Jos Rizal
part of the Propaganda Movement,
Jos Rizal called for peaceful reform of
Spain's colonial rule in the Philippines.
After his 1896 execution, he became
an icon for the nationalist movement.
QUOTES
[C]reative genius does not manifest
itself solely within the borders of a
specific country: it sprouts
everywhere; it is like light and air; it
belongs to everyone: it is
cosmopolitan like space, life and God.
Jos Rizal
Synopsis
Jos Rizal was born on June 19, 1861,
in Calamba, Philippines. While living in
Europe, Rizal wrote about the
discrimination that accompanied
Spain's colonial rule of his country. He
returned to the Philippines in 1892,
but was exiled due to his desire for
reform. Although he supported
peaceful change, Rizal was convicted
of sedition and executed on December
30, 1896, at age 35.
Early Life
On June 19, 1861, Jos Protasio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born
in Calamba in the Philippines' Laguna
Province. A brilliant student who
became proficient in multiple
languages, Jos Rizal studied medicine
in Manila. In 1882, he traveled to
Spain to complete his medical degree.
Writing and Reform
While in Europe, Jos Rizal became
connecting with other Filipinos who
wanted reform. He also wrote his first
novel, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me
Not/The Social Cancer), a work that
detailed the dark aspects of Spain's
colonial rule in the Philippines, with
particular focus on the role of Catholic
friars. The book was banned in the
Philippines, though copies were
smuggled in. Because of this novel,
Rizal's return to the Philippines in
1887 was cut short when he was
targeted by police.
Rizal returned to Europe and
continued to write, releasing his
follow-up novel, El Filibusterismo (The
Reign of Greed) in 1891. He also
published articles in La Solidaridad, a
paper aligned with the Propaganda
Movement. The reforms Rizal
advocated for did not include
independencehe called for equal
treatment of Filipinos, limiting the
power of Spanish friars and
representation for the Philippines in
the Spanish Cortes (Spain's
parliament). Exile in the Philippines
Rizal returned to the Philippines in
1892, feeling he needed to be in the
country to effect change. Although the
reform society he founded, the Liga
Filipino (Philippine League), supported
non-violent action, Rizal was still
exiled to Dapitan, on the island of
Mindanao. During the four years Rizal
was in exile, he practiced medicine
and took on students.
Execution and Legacy
In 1895, Rizal asked for permission to
travel to Cuba as an army doctor. His
request was approved, but in August
1896, Katipunan, a nationalist Filipino
society founded by Andres Bonifacio,
revolted. Though he had no ties to the
group, and disapproved of its violent
methods, Rizal was arrested shortly
thereafter.
After a show trial, Rizal was convicted
of sedition and sentenced to death by
firing squad. Rizal's public execution
was carried out in Manila on December
30, 1896, when he was 35 years old.
His execution created more opposition
to Spanish rule.
Spain's control of the Philippines
ended in 1898, though the country did
not gain lasting independence until
after World War II. Rizal remains a
nationalist icon in the Philippines for
helping the country take its first steps
toward independence.
Jose Rizal was a man of incredible
intellectual power, with amazing
artistic talent as well. He excelled at
anything that he put his mind to -
medicine, poetry, sketching,
architecture, sociology... the list seems
nearly endless.
Thus, Rizal's martyrdom by the
Spanish colonial authorities, while he
was still quite young, was a huge loss
to the Philippines, and to the world at
large.
Today, the people of the Philippines
honor him as their national hero.
EARLY LIFE:
On June 19, 1861, Francisco Rizal
Mercado and Teodora Alonzo y Quintos
welcomed their seventh child into the
world at Calamba, Laguna. They
named the boy Jose Protasio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda.
The Mercado family were wealthy
farmers who rented land from the
Dominican religious order.
Descendants of a Chinese immigrant
named Domingo Lam-co, they
changed their name to Mercado
("market") under the pressure of anti-
Chinese feeling amongst the Spanish
colonizers.
From an early age, Jose Rizal Mercado
showed a precocious intellect. He
learned the alphabet from his mother
at 3, and could read and write at age
5.
EDUCATION:
Jose Rizal Mercado attended the
Ateneo Municipal de Manila,
graduating at the age of 16 with
highest honors. He took a post-
graduate course there in land
surveying.
Rizal Mercado completed his
surveyor's training in 1877, and
passed the licensing exam in May
1878, but could not receive a license
to practice because he was only 17
years old.
(He was granted a license in 1881,
when he reached the age of majority.)
In 1878, the young man also enrolled
in the University of Santo Tomas as a
medical student. He later quit the
school, alleging discrimination against
Filipino students by the Dominican
professors.
RIZAL GOES TO MADRID:
In May of 1882, Jose Rizal got on a
ship to Spain without informing his
parents of his intentions.
He enrolled at the Universidad Central
de Madrid.
In June of 1884, he received his
medical degree at the age of 23; the
following year, he also graduated from
the Philosophy and Letters
department.
Inspired by his mother's advancing
blindness, Rizal next went to the
University of Paris and then the
University of Heidelberg to complete
further study in the field of
ophthalmology. At Heidelberg, he
studied under the famed professor
Otto Becker. Rizal finished his second
doctorate at Heidelberg in 1887.
RIZAL'S LIFE IN EUROPE:
Jose Rizal lived in Europe for 10 years.
During that time, he picked up a
number of languages; in fact, he could
converse in more than 10 different
tongues.
While in Europe, the young Filipino
impressed everyone who met him with
his charm, his intelligence, and his
mastery of an incredible range of
different fields of study.
Rizal excelled at martial arts, fencing,
sculpture, painting, teaching,
anthropology, and journalism, among
other things.
During his European sojourn, he also
began to write novels. Rizal finished
his first book, Noli Me Tangere, while
living in Wilhemsfeld with the
Reverend Karl Ullmer.
NOVELS AND OTHER WORKS:
Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere in
Spanish; it was published in 1887 in
Berlin.
The novel is a scathing indictment of
the Catholic Church and Spanish
colonial rule in the Philippines.
This book cemented Jose Rizal on the
Spanish colonial government's list of
troublemakers. When Rizal returned
home for a visit, he received a
summons from the Governor General,
and had to defend himself from
charges of disseminating subversive
ideas.
Although the Spanish governor
accepted Rizal's explanations, the
Catholic Church was less willing to
forgive. In 1891, Rizal published a
sequel, titled El Filibusterismo.
PROGRAM OF REFORMS:
Both in his novels and in newspaper
editorials, Jose Rizal called for a
number of reforms of the Spanish
colonial system in the Philippines.
He advocated freedom of speech and
assembly, equal rights before the law
for Filipinos, and Filipino priests in
place of the often-corrupt Spanish
churchmen.
In addition, Rizal called for the
Philippines to become a province of
Spain, with representation in the
Spanish legislature (the Cortes
Generales).
Rizal never called for independence
for the Philippines. Nonetheless, the
colonial government considered him a
dangerous radical, and declared him
an enemy of the state.
EXILE AND COURTSHIP:
In 1892, Rizal returned to the
Philippines. He was almost
immediately accused of being involved
in the brewing rebellion and was exiled
to Dapitan, on the island of Mindanao.
Rizal would stay there for four years,
teaching school and encouraging
agricultural reforms.
During that same period, the people of
the Philippines grew more eager to
revolt against the Spanish colonial
presence. Inspired in part by Rizal's
organization, La Liga, rebel leaders
like Andres Bonifacio began to press
for military action against the Spanish
regime.
In Dapitan, Rizal met and fell in love
with Josephine Bracken, who brought
her stepfather to him for a cataract
operation. The couple applied for a
marriage license, but were denied by
the Church (which had
excommunicated Rizal).
TRIAL AND EXECUTION:
The Philippine Revolution broke out in
1896. Rizal denounced the
violence and received permission to
travel to Cuba in order to tend victims
of yellow fever in exchange for his
freedom. Bonifacio and two associates
sneaked aboard the ship to Cuba
before it left the Philippines, trying to
convince Rizal to escape with them,
but Rizal refused.
He was arrested by the Spanish on the
way, taken to Barcelona, and then
extradited to Manila for trial. Jose Rizal
was tried by court martial, charged
with conspiracy, sedition, and
rebellion.
Despite a lack of any evidence of his
complicity in the Revolution, Rizal was
convicted on all counts and given the
death sentence.
He was allowed to marry Josephine
two hours before his execution by
firing squad on December 30, 1896.
Jose Rizal was just 35 years old.
JOSE RIZAL'S LEGACY:
Jose Rizal is remembered today
throughout the Philippines for his
brilliance, his courage, his peaceful
resistance to tyranny, and his
compassion.
Filipino school children study his final
literary work, a poem called Mi Ultimo
Adios("My Last Goodbye"), as well as
his two famous novels.
Spurred on by Rizal's martyrdom,
the Philippine Revolution continued
until 1898. With assistance from the
United States, the Philippine
archipelago was able to defeat the
Spanish army. The Philippines declared
its independence from Spain on June
12, 1898. It was the first democratic
republic in Asia.
Childhood & Early Life
He was born as Jose Protacio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda, one of the
11 children of Francisco Engracio Rizal
Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora
Morales Alonso y Quintos. He later
adopted a shorter version of his name,
Jose Rizal. His family was very
prosperous.
He enrolled at Ateneo de Municipal de
Manila and graduated with a degree in
Land Surveying and Assessment in
1877. He had a deep interest in arts
and thus he went to the Faculty of Arts
and Letters for a degree in Philosophy
at the University of Santo Tomas.
His mother was becoming blind during
this time and the young man decided
to specialize in ophthalmology in order
to help her. He enrolled at the Faculty
of Medical Sciences at University of
Santo Tomas in 1878 for this purpose.
He went to Spain to continue his
studies and enrolled at the
Universidad Central de Madrid from
where he earned his degree in
medicine in 1884. He completed
another degree in Philosophy and
Letters from the same institute the
next year.
He had an insatiable thirst for
knowledge and went to France to
further his knowledge of
ophthalmology at the University of
Heidelberg. He completed his eye
specialization in 1887 under the
tutelage of the famous professor Otto
Becker.