Rizal (Lesson 2)

• Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda


  Patriot, physician, poet par excellence and novelist who inspired the Philippine nationalist movement
• He died at age 35, executed by Spanish colonial masters, who ruled the Philippines for 350 years
• He was endowed by God with versatile gifts, he truly ranked with the world's geniuses
• Jose Rizal was born

  June 19, 1861
• His mother almost died during the delivery because of his big head
• He was baptized in the Catholic church of his town


  June 22, 1861
• Jose


  Name chosen by his mother, a devotee of the Christian saint San Jose (St. Joseph), meaning "he shall add"
• Rizal


  Shortened form of the Spanish word for "second crop", originated from the word "RICIAL" which literally means rice field/green fields
• Jose Rizal was the seventh of the eleven children of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso Realonda
• Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso Realonda were prosperous landowners, sugar and rice planters, of Chinese-Filipino descent
• Rizal would also end up fighting what he perceived to be the Chinese exploitation of his countrymen, viewing the Chinese primarily as unscrupulous traders and businessmen
• Rizal ironically disowned his own Chinese ancestry by claiming he had no Chinese blood and was pure Filipino
• To some historians, Rizal was merely expressing his wish to be viewed as a full-blooded Filipino no matter his heritage
• Rizal's siblings


  • SATURNINA RIZAL-HIDALGO
  • PACIANO RIZAL
  • NARCISA RIZAL-LOPEZ
  • OLIMPIA RIZAL-UBALDO
  • LUCIA RIZAL-HERBOSA
  • MARIA RIZAL-CRUZ
  • JOSE RIZAL
  • CONCEPCION RIZAL
  • JOSEFA RIZAL
  • TRINIDAD RIZAL
  • SOLEDAD RIZAL
• The Rizal family lived in a spacious house with a large basement where animals and produce were kept, and lived comfortably but had just enough to send all eleven children to good schools
• Rizal was a product of the mixture of races, with blood from Negrito, Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish
• Mercado


  The real surname of the Rizal family, adopted in 1731 by Domingo Lamco, a full-blooded Chinese from Chiangchow
• Rizal surname


  Obtained by Francisco Mercado as suggested by a provincial governor after the Governor General of the Philippines, Narciso Claveria, issued a decree in 1849 by which native Filipino and immigrant families were to adopt Spanish surnames
• Jose Rizal's father, Francisco Rizal Mercado, took 2 years to build the original Rizal ancestral house, which was confiscated by the Spanish authorities in 1891
• The government bought what remained of the Rizal House for ₱24,000, and in 1949, President Elpidio Quirino passed Executive Order No. 145, facilitating reconstruction of the house
• Traza


  The pattern on which Spanish American cities were built, with a central plaza, main church, town council building, residences of main civil and religious officials, and residences of the most important residents
• Bajo de Campana


  Concept of control through the ringing of the church bell, where the plaza complex projects a Spanish ideal Catholic Society
• Reduccion


  Policy of consolidating colonial control over Philippine indigenous communities by compelling prominent individuals to relocate into poblaciones within hearing distance of church-bells
• In 1864, at the age of three, Jose learned the alphabet and the prayers from his mother Teodora Alonso, and at nightfall they would go to the azotea or to a window to enjoy the moonlight, with his nurse telling them stories
• In 1865, when he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three, and Rizal remembered having shed real tears for the first time
• Jose was being taught how to read in Spanish by his mother, Doña Teodora, but because he was still young, he read poorly and was not fully paying attention
• The audibility of church-bells also marked the extent of the Crown's territorial holdings
• Jose learned the alphabet and the prayers from his mother Teodora Alonso


  At the age of three
• At nightfall, they would go to the azotea or to a window to enjoy the moonlight


  Jose's nurse would tell them stories
• Jose


  • Frail, sickly, and undersized child
  • Given the tenderest care by his parents
• In 1865, when he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three
• Jose


  • Typical boy (very curious in all things)
  • Devoted son the church
• The Parable of the Moth

  1. Teodora told Jose the story to make him realize the importance of listening, obeying and following what is being told by the parents

  2. Parents know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and bad for us, so we need their guidance
• Knowledge is light


  Light has always been a metaphor for knowledge as distinct from the darkness of ignorance
• Pepe/Pepito


  Nickname for Jose Rizal, derived from the Spanish pronunciation of 'P' in 'San Jose'
• 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
• In 1869, at the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem entitled "Sa Aking Mga Kabata"
• In 1876, when he was 15 years old and was a student of Ateneo Municipal (now Ateneo de Manila), he remembered his beloved town Calamba and wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)
• Early education in Calamba and Biñan


  • Characterized by the four R's – reading, writing, arithmetic and religion
  • Instruction was rigid and strict
  • Knowledge was forced into minds of the pupils by means of tedius memory method aided by the teacher's whip
• Rizal's tutors


  • Maestro Celestino
  • Maestro Lucas Padua
  • Leon Monroy