MACARAIG, CHERRYL MAE D.

RIZAL’S LIFE AND WORK

BSA 301 LUCES MARIA
Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda

A boy was born on June 19, 1861, to proud parents Francisco Rizal
Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonza y Quintos in the Philippine
town of Calamba, province of Laguna.
He was the seventh child to be born to the Mercado family. The
newborn baby was given the name Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado. Jose
Rizal Mercado, who was the seventh child in a family of eleven,
showed incredible excellence and enthusiasm for learning from a very
young age when he learned his alphabet from his mother and was
able to read and write by the time he was five.
The Mercado family placed an emphasis on education, therefore
young Jose Protacio was sent to study with nearby Binan, Laguna
tutor Justiniano Aquino Cruz. However, the tutoring he received and
the schooling he received in his little town did not satisfy the young
man's passion for knowledge, and soon his family started making
plans for his entrance to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in the
Philippines' capital.
A young man like Jose Protacio Mercado certainly would fit in at the
Jesuit Order school, which was one of the most prestigious and
scholarly institutions in the nation and catered to its wealthiest, most
powerful, and smartest pupils.
His older brother Paciano Rizal Mercado insisted that Jose drop the
surname "Mercado" before enrolling in this prestigious school
because at the time Mercado was suspected by Spaniards.
On March 14, 1877, Jose Rizal received a degree in land surveying
and assessment from the Ateneo de Municipal de Manila, where he
intended to further his studies.
After earning his degree from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he
continued to pursue his love of the arts by enrolling at the University
of Santo Tomas' Faculty of Arts and Letters to pursue a degree in
philosophy. Though he was a philosophy prodigy, he enrolled in the
University of Santo Tomas' Faculty of Medical Sciences to pursue a
career in ophthalmology after learning of his mother's imminent
blindness. Rizal left the medical program in 1882, citing the
Dominican professors' prejudice against Filipino pupils.
With the help of his older brother Paciano but without telling his
parents, he boarded a ship to Spain since he thought that the
country's educational opportunities were limited.
His ten years on the European continent would significantly mold his
personality, expand his mind, nurture his inherent talents, and deepen
his love for his native home.
He resumed his studies in Spain after they were put on hold in the
Philippines and enrolled at the Universidad Central de Madrid, where
he earned degrees in medicine and philosophy and letters from the
same university in 1884 and 1885, respectively. He went to France to
study at the University of Paris because, despite earning these two
degrees, he was still unfulfilled.
He studied at the University of Heidelberg under the renowned
ophthalmologist Professor Otto Becker in an effort to deepen his
understanding of his chosen field of focus, ophthalmology.
Rizal composed his book Noli Me Tangere during his first visit to
Europe. The book was originally published in 1887 in Berlin, Germany,
and was written in Spanish. A young Filipino guy travels to Europe to
study, and when he comes home, he has discovered awareness of the
injustices and corruption in his home country. This story is told in The
Noli, as it is more generally known.
Rizal paid attention to the Filipinos who had accepted the rules of
their colonizers, forgetting their own nationality, and adopted
complicated characters to portray the various personalities and
qualities of both the oppressors and the oppressed;