Rizal and His Childhood Life in Calamba

• Calamba

  An enchanted town situated, as if enclosed in a valley, between Laguna de Bay and Mt. Makiling, with a panoramic landscape as if nature has lavished this town with all its tenderest caresses
• Calamba at the time of Rizal's birth

  • An agricultural town virtually owned by the Dominican friars
  • A prosperous town due to its specialization in the production of sugar
  • Life was filled with hardships on the part of the people who were just tenants in the Dominican hacienda
  • Life was far better than in the other towns in Laguna during those times
• Nature has been good to the Calambeños, with its fertile soil and favorable climate, the people were able to raise and harvest different kinds of crops
• The picturesque beauty of the town provided the young Rizal the inspiration and springboard to hone his poetic and artistic sensibilities
• The misfortunes suffered by the tenants from the hands of the Guardia Civil and the Dominican friars, had ingrained in his young mind hatred of oppression and exploitation of the weak by the strong
• Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda

  Rizal's full name
• Rizal's birth


  June 19, 1861
• Rizal was the seventh child in the family of 11 children of Don Francisco and Doña Teodora
• Rizal's siblings in birth order

  • Saturnina (1850)
  • Paciano (1851)
  • Narcisa (1852)
  • Olimpia (1855)
  • Lucia (1857)
  • Maria (1859)
  • Jose (1861)
  • Concepcion (1862)
  • Josefa (1865)
  • Trinidad (1868)
  • Soledad (1870)
• Rizal's ancestry


  Mixture of races, with Chinese, Spanish and Japanese ancestry
• Rizal came from a mixture of races
• Rizal's great grandfather from his father side was a Chinese merchant named Domingo Lamco who married a wealthy Chinese mestiza, Ines dela Rosa
• In 1849, Domingo Lamco assumed the surname Mercado in keeping the gubernatorial decree of Narciso Claveria on the use of Spanish surnames in the Philippines by all Spanish subjects in the colony and to free themselves and their children from the prejudices associated with a Chinese surname
• Rizal's grandfather from his father side was Juan Mercado who married a Chinese-Filipino mestiza, Cirila Alejandro, and became a gobernadorcillo of Biñan
• Rizal's great grandfather on his mother's side was Manuel de Quintos, a Chinese mestizo from Lingayen, Pangasinan, who married Regina Ursua, a woman with Japanese ancestry
• Rizal's immediate family

  • Typical middle class family in the 19th century Philippines
  • Belonged to the principalia class or ruling elite of his town
  • Family had a stone house of adobe and hardwood, owned a carriage and horses, had a home library with numerous volumes of books, had personal servants, and could afford private tutoring for the children
  • Family had a thriving business in rice and sugar and could send their children for education in Manila
• Rizal's father, Don Francisco Mercado


  An educated man who took courses in Latin and Philosophy in Colegio de San Jose in Manila, described by Rizal as a model father owing to his honesty, frugality and industry
• Rizal's mother, Doña Teodora


  An educated woman who completed her education at the Colegio de Santa Rosa, a disciplinarian, a woman of more than average education and culture, a sacrificing and industrious housewife, from whom Rizal learned the values of warmth and virtue, and inherited a practical temperament, stoicism, self-sacrifice, temperament of a dreamer and fondness for poetry
• Owing to happy and comfortable life Rizal had, he had good memories of his childhood days in Calamba
• Rizal's childhood memories in Calamba

  • Staying in the garden to exchange stories with the family
  • The care demonstrated to him by his parents due to his poor health, and experiencing closeness to nature in the garden
  • The daily family prayer during Angelus, where all the members of his family gather and pray together
  • The legends and fairy tales narrated to him by his personal servant at the azotea, after the Angelus, which aroused in him an enduring interest in legends and folklores
• Rizal grew up a pious Catholic owing to the training provided him by his mother, learning how to pray and even read the Bible at three years old, which was strengthened by his frequent visit to Fr. Leoncio Lopez, the parish priest of Calamba, who made the young Rizal the need to develop a sound philosophy of life and the value of scholarship and intellectual honesty
• At the age of four, Rizal experienced his first sorrow when his younger sister Concepcion, whom he fondly called Concha, died
• As a young boy, Rizal spent many hours down the shore of Laguna de Bay, thinking of what was beyond, dreaming of what might be over on the other side of the waves
• Rizal witnessed everyday acts of violence and excesses committed against the Calambeños by the Guardia Civil and the Gobernadorcillo
• Rizal was a good observer, noting every detail of what he actually saw
• The story of the Moth and the Flame


  A story narrated to Rizal by his mother that left a deep impression on him, as it can be considered as Rizal's biography - just like the moth that died a victim of its illusion in search for the light, Rizal died a martyr in search of the lights of truth, freedom and justice, realizing that one has to sacrifice and suffer the consequence of one's action for the attainment of a goal
• Early demonstration of Rizal's inborn talent

  • Mastered the alphabet at three years old, showed great interest in reading, enjoyed reading books at home, demonstrated knack in sketching, painting, sculpture and literature, wrote his first poem at eight years old entitled "Sa Aking Kabata" which revealed his concept of nationalism even at a young age
• The arrest and incarceration of Rizal's mother, Doña Teodora, in 1871 due to alleged complicity in the attempted murder of his uncle's unfaithful wife, created in Rizal hatred of the Spanish Regime and mistrust of his fellowmen
• The martyrdom of Gomburza, which Rizal's older brother Paciano narrated to him when he was 11 years old, inspired Rizal to redeem the oppressed Filipinos
• Rizal's preparations for formal schooling

  • First taught by his mother, then had private tutors at home like Maestro Celestino, Maestro Lucas Padua, and Leon Monroy, who honed his skills in reading, writing, and the rudiments of Latin
  • Trained to become a middle-class intellectual or ilustrado, first under private tutors, then sent to a private secondary school and a university for college degree and studies in Europe
• Rizal's trainings as an ilustrado could explain why he did not have any real social consciousness at the very start, as he grew up detached from the people and did not understand their needs and aspirations