LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF

SANTO TOMAS

Guide Questions:

1. What were the courses Rizal take at

the University of Santo Tomas?
2. Who were the women Rizal had a
romantic relationship with?
3. What were Rizal’s prize-winning
literary works?
4. Why did Rizal decide to study abroad?
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• Fortunately, Rizal’s tragic first romance, with its bitter disillusionment,

did not adversely affect his studies in the University of Santo Tomas.
• After finishing the first year of a course in Philosophy and Letters
(1788-78), he transferred to the medical course.
• As a Thomasian, he won more literary laurels, had other romances with
pretty girls, and fought against Spanish students who insulted the
brown Filipino students.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Mother’s Opposition to Higher Education

– After graduating with the highest honors from the Ateneo, Rizal had to go to the
University of Santo Tomas for higher studies.
– Both Don Francisco and Paciano wanted Jose to pursue higher learning in the university.
– But Doña Teodora, who knew what happened to Gom-Bur-Za, vigorously opposed the idea
and told her husband: “Don’t send him to Manila again; he knows enough. If he gets to
know more, the Spaniards will cut off his head.”
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– Don Francisco kept quiet and told Paciano to accompany his younger brother to Manila,
despite their mother’s tears.
– Jose Rizal himself was surprised why his mother, who was a woman of education and
culture, should object to his desire for a university education.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Rizal Enters the University

– In April 1877, Rizal who was then nearly 16
years old, matriculated in the University of
Santo Tomas, taking the course of Philosophy
and Letters.
– He enrolled in this course for two reasons:
(1) his father liked it
(2) he was “still uncertain as to what career to
pursue”.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• He had written to Father Pablo

Ramon, Rector of the Ateneo, who had
been good to him during his student
days in that college, asking for advise
on the choice of a career.
• Consequently, during his first-year
term (1877-78) in the University of
Santo Tomas, Rizal studied
Cosmology, Metaphysics, Theodicy,
and History of Philosophy.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– It was during the following term (1878-79) that Rizal, having received the Ateneo
Rector’s advice to study medicine, took up the medical course, enrolling
simultaneously in the preparatory medical course and the regular first year medical
course.
– Another reason why he chose medicine for a career was to be able to cure his mother’s
growing blindness.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Finishes Surveying Course in Ateneo (1878)

• During his first school term in the
University of Santo Tomas (1877-78),
Rizal also studied in the Ateneo. He
took the vocational course leading to
the title of perito agrimensor (expert
surveyor).
• Rizal, excelled in all subjects in the
surveying course in the Ateneo,
obtaining gold medals in agriculture
and topography.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

At the age of 17, he passed the final examination

in the surveying course, but he could not be
granted the title as surveyor because he was
below age. The title was issued to him on
November 25, 1881.
He continued to participate actively in the
Ateneo’s extra-curricular activities. He was
president of the Academy of Spanish Literature
and secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
He also continued his membership in the Marian
Congregation, of which he was the secretary.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Romances with Other Girls

– Not withstanding his academic studies in the University of Santo Tomas and extra-
curricular activities in the Ateneo, Rizal had ample time for love.
– He was a romantic dreamer who like to sip the “nectar of love”. His sad experience with
his first love had made him wiser in the ways of romance.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• Shortly after losing Segunda Katigbak, he

paid court to a young woman in Calamba. In
his student memoirs, he called her simply
“Miss L”, describing her as “fair with
seductive and attractive eyes”.
• After visiting her in her house several times,
he suddenly stopped his wooing, and the
romance died a natural death.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• Nobody today knows who this woman was. Rizal himself did not give
her name. Hence, her identity is lost to history. However, he gave
two reasons for his change of heart, namely:
(1) the sweet memory of Segunda was still fresh in his heart and
(2) his father did not like the family of “Miss L”.
• Several months later, during his sophomore year at the University
of Santo Tomas, he boarded in the house of Doña Concha Leyva in
Intramuros.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– The next-door neighbours of Doña Concha were Capitan

Juan and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela from Pagsanjan,
Laguna, who had a charming daughter named Leonor.
– He courted Leonor Valenzuela, who was a tall girl with a
regal bearing.
– He sent her love notes written in invisible ink. This ink
consisted of common table salt and water. It left no trace
on the paper.
– But, as with Segunda, he stopped short of proposing
marriage to Orang.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– Rizal’s next romance was with another Leonor – Leonor

Rivera – his cousin from Camiling.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• In 1879, at the start of his

junior year at the university,
he lived in “Casa Tomasina,”
at No. 6 Calle Santo Tomas,
Intramuros.
• His landlord-uncle, Antonio
Rivera had a pretty daughter,
Leonor, a student at La
Concordia College, where
Soledad (Rizal’s youngest
sister) was then studying.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– Leonor, born in Camiling, Tarlac, on April 11, 1867, was a frail, pretty girl “tender as a
budding flower with kindly wistful eyes”.
– Between Jose and Leonor sprang a beautiful romance, they became engaged.
– In her letters to Rizal, Leonor signed her name as “Taimis”, in order to camouflage
their intimate relationship from their parents and friends.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Victim of Spanish Officer’s Brutality

– When Rizal was a freshmen medical student at the University of Santo Tomas, he
experienced his first taste of Spanish brutality.
– One dark night in Calamba, during the summer vacation in 1878, he was walking in the
street. He dimly perceived the figure of a man while passing him. Not knowing the person
due to darkness, he did not salute nor say a courteous “Good Evening”. The vague figure
turned out to be a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil. With a snarl, he turned upon Rizal,
whipped out his sword and brutally slashed the latter on the back.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– The wound was not serious, but it was painful.

– When he recovered, Rizal reported the incident to General Primo de Rivera, the Spanish
governor general of the Philippines at that time. But nothing came out of his complaint,
because he was an Indio and the abusive lieutenant was a Spaniard.
– Later, in a letter to Blumentritt, dated March 21, 1887, he related: “I went to the Captain-
General but I could not obtain justice; my wound lasted two weeks.”
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

“To the Filipino Youth” (1879)

– In the year 1879 the Liceo Artistico-Literario (Artistic-Literary Lyceum) of Manila, a
society of literary men and artists, held a literary contest. It offered a prize for the best
poem by a native or a mestizo.
– Rizal, who was then eighteen years old, submitted his poem entitled A La Juventud
Filipina (To the Filipino Youth).
– The Board of Judges, composed of Spaniards was impressed by Rizal’s poem and gave it
the first prize which consisted of a silver pen, feather-shaped and decorated with a gold
ribbon.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– In exquisite verses, Rizal beseeched the Filipino youth to rise from lethargy, to let their
genius fly swifter than the wind and descend with art and science to break the chains that
have long bound the spirit of the people.
– This winning poem of Rizal is a classic in Philippine literature for two reasons:
First, it was the first great poem in Spanish written by a Filipino, whose
merit was recognized by Spanish literary authorities.
Secondly, it expressed for the first time the nationalistic concept that
the Filipinos, and not the foreigners, were the “fair hope of the
Fatherland”.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

“The Council of the Gods” (1880)

– The following year (1880) the Artistic-Literary Lyceum opened another literary contest to
commemorate the fourth centennial of the death of Cervantes, Spain’s glorified man-of-
letters and famous author of Don Quixote. This time the contest was opened to both
Filipinos and Spaniards.
– Rizal, inspired by his poetical triumph the previous year, entered the literary joust,
submitting an allegorical drama entitled El Consejo de los Dioses (The Council of the
Gods).
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– The judges of the contest were all Spaniards.

– After a long and critical appraisal of the entries, they awarded the first prize to Rizal’s
work because of its literary superiority over the others.
– Despite all objections, the prize was awarded to Rizal, a gold ring on which was engraved
the bust of Cervantes.
– A Spanish writer, D.N. del Puzo, won the second prize.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Other Literary Works

– Rizal, although studying medicine, produced other poems and a zarzuela, this zarzuela
was Junto al Pasig (Beside the Pasig), which was staged by the Ateneans on December 8,
1880, on the occasion of the annual celebration of the Feast Day of the Immaculate
Conception, Patroness of the Ateneo. He wrote it as President of the Academy of Spanish
Literature in the Ateneo.
– In the same year (1880), he wrote a sonnet entitled A Filipinas for the album of the
Society of Sculptors. In this sonnet, he urged all Filipino artists to glorify the Philippines.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– The year before, in 1879, he composed a poem entitled Abd-el-Azis y Mahoma, which was
declaimed by the Atenean, Manuel Fernandez, on the night of December 8, 1879 in honor
of the Ateneo’s Patroness.
– Later, in 1881, he composed a poem entitled Al M.R.P. Pablo Ramon. He wrote this poem
as an expression of affection to Father Pablo Ramon, the Ateneo rector, who had been so
kind and helpful to him.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Rizal’s Visit to Pakil and Pagsanjan

– In the summer month of May, 1881, when he was still a
medical student at the University of Santo Tomas, Rizal
went on a pilgrimage to the town of Pakil, famous shrine
of the Birhen Maria de los Dolores.
– He was accompanied by his sisters – Saturnina, Maria
and Trinidad and their female friends.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– They took a casco (flat-bottom sailing vessel) from Calamba to Pakil, Laguna, and stayed
at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Regalado, whose son Nicolas was Rizal’s friend in
Manila.
– Rizal and his companions were fascinated by the famous turumba, the people dancing in
the streets during the procession in honor of the miraculous Birhen Maria de los Dolores.
– In Pakil, Rizal was infatuated by a pretty girl colegiala, Vicenta Ybardolaza, who
skillfully played the harp at the Regalado home.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– From Pakil, Rizal and his party made a side trip to the
neighboring town of Pagsanjan for two reasons – it was the
native town of Leonor Valenzuela, one of Rizal’s girl friends in
Manila, and to see the world famed Pagsanjan Falls.
– Years later Rizal mentioned the Turumba in Chapter VI of Noli
Me Tangere and Pagsanjan Falls in his travel diary (United
Sates – Saturday, May 12, 1888), where he said that Niagara
Falls was the “greatest cascades I ever saw” but “not so beautiful
nor fine as the falls at Los Baños, (sic) Pagsanjan”.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Champion of Filipino Students

– Rizal was the champion of the Filipino students in their frequent fights against the
arrogant Spanish students, who were often surpassed by the Filipinos in class work and
who insultingly called their brown classmates – “Indio, chongo!” In retaliation, the
Filipino students called them “Kastila, bangus!” Hostility between these two groups of
students often exploded in angry street rumbles.
– In 1880 he founded a secret society of Filipino students in the University of Santo Tomas
called Compañerismo (Comradeship). He was the chief of this secret student society, with
his cousin from Batangas, Galicano Apacible, as secretary.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Unhappy Days at the UST

– Rizal, Ateneo’s boy wonder, found the atmosphere at the University of Santo Tomas
suffocating to his sensitive spirit. He was unhappy at this Dominican institution of higher
learning because
(1) the Dominican professors were hostile to him
(2) the Filipino students were racially discriminated against by
the Spaniards, and
(3) the method of instruction was obsolete and repressive.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

– In his novel, El Filibusterismo, he described how the Filipino students were humiliated
and insulted by their Dominican professors and how backward the method of instruction
was, especially in the teaching of the natural sciences.
– He related in Chapter XIII, “The Class in Physics,” that his science subject was thought
without laboratory experiments.
– Because of the unfriendly attitude of his professors, Rizal, the most brilliant graduate of
the Ateneo, failed to win high scholastic honors. Although his grades in the first year of
the philosophy course were all “excellent,” they were not impressive in the four years of
his medical course. His scholastic records in the University of Santo Tomas (1879-82)
were as follows:
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

1877-1878 (Philosophy & Letters)

Cosmology & Metaphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Excellent
Theodicy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Excellent
History of Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Excellent
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

1878-1879 (Medicine) – 1st Year

Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fair
Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Excellent
Natural History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Anatomy 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Dissection 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

1879-1880 (Medicine) – 2nd Year

Anatomy 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Dissection 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Physiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Private Hygiene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
Public Hygiene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

1880-1881 (Medicine) – 3rd Year

General Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fair
Therapeutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Excellent
Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Good
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

1881-1882 (Medicine) – 4th Year

Medical Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Very Good
Surgical Pathology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Very Good
Obstetrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Very Good
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

Decision to Study Abroad

• After finishing the fourth year of his medical course, Rizal decided to
study in Spain.
• His older brother readily approved his going to Spain and so did his
two sisters Saturnina (Neneng) and Lucia, Uncle Antonio Rivera,
the Valenzuela family, and some friends.
• For the first time, Rizal did not seek his parents’ permission and
blessings to go abroad, because he knew that they, especially his
mother, would disapprove it.
 LESSON 6: AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS

• He did not bring his beloved Leonor into his confidence either. He
had enough common sense to know that Leonor, being a woman,
young and romantic at that, could not keep a secret.
• Thus, Rizal’s parents, Leonor, and the Spanish authorities knew
nothing of his decision to go abroad in order to finish his medical
studies in Spain, where the professors were more liberal than those
of the University of Santo Tomas.