UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO

Rizal Lesson 3
 Detention of DoǹaTeodora

• the family Mercado has experienced a tragedy. It

was when DoǹaTeodora was arrested on the
charge of attempting to poison the wife of Jose
Alberto, her brother.
• The story behind the malicious charge was that
DoǹaTeodora got involved between Jose Alberto
and his wife on the issue of their divorce.

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Academic Triumph inAteneo Municipal
Rizal’s fruitful years in Biǹan Laguna bear him the basic
curriculum of his time, the four R’s: Reading, Writing,
Arithmetic, and Religion. After which, he has to
proceed to higher learning as a son of an ilustrado
couple inCalamba.
Supposedly, our hero has to attend college at San Juan
de Letran. However, Don Francisco has reservations in
his mind, hence urged Pepe to go to Ateneo Municpal
instead. In his mind, Paciano was a student and a
friend of Father Burgos (the Martyr) at San Juan de
Letran. The prying eyes of the Spanish officials may
later link our hero to Paciano and to the alleged crimes
of the three martyrs in February of the same year.

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• Rizal then matriculated at the Ateneo Municipal,
formerly named EscuelaPia. At first, Fr. MaginFerrando
refused to admit him because he was late for the
registration and he was sickly and undersized for his
age. However, Fr. Manuel Xeres Burgos interceded;
hence our hero became a student of Ateneo.
• Anticipating the suspicion of Spanish authorities to the
last name “Mercado”, as used by Paciano, our hero
used the last name Rizal. Thus, among the family, it was
Jose who first used the name.
• Taking the Bachelor of Arts degree, he then lived in a
house at Caraballo St. in Sta. Cruz, Manila. It was owned
by a certain Titay, a spinster, who owed the Rizal family
three hundred pesos. Rizal has to stay in her house as a
way to pay off the debt of the land lady.
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• Classes were divided to two and each was assigned
with empire names, Carthaginian and Roman. Our
hero, being a student who boarded outside the
school was assigned to the Carthaginians, who were
so called externos, while those who lived inside the
school or internos belonged to the Roman Empire.
In each empire, students were ranked according to
their performance. Among them were the majority
called the standard bearer, which was considered as
fifth best; higher, was the centurion; followed
higher, was the decurion; second higher, was the
tribune; and the highest in rank was the emperor.
Empires were assigned with their designated colors:
Romans, with red; and, Carthaginian, blue. Students
wore rayandillo as uniform.
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• To maintain his supremacy in class, Rizal studied
harder and spent hours reading useful and informative
resources. He even has convinced his father to buy him
a costly set of Historia Universal (Universal History),
authored by Cesar Cantu, declaring that it was a school
requirement. Other than that, Rizal was fun of reading
other fiction and reference books. Among those were
his most favorite novel by Alexander Duma, the Count
of Monte Christo and Dr. Feodor Jagor’s, a German
scientist, Travels to the Philippines.
• In his second year in Ateneo schooling, Rizal boarded
inside intramuros at No. 6 Magallanes St. with an old
widow landlady named Doǹa Pipay. It was said that
there was nothing unusual happened to himother than
meeting at school some of his former classmates in
Biǹan under Maestro Justiniano.
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The last year of Rizal in Ateneo was considered as his
most productive year. Among his professors, it was
Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez who has inspired him
most. He was noted by Rizal as “model of
uprightness, earnestness, and love for the
advancement of his pupils.” He made Rizal eager to
study further and to write poetry despite of
discouragements made by Fr. Jose Villaclara. As for
the latter, Rizal has to concentrate on things more
important and practical such as philosophy and
natural sciences. With the encouragement and
guidance of Fr. Sanchez, Rizal was able to accomplish
a series of poems from 1875 to 1877. In 1874 he wrote
a poem that he then dedicated to his mother,
entitled Mi Primera Inspiration (My First Inspiration).
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• Other than writing poems, Rizal made used of his
time doing extra-curricular activities. He wrote a
dramatic work as requested by Fr. Sanchez. Its
title was San Eustacio, Martir (St. Eustace, the
Martyr). Moreover, he exhibited his artistic skill
by carving an image of the Virgin Mary on a piece
of Philippine hardwood, batikuling, with his
pocket-knife. One of the priest professors, Fr.
Lleonart, was impressed and has requested our
hero to carve for him an image of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus.

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• Medical Pursuit inUniversity of Santo Tomas
• Carrying the degree Bachelor of Arts in his
pocket, Rizal advances learning at the University
of Santo Tomas. At first, the idea was
discouraged by DoǹaTeodora, knowing that the
brilliance of Rizal may cause him harm similar to
first Filipino patriots. She uttered “don’t send him
to Manila again; he knows enough. If he gets to
know more, the Spaniards will cut off his head”
(Rizal to Blumentritt, Nov. 8, 1888). But, with the
persistence of Don Francisco and Paciano, Rizal
got matriculated.

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• Upon his entry to the university, he took the course on Philosophy
and Letters. He was then uncertain as regards what career to
pursue, so he took the said course provided that his father liked it
and he could not seek advice from Father Pablo Ramon (Rector of
Ateneo), who was in Mindanao during those times. However, in
the following term, Rizal received an advice from the priest rector
to study medicine. Consequently, he simultaneously took the
preparatory medical course and the regular first year medical
course as well as Philosophy and Letters. The idea of taking
medicine was tendered by his desire that someday he would be
able to cure his mother’s growing blindness.
• To get more productive, he took and completed surveying course
in Ateneo (1878). It was a vocational course leading to the title
perito agrimensor (expert surveyor). As expected from him being
an Atenean, he excelled in all subjects in surveying. Hence, he
obtained gold medals in agriculture and topography and passed
the final examination in surveying at the age of 17. Sadly, he could
not be awarded with the title as he was too young to be qualified
until November 25,1881.

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- Being a Thomasian student, Rizal’s academic
performance has not soared as he did in Ateneo
Municipal. However, he garnered excellent grades
and few lower grades among his twenty-one
subjects in the university. Most of his classmates
that time were satisfied with the grades he
acquired, but our hero was not satisfied with
them. Yet, he never complained about them.

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• The Liceo Artistico-Literario (Artistic-Literary
Lyceum), a society of literary men and artists of
Manila, in 1879 held a literary contest.They offer a
prize for the best poem written by a native or
mestizo Filipino. As a man of letters, Rizal at the age
of 18 courageously submitted an entry entitled “A La
Juventud Filipina” (To the Filipino Youth).
• Year after the contest, the Liceo opened another
literary contest in commemoration of the 4th
centennial of the death of Cervantes, the author of
Don Quixote. In this contest, both Spaniards and
Filipinos compete to win the prize – priests,
newspapermen, scholars and professors. As an
entry, Rizal submitted an allegorical drama entitled El
Consejo de los Dioses (Council of the Gods)
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 Spanish Officer Brutality

• “I went to the Captain-General but I could not

obtain justice; my wound lasted two weeks.”
• Several biographers of Rizal have concluded that
the complaint of our hero was a failure because it
was customary for an indio to pay respect to
officials and our hero was one.

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• Decision to Study in Madrid
• One could not help but link the decision of our
hero to study abroad to the unpleasant
experiences that he had in the university. This
includes Zaide’s narrated unhappy days of Rizal in
UST and the Spanish brutality. But De Viana (2011)
proposed reasons why Rizal has to continue his
medical pursuits abroad. The latter elucidated:
• Rizal left for abroad to widen his knowledge and
compare the greatness and progress of the cultured
nations of the world with the slow, monotonous and
retrograde march of the colony; and
• To avail of more conducive conditions in Europe.

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• Hence, with the letter of endorsement of Pedro
Paterno to introduce Rizal to his friends in Spain
and a similar letter given by the Jesuits in Ateneo,
Rizal was accompanied by Gella and Tion Antonio;
they went to the Paseo de Magallanes and then
to the wharf on the Pasig River where the
Salvadora docked (Purino, pgs. 44- 45). It was on
the 3rd of May, 1882; a memorable day for every
Filipino as Rizal has opened his horizon to the
outside world where he will equip himself with
batons of knowledge and liberal ideals to fight
the Spanish tyranny for his countrymen.

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Thanks!

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