Rizal Place in Dapitan

Jamon, Jessica
Arroyo, Vaneza April
Quiatchon, Jerald
Gabalda, Krestyl Ann
 Rizal initially stayed in the house of the governor and military
commandant near the town’s plaza. Later, he was allowed to
move to the coastal barangay of Talisay where he bought a 16-
hectare piece of land using his lottery earnings. He said in another
letter to his friend that “Talisay is the proper name of the piece of
land I have bought.” Although the place is named after the talisay
tree, Rizal said in a letter to Manuel Hidalgo on 8 February 1893
that there was no talisay tree in the area.
 So, he thought of calling his farm Balunò (Baunò) after the trees that
were found there. As soon as he settled down, Rizal cleared the land, planted
rice and corn, and built a house, a clinic and a school. In another letter to
Hildalgo on 7 March 1893, he said:

“My house will be finished either tomorrow or after tomorrow. It is very

pretty for its price (40 pesos) and it turned out better than what I wanted. My
lot cannot be better and I am improving it every day... I have plenty of land
to accommodate at least five families with houses and orchards."
 In another letter to Blumentritt on 19 December 1893, Rizal described how he lived:
“I have three houses; one square, another hexagonal, and a third octagonal, all of
bamboo, wood and nipa. In the square house we live, my mother, sister Trinidad, a nephew
and I; in the octagonal live my boys or some good youngsters whom I teach arithmetic,
Spanish and English; and in the hexagonal live my chickens. From my house I hear the
murmur of a crystal clear brook which comes from the high rocks; I see the seashore, the sea
where I have small boats, two canoes or barotos, as they say here. I have many fruit trees,
mangoes, lanzones, guayabanos, baluno, nangka, etc. I have rabbits, dogs, cats, etc. I rise
early—at five—visit my plants, feed the chickens, awaken my people and put them in
movement. At half-past seven we breakfast with tea, pastries, cheese, sweetmeats, etc. Later
I treat my poor patients who come to my land; I dress, I go to the town in my baroto, treat
the people there, and return at 12 when my luncheon awaits me. Then I teach the boys until
4 P.M. and devote the after-noon to agriculture. I spend the night reading and studying.”
 In his poem, My Retreat, Rizal shared a glimpse of his new home:
Beside a spacious beach of fine and delicate sand and at the foot of a mountain greener
than a leaf, I planted my humble hut beneath a pleasant orchard, seeking in the still serenity
of the woods repose to my intellect and silence to my grief. Its roof is fragile nipa; its floor
is brittle bamboo; its beams and posts are rough as rough-hewn wood can be; of no worth, it
is certain, is my rustic cabin; but on the lap of the eternal mount it slumbers and night and
day is lulled by the crooning of the sea. The overflowing brook, that from the shadowy
jungle descends between huge boulders, washes it with its spray, donating a current of water
through makeshift bamboo pipes that in the silent night is melody and music and crystalline
nectar in the noon heat of the day. If the sky is serene, meekly flows the spring, strumming
on its invisible zither unceasingly; but come the time of the rains, and an impetuous torrent
spills over rocks and chasms—hoarse, foaming and a boil— to hurl itself with a frenzied
roaring toward the sea. The barking of the dog, the twittering of the birds, the hoarse voice
of the kalaw are all that I hear; there is no boastful man, no nuisance of a neighbor to impose
himself on my mind or to disturb my passage; only the forests and the sea do I have near.