MEDICAL STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY OF SANTO  During the following term (1878-79), Rizal

THOMAS (UST, 1877-1882) received Ateneo Rector’s advice to study

Mother’s Opposition to Higher Education medicine. He took up medicine course,
 After graduating with the highest honors enrolling simultaneously in the preparatory
from the Ateneo, Rizal had to go to the medical course and the regular first year
University of Santo Thomas for higher medical course.
studies. The Bachelor of Arts course during  Another reason why he chose medicine for a
the Spanish times was equivalent only to the career was to be able to cure his mother’s
high school and junior college courses today. growing blindness
It merely qualified its graduate to enter a Finishes Surveying Course in Ateneo (1878)
university  During his first school term in the University
 Both Don Francisco and Paciano wanted Jose of Santo Thomas (1877-78), Rizal also studied
to pursue higher learning in the university. in the Ateneo
But Doña Teodora, who knew what happened  He took vocational course leading to the title
to Gom-Bur-Za, vigorously opposed the idea of perito agrimensor (expert suryeyor). In
 She told her husband: “Don’t send him to those days , it should be remembered, the
Manila again; he knows enough. If he gets colleges for boys in Manila offered vocational
to know more, the Spaniards will cut off courses in agriculture, commerce,
his head” mechanics, and surveying
 Don Francisco kept quiet and told Paciano to  Rizal, as usual, excelled in all subjects in the
accompany his younger brother to Manila, surveying course, obtaining gold medals in
despite their mothers’ tears. Jose Rizal agriculture and topography. At the age of 17,
himself was surprised why his mother, who he passed the final examination in the
was a woman of education and culture, surveying course, but he could not be
should object to his desire for a university granted the title as surveyor because he was
education below age
 Years later, Jose wrote in his journal; ”Did  The title was issued to him on November
my mother perhaps have a foreboding of 25,1881
what would happen to me? Does a  Although Rizal was Thomasian, he frequently
mother’s heart really have a second visited Ateneo, not only to his course but also
sight?” more because if his loyalty to Ateneo, where
Rizal Enters the University he made beautiful memories and whose
 in April 1877, Rizal who was then nearly 16 Jesuit professors, unlike the Dominicans, who
years old, matriculated in the University of loved him and inspired him to ascend to
Santo Thomas, taking the course on greater heights of knowledge
Philosophy and Letters  He was the president of the Academy of
 He enrolled in this course for two reasons: Spanish Literature and secretary of the
1. His father liked it Academy of Natural Sciences. He also
2. He was “still uncertain as to what career to continued his membership in the Marian
pursue” Congregation, of which he was the secretary
 He had written to Father Pablo Ramon, Romances with Other Girls
Rector of the Ateneo, who had been good to 1. Miss L – he courted in Calamba, described her
him during his student days in that college, as ‘fair with seductive and attractive eyes’.
asking for advice on the choice of a career. After several visiting in her house, he
But Father Rector was then in Mindanao so stopped wooing due to romance died in
that he was unable to advise Rizal natural death
 During Rizal’s first-year-term (1877-78) in the a. The sweet memory of Segunda was
UST, he studied; Cosmology, Metaphysics, still fresh in his memories
Theodicy, and History of Philosophy b. His father did not like her family
 2. Leonor Valenzuela (Orang) – sophomore year, literary contest. It offered a prize for the
daughter of his neighbor in boarding house of best poem by a native or a mestizo
Doña Concha Leyva in Intramuros. He courted  Rizal, who was then 18 years old, submitted
‘tall girl with a regal bearing’, sent her love his poem entitled A La Juventud Filipina
notes written in invisible ink  A La Juventud Filipina is an inspiring poem of
a. Like Segunda, he stopped short of flawless form. In exquisite verses, Rizal
proposing marriage to Orang beseeched the Filipino youth to rise from
3. Leonor Rivera (Taimis) – his cousin from lethargy, to let their geniuses fly swifter than
Calimiling. A student at La Concordia the wind and descend with art and science to
College, where Soledad was then studying. A break the chains that have long bound the
frail, pretty girl ‘tender as a budding flower spirit of the people
with kindly, wistful eyes’  The Board of Judges, composed of Spaniards,
a. They became engaged, in letters to was impressed by Rizal’s poem and give it
Rizal, Leonor signed her name as the first prize which consisted of a silver
“Taimis” in order to camouflaged their pen, feathered-shaped and decorated with a
intimate relationship from their gold ribbon
parents and friends  The winning poem of Rizal is a classic in
Victim of Spanish Officer’s Brutality Philippine Literature for two reasons;
 When Rizal was a freshman medical student 1. It was the first great poem in Spanish written
at the UST, he experienced his first taste of by a Filipino, whose merit was recognized by
Spanish brutality Spanish literary authorities
 One dark night in Calamba, during the 2. It expressed for the first time the
summer vacation in 1878, he was walking in nationalistic concept that the Filipinos, and
the street, he dimly perceived the figure of a not the foreigners, were the ‘fair hope of
man while passing him. the Fatherland’
 Not knowing the person due to darkness, he EL CONSEJO DE LOS DIOSES - THE COUNCIL OF
did not salute nor say a courteous “Good THE GODS (1880)
Evening”. The vague figure turned out to be  The following year (1880) the Artistic-
a lieutenant of the Guardia Civil. Literary Lyceum opened another Literary
 With a snarl, he turned upon Rizal, whipped contest to commemorate the fourth
out his sword and brutally slashed the latter centennial of the death of Cervantes, Spain’s
on the back. The wound was not serious, but glorified man-of-letters and famous author of
it was painful Don-Quixote. This time the contest was
 When Rizal recovered, he reported the opened to both Filipinos and Spaniards
incident to General Primo de Rivera, the  Many writer participated in the contest –
Spanish governor general of the Philippines at priest, newspapermen, scholars and
that time. But nothing came out of his professors. Rizal, inspired by his poetical
complaint, because he was an Indio and the triumph the previous year, entered the
abusive lieutenant was a Spaniard literary joust, submitting an allegorical
 Later, in a letter to Bluemintritt, dated drama entitles El Consejo de los Dioses
March 21, 1887, he related; ”I went to the  After a long and critical appraisal of the
Captain-General but I could not obtain entries, they awarded the first prize to
justice; my wound lasted two weeks” Rizal’s work because of its literary
A LA JUVENTUD FILIPINA (TO THE FILIPINO superiority over the others
YOUTH)  The Spanish community in Manila, spear-
 In the year 1879 the Liceo Artistico-Literario headed by the Spanish press, howled in great
(Artistic-Literary Lyceum) of Manila, a indignation against the decision because the
society of literary men and artists, held a winning author was an Indio
  Despite all objections, the prize was awarded  Rizal was the chief of this secret student
to Rizal, a gold ring on which was engraved society, with his cousin from Batangas,
the bust of Cervantes. For the first time in Galicano Apacible, as a secretary.
history, an Indio – a 19 year old Filipino  As chief, he led the Filipino students into
medical student at that – excelled in a combat against the Spanish students in
national literary contest, defeating several various street fights. In one of the fierce
Spanish writers of his time in Manila encounters between the Filipino students and
 Rizal was particularly happy, for he proved their pale-skinned detractors near the
the fallacy of the alleged Spanish superiority Escolta in Manila, Rizal was wounded on the
over the Filipinos and revealed that the head
Filipino could hold his own in fair  His friends brought him bleeding and covered
competition against all races with dust to his boarding house, “Casa
 The winning allegory of Rizal was a literary Tomasina”. Leonor Rivera tenderly washed
masterpiece based on the Greek classics. The and dressed his wound (AYIEE, DI DIN NAMAN
allegory established a parallel among Homer, NAGKATULUYAN SA HULI)
Virgil, and Cervantes
 The gods discuss the comparative merits of
these great writers and finally decide to give
the trumpet to Homer, the lyre to Virgil, and
the laurel to Cervantes
 The allegory gloriously closes with the
naiads, nymphs, satyrs, and other
mythological characters dancing and
gathering laurels for Cervantes
CHAMPION OF FILIPINO STUDENTS
 Rizal was the champion of Filipino students in
their frequent fights against the arrogant
Spanish students, who were often surpassed
by the Filipinos in class work and who
insultingly called their brown classmates –
“Indio, chongo!” (YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD!)
 In retaliation, the Filipino students called
them “Kastila, bangus!” Hostility between
these two groups of students often exploded
in angry street rumbles (GRYFFINDOR’S VS
SLYTHERIN’S)
 Rizal participated in these student brawls.
Owning to his skill in fencing, his prowess in
wrestling, and his indomitable courage, he
distinguished himself in these student
skirmishes
 In 1880 he founded a secret society of
Filipino students in the UST, called
Compañerismo (Comradeship) whose
members were called “Companions of
Jehu” (DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY) after the
valiant Hebrew general who fought the
Armaens and ruled the Kingdom of Israel for
28 years (843-816 B.C)