Life and Works of Rizal

Republic Act No. 1425

• Rizal Law: a Philippine law that mandates all
educational institutions in the Philippines
to offer courses about José Rizal. The Rizal Law,
in any case, was emphatically restricted by the
Catholic Church in the Philippines , much
appreciated to the anti-clerical subjects that
were pertinent in Rizal's books Noli Me Tangere
and El Filibusterismo.
Chapter 1:
Rizal – A Biographical
Sketch
Rizal’s Birth
• Jose Rizal was born on
Wednesday, June 19, 1861
between eleven to 12
o’clock at midnight, a few
days before the full moon at
Calamba, Laguna.

• His birth would have caused

his mother’s death had she not
vowed to the Virgin of
Antipolo that would take him
on a pilgrimage of her shrine.
Father Rufino Collantes His words proved prophetic
• He was the pastor who baptized and later explicitly confirmed
Rizal on June 22, 1861, just 3 days by subsequent events.
after his birth, at a Church of
Calamba, Laguna.

• He also served as Rizal’s

godfather.

• On the day of the baptism

ceremony, Father Collantes was
impressed by Rizal’s big forehead.
He politely told the Rizal’s family
who were present at the ceremony
to “Take good care of this
child, for someday he will
become a great man.”
Calamba: “The Cradle of Genius”
• “Hemmed in a verdant plain by mount Makiling, on one side and
by Laguna de Bay on the other. Calamba offers authentic scenery
of sunny contours and romantic spots. There is deep and
magnetic charm in the beauty and grandeur with these
surrounding inspire – where bounteous Nature in its gayest
moments lavishes its most precious and delicate caresses. The
site was destined to the cradle of genius. It is a joy forever, where
the plodding and patient carabao moves lazily about besides a
lake of poem and songs, within the sight of Mount Makiling
rugged peak, covered the year round with luxuriant vegetation,
which seemed people with spirit of ancient days, should exert a
powerful influence in making Rizal a thinker and a poet?
The Parents of Rizal
Francisco Mercado Rizal
He died at the age of 80
• Born on 1818 at Binan, Laguna.
(1898), a year after the hero’s
• His great, great grandfather was a execution.
Christian Chinese named Domingo
Lamco, a merchant, hence, the
surname Mercado which means
“market”.
• He studied Latin Philosophy at the
College of San Jose, Manila.
• He was a hardworking and progressive
farmer who became well-to-do through
industry and with the assistance of his
cultured and talented wife.
• He was a man of solid shoulders,
strong constitution, tall, with
prominent forehead and dark eyes. A
pure Filipino, Dr. Rizal called him “A
model of fathers”.
Teodora Alonzo Realonda • Although many people know
• Born on November 9, 1987 at Santa that she was imprisoned
Cruz, Manila. because her husband, Don
• She married Don Francisco on June Francisco talked back at a
28, 1848. Spanish lieutenant, but she
• She was a woman of fortitude which bravely endured the
exemplified the Filipino character at persecutions heaped upon
its highest and loftiest measure. her and her family.
• She was a woman of remarkable
talent in mathematics, business,
and literature.
• She was imprisoned for two and a
half years on trumped-up charges of
poisoning her brother's wife. In
1891, she was made to walk fifty
kilometers to Sta. Cruz, Laguna,
for failing to use her hispanicized
surname, Realonda de Rizal.
• According to Rafael Palma, Rizal inherited
“from his father a profound sense of dignity and
self-respect, seriousness, and self-possession;
and from his mother the temperament of the
poet and dreamer, and bravery for sacrifice.
The Rizal Family
• The Rizal Family was a respected and considered
one of the richest families in Calamba during
that time. Because his parents were industrious,
they were able to build a big house. They were
one of the few families to own a carruaje – a
horse-drawn carriage, the first to have a home
library with almost 1,000 volumes, and
probably, the first to send their children to
Manile to study in college.
The Children of Rizal
• The marriage of Don Francisco and Dona Teodora were blessed with
eleven children- 2 boys and 9 girls. Namely;
1. Paciano (1851-1930)
2. Saturnina (1850-1913)
3. Narcisa (1852-1939)
4. Olimpia (1855-1887)
5. Lucia (1857-1919)
6. Maria (1859-1945)
7. Jose Rizal (1861-1896)
8. Concepcion (1862-1865)
9. Josefa (1865-1919)
10. Trinidad (1868-1951)
11. Soledad (1870-1929)
Paciano (1851-1930)
• Rizal’s only brother, who
became an agriculturist,
though, like his father, he
had a college education in
Manila.
• He was a second father to
his brother and gave him
wise counsel.
• All of Rizal’s sisters got married except Josefa
and Trinidad, who were spinsters, and
Conception who died at the age of three.
It is said that Pepe loved most the little Concha
who was a year younger than him. Jose played
games and shared children stories with her, and
from her he felt the beauty of sisterly love. When
Concha died of sickness in
1865, Jose mournfully wept at losing her. This
was Jose Rizal’s first heartbreak.
Rizal’s Ancestry
• Rizal, like a typical Filipino was a product of
mixed ancestry. It can be inferred that in his
veins flowed the blood of both East and West
Chinese, Japanese, Malay, and Spanish. Rizal’s
father was a great grandson of Domingo
Lamco, a chinese immigrant from Fukien
City.
• In some historical pieces of document, Rizal’s
maternal ancestor was Lakan-Dula, the last
king of Tondo. His maternal great, great
grandfather was Eugenio Ursua, of Japanese
blood and Ancestry.
The Name Rizal
• Jose Rizal’s full name is: Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal Y
Alonzo Realonda.
• First "Jose" was chosen by his mother who was devotee
of the Christian Saint San Jose (St. Joseph), the
known-father of Jesus. In Latin and Spanish Language,
the known-father of Jesus was also the pater
putativus, when abbreviated will be P.P. In Filipino
Language, reading this abbreviation, these two letters
will pronounced as "Pepe". The Protacio came from
Saint Protacio, which was the patron saint on that
day rizal was born.
• The combination “Rizal Mercado” are the paternal
surnames. Jose Rizal’s paternal great-great grandfather,
Chinese merchant Domingo Lamco, adopted the name
‘Mercado’ which means ‘market’. But Jose’s father,
Francisco, who eventually became primarily a farmer,
adopted the surname ‘Rizal’ (originally ‘Ricial’, which
means ‘the green of young growth’ or ‘green
fields’). The name was suggested by a provincial
governor who was a friend of the family. The Rizal
surname was obtained because of the Claveria decree of
1849 in order to hispanized the Filipino surnames during
the time.
• In the Spanish world in Rizal’s time, the Spanish
adopted the use of the copulative conjunction
“y” (which means “and”) to differentiate one’s
paternal and maternal surnames.
• Teodora’s great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua (of
Japanese descent) who married a Filipina named
Benigna. Regina, their daughter, married a Filipino-
Chinese lawyer of Pangasinan, Manuel de Quintos.
Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a well-off Spanish-Filipino
mestizo of Biñan, took as his ‘significant other’ Brigida
Quintos, daughter of Manuel and Regina Quintos. The
Lorenzo-Brigida union produced five children, the
second of them was Jose Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso
Quintos. But through the Claveria decree of 1849 which
changed the Filipino native surnames, the Alonsos
adopted the surname Realonda, in lieu of Quintos.
Rizal’s mother thus became Teodora Alonso Realonda.
Jose thus inherited the surnames “Alonso Realonda.”
The Rizal House
• The house in which Rizal was born was high and
made of solid and earthquake proof structure
with sliding wide window shutters with capiz
shells. Thick walls of lime and store bounded the
first floor; the second floor was made entirely of
hard wood except for the roof which was of red
tile, in the style of imposing buildings in Manila
and other big and progressive towns at the time.
• Rizal’s father selected the hardest and seasoned woods from the
forest and have the sowed. It took him ore than two years to
construct the house. At the back there was an azotea overlooking
the garden and orchard and a wide, deep cistern a tankfor storing
water or hold rain water during the rainy season for home use.
Behind the house, stood various tropical fruit-bearing trees,
santol, chico, macopa, atis, balimbings, duhat, and atis.
Chapter 2:
Childhood Memories in
Calamba
Calamba, the Hero’s Town
• Calamba was an hacienda town which belonged
to the Dominican Order.
• It is a picturesque town nestling on a verdant
plain covered with irrigated rice fields and
sugar-lands.
• A few kilometers to the south looms is the
legendary Mount Makiling in somnolent
grandeur.
• Beyond this mountain is the province of
Batangas.
• East of the town is the Laguna de Bay.
• In the middle lake towers is the storied island of
Talim and beyond it towards north is the
distant Antipolo, famous mountain shrine of
the miraculous Lady of Peace and Good Voyage.
• In 1876 when he was 15 years old and was a
student in the Ateneo de Manila he remembered
his beloved town.

• He wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo

(In Memory of My Town).
In Memory of My Town
• When I recall the days
That saw my childhood of yore
Beside the verdant shore
Of a murmuring lagoon;
When I remember the sighs
Of the breeze that on my brow
Sweet and caressing did blow
With coolness full of delight;

When I look at the lily white

• Fills up with air violent
And the stormy element
On the sand doth meekly sleep;
When sweet 'toxicating scent
From the flowers I inhale
Which at the dawn they exhale
When at us it begins to peep;

I sadly recall your face,

Oh precious infancy,
• That a mother lovingly
Did succeed to embellish.
I remember a simple town;
My cradle, joy and boon,
Beside the cool lagoon
The seat of all my wish.
• Oh, yes! With uncertain pace
I trod your forest lands,
And on your river banks
A pleasant fun I found;
At your rustic temple I prayed
With a little boy's simple faith
And your aura's flawless breath
Filled my heart with joy profound.
Saw I God in the grandeur
Of your woods which for centuries stand;
Never did I understand
In your bosom what sorrows were;
While I gazed on your azure sky
Neither love nor tenderness
Failed me, 'cause my happiness
In the heart of nature rests there.
• Tender childhood, beautiful town,
Rich fountain of happiness,
Of harmonious melodies,
That drive away my sorrow!
Return thee to my heart,
Bring back my gentle hours
As do the birds when the flow'rs
Would again begin to blow!
But, alas, adieu! E'er watch
For your peace, joy and repose,
Genius of good who kindly dispose
Of his blessings with amour;
It's for thee my fervent pray'rs,
It's for thee my constant desire
Knowledge ever to acquire
And may God keep your candour!
Earliest Childhood Memories
• The first memory of Rizal, in his infancy, was his
happy days in the family garden.

• Because he was frail, sickly, and undersized

child, he was given the most tender care by his
parents.
• His father built a nipa cottage in the garden for
him to play in the daytime.

• Another childhood memory was the daily

Angelus prayer.

• By nightfall, Rizal related, his mother gathered

all the children at the house to pray the Angelus.
• With nostalgic feeling, he also remembered the
happy moonlit nights at the azotea after the
rosary.

• The aya related stories to Rizal children many

stories about fairies; tales of buried treasure and
trees with blooming diamonds, and other
fabulous stories.
• Sometimes, when he did not like to take his
supper, the aya would threaten him that the
aswang, the nuno, the tigbalang, or a terrible
bearded Bombay would come to take him away
if he would not eat his supper.

• Another memory of his infancy was the

nocturnal walk in the town, especially when
there was a moon.
• Recounting this childhood experience, Rizal
wrote:

• “Thus my heart fed on somber and melancholy

thoughts so that even still a child, I already
wandered on wings of fantasy in the high regions
of the unknown.”
The Hero’s First Sorrow
• The Rizal children were bound together by the
ties of love and companionship.

• Their parents taught them to love one another,

to behave properly in front of elders, to be
truthful and religious, and to help one another.
• They affectionately called their father Tatay, and
mother Nanay.

• Jose was jokingly called Ute by his brother and

sisters. The people in Calamba knew him as
Pepe or Pepito.

• Of his sisters, Jose loved most little Concha

(Concepcion)
• He was one year older than Concha.

• He played with her, and from her, he learned the

sweetness of brotherly love.

• Unfortunately, Concha died of sickness in 1865

when he was 3 years old.

• Jose, who was very fond of her, cried bitterly to

lose her.
Devoted Son of Church
• •Young Rizal was a religious boy.

• A scion of a Catholic clan, born and bred in a wholesome atmosphere

of Catholicism, and possessed of an inborn spirit, Rizal grew up a
good Catholic.

• •At the age of 3, he began to take part in the family prayers.

• When he was five years old, he was able to read haltingly the family
bible.

• He loved to go to church to pray, to take part in novenas, and to join

the religious processions.
• •It is said that he was so seriously devout that he
was laughingly called Manong Jose by the
Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras.

• One of the men he esteemed and respected in

Calamba during his boyhood was the scholarly
Father Leoncio Lopez, the town priest.
Pilgrimage to Antipolo
• On June 6, 1868, Jose and his father left for
Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo, in
order to fulfill his mother’s vow which was made
when Rizal was born.

• It was the first trip of Jose across Laguna de

Bay and his pilgrimage to Antipolo
• He was thrilled, as a typical boy should, by his
first lake voyage.

• He did not sleep the whole night as the casco

sailed towards the Pasig River because he was
awed by “the magnificence of the watery expanse
and the silence of the night.”

• After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of

Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila.
First Education from Mother
• Jose’s first teacher was his mother.

• At the age of 3, Jose learned the alphabet and

prayers from her.

• Seeing Rizal had a talent for poetry, she

encouraged him to write poems. She gave her all
her love and all that she learned in college.
The Story of the Moth
• Of the story told by Dona Teodora to Jose, it was
that of the young moth made the profoundest
impression on him.

• The tragic fate of the young moth, which died a

martyr to its illusions, left a deep impress on
Rizal’s mind.
Rizal’s Three Uncles
• There were 3 uncles, brothers of his mother,
who played a great part in the early education of
Rizal.
Uncle Gregorio
• was a lover of books.

• He instilled into the mind of his nephew a great

love for books.

• He taught him to work hard, to think for himself,

and to observe life keenly.
Uncle Jose
• Who had been educated at Calcutta, India, was
the youngest brother of Dona Teodora.

• He encouraged his nephew to paint, sketch, and

sculpture.
Uncle Manuel
• Was a big, strong, and husky man.

• He looked after the physical training of his

sickly and weak nephew.

• He encourage Rizal to learn swimming, fencing,

wrestling, and other sports, so that in later years
Rizal’s frail body acquired agility, endurance,
and strength.
Artistic Talents
• Since early childhood Rizal revealed his god-given talents for
the arts.

• He drew sketches and pictures on his books of his sisters,

for which reason he was scolded by his mother.

• He carved figures of animals and persons out of

wood.

• Even before he learned to read, he could already sketch

pictures of birds, flowers, fruits, rivers, mountains, animals
and persons. Jose had a soul of a genuine artist.
• Rather an introvert child, with a skinny physique
and sad dark eyes, he found great joy looking at the
blooming flowers, the ripening fruits, the dancing
waves of the lake, and the milky clouds in the sky;
and the listening to the songs of the birds, the
chirpings of the cicadas, and the murmurings of the
breezes.

• He loved to ride on a spirited pony ( which his

father bought for him) or take long walks in the
meadows for him) or take long walks in the
meadows and lakeshore with his big black dog
named Usman.
• In his room, he kept many statuettes which he
made out of clay and wax.

• At one time, his sisters teased him: “Ute, what

are you doing with so many statuettes?” He
replied: “Don’t you know that people will erect
monument and statues in my honor for the
future?”
Prodigy of the Pen
• Not only was little Jose skilled in brush, chisel,
and pen-knife, but also in pen.

• He was born poet.

• His mother encouraged him to write poetry.

• At an early age when children usually begin to
learn ABC, he was already writing poems.

• The first known poem that he wrote was a

Tagalog poem entitled Sa Aking Mga
Kababata (To My Fellow Children).
To My Fellow Children
Whenever people of a country truly love
The language which by heav'n they were taught to
use
That country also surely liberty pursue
As does the bird which soars to freer space above.

For language is the final judge and referee

Upon the people in the land where it holds sway;
In truth our human race resembles in this way
The other living beings born in liberty.
Whoever knows not how to love his native tongue
Is worse than any best or evil smelling fish.
To make our language richer ought to be our wish
The same as any mother loves to feed her young.

Tagalog and the Latin language are the same

And English and Castilian and the angels' tongue;
And God, whose watchful care o'er all is flung,
Has given us His blessing in the speech we calim,

Our mother tongue, like all the highest tht we know

Had alphabet and letters of its very own;
But these were lost -- by furious waves were overthrown
Like bancas in the stormy sea, long years ago.
• Before he was eight years old, he wrote a Tagalog
drama.

• This drama was stages in Calamba in connection

with the town fiesta.
Lakeshore Reveries
• During the twilight hours of summertime, Rizal,
accompanied by his dog, used to meditate at the
shore of Laguna de Bay on the sad conditions of
his oppressed people.

• Young that he was, he grieved deeply over the

unhappy situation of his beloved fatherland. •
The Spanish misdeeds awakened in his boyish
heart a great determination to fight tyranny.
Doña Teodora’s imprisonments

• When Rizal was just about to go to Manila to continue his

education at the Ateneo, an ordeal occurred to his family
—his mother was thrown into prison.

• Jose Alberto, Lolay’s ‘favorite’ brother, had returned from

Europe and found that her wife, Teodora Formoso, left
their home and children for another man. He planned to
divorce her, but Doña Teodora persuaded the couple to
reconcile so as to avoid family scandal. Alberto’s wife
however sued her husband for allegedly trying to poison
her and incriminated Dona Teodora as his co-conspirator.
• Alberto’s wife was aided by the Spanish
lieutenant of the Guardia Civil. Remarkably, the
Calamba’s gobernadorcillo, Antonio Vivencio
del Rosario, was hasty to believe the charge.
The two officials were frequent guests at the
Rizal home but both had been nursing grudges
against the Rizals. At one occasion, Rizal’s father
could not accommodate to give fodder for the
lieutenant’s horse. The gobernadorcillo, on the
other hand, is said to have felt insulted that he
had not been shown any greater respect than the
Filipino guests in his visits to Rizal home.
• Rizal’s mother was imprisoned in Santa Cruz, the
capital of Laguna. It is said that the Rizals appealed
to the Supreme Court, which ordered her
immediate discharge. But she was rearrested by
the order of the insulted judge, stating that Rizals’
appeal to the Supreme Court was contempt of his
court.

• The Supreme Court irrationally upheld this

contention. Some other fabricated charges were
filed against her, hence she languished behind bars
for about two and a half years in the 1870s.
• Teodora Alonso was imprisoned for the second
time in the 1880s on the nonsense charge that she
did not call herself a ‘Realonda de Rizal’ but
simply ‘Teodora Alonso’.

• Concerning this, Rizal bitterly recorded: “From

Manila they sent her to Sta. Cruz, Laguna Province,
through mountains from town to town … Imagine
an old woman of 64 traveling through mountains
and highways with her daughter under the custody
of the civil guard. When my mother and sister, after
four days of traveling, arrived at Sta. Cruz, the
governor, deeply touched, released them.”
GOM-BUR-ZA’s Martyrdom
• In 1891, Jose Rizal dedicated El
Filibusterismo  to three Filipino priests
executed by the Spanish government in 1872.  
They were Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and
Jacinto Zamora.   And as Filipinos are wont to
contract or abbreviate words, like Noli Me
Tangere into Noli, these three martyrs are more
popularly known as Gomburza.
The Reason of the Execution
• The execution of Gomburza remains as one of the most
controversial issues deeply embedded in Philippine history.
However, their tragic end led to the dawn of the Philippine
Nationalism in the 19th century, intensified by Dr. Jose
P. Rizal, in dedicating his second novel entitled El
Filibusterismo which condemned the Spanish rule and the
elite Filipinos.

• In his novel, Rizal wrote "To the memory of the priests, Don
Mariano Gomez (89 years old), Don Jose Burgos (40
years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (55 years old).
Executed in Bagumbayan Field on 25th of February, 1897.
• The church, by refusing to degrade you, has
placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed
to you; the government, by surrounding your
trials with mystery and shadows causes the
belief that there was some error, committed in
fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by
worshiping your memory and calling you
martyrs, in no sense recognizes your capability. 
• In so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite
Mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may or may not
have been patriots, and as you may or may not
cherish sentiments for justice and for liberty, I have
the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the
evil which I undertake in combat." It must be noted,
however, that Rizal's account was erroneous in detail
as the execution took place on 17 February 1872,
not on 28 February 1872, as Rizal mistakenly
mentions. Additionally, the ages of the priests were
listed down inaccurately. At the time of the
execution, Gomez was 72 years old, Burgos was
35 years old, and Zamora was 36 years old.
• Their deaths were facilitated in a public
execution at Bagumbayan (Luzon) using
a garrote due to false accusations charged
against them by Spanish authorities. Their
alleged crimes included treason and sedition for
being the supposed masterminds of the
insurrection of Indios (native Filipinos) working
in the Cavite arsenal.
• Furthermore, according to the Spanish military
tribunal, they were believed to have been a part
of a clandestine movement aimed to overthrow
the Spanish government, making them a threat
to the Spanish Clergy.

• The execution has since been labeled the Terror

of 1872, and is recognized as a pivotal event
contributing to the later Philippine
Revolution from 1896 to 1898.