flower
that him Biñan! Then everything looked sad; a flower that he touched, a stone that
attracted his attention he gathered, fearful that he might not see it again upon his
return. It was a sad but delicate and quite pain that possessed him.

Other highlights:
 At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem entitled "Sa Aking Mga Kabata."
The poem was written in Tagalog and had for its theme "Love of One’s
Language." It reveals Rizal’s earliest nationalist sentiment
 Dramatic work - Tagalog Comedy (title unknown), which was staged in a
Calamba festival
 Martyrdom of Gomburza
 Paciano Mercado dropped out of school - Father Burgos’ favorite student
and confidant
 It fueled his (Rizal) quest for freedom and to avenge the victims of cruelties
and injustices
 Injustice to hero’s mother
 Maliciously charged for “allegedly attempting to poison her sister-in-law in
connivance with her common law husband, Jose Alberto”
 She was forced to walk from Calamba to Santa Cruz
 She languished in jail for 2 and a half years

Influences:
Tiyo Jose Alberto - inspired Rizal to develop his artistic ability
Tiyo Manuel Alberto - encouraged Rizal to develop his frail body through
sports and other physical activities
Tiyo Gregorio Alberto - intensified his voracious reading of good books
Paciano Mercado - love for freedom and justice

Multi-talented Rizal
Polygloth
Rizal was fluent in twenty-two languages (Hebrew, Filipino, Ilokano, Bisayan, Subanon,
Chinese, Latin, Spanish, Greek, English, French, German, Arabic, Malay, Sanskrit,
Dutch, Japanese, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Russian

Polymath
He is a person of great learning in several fields of study. He was a journalist,
playwright, ophthalmologist, farmer, historian, painter, novelist, engineer, & educator.
He also had varying degrees of expertise in economics, ethnology, sociology,
anthropology, architecture, cartography, martial arts, dramatics, fencing, and pistol
shooting.
Sculptor
At 14 years old, using batikuling wood, Rizal carved a 9-inch statuette of the Sacred
Heart. He also made masterpieces out of plaster, terracotta, wax, and clay.

Not awarded his Doctor’s Diploma

Though Rizal practiced ophthalmology and dentistry, he was not awarded his
Doctor’s Diploma because he did not present the thesis required for graduation nor
paid the corresponding fees.

Animal Species named after Rizal

There were three species of animals that were named after Rizal (which he
apparently collected while he was in Dapitan) and these are: beetle - Apognia
Rizalis (Heller), flying dragon Draco Rizali (Wandolleck), and
toad - Rachophorous Rizali (Boetger).

Very Popular
Monuments, roads, and bridges were named after Rizal in these countries: Spain,
Germany, China, USA, Mexico, Peru, Czech Republic, and Canada. A Wickers-class
destroyer was named after Rizal by the United States Navy called, USS Rizal (DD-174).
He also appeared in the 1999 Medal of Honor video game as one of the secret
characters in the multiplayer game setup.