On Leaving for Spain

But as God has not made anything useless in this world, as all beings fulfill obligations or a role in the sublime drama of Creation, I cannot exempt myself from this duty, and small though it be, I too have a mission to fulfill, as for example: alleviating the sufferings of my fellow-men. I realize that all this means sacrifices, and terrible ones.  I imagine the pain which I must give you (parents), but I feel something that obliges and impels me to leave.  I shall strive with fate, and I shall win or lose... God's will be done.

On the Martyrdom of GomBurZa

Without 1872 there would not be now either a Plaridel or Jaena, or Sanciangco, nor would there exist brave and generous Filipino colonies in Europe; without 1872 Rizal would be a Jesuit now and, instead of writing Noli Me Tangere, would have written the opposite.  At the sight of those injustices and cruelties while still a child my imagination was awakened and I swore to devote myself to avenge one day so many victims and with this idea in mind I have been studying, and this can be read in all my works and writings.  God will someday give me an opportunity to carry out my promise.

Education

Education in Binan

• During the time of Rizal, education was characterized by the 4Rs: reading writing, arithmetic, and religion.
• Rizal, although he was born a physical weakling, became an intellectual giant.
• His first teacher was his mother.
• At the age of 3, Rizal learned to recite the alphabet and prayers.
• Jose had private tutors to teach him lessons at home:  Maestro Celestino, then Maestro Lucas Padua.
• Leon Monroy, who as a former classmate of Jose's father, taught the young boy Spanish and Latin.
• When Leon Monroy died, Jose's parents decided to send him to a private school in Binan.
• When Jose left for Binan, he was accompanied by his brother Paciano.
• Jose lodged at his aunt's house in Binan.
• Rizal's school in Binan was in the house of his teacher, Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.
• Pedro, the teacher's son, was not very fond of Jose.  He bullied Rizal, and this led to Jose's first school brawl.
• Jose also took painting lessons in Binan, and was taught by an old painter named Juancho, his schoolteacher's father-in-law.
• He was the best student in school, beating all the Binan boys.
• His schooling in Binan lasted for a year and a half.

 Education in the Ateneo de Manila

• Jose was sent to Manila four months after the friars Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora were martyred.
• He studied in the Ateneo Municipal, which was under the supervision of the Spanish Jesuit priests.
• The Ateneo Municipal was later named Ateneo de Manila.
• Jose's father had intended him to study at Letran, but changed his mind and sent him to the Ateneo instead.
• At first, the college registrar, Fr. Magin Ferrando, refused Jose's admission because the boy had registered late and he was sickly and small for his age.
• Rizal was nonetheless admitted to the Ateneo with the help and intercession of Manuel Xeres Burgos, a nephew of the martyred priest.
• Jose adopted the name Rizal to escape suspicion.  His brother Paciano had used the name Mercado, and was now known to the authorities as Jose Burgos' favorite student.
• The quality of education in the Ateneo was more advanced.
• Students were divided into two groups: the "Roman Empire" (boarders) and the "Carthaginian Empire" (non-boarders).
• The best student in each empire was the emperor, followed by the tribune, then the decurion, the centurion, and the fifth best was the standard-bearer.
• The Romans had red banners, and the Carthaginians had blue.
• Jose's first professor at the Ateneo was Fr. Jose Bech.
• To improve his Spanish, Jose took private lessons in Santa Isabel College at noon breaks.
• Rizal's first favorite novel was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.
• He won a medal in Latin.
• Jose considered Fr. Sanchez as his best professor in the Ateneo.
• He obtained the highest grades in all subjects and graduated with the highest honors.
• When Rizal was 16 years old he had his first romance with Segunda Katigbak.  Unfortunately, the lady was already engaged to be married.  Rizal, as a shy and timid lover, failed to propose despite her encouragement.

Medical Studies at the University of Santo Tomas

• After finishing one year in Philosophy and Letters, Jose transferred to the medical course.
• He enrolled in UST for two reasons: (1) to appease his father, and (2) because he was still unsure of what career he should pursue.
• Rizal took up medicine following the advice of Fr. Pablo Ramon, the Rector of the Ateneo.  He also did so to be able to cure his mother's growing blindness.
• He finished a surveying course in the Ateneo, but was not given the title of Surveyor because he was still 17 and underage.
• After finishing four years in the medical course, Rizal decided to study in Spain.  He did not seek his parents' permission for this, because he knew they would not allow it.

On Memories at Laguna de Bay

I spent many, many hours of my childhood down on the shore of the lake, Laguna de Bay.  I was thinking of what was beyond.  I was dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the waves.  Almost every day, in our town, we saw the Guardia Civil lieutenant caning and injuring some unarmed and inoffensive villagers.  The villager's only fault was that while at a distance he had not taken off his hat and made his bow.  The alcalde treated the poor villagers in the same way whenever he visited us.

We saw no restraint put upon brutality.  Acts of violence and other excesses were committed daily... I asked myself if, in the lands which lay across the lake, the people lived in this same way.  I wondered if there they tortured any countryman with hard and cruel whips merely on suspicion. Did they there respect the home?  Or ever yonder also, in order to live in peace, would one have to bribe tyrants?

On The Story of the Moth

One night, all the family, except my mother and myself, went to bed early.  Why, I do not know, but we two remained sitting alone.  The candles had already been put out.  They had been blown out in their globes by means of a curved tube of tin. That tube seemed to me the finest and most wonderful plaything in the world.  The room was dimly lighted by a single light of coconut oil. In all Filipino homes such a light burns through the night. It goes out just at day-break to awaken people by its spluttering.

My mother was teaching me to read in a Spanish reader called "The Children's Friend" (El Amigo de los Ninos). This was quite a rare book and an old copy. It had lost its cover and my sister had cleverly made a new one. She had fastened a sheet of thick blue paper over the back and then covered it with a piece of cloth.

This night my mother became impatient with hearing me read so poorly.  I did not understand Spanish and so I could not read with expression.  She took the book from me.  First she scolded me for drawing funny pictures on its pages.  Then she told me to listen and she began to read.  When her sight was good, she read very well. She could recite well, and she understood verse-making, too. Many times during Christmas vacations, my mother corrected my poetical compositions, and she always made valuable criticisms.

I listened to her, full of childish enthusiasm. I marvelled at the nice-sounding phrases which she read from those same pages.  The phrases she read so easily stopped me at every breath.  Perhaps I grew tired of listening to sounds that had no meaning for me.  Perhaps I lacked self-control.  Anyway, I paid little attention to the reading.  I was watching the cheerful flame. About it, some little moths were circling in playful flights. By chance, too, I yawned.  My mother soon noticed that I was not interested.  She stopped reading.  Then she said to me: "I am going to read you a very pretty story.  Now pay attention."

On hearing the word 'story' I at once opened my eyes wide.  The word 'story' promised something new and wonderful. I watched my mother while she turned the leaves of the book, as if she were looking for something.  Then I settled down to listen.  I was full of curiosity and wonder.  I had never even dreamed that there were stories in the old book which I read without understanding.  My mother began to read me the fable of the young moth and the old one.  She translated it into Tagalog a little at a time.

My attention increased from the first sentence. I looked toward the light and fixed my gaze on the moths which were circling around it.  The story could not have been better timed.  My mother repeated the warning of the old moth. She dwelt upon it and directed it to me.  I heard her, but it is a curious thing that the light seemed to me each time more beautiful, the flame more attractive.  I really envied the fortune of the insects.  They frolicked so joyously in its enchanting splendor that the ones which had fallen and been drowned in the oil did not cause me any dread.

My mother kept on reading and I listened breathlessly. The fate of the two insects interested me greatly.  The flame rolled its golden tongue to one side and a moth which this movement had singed fell into the oil, fluttered for a time and then became quiet.  That became for me a great event.  A curious change came over me which I have always noticed in myself whenever anything has stirred my feelings.  The flame and the moth seemed to go further away and my mother's words sounded strange and uncanny. I did not notice when she ended the fable. All my attention was fixed on the face of the insect.  I watched it with my whole soul... It had died a martyr to its illusions.

As she put me to bed, my mother said: "See that you do not behave like the young moth. Don't be disobedient, or you may get burnt as it did." I do not know whether I answered or not... The story revealed to me things until then unknown.  Moths no longer were, for me, insignificant insects. Moths talked; they know how to warn. They advised just like my mother. The light seemed to me more beautiful. It had grown more dazzling and more attractive. I knew why the moths circled the flame.

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.

Birth and Family Life

Jose Rizal was born on June 19, 1861.  It was a Wednesday evening in Calamba, Laguna, and his mother nearly died in the process.  He was baptized three days later, on June 22, by the parish priest of the Catholic church in his town, Fr. Rufino Collantes from Batangas.  His godfather, Fr. Pedro Casanas, was a close family friend.  Rizal's mother named him after St. Joseph, to whom she was ardently devoted.

RIZAL'S BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE

His baptismal certificate reads:

"I, the undersigned parish priest of Calamba, certify that from the investigation made with proper authority, for replacing the parish books which were burned September 28, 1862, to be found in Docket No. 1 of Baptisms, p.49, it appears by the sworn testimony of competent witnesses that Jose Rizal Mercado is the legitimate son, and of lawful wedlock, of Don Francisco Rizal Mercado and Dona Teodora Realonda, having been baptized in this parish on the 22nd day of June in the years 1861, by the parish priest Rev. Rufino Collantes, Rev. Pedro Casanas being his godfather. -- Witness my signature."

(Signed): Leoncio Lopez

RIZAL'S FAMILY

Francisco Mercado Rizal was born on May 11, 1818 in Binan, Laguna.  He was a graduate of the College of San Jose in Manila, studying Latin and Philosophy.  Francisco moved to Calamba to become a tenant-farmer of a hacienda owned by the Dominicans.  He died at the age of 80 on January 5, 1898 in Manila. About his father, Jose Rizal says that he is "a model of fathers."
 

Teodora Alonso Realonda was born on November 8, 1826 in Manila.  She was a graduate of the College of Santa Rosa.  She died at the age of 85 on August 16, 1911 in Manila. About his mother, Jose Rizal says, "My mother is a woman of more than ordinary culture; she knows literature and speaks Spanish better than I. She corrected my poems and gave me good advice when I was studying rhetoric. She is a mathematician and has read many books."

Rizal is the seventh of eleven children:

1. Saturnina
2. Paciano
3. Narcisa
4. Olimpia
5. Lucia 
6. Maria
7. Jose
8. Concepcion
9. Josefa
10. Trinidad
11. Soledad

Rizal's family was a mixture of races.  They were a combination of Negrito, Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, though Jose was predominantly Malayan.

THE SURNAME

Mercado was the original surname of the Rizal family.  Domingo Lamco, Jose's great-great-grandfather, adopted the name Rizal in 1731 and it became a second surname of the family.  In Jose's letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, he says:

"I am the only Rizal in because at home my parents, my sisters my brother, and my relatives have always preferred our old surname Mercado. Our family name was in fact Mercado, but there were many Mercados in the Philippines who are not related to us.  It is said that an alcalde mayor, who was a friend of our family added Rizal to our name.  My family did not pay much attention to this, but now I have to use it.  In this way, it seems that I am an illegitimate son."

-- But of course, we all know that he is not.



To view the Rizal family's genealogy and bloodline, click here.