Chapter 2 Summary

CALAMBA
- Natal town of Rizal.

- Named after a big native jar.
- The happiest period of Rizal’s life was spent in this lakeshore town, a worthy prelude to his
Hamlet-like tragic manhood.
CALAMBA, THE HERO’S TOWN
- A hacienda town which belonged to the Dominican Order who also owned all the lands around
it.
- Picturesque town nestling on a verdant plain covered with irrigated rice fields and sugar-lands.
- A few kilometers to the south loom the legendary Mount Makiling and beyond this mountain is
the province of Batangas.
- East of the town is the Laguna de Bay which is an inland lake of songs and emerald waters
beneath the canopy of azure skies.
- In the middle of the lake towers the storied island of Talim and beyond it towards the north is the
distant Antipolo which is famous mountain shrine of the miraculous Lady of Peace and Good
Voyage.
Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)
- A poem written by Rizal in 1876, age 15, while he was a student in Ateneo de Manila, when he
remembers his hometown.
EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
- The first memory of Rizal in his infancy was his happy days in the family garden when he was 3
years old.
- Rizal as a child was frail, sickly, and undersized that is why he was given the tenderest care by
his parents.
- Rizal’s father built a nipa cottage in the garden for him to play in the daytime.
- An Aya (nurse maid) was employed to look after him, that Aya was a kind old woman.
- The happy moonlit nights at the azotea after the nightly Rosary.
- The imaginary tales told by the Aya aroused Rizal’s interest in legends and folklore.
- The Aya would threaten Rizal with Aswang, Nuno, Tigbalang, or a terrible bearded and turbaned
Bombay would come to take him away if he would not eat his supper.
THE HERO’S FIRST SORROW

- Death of Little Concha.
Concha (Concepcion)
- Jose loved the most of his sisters.

- Rizal was a year older than her.
- Rizal played with her and upon whom Rizal learned the sweetness of sisterly love.
Others:
- Rizal children were bound by ties of love and companionship, they were well-bred as
their parents taught them to love and help one another.
DEVOTED SON OF THE CHURCH
- Rizal grew of a good Catholic.

- At age 3 when he started to take part in the family prayers.
- At age 5 when he was able to read haltingly the Spanish family Bible.
- He seriously devout that he was laughingly called Manong Jose by the Hermanos and
Hermanas Terceras.
- His mother was a devout Catholic.
- Town priest Fr. Leoncio Lopez was one of the men Rizal esteemed and respected in
Calamba, visiting the priest and listening to his stimulating opinions on current events
and sound philosophy of life.
PILGRIMAGE TO ANTIPOLO
- June 6, 1868 with his father, to fulfill his mother’s vow which was made when Jose was
born, his mother could not accompany them as she has given birth to Trinidad.
- First trip of Jose across Laguna de Bay and his first pilgrimage to Antipolo riding a casco,
his first lake voyage, and did not sleep the whole night as the casco sailed towards the
Pasig River for he was awed by “the magnificence of the watery expanse and the silence
of the night”.
- Jose and his father went to Manila afterwards which was also his first time after praying
at the shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo to visit Saturnina, who was then a boarding student
at La Concordia College in Santa Ana.
THE STORY OF THE MOTH

- Story told by Doña Teodora to her favorite son Jose that made the most profound
impression on him.
- The tragic fate of the young moth which “died a martyr to its illusions”, such noble death,
“to sacrifice one’s life for it,” which means for an ideal, is “worthwhile”.
- Like the young moth, he was fated to die as a martyr for a noble ideal.
ARTISTIC TALENTS
- At age 5, started making sketches with his pencil, mold in clay and wax objects which
attracted his fancy sketching and sculpturing talent.
- It is said that a religious banner always used during fiesta was ruined; at the request of the
town mayor, he painted in oil colors a new banner that delighted the town folks at it was
better that the original one.
- He found great joy in nature; riding the pony bought by his father; take long walks in the
meadows and lakeshore with his black dog named Usman.
- Anecdote of Rizal on his clay and wax images, age 6, laughed at by his sisters for
spending time in those images than participating in their games; he kept silent but as they
were departing, he told them: “All right laugh at me now! Someday when I die, people
will make monuments and images of me!”
FIRST POEM BY RIZAL
- Gift in literature
- His mother, being a lover of literature noticed his poetic inclination and encouraged him
to write poetry.
- At age 8, he wrote his first poem in the native language entitled” Sa Aking Mga
Kababata”.
FIRST DRAMA BY RIZAL
- After writing his first poem, Rizal, at age 8, wrote his dramatic work, a Tagalog Comedy.
- It is said to be staged in a Calamba festival and was delightfully applauded by the
audience.
- A gobernadorcillo from Paete, town in Laguna that is famous for lanzones and
woodcarvings, witnessed the comedy and like it so he purchased the manuscript for P2.00
and brought to his home town and was staged in Paete during its town fiesta.
RIZAL AS BOY MAGICIAN
- His interest in magic started since early manhood with him owning a dexterous hand.
- Tricks such as making coin appear or disappear in his fingers and making a handkerchief
vanish in thin air - magic-lantern exhibitions ordinary lamp casting its shadows on a
white screen; enlarged shadows on the screen resembling certain animals and persons.
- Manipulating marionettes.
LAKESHORE REVERIES
- During twilight hours of summer time, Rizal and Usman, shore of Laguna de Bay,
meditate on the sad conditions of his oppressed people.
- As he became a man, he writes to Mariano Ponce, his friend, that fact that young as he
was, he is already awakened to the unhappy situation of his fatherland and was
determined to fight these injustices, to avenge the many victims of these misdeeds, this
being the idea in his mind, he studied and it can be seen in all his writings, that someday,
God will give him the opportunity to fulfill his promise.

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Chapter 2 Summary

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CALAMBA

- Natal town of Rizal.

CALAMBA, THE HERO’S TOWN

Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)

EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

THE HERO’S FIRST SORROW

- Jose loved the most of his sisters.

DEVOTED SON OF THE CHURCH

- Rizal grew of a good Catholic.

THE STORY OF THE MOTH

FIRST POEM BY RIZAL

FIRST DRAMA BY RIZAL

RIZAL AS BOY MAGICIAN

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