Childhood Years in Calamba Biñan

Calamba, the Hero’s Town

• Calamba was an hacienda
town which belonged to
the Dominican Order,
which also owned all the
lands around it. It is a
picturesque town nestling
on a verdant plain
covered with irrigated
ricefields and sugar-lands.
Mount Makiling
Laguna de Bay
• An inland lake of
songs and
emerald waters
beneath the
canopy of azure
skies.
Island of Talim
Antipolo
• Famous
mountain
shrine of the
miraculous
Lady of Peace
and Good
Voyage.
 Earliest Childhood Memories
• The first memory of Rizal was his happy days
in the family garden when he was 3 years old.

• Second childhood memory of Rizal was the

daily Angelus Prayer.

• Third childhood memory was the nocturnal

walk in the town, when there was a moon.
 The Hero’s First Sorrow
• In 1865, Concha (Concepcion) died of
sickness at the age of three.

Devoted Son of the Church

• At the age of three, he began to take part
in the family prayers.

• When he was five years old, he was able

to read haltingly the Spanish family Bible.
• He loved to go to church, to pray, to take part
in novenas, and to join the religious
processions.

• He was so seriously devout that he was

launghingly called Manong Jose by the
Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras.

• The scholarly Father Leoncio Lopez, the town

priest that he used to visit and listen to his
stimulating opinions on current events and
sound philosophy of life.
• Jose learned to write and read thru a private
tutor Maestro Celestino and the second
Maestro Lucas Padua.
• Leon Monroy a former classmate of
Rizal’s Father became the boy’s tutor
 Pilgrimage to Antipolo
• On June 6, 1868, Jose and his father left
Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo, in
order to fulfill his mother’s vow which was
made when Jose was born.

• After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of

Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila.
They visited Saturnina, who was then a
boarding student at La Concordia College in
Santa Ana.
Artistic Talent
• Since early
childhood Rizal
revealed his God-
given talent for art.
• At the age of five, he
began to make
sketches with his
pencil and to mould
in clay and wax
objects which
attracted his fancy.
First Poem by Rizal
• Since early boyhood he
had scribbled verses on
loose sheets of paper and
on the textbooks of his
sisters.

• At the age of eight, Rizal

wrote his first poem in the
native language entitled
Sa Aking Mga Kababata
(To My Fellow Children)
 Rizal as Boy Magician
• Since early manhood Rizal had been interested in
magic. He learned various tricks such as making a
coin appear or disappear in his fingers and making a
handkerchief vanish in thin air.

• He entertained his town folks with magic-lantern

exhibitions.

• He also gained skill in manipulating marionettes

(puppet show).
• In later years when he attained manhood,
he continued his keen predilection for
magic. He read many books on magic and
attended the performances of the
famous magicians of the world.

• In chapter XVII and XVIII of his second

novel, El Filibusterismo (Treason), he
revealed his wide knowledge of magic.
 Influences on the Hero’s Boyhood
1. Heredity Influence:
• Malayan ancestors- love for freedom,
innate desire to travel and indomitable
courage.
• Chinese ancestors- serious nature,
frugality, patience and love for children.
• Spanish ancestors- elegance of bearing,
sensitivity to insult and gallanty to ladies.
• Father- Profound sense of respect, the love
for work and the habit of independent
thinking.
• Mother- religious nature, the spirit of self-
sacrifice and the passion for arts and
literature.

2. Environmental Influences:
• The scenic beauties of Calamba and the
beautiful garden of the Rizal family- inborn
artistic and literary talents of Jose Rizal.
• The religious atmosphere at his home-
religious nature.
• Brother, Paciano- love for freedom and
justice.
• Sisters- courteous and kind to women.
• Aya (Nurse Maid)- interest in folklore and
legends.
• Tito Jose Alberto- artistic ability.
• Tito Manuel- frail walking and wrestling.
• Tito Gregorio- voracious reading of good
books.
• Father Leoncio Lopez- love for scholarship
and intellectual honesty.
• Sorrows in his family- character, enabling him
to resist blows of adversity in late years.

3. Aid of Divine Providence:

• God- versatile gifts of a genius, the vibrant
spirit of nationalism and the valiant heart to
sacrifice for a noble cause.
Biñan Laguna
 Biñan Laguna
• First Teacher in Biñan of Pepe Maestro
Justiniano Aquino Cruz
• Pepe lived in a small hut about 30 meters
from the home of the aunt.
• Jose used to wear a sinamay shirt,woven by
the skilled hands of the women of Batangas.
• Jose challenged Pedro to a fight
• First Painting lesson by a painter Juancho
 Injustice to Hero’s Mother

• Before June of 1872,tragedy struck the Rizal

family.Dona Teodora was suddenly arrested on
a malicious charge that she and her brother.
• Jose Alberto wife was poison
• Jose Alberto ,a rich Binan ilustrado ,had just
returned from a business trip in Europe.
• After arresting Dona Teodora, the sadistic
Spanish Lieutenant forced her to walk from
Calamba to Santa Cruz a distance of 50
kilometers.