Life and Works of Rizal

• Bourbon Reforms


  • Pursued the state supremacy over the Catholic church, resulting in the suppressing of Jesuits in 1767 as well as ecclesiastical privileges
  • Gave deep consequences of colonial policy innovations in areas such as Mexico and the Philippines which was why it gave also the Philippine natives the idea that colonization could be done without much intervention from the Catholic church
• Opening of Suez Canal


  Decreased the travel time of the Philippines to Spain from 3 months to 32-40 days
• Rizal's Life: Family, Childhood and Early Education

  • Rizal came from a well-off family in Calamba, Laguna and they were considered as one of the biggest families in those times
  • They lived a life of comfort and prosperity, then considered that his family belonged to the principalia class or the ruling elite of their town
  • Jose Rizal came from a 13-member family, consisted of his father Don Francisco Mercado II and his mother Teodora Alonso Realonda
  • Jose Rizal had nine sisters and one brother
• Rizal's paternal ascendant

  • Domingo Lamco, a full-blooded Chinese
  • Adopted the surname Mercado, which means "market" in keeping with the gubernatorial decree of Narciso Claveria on the use of Spanish surnames
  • Rizal's father is one of the 14 children of Juan Mercado, paternal grandfather and his grandmother was Cirila Alejandrino, a Chinese-Filipino mestiza
  • Juan Mercado became a gobernadorcillo of Biñan Laguna
  • Rizal's maternal great grandfather was Manuel de Quintos, a Chinese mestizo from Lingayen, Pangasinan
• JOSE RIZAL'S SISTERS

  • Saturnina Rizal
  • Narcisa Rizal
  • Olympia Rizal
  • Lucia
  • Maria
  • Concepcion
  • Josefa
  • Trinidad
  • Soledad
• DON FRANCISCO RIZAL MERCADO (1818-1898)


  • Rizal's father was born on May 11, 1818 and was the youngest of his 13 siblings
  • Mercado was a well-respected man in their home town of Calamba in which citizens made him the their "cabeza de barangay" (head of town)
  • He was of part Chinese descent, having been related to a Chinese entrepreneur by the name of Domingo Lamco
  • Mercado died shortly after Rizal in the home of his daughter, Narcisa Rizal in Binondo, Manila on January 5, 1898
  • He was one of the richest family in Calamba, finished studies in Latin and Spanish, died at the age of 80
• TEODORA ALONSO (1827-1913)


  • Was born on November 14, 1827 in Santa Cruz Manila
  • Her parents were Lorenzo Alonso, a municipal captain and Brijida de Quintos, an educated housewife and had four other siblings
  • It is said that her great grandfather, Eugenio Ursua was of Japanese ancestry making her of Japanese descent
  • When she was 20 years old, she married Francisco Mercado, a native from Binan, Laguna
• SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913)

  • Saturnina Mercado Rizal Hidalgo was born in 1850 and was the eldest sister of Jose Rizal
  • She had five children together with husband Manuel T. Hidalgo and died the same year as her mother in 1913
  • Disciplinarian
• PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930)

  • General Paciano Mercado Rizal aka "Lolo Ciano" was the only brother of Jose Rizal
  • He was born in 1851 and studied in Biñan later attending school at the Colegio de San Jose in Manila
  • After the execution of his brother, he joined in the Philippine Revolution where he rose up to the ranks of a General
  • He later married Severina Decena of Los Banos and had two children of which one died at an early age
  • Paciano passed away in 1930
  • Inspiration to the character of Pilosopo Tasyo in Noli Me Tangere, he would constantly send money to Rizal, gives update to the abuses in the Philippines
• NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)

  • Narcisa Rizal Lopez was born in 1852 and was the one who found the unmarked grave of her brother, Jose in the abandoned Old Paco Cemetery
  • Narcisa married Antonio Lopez who was a teacher and musician from Morong, Rizal
  • She died in 1938
  • Strict as to the women Jose had eyes on
• OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887)


  • Olympia Rizal Ubaldo was born in 1855
  • She married Silvestre Ubaldo and together they had three children
  • She died in 1887 from childbirth when she was only 32 years old
• LUCIA


  Her husband was denied by the Christian burial (Mariano herbosa) because he was Rizal's brother-in-law
• MARIA


  Married to Daniel Faustino Cruz
• JOSE PROTACIO RIZAL MERCADO Y ALONSO REALONDA


  • Pepe- nickname, 7th child of the 11 siblings (just remember 7/11)
  • Jose- given by her mother, Protacio- from catholic calendar, Rizal- luntiang bukirin, Mercado- Domingo lamco (market) bilang merchants, y- and, Alonso- maiden surname, Teodora Alonso Realonda- surname of godmother of Dona Teodora Alonso
  • Born on June 19, 1861- between 11:00pm-12:00mn
  • Baptized by Father Rufino Collantes, Father Pedro Casanas- godfather; close friend of Rizal's family
• CONCEPCION


  Died at the age of 3, first heartbreak of Rizal
• JOSEFA


  Panggoy-nickname, epileptic member of Katipunan, Like Saturnina and Narcisa, very protective of Jose against the many girls who were objects of Rizal affection
• TRINIDAD


  Trining- nickname, She died with no husband
• Soledad


  Youngest sibling of Rizal, Married to Pantaleon Quintero
• THE RIZAL FAMILY


  Principalia; middle class, they had large 2-storey house, private library with 1,000 books, had carriage, all are educated in manila, can hire private tutor
• JOSE RIZAL'S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES


  • He had a nursemaid who told him stories of aswang, nuno, tikbalang, and fairies
  • They used to have daily prayer; Angelus
  • He used to walk at night
  • When he was 15 years old he composed a poem dedicated to his beloved Calamba Laguna; UN CUERDO A MI PUEBLO (IN MEMORY OF MY TOWN)
  • He was involved in novena with his family
  • He can read the Spanish Bible at the age of 5
  • He had a dog named "Braganza Usman"
  • Story of moth by his mother
  • He made his own monument
  • He knew sketching, drawing, clay molding, sculpting
  • Sa Aking Mga Kabata, his first poem at the age of 8
• CONTROVERSY OF RIZAL'S "SA AKING MGA KABATA"
• National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario


  • Clarifies in his book "Rizal: Makata", that the poem was not by Rizal
  • Provides pieces of evidence to prove his point, and one of these is a letter Rizal wrote his brother Paciano in 1886
  • In the letter, Rizal admitted to finding it difficult to translate into Filipino the German word freiheit, or the Spanish word libertad (freedom or liberty in English), which Rizal found in the story of William Tell
  • It was in Marcelo H. Del Pilar's translation of Rizal's article, El Amor Patrio (Ang Pag-Ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa), that Rizal saw the word "malaya" or "kalayaan" as the Tagalog equivalent of the word "libertad"
  • According to Almario, since Rizal only discovered the Tagalog word kalayaan when del Pilar translated El Amor Patrio in 1882, it was unlikely that Rizal wrote Sa Aking mga Kabata, which uses the word kalayaan, in 1869
  • The poem was published in 1906
• POSSIBLE POETS


  • HERMINIGILDO CRUZ - a Filipino writer and trade union organizer. He was a founding member of Union Obrera Democratica Filipina and a member of the Philippine Assembly
  • GABRIEL BEATO FRANCISCO - a Filipino novelist born in Sampaloc, Manila. He is also the author of "Ang Katipunan"
• RIZAL'S CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION


  • Jose Rizal (Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda) was born on June 19, 1861 at Calamba, Laguna
  • Three days after his birth, Rizal was baptized on June 22 of the said year with the name Jose Rizal Mercado at the Catholic church of Calamba by the parish priest Rev. Rufino Collantes
  • He was the seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos
  • During 1865-1867, his mother taught him how to read and write
  • At the age of three, Rizal mastered and learned the alphabet taught by his mother
  • One of them was Leon Monroy, a classmate of his father who taught him the rudiments of Latin
  • At about this time, his mother's cousin, Uncle Manuel Alberto, who frequently visited the family in Calamba, was worried about his nephew's physical development. He then taught Rizal to develop the skills in swimming, fencing, wrestling and other sports, while Uncle Jose taught him to love and admire the beauty of nature
  • On the other hand, Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, has instilled in Rizal's mind the love for education and its importance, the value of hard work, to think for himself, and to observe his surroundings carefully
  • When he was four years old, his sister Concepcion, the eighth child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three. This was the first time he cried as a young boy. As sad as he was, the parish priest of Calamba, Father Leoncio Lopez, helped Rizal understand the philosophy of life and learned the value of scholarship and intellectual honesty
  • Owing to the continuous teaching of Doña Teodora, Rizal was persuaded to express his feelings through verses. He was able to write his first poem when he was eight years old
  • Maestro Celestino- Rizal's first tutor, Maestro Lucas padua- second tutor
  • Then, after Rizal's tutor Leon Monroy died, his parents decided to transfer Rizal, at the age of 8, to a private school in Biñan, Laguna
  • He was accompanied by his older brother Paciano, who acted as his second father during his school days in Biñan
  • The school was then supervised by Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz
  • The maestro asked him if he knows how to speak Latin or Spanish, but in response, he only knew a little of the languages
  • As a result, one of his classmates named Pedro, the son of the maestro, laughed at him. Pedro was always bullying him that eventually resulted to a brawl
  • But knowing Rizal's acquired knowledge and skill in the art of wrestling from his Tio Manuel, he defeated Pedro. After the said incident, Rizal became popular in his class. Here, Rizal was able to show his intellectual superiority
  • He excelled in his class in Latin, Spanish and other subjects in the curriculum for elementary pupils
  • Because of this, many of the students became jealous to him and do everything to destroy Rizal's name to Maestro Cruz
• Doña Teodora


  Helped Rizal understand the philosophy of life and learned the value of scholarship and intellectual honesty
• Rizal's first poem


  Written when he was eight years old
• Maestro Celestino


  • Rizal's first tutor
• Maestro Lucas Padua


  • Rizal's second tutor
• Rizal's transfer to a private school in Biñan, Laguna


  1. Rizal's tutor Leon Monroy died

  2. Rizal's parents decided to transfer him

  3. Rizal was 8 years old
• Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz


  • Supervised the school in Biñan
• Rizal didn't know much Spanish or Latin


  One of his classmates named Pedro laughed at him
• Pedro bullying Rizal


  Resulted in a brawl
• Rizal defeated Pedro in the brawl due to his wrestling skills from his Uncle Manuel
• Rizal became popular in his class after the brawl incident
• Rizal excelled in Latin, Spanish and other subjects in the curriculum for elementary pupils
• Rizal's classmates became jealous of his intellectual superiority


  They tried to destroy Rizal's name to Maestro Cruz
• Rizal's interest in painting


  • Nurtured early on by an old painter named Juancho of Biñan
• Knowledge was taught through tedious memorization method during that time
• Despite the lack of elementary education in the Spanish system, Rizal was able to have the needed instruction preparatory for college work in Manila
• Rizal's return to Calamba


  1. Received a letter from Saturnina

  2. Went to the chapel of Virgin of Peace of Antipolo

  3. Bid goodbyes to his classmates and teachers

  4. Felt how much he missed his family, especially his mother