Rizal’s Life, Family,

Childhood, and Early

Education
Reporter:
Clarissa Rompe
Zaira Kathryl Daymon
Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna on
June 19, 1861. He was the second son, and the seventh among eleven
children, of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso.
The Rizal family was known to be well-off family in Calamba, Laguna
and they considered as one of the biggest families in those times.

Jose Rizal came from a 13-member family with nine sisters and one
brother. he was the 7th child among his 10 siblings.
Saturnina
Paciano
Narcisa
Olympia
Lucia
Maria
Concepcion
Josefa
Trinidad
Soledad
Jose Rizal had a mixed racial heritage that reflected the diverse ethnic
and cultural influences present in the Philippine during the colonial
period. He was of mixed Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish ancestry.
Rizal was a prolific writer. He opposed violence, but battled injustice
using his pen. Rizal's two books, "Noli Me Tangere" (Touch Me Not),
which he wrote while he was in Berlin, Germany in 1887, and "El
Filibusterismo" (The Rebel) in Ghent, Belgium, in 1891 exposed the
cruelties of the Spanish friars in the Philippines, the defects of the
Spanish administration, and the vices of the clergy. These two books
told about the oppression of the Spanish colonial rule, and they made
Rizal a marked man to the Spanish friars.
In 1892 when Rizal returned to the Philippines, he formed La Liga
Filipina, a nonviolent society of patriotic citizens. It was a forum for
Filipinos to express their hopes for reform and promote progress
through commerce, industry, and agriculture. The Spanish authorities
perceived the Liga as a threat and arrested Rizal.
On July 6, 1892, he was imprisoned in Fort Santiago, on the charge of
instigating unrest against Spain. He was exiled to Dapitan, in
northwestern Mindanao. During the four years he remained in political
exile in Dapitan, he practiced medicine, established a school for boys,
and promoted community development projects. He applied his
knowledge in engineering by constructing a system of waterworks to
furnish clean water to the townspeople. In Dapitan, he also met, fell in
love with, and lived with Josephine Bracken.
In 1896, the Katipunan, a nationalist secret society, launched a revolt
against the Spaniards. Although Jose Rizal had no connection with the
organization, his enemies tried to link him with the revolt. To avoid
being involved in the move to start a revolution, he asked Governor
Ramon Blanco to send him to Cuba, but instead, he was brought back
to Manila and jailed for the second time in Fort Santiago.
On December 26, 1896, after a trial, Rizal was convicted of rebellion,
sedition, and forming an illegal association. He was sentenced to death.
On the eve of his execution, while confined in Fort Santiago, Rizal wrote
a poem "Mi Ultimo Adios" ("My Last Farewell") and hid it inside a
portable alcohol stove. He gave the stove to his sister Trinidad and his
wife Josephine.
He was executed on December 30, 1896, at the age of 35 by a firing
squad at Bagumbayan, now known as Luneta Park in Manila.

Jose Rizal was a man of many accomplishments—a linguist, a novelist, a

poet, a scientist, a doctor, a painter, an educator, a reformer, and a
visionary. He left his people his greatest patriotic poem, "Mi Ultimo
Adios," to serve as an inspiration for the next generations.
Rizal’s Childhood Memories
● His parents employed an aya (nurse maid) who looked after his
comfort. His aya told him a lot of stories about the fairies, asuang, the
nuno and the tikbalang.
●Another childhood memory was the daily praying of Angelus. By
nightfall, Rizal related, his mother gathered all the children at their altar
to pray the Angelus.
●Another memory of Rizal's infancy was the nocturnal walk
●Un Cuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town) - a poem about
Rizal's beloved town written by Rizal in 1876 when he was 15 years old
and was student in the Ateneo de Manila.
●The death of little Concha brought Rizal his first sorrow.
●At the age of three, he began to join religious processions, novena in
the church At the age of five, he was able to read the Spanish bible with
the help of his mother.
●The Story of the Moth - made the profoundest impression on Rizal
"died a martyr to its illusions'
●At the age of five, Rizal began to make sketches with his pencil and to
mold in clay and wax objects which attracted his fancy
●Sa Aking Mga Kabata (To My Fellow Children) - Rizal's first poem in
native language at the age of eight, it reveals Rizal's earliest nationalist
sentiment
Early Education
●Maestro Celestino - Rizal's first tutor
●Maestro Lucas Padua - second tutor
●Leon Monroy - a former classmate of Rizal's father, he lived at the
Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he
did not live long. He died five months later.
●June 1869 at the age of eight, Rizal needed to leave his family to study
in Biñan.
The First Day to Binan
●Maestro Justiniano Cruz - he had the reward and punishment as his
method of teaching; he used corporal punishment to inculcate
discipline to his students

● Pedro - he was challenged by Rizal to a fight

●Juancho - Rizal's teacher in painting.

Return to Calamba
●December 1870- he received a letter from his sister Saturnina advising
him to ride the steamer Talim that would bring him back to Calamba.

●December 17, 1870 1:00 in the afternoon, Saturday - he reached his

home at Calamba
References:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/jose-rizal