Childhood in Calamba

• Rizal's childhood was the happiest period of his life.
• Calamba, the hero's hometown, belonged to the Dominican Order.
• A few kilometers south of Calamba lies mount Makiling.
• East of the town is Laguna de Bay.
• Rizal was a student in the Ateneo de Manila in 1876 when he was 15 years old.
• When he was fifteen, he wrote the poem entitled In Memory of My Town (Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo)
• Rizal was sickly, underweight, undersized, and frail as a child.
• He had his own nipa cottage where he played in the day, built by his father.
• He had an aya (nurse maid) who has a kind old woman and who took care of him and his health.
• He began birdwatching at the age of 3, observing the culiauan, the maya, the maria capra, the martin, and the pipit.
• He recited the Angelus prayer daily.
• Of all his sisters, Jose loved little Concepcion best.  She was only a year younger than him, and fell ill and died at the age of 3.
• The death of his sister was Jose's first grief.
• Jose and his father went on a pilgrimage to Antipolo on June 6, 1868 so that they could fulfill his mother's vow, which she made when Jose was born.  Teodora could not join them on this pilgrimage because she had given birth to Jose's sister Trinidad.
• After the pilgrimage, Jose went with his father to Manila where they visited his sister Saturnina, who was then a boarding student at La Concordia College in Santa Ana.
• On "The Story of the Moth," Rizal thought that the creature's death was justified because he believed that to sacrifice one's life for one's ideals is worthwhile.
• He began sketching at the age of five.
• He had a black dog named Usman.
• At the age of eight, Jose wrote his first poem entitled Sa Aking Mga Kababata (To My Fellow Children).
• When he was also eight years old, Rizal write his first dramatic work, which was a Tagalog comedy.  It was staged in a festival in Calamba, and was later sold to a gobernadorcillo from Paete for two pesos.
• Jose was skilled in operating marionettes.
• He used to meditate by Laguna de Bay with his pet dog, Usman.