RIZAL:

Life, Works and Writings

by Harren James S. Bautista
Licensed Customs Broker ∣ Master in Public Administration

Chapter 1: “A Hero is Born”

Lemery Colleges- COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

 A HERO IS BORN
-Anthropologist – Folklorist – Poet
– Botanist – Geographer – Philologist
– Businessman – Grammarian – Philosopher
– Cartographer – Historian – Polemist
– Dramatist – Horticulturist
Lemery Colleges-
– Psychologist
– Economist – Humorist – Satirist
– Educator – Lexicographer – Sculptor
– Engineer – Linguist – Sportsman
– Essayist – Musician – Sociologist
– Entomologist – Novelist – Surveyor
– Ethnologist – Painter – Traveler
– Farmer – Physician – zoologist
The World when Rizal was
Born
• in 1861, the year when Rizal was born in Calamba, Laguna
• Near midnight of Wednesday, June 19, 1861
• It was a moonlight night, being “a few days before the full of the
moon”
• The delivery was exceeding difficult, and the mother almost died
• Her seemingly miraculous survival was attributed to Our Lady of
Peace and Good Voyage
• Baptized by Rev. Rufino Collantes in the catholic church of calamba
on June 22, 1861, three days after his birth
The World when Rizal was
Born
• His Godfather was Rev, Pedro Casanas
• He was named “Jose” by his pious mother, in
honor of St. Joseph
• It was customary for catholic parents to name
their children after the saints
• The full name : “Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y
Alonso Realonda”
The World when Rizal was
Born
• Jose Rizal was the 7th of the eleven children
• Father: Francisco Mercado Rizal
• Mother: Teodora Alonzo Reolonda
• Both father and mother were model Filipino
parents:
– Religious, educated, industrious, affectionate but
strict, hospitable and civi-spirited
 The World when Rizal was
Born
• Hero’s father died in Manila at the • Hero’s mother died in Manila at
age of 80 the age of 85
• He was an educated farmer having • A graduate of Santa Rosa College
studied Latin and Philosophy at the
• She was a talented woman with
College of San Jose in Manila
high culture, business ability and
• He married a college-bred Manilena,
literary gift
Teodora, on June 28, 1848
• Rizal called him as “model of fathers”
• “My mother is more than a
woman of ordinary culture, she
• He was a quite, serious, frugal man,
taller than the average filipino, with
knows literature and speaks
wide shoulders, brown complexion, Spanish better than I, She is
prominent forehead, large dark eyes, mathematician and has read
large ears, and firm jaws many books”
 The Rizal Children
• 1. Saturnina- oldest of the Rizal
Children
• 2. Paciano- the older brother, he
joined the revolution and
became a general
• 3. Narcisa- she married Antonio
Lopez, a school teacher in
Morong Rizal
• 4. Olympia, she married
Sylvestre Ubaldo, A telegraph
Operator
• 5. Lucia- She married Mariano
Herbosa of Calamba
• 6. Maria- She married Daniel
Faustino Cruz of Binan, Laguna
• 7. JOSE- the “LUCKY SEVEN” in the
family, he married Jospehine
Bracken
• 8. Concepcion- she died at the age
of 3
• 9. Josefa- She did not marry, she
died an old maid
• 10. Trinidad- she died an old maid
like Josefa
• 11. Soledad- the youngest of the
Rizal children, she married
Pantaleon Quintero of Calamba
 Ancestry of Rizal
• Jose Rizal, like a typical Filipino, was a mixed
ancestry
• In his veins flowed the bloods of both east and
west- Negrito, Indonesian, Malay, Chinese,
japanese and spanish
• The original name of the Rizal family was
Mercado- which means “market”
• The term “Rizal” came from the Spanish word
ricia which means “green field” or “ new pasture”
 The Rizal Family
• The Rizal family was one of the richest families
in Calamba
• By present-day standards, they were rich
• They were the first to build a large stone house
in calamba, first to own a carruaje, the first to
own a home library (estimated to consist of
more than 1,000 volumes), the first to educate
their children in the Colleges of Manila
 The Rizal Family
• The Rizal family raised rice, corn, and sugar in
large tracts of land rented from the dominican
estate of Calamba
• Also, It operated a sugar mill, a flour mill and a
home made ham press
• The hero’s mother, owned a store in town
which sold many articles of trade needed by
the people
 The Rizal Family
• Don Francisco and Doña Teodora were
gracious hosts to all visitor- priests, alferez
(lieutenant of the guardia civil), spanish
officials, and filipinos- during holidays, such as
Christmas, town fiesta and other occasions.
• It participated in all social and religious
activities in the community
 The Rizal Home
• It was rectangular in shape “of adobe stone
and hardwood with a red-tiled roof”
• Behind, it were the poultry yard full of turkeys
and chickens and the garden of tropical fruit
trees- atis, balimbing, macopa, papaya, santol
etc.