Summary of Rizal's Life

Who is Jose Rizal? On June 19, 1861, the Mercado Family from the town of Calamba in the province
of Laguna in the Philippines, happily greeted the birth of their newest member — a baby boy born as
the seventh child to proud parents Francisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonza y
Quintos. They named the bouncing baby boy Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado. Being the seventh of a
brood of eleven, Jose Rizal Mercado demonstrated an astounding intelligence and aptitude for
learning at a very young age when he learned his letters from his mother and could read and write at
the age of five. Education was a priority for the Mercado family and young Jose Protacio was sent to
learn from Justiniano Aquino Cruz, a tutor from nearby Binan, Laguna. But the education of a small
town and a tutor did not sufficiently quench the young man’s thirst for knowledge and soon, the family
began to make preparations for his admission to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, in the capital of the
Philippines. The school was run by the Jesuit Order and was one of the most prominent and
academic institutions in the country which catered to the rich, the powerful and most intelligent
students that country had, certainly a place for a young man like Jose Protacio Mercado. Prior to his
enrollment in this prominent learning institution, his older brother Paciano Rizal Mercado, insisted that
Jose drop the surname “Mercado”. Because during that time Mercado is under the suspicion of
Spaniards. Jose Rizal decided to study for a degree in Land Surveying and Assessment at the
Ateneo de Municipal de Manila where he graduated on March 14, 1877, with honors or sobrasaliente.
He took and passed the licensure exam for land surveying and assessment in 1878 but was not given
a license until 1881 when he turned 21. After his completion of his degree from Ateneo Municipal de
Manila, he pursued, his passion for the arts as he enrolled at the Faculty of Arts and Letters for a
degree in Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas. Although he excelled at philosophy, the news
of his mother’s impending blindness convinced him to study Medicine, and he enrolled in the Faculty
of Medical Sciences at University of Santo Tomas to specialize in ophthalmology. Citing
discrimination against Filipino students by the Dominican professors in Medicine, Rizal left the
medical program in 1882. Believing that education in the country is limited boarded a ship to Spain
with the support of his older brother Paciano but without informing his arents. The 10 years he would
spend on the European continent would leave an indelible mark on his personality and open his eyes
to the world, develop his natural talents and strengthen his devotion to his fatherland. In Spain, he
continued the studies that were stalled in the Philippines and enrolled at the Universidad Central de
Madrid where he graduated in 1884 with a degree in Medicine, and a year later with a degree in
Philosophy and letters from the same institution. Even after the completion of these two degrees, he
still was not satisfied and traveled to France and studied at the University of Paris. In his pursuit to
further increase his knowledge in his chosen field of specialization — ophthalmology — he studied at
the University of Heidelberg under the distinguished eye specialist, Professor Otto Becker. Even
closer to home, Rizal saw the treatment accorded to his beloved mother by the Spanish authorities
who accused her of attempting to poison her cousin and sent her to jail in Santa Cruz, Laguna.
Teodora Mercado was made to walk sixteen kilometers from their home to the prison and was
incarcerated for 2 and a half years until a successful appeal at the highest court of the Spanish
government cleared her of the charges. During his stay in first stay in Europe, Rizal wrote his novel,
Noli Me Tangere. The book was written in Spanish and first published in Berlin, Germany in 1887.
The Noli, as it is more commonly known, tells the story of a young Filipino man who travels to Europe
to study and returns home with new eyes to the injustices and corruption in his native land. Rizal used
elaborate characters to symbolize the different personalities and characteristics of both the
oppressors and the oppressed, paying notable attention to Filipinos who had adopted the customs of
their colonizers, forgetting their own nationality; the Spanish friars who were portrayed as lustful and
greedy men in robes who sought only to satisfy their own needs, and the poor and ignorant members
of society who knew no other life but that of one of abject poverty and cruelty under the yoke of the
church and state. Rizal’s first novel was a scalding criticism of the Spanish colonial system in the
country and Philippine society in general, was met with harsh reactions from the elite, the church and
the government. Upon his return to the country, he was summoned by the Governor General of the
Philippine Islands to explain himself in light of accusations that he was a subversive and an inciter of
rebellion. Rizal faced the charges and defended himself admirably, and although he was exonerated,
his name would remain on the watch list of the colonial government. Similarly, his work also produced
a great uproar in the Catholic Church in the country, so much so that later, he was excommunicated.
Despite the reaction to his first novel, Rizal wrote a second novel, El Filibusterismo, and published it
in 1891. Where the protagonist of Noli, Ibarra, was a pacifist and advocate of peaceful means of
reforms to enact the necessary change in the system, the lead character in Fili, Simeon, was more
militant and preferred to incite an armed uprising to achieve the same end. Hence the government
could not help but notice that instead of being merely a commentary on Philippine society, the second
novel could become the catalyst which would encourage Filipinos to revolt against the Spanish
colonizers and overthrow the colonial government. Upon his return to the Philippines in 1892, he was
arrested by the Spanish government for being a subversive and for his reported involvement in the
rebellion. He was then exiled to the island of the Dapitan in the southernmost island group of the
Philippines, Mindanao. There he established a school that taught English to young boys, he worked
on agricultural projects on abaca, a plant used for rope, and he continued to practice medicine,
eventually meeting one of the most famous women in his life, Josephine Bracken. Although Jose
Rizal has repeatedly said that he advocated peaceful reforms in the Philippines, the Spanish
government were correct in assuming that his novels would indeed stir up a hornet’s nest of unrest in
the islands. One of the leaders of the revolutionary group called Katipunan, Andres Bonifacio, had
read the Rizal’s novels and had used these as a basis for the revolution. So influential was Rizal that
even without his permission they named him as a member and Katipuneros shouted his name as part
of the their battle cry. Rizal was then brought back to the Philippines to face charges of rebellion due
to his reported association with the revolutionary movement. The court found him guilty and
sentenced him to death. Andres Bonifacio where trying to save Jose Rizal but Paciano stopped him
saying that Rizal don’t want others to be in dangered because of him. Rizal is able to sneak out a final
poem to his family entitled Mi Ultimo Adios. Rizal was executed by a firing squad on December 30
1896, at 7:00am, in Bagumbayan (now called Rizal Park). squad. His lasts words were the shout: "It
is done! " Bonifacio and his Katipuneros ambushed some Spanish soldiers and win against them.
They also kill a Spanish priest. The rebellion started to bear fruit and their hard works to be payed.

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