RIZAL AND THE LESSONS HIS MOTHER TAUGHT HIM

by Ma. Cielito G. Reyno

Of all the persons who had the greatest influence on Rizal’s development as a
person was his mother Teodora Alonso. It was she who opened his eyes and heart to
the world around him—with all its soul and poetry, as well as its bigotry and
injustice. Throughout his brief life, Rizal proved to be his mother’s son, a chip off the old
block, as he constantly strove to keep faith the lessons she taught him.

His mother was his first teacher, and from her he learned to read, and consequently
to value reading as a means for learning and spending one’s time meaningfully. It did
not take long before he learnt to value time as life’s most precious gift, for she taught
him never to waste a single second of it. Thus as a student in Spain he became the
most assiduous of students, never missing a class despite his activities as Propaganda
leader, or an examination, despite having to take it on an empty stomach. By his
example, he inspired his compatriots – those who had sunk into a life of dissipation,
wasting time and allowances on gambling and promiscuity- to return to their studies and
deserve their parents’ sacrifices back home.

From his mother he learnt the primacy of improving oneself- thus growing up he
took pains to comprehend the logic of mathematics; to write poems; to draw, and sculpt;
to paint. Sadly, for all these he earned not only glory but also the fear of myopic souls.

By taking the lead in running the family’s businesses- farms, flour and sugar milling,
tending a store, even making fruit preserves, aside from running a household, Teodora
imbibed in him the value of working with one’s hands, of self-reliance and
entrepreneurship. And by sharing with others she taught him generosity and helping to
make the world a better place for those who had less in the material life. All these
lessons he applied himself during his exile in Dapitan, as he improved its community by
building a dam; encouraging the locals to grow fruit trees, establishing a school, even
documenting the local flora and fauna.

His mother also taught him to value hard-earned money and better yet, the
importance of thrift and of denying oneself, and saving part of one’s earnings as
insurance against the vagaries of life. Thus he learned to scrimp and save despite
growing up in comfort and wealth. These would later prove very useful to him during his
stay in Europe as he struggled with privation, considering the meager and often delayed
allowance that his family sent him (by then his family was undergoing financial reverses
due to land troubles). Whenever his precious allowance ran out, he went without lunch
and supper, putting up a front before everyone by going out of his dormitory everyday to
give the impression that he took his meals outside. But, as he walked the streets of
Berlin or Barcelona, his nostrils would be assailed by the delicious aroma of the dishes
being cooked within buildings and houses, increasing his hunger pangs and his
suffering all the more. Other times he saved up on rent by foregoing breakfast
altogether, his breakfast consisting of biscuits and water for a month.
 Above all, it was from her he learned about obedience, through the story of the moth
that got burned by the flame because he disobeyed his mother moth’s warning not to
get too near the flame. But life as it often happens has poignant way of turning around,
for it was obedience to the Catholic Church, as his mother taught him, which proved too
hard to live by especially when he struggled with a crisis of faith in its
teachings. Teodora took none too gently his defection from the Church, which she saw
was an apostasy from faith itself.

One of the turning points of his life, which had a profound influence on his becoming
a political activist later on, was the unjust arrest of his mother on the charge of
conspiring to poison a relative, despite the lack of evidence against her. But what made
the arrest even worse was her humiliating treatment at the hands of authorities who
made her walk all the way from Calamba to the provincial jail in Santa Cruz, which was
50 kilometers far. There she was imprisoned for two years before gaining her
freedom. All these she took with calm and quiet dignity, which Rizal though only a child
of eleven about to embark on secondary school in Manila would remember and
replicate during his final moments just before a firing squad snuffed out his meaningful
life on that fateful December morn in 1896.

Leon Ma. Guerrero’s biography of Rizal, The First Filipino, is a rambling life,
punctuated by too many lengthy quotations, and written in a discursive style.
However, it contains genuine insight into the Philippines’ enigmatic national hero and
presents a consistent and convincing picture of Rizal as a torchbearer for rationalism
and humanism martyred by an essentially medieval colonial government violently
opposed to independent thought.
One thing I have never understood about Rizal is why he did not save himself while he
could. Having moved most of his family to Hong Kong in 1891¬¬-1892, why did he not
settle for life as simple bourgeois eye doctor with a second career as a novelist?
Instead of returning to the maelstrom, why did he not decide to have an arms-length
relationship with the politics of his country? As Guerrero recounts in great detail, by
then he had already fallen out with many Madrid-based exiles, particularly Marcelo H.
Pilar, and had refused to write any more for the journal Solidaridad. Even after his
return to the Philippines and exile to Dapitan, it was not too late. Why did Rizal not
take the advice of Governor General Blanco in 1894 and go to Spain? Or simply escape
from Dapitan as many of his friends urged him to do?
Rizal’s own explanation of his return from Hong Kong is contained in a letter “to the
Filipinos” dated 20 June 1892.
The step I have taken or am about to take is very risky no doubt and I do not have to say that
I have given it much thought. I know that almost everyone is against it but I know too that
almost no one knows what goes in my heart. I cannot go on living knowing that so many suffer
unjust persecution because of me … I also want to show those who deny our patriotism that
we know how to die doing our duty and for our convictions. What does death matter if one
dies for what one loves, for one’s country and loved ones?”

This is fine as far as it goes, but it is too general to provide the complete answer—it is
possible to imagine Ninoy Aquino saying the same 94 years later. It seems to me there
are at least four main ways of explaining why Rizal made the choices he did.
1. He was a true intellectual who valued ideas above everything, even his own life—“a man
should die for his duty and his convictions” he wrote to his parents (note not “be prepared
to die for his convictions”). Rizal knew, with a certainty only the truly brilliant can ever have,
that his ideas were correct and would conquer the forces of obscurantism that overwhelmed
his country. Even on his last night, while assailed by priests trying to force him to recant, he
clung to his Enlightenment beliefs: “But Father, what do you want me to do? It seems I cannot
give up my reason” he told one persistent Jesuit.

2. Rizal found the mantle of leadership of the Filipinos impossible to shake off in
favour of bourgeois respectability. Since his patriotic speech to celebrate the gold
medal awarded to Juan Luna’s Spoliarium in 1884 (“the Oriental chrysalis is breaking
out of its sheath”), he had been anointed the leader of the illustrados (although
Guerero points out that “Rizal did not have the temperament that makes for success
in politics”).
3. Rizal’s tragic and in part self-inflicted death was consistent with a dominant trait
of Filipinos, a love of melodrama and the dramatic gesture.
The fourth possible explanation comes not from Guerrero, but from Rizal from
Within by Ante Radaic, who refers to Rizal’s “Hamlet disposition.” (See Nick Joaquin’s
essay on the two works here.)

"Rizal, the bold dreamer, strikes me as weak of will and irresolute for action and life. His
withdrawal, his timidity, proved a hundred times, his timorousness, are no more than facets
of his Hamlet disposition. To have been a practical revolutionary he would have needed the
simple mentality of an Andrés Bonifacio. He was, I think, a faint-heart and a dubitator."

This is too strong to describe a man who displayed such heroism in his final hours, but
at key points in his life Rizal did show great indecision. None of his numerous
relationships with women ended in marriage until his wedding to Josephine Bracken in
his death cell two hours before his execution. He travelled continuously around
Europe, and his inability to settle down anywhere, or even to decide on Europe over
Asia, suggests a man overwhelmed by the many and competing choices that lay before
him.
This indecision pursued him to the end. Despite the statement in the letter to the
Filipinos quoted above, when Rizal was finally arrested in 1898 for the crime of
subversion he had just arrived in Barcelona on his way to Cuba to join the Spanish
forces fighting the revolutionaries as a doctor, surely a curious occupation for a
revolutionary. It is fascinating to speculate what would have happened to this brilliant
man had Bonifacio not begun the revolution a few months earlier, which Rizal was
unjustly executed for leading. The fourth reason for Rizal’s refusal to leave danger
before it was too late would therefore read something like this.
4. Unable to decide on a career (doctor, writer, political agitator), a wife (Leonora, Tottie,
Josephine, to name just a few), where to live (Madrid, London, Paris, Heidelberg, Hong Kong,
Manila, Borneo), he remained in the Philippines, paralysed by indecision, until events
overtook him.

To accept at least part of Radaic’s thesis does not seem to me to diminish Rizal. He
was an intellectual and an artist, why should we expect him to be a Napoleon as well?
There are so many sides to this fascinating man that I can well understand why
historians such as Ambeth Ocampo have dedicated much of their lives to try to figure
him out. However, it is the preternatural calmness with which he awaited his
(completely unjust) execution that is the most impressive part about him. To the end,
he was vigorously debating theology with the many friars who pestered him to recant,
writing poignant letters to his family (“Tell our father I remember him. How? I
remember his tenderness and love. I ask him to forgive me for the grief which I
unwillingly caused him”), marrying Josephine, and of course writing the beautiful
poem Mi último adios. Perhaps the most affecting part of Rizal’s final preparations is
in the last line of a letter to his family, in which he asks them to look after the dulce
extranjera of Mi último adios
Pity poor Josephine.

The Spanish government could have been satisfied of Rizal's innocence of any
treasonable designs against Spain's sovereignty in the Islands had it known how the
exile had declined an opportunity to head the movement which had been initiated on the
eve of his deportation. His name had been used to gather the members together and
his portrait hung in each Katipunan lodge hall, but all this was without Rizal's consent or
even his knowledge.

The (Katipunan) members, who had been paying faithfully for four years, felt that it was
time that something besides collecting money was done. Their restiveness and
suspicions led Andres Bonifacio, its head, to resort to Rizal, feeling that a word from
the exile, who had religiously held aloof from all politics since his deportation, would
give the Katipunan leaders more time to mature their plans. So he sent a messenger to
Dapitan, Pio Valenzuela, a doctor, who to conceal his mission took with him a blind
man. Thus the doctor and his patient appeared as on a professional visit to the exiled
oculist. But though the interview was successfully secured in this way, its results were
not so satisfactory.
Far from feeling grateful for the consideration for the possible consequences to him
which Valenzuela pretended had prompted the visit, Rizal indignantly insisted that the
country came first. He cited the Spanish republics of South America, with their
alternating revolutions and despotisms, as a warning against embarking on a change of
government for which the people were not prepared. Education, he declared, was first
necessary, and in his opinion general enlightenment was the only road to progress.
Valenzuela cut short his trip, glad to escape without anyone realizing that Rizal and he
had quarreled.

Bonifacio called Rizal a coward when he heard his emissary's report, and
enjoined Valenzuela to say nothing of his trip. But the truth leaked out, and there
was a falling away in Katipunan membership.

Doctor Rizal's own statement respecting the rebellion and Valenzuela's visit may fitly be
quoted here:

"I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came
to see me, saying that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd, etc., etc., and he answered me
that they could bear no more. I advised him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that he had been
sent because they had compassion on my life and that probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should
have patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my innocence. Besides, said I, don't consider
me, but our country, which is the one that will suffer. I went on to show how absurd was the movement. Then later,
Pio Valenzuela testified. -He did not tell me that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I was its chief,
or anything of that sort."

"Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know, nor do I know of having ever treated with them), what
proofs do they present of my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them or with their society?
Either they have made use of my name for their own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have.
Where is the chief who dictates no order and makes no arrangement, who is not consulted in anything about so
important an enterprise until the last moment, and then when he decides against it is disobeyed? Since the seventh
of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name
for their own ends."

This was Rizal's second temptation to engage in politics, the first having been a trap laid
by his enemies. A man had come to see Rizal in his earlier days in Dapitan, claiming to
be a relative and seeking letters to prominent Filipinos. The deceit was too plain and
Rizal denounced the envoy to the commandant, whose investigations speedily
disclosed the source of the plot. Further prosecution, of course, ceased at once.

The visit of some image vendors from Laguna who never before had visited that region,
and who seemed more intent on escaping notice than interested in business, appeared
suspicious, but upon report of the Jesuits the matter was investigated and nothing really
objectionable was found.

The Katipunan, which had been organized on the eve of Rizal's deportation but had
done little since, took on new life through the zeal and ability of Emilio Jacinto, a young
student whose patriotic mother, a nurse (midwife) was sister of a Liga Filipina and
Masonic leader later shot. Jacinto epitomized the Filipinos' historic grievances in an
impressively simple but dramatic initiation ceremony that taught Philippine history and
developed patriotism so successfully that the thousands who now crowded into the
revolutionary society were eager to, and did risk everything in their country's cause.

FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY

by Ma. Cielito Reyno

Jose Rizal is said to have first expressed his sense of nation, and of the Philippines as
a nation separate from Spain, as a young student in Manila. Proof of this, it is said, can
be found in two of his writings. In his poem “To the Philippine Youth”, which he wrote
in 1879, when he was 18 years old (and which won a prize from the literary group), Rizal
speaks of the Filipino youth as the “Fair hope of my Motherland”, and of the “Indian
land” whose “son” is offered “a shining crown”, by the “Spaniard… with wise and
merciful hand”. Still in this poem, Rizal considered Spain as a loving and concerned
mother to her daughter Filipinas.

In his memoirs as a student, later published as Reminiscences, he spoke of the time

spent in his sophomore year at the Ateneo as being essentially the same as his first year,
except that this year, he felt within himself the stirrings of “patriotic sentiments” and of
an “exquisite sensibility”1. He might have been only referring to the sense that the
Philippines, was a colony of Spain, and as such, the Philippines was a part of Spain. If
this were the case, his patriotism was therefore directed toward Spain for being the
Philippines’ mother country. Seen in another light, these words may have evidenced
Rizal’s moment of epiphany, his own portent of a future time when he would awake to
the tragedies that were the lot of his fellow indios, the rightful heirs of the Filipinas their
motherland.

Some cite Rizal’s verse-play “Beside the Pasig” (written in 1880, when was 19), as his
allegory of the Filipinos’ bondage under Spain2; however, the play’s protagonists are a
young boy named Leonido, who defends the Christians, and Satan, who speaks against
Spain for bringing Christianity to the Philippines.

As fate had it, Rizal ultimately awoke to the real state of the Philippines under the
hands, not of a loving Mother Spain, but of an exploitative despot represented by the
colonial government in Manila and the friars who held great influence over the
government. His awakening may have come by way of his own experiences at the
university, his family’s experience at the hands of the religious group that owned their
farmland; and perhaps, from the stories about the reformist movement and the sacrifice
of the three priests, collectively known as Gomburza, of ten years before. This last most
likely were from his older brother Paciano, who had been close to Fr. Jose Burgos, and
had been an outspoken critic of abuses during his years in college at the Colegio de San
Jose.

Rizal saw the many injustices suffered by his fellow Filipinos: they depended on the
religious corporations or on big landowners, for land to till, or for their living; people
were afraid of airing their grievances or of talking or protesting against the friars or the
government, in short, there was no real freedom of the press or speech. Most Filipinos
lacked the privilege of education, and its resultant benefits, or if they did have
education, this was the obscurantist kind generally propagated by the colonialist policy,
which not only kept Filipinos in the dark about their rights, but worse, had molded them
into an abject, submissive people ignorant or worse, ashamed of their own proud
heritage, a heritage that existed even before the arrival of the Spaniards. Finally, Rizal
realized that the Philippines had not been consistently represented in the Spanish
parliament. For Rizal, this was the root of the absence of justice in the country, or of
their being deprived of basic rights.

His essay “Love of Country” which he wrote in June 1882 (but appeared in the
newspaper Diariong Tagalog Manila in August)3, when he was already in Spain, and he
was 21 years old. In it he talks of “love of country” which “is never effaced once it has
penetrated the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp..;” that it is “the most
powerful force behind the most sublime actions” and for that reason, love of country “of
all loves…is the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested”.4 He speaks of the
Motherland for whom “some have sacrificed their youth, their pleasures…others their
blood; all have died bequeathing to their Motherland…Liberty and glory.”5

It can be inferred from his words that at this point Rizal’s sense of nation was now fully-
formed and complete, and perhaps not by happenstance, its expression coincides with
his departure from his country. While there is still no outright and open criticism of the
friars, or the colonial government, or even of Spain for he may have only been being
careful, Rizal by this time had become a nationalist and had gone abroad for the cause of
his countrymen. This is confirmed by a line from a letter written to him by his friend
Vicente Gella, in the same month he wrote “Love of Country”, (June 1882):

“If the absence of a son from the bosom of his esteemed family is sad, no less will be
that of a friend who, being very dear to all of us …his friends and comrades, now is
away from us seeking the welfare that we all desire. Had it not been for that, the
separation would have been more painful for the distance that separates us. May God
help you for the good that you do to your fellow countrymen.”

Another letter written by his friend Jose M. Cecilio, dated August 28, 1882, also
corroborates this:

“I’m very glad that you will go to Madrid where you can do many things in favor of
this country jointly with the other Filipinos..so long as they will not give us freedom of
the press, abuses, arbitrariness, and injustices will prevail more than in other parts of
the world.”6

Ultimately, it does not matter when or even how Rizal’s politicization came, or why
he went abroad: to complete his medical studies there; or, to expand his opportunities
for establishing himself as a writer7; or to embark on a career as an activist-writer who
would use his pen to secure long-needed reforms in the social and political fabric of his
country. And because the space for agitating for changes in the country was getting
smaller by the day, it was time for him to leave. Under his leadership, together with the
other Filipino youth, the Reform- or Propaganda movement– as it became known,
flourished and triumphed. It triumphed not in the sense that it attained its main goals
of obtaining parliamentary representation for the Filipinos, and freedom of the press,
for these did not come to pass, but in the after- effects of its campaign, despite its
apparent failure: other youths followed in their footsteps and took the next step- to
begin the campaign for separation and independence. This was carried out by
Bonifacio and the Katipunan, which launched the Revolution that, in turn, led to the
birth of the Filipino nation.

And so Rizal became a crusader for his country’s freedom. He decided that love of
country should supplant all other considerations, even that of his family or his own, or
even of the woman he loved. From his correspondence with friends and family, he
remained constant to his Muse and his cause: the Motherland and her freedom.

When he had completed his education, and his formation as a son deserving of the
Motherland, Rizal felt it was time to return to her. Friends and family stopped him from
returning, but he was determined to do so, for he believed that the true arena for the
fight was his country itself, not some foreign land. In a letter dated October 1891, Rizal
wrote,

“If our countrymen are counting on us here in Europe, they are very much
mistaken…The battlefield is the Philippines: There is where we should meet…there we
will help one another, there together we will suffer or triumph perhaps. The majority
of our compatriots in Europe are afraid, they flee from the fire, and they are brave
only so long as they are in a peaceful country! The Philippines should not count on
them; she should depend on her own strength.”8

Rizal returned to the land of his birth knowing that its liberty cannot be
“obtained…without pain or merit… nor is it granted gratis et amore.”9 He was
prepared to return despite the risk of death, as he had written in June 1892 days before
his arrival in Manila: “I offer my life gladly… Let those who deny us patriotism see that
we know how to die for our duty and convictions…What does it matter to die, if one
dies for what one loves, for the Native Land?” Rizal returned and offered up his life for
his nation’s freedom four years later. Would that the nation born out of the ashes of his
sacrifice continue to look up to him and live up to the legacy he left behind.

“May we take this occasion as an opportunity to recognize Dr. Rizal’s ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our
country. Let us reflect on his patriotism as we strive to continue his work of building a more united, peaceful,
and prosperous Philippines,” the President said in his message commemorating the 121st anniversary Rizal’s
martyrdom.

Duterte said more than a century ago, Rizal “inspired a movement that gave rise to the Filipino national
identity. “
“During the dark chapter in our nation’s history, his writings served as the light that guided our forebears in the
fight for genuine equality and independence. As an author and as a scholar, he denounced the corruption,
greed, and other social ills that up to this day continue to plague our society. Even in death, he imparted upon
us his aspirations for a nation that is free from the scourge of injustice, tyranny, and suffering,” the President
added.

A lesson on courage

For his part, Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said, “To many of us, December 30 is a holiday to celebrate
the life and works of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero. One cannot help but wonder why we don’t think about
Rizal Day as the day of Rizal’s execution.”

“What should give us pause every December 30… And what should give us inspiration and pride is the fact
that he fought for something, far greater than self-preservation: Reforms, social equality, and freedom,”
Angara stressed in his Rizal Day’s message.

“The fact is that while we celebrate his life and works today, we also mourn his death. He died in
Bagumbayan, our present-day Luneta Park, on December 30, 1896, in the early morning, by firing squad,
convicted of the crimes of rebellion, sedition, and forming illegal association. He was 35 years old,” he added.

A hundred and 21 years ago, Angara said Rizal walked to the field of his execution calm and unafraid and, at
the last moment, “turned to face the firing squad because he wanted to face his executioners.”

“Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue
consistently,” he said quoting American poet Maya Angelou.

“Rizal and the other heroes during his time, gallantly fought with all courage for our independence and
freedom from foreign oppressors,” he added.

Today, Angara noted Filipinos are in the middle of another battle — the war against poverty.

“All of us are called upon to act and respond. Will we respond with all courage and willingness, too? I am
optimistic that we will,” he said.

Day of mourning

According to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), Rizal Day is being
commemorated every December 30 to remember the nationalism and martyrdom of Rizal.

The commemoration is highlighted by the raising of the Philippine flag and wreath-laying ceremonies at the
Luneta Park, Rizal Shrine in Calamba, Zamboanga and Rizal Monument in Baguio City.

The observance of Rizal Day dates back to the decree issued by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo on December 20, 1898
declaring December 30 as the anniversary of Jose Rizal’s death and also as “a national day of mourning,” for
Rizal and other victims of the Spanish dominion throughout its three centuries rule,” according to the website
of the NHCP.

The first ever celebration of Rizal Day was held in Manila on December 30, 1898 which coincided with the
unveiling of the Rizal monument in Daet, Camarines Norte. NHCP says the said monument was the first to be
built in honor of Rizal.

Rizal was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine
Revolution, inspired in part by his writings, broke out. (With a report from Rizal S. Obanil)
Dr. José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, is not only
admired for possessing intellectual brilliance but also for taking a
stand and resisting the Spanish colonial government. While his
death sparked a revolution to overthrow the tyranny, Rizal will
always be remembered for his compassion towards the Filipino
people and the country.

Humble beginnings
José Protasio Rizal Mercado Y Alonso Realonda was born on June 19, 1861
to Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonzo in the town of Calamba in the
province of Laguna. He had nine sisters and one brother. At the early age of
three, the future political leader had already learned the English alphabet.
And, by the age of five, José could already read and write.

Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now referred to as Ateneo

De Manila University), he dropped the last three names in his full name, after
his brother’s advice – hence, being known as José Protasio Rizal. His
performance in school was outstanding – winning various poetry contests,
impressing his professors with his familiarity of Castilian and other foreign
languages, and crafting literary essays that were critical of the Spanish
historical accounts of pre-colonial Philippine societies.

A man with multiple professions

While he originally obtained a land surveyor and assessor’s degree in Ateneo,
Rizal also took up a preparatory course on law at the University of Santo
Tomas (UST). But when he learned that his mother was going blind, he
decided to switch to medicine school in UST and later on specialized
in ophthalmology. In May 1882, he decided to travel to Madrid in Spain, and
earned his Licentiate in Medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid.
Apart from being known as an expert in the field of medicine, a poet, and an
essayist, Rizal exhibited other amazing talents. He knew how to paint, sketch,
and make sculptures. Because he lived in Europe for about 10 years, he also
became a polyglot – conversant in 22 languages. Aside from poetry and
creative writing, Rizal had varying degrees of expertise in architecture,
sociology, anthropology, fencing, martial arts, and economics to name a few.

His novels awakened Philippine nationalism

Rizal had been very vocal against the Spanish government, but in a peaceful
and progressive manner. For him, “the pen was mightier than the sword.” And
through his writings, he exposed the corruption and wrongdoings of
government officials as well as the Spanish friars.

While in Barcelona, Rizal contributed essays, poems, allegories, and editorials

to the Spanish newspaper, La Solidaridad. Most of his writings, both in his
essays and editorials, centered on individual rights and freedom, specifically
for the Filipino people. As part of his reforms, he even called for the inclusion
of the Philippines to become a province of Spain.

But, among his best works, two novels stood out from the rest – Noli Me
Tángere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Reign of the Greed).

In both novels, Rizal harshly criticized the Spanish colonial rule in the country
and exposed the ills of Philippine society at the time. And because he wrote
about the injustices and brutalities of the Spaniards in the country, the
authorities banned Filipinos from reading the controversial books. Yet they
were not able to ban it completely. As more Filipinos read the books, their
eyes opened to the truth that they were suffering unspeakable abuses at the
hands of the friars. These two novels by Rizal, now considered his literary
masterpieces, are said to have indirectly sparked the Philippine Revolution.
Rizal’s unfateful days
Upon his return to the Philippines, Rizal formed a progressive organization
called the La Liga Filipina. This civic movement advocated social reforms
through legal means. Now Rizal was considered even more of a threat by the
Spanish authorities (alongside his novels and essays), which ultimately led to
his exile in Dapitan in northern Mindanao.

This however did not stop him from continuing his plans for reform. While in
Dapitan, Rizal built a school, hospital, and water system. He also taught
farming and worked on agricultural projects such as using abaca to make
ropes.

In 1896, Rizal was granted leave by then Governor-General Blanco, after

volunteering to travel to Cuba to serve as doctor to yellow fever victims. But at
that time, the Katipunan had a full-blown revolution and Rizal was accused of
being associated with the secret militant society. On his way to Cuba, he was
arrested in Barcelona and sent back to Manila to stand for trial before the
court martial. Rizal was charged with sedition, conspiracy, and rebellion – and
therefore, sentenced to death by firing squad.

Days before his execution, Rizal bid farewell to his motherland and
countrymen through one of his final letters, entitled Mi último adiós or My Last
Farewell. Dr. José Rizal was executed on the morning of December 30, 1896,
in what was then called Bagumbayan (now referred to as Luneta). Upon
hearing the command to shoot him, he faced the squad and uttered in his final
breath: “Consummatum est” (It is finished). According to historical accounts,
only one bullet ended the life of the Filipino martyr and hero.

His legacy lives on

After his death, the Philippine Revolution continued until 1898. And with the
assistance of the United States, the Philippines declared its independence
from Spain on June 12, 1898. This was the time that the Philippine flag was
waved at General Emilio Aguinaldo’s residence in Kawit, Cavite.

Today, Dr. Rizal’s brilliance, compassion, courage, and patriotism are greatly
remembered and recognized by the Filipino people. His two novels are
continuously being analyzed by students and professionals.

Colleges and universities in the Philippines even require their students to take
a subject which centers around the life and works of Rizal. Every year, the
Filipinos celebrate Rizal Day – December 30 each year – to commemorate his
life and works. Filipinos look back at how his founding of La Liga Filipina and
his two novels had an effect on the early beginnings of the Philippine
Revolution. The people also recognize his advocacy to achieve liberty through
peaceful means rather than violent revolution.

In honor of Rizal, memorials and statues of the national hero can be found not
only within the Philippines, but in selected cities around the world. A road in
the Chanakyapuri area of New Delhi (India) and in Medan, Indonesia is
named after him. The José Rizal Bridge and Rizal Park in the city of Seattle
are also dedicated to the late hero.

Within the Philippines, there are streets, towns/cities, a university (Rizal

University), and a province named after him. Three species have also been
named after Rizal – the Draco rizali (a small lizard, known as a flying
dragon), Apogania rizali (a very rare kind of beetle with five horns) and
the Rhacophorus rizali (a peculiar frog species).

To commemorate what he did for the country, the Philippines built a memorial
park for him – now referred to as Rizal Park, found in Manila. There lies a
monument which contains a standing bronze sculpture of Rizal, an obelisk,
and a stone base said to contain his remains. The monument stands near the
place where he fell during his execution in Luneta.

RIZAL’S TIMELESS CHALLENGE – TO SERVE THE NATION

by Ma. Cielito Reyno

In these times of unprecedented exodus abroad of youth searching for jobs or the
fulfillment of their dreams; of public servants going back on their oath of honest service,
in exchange for the returns of Mammon; of activists who continue to disappear and die
in the course of their mission to change society for the least of that society; or of the rare
Filipino who risks his own life and family if only to serve the cause of truth- it would be
fitting to remember Rizal’s timeless call to all patriots of past, present and future as a
gauge of our own place and worth as Filipinos at this point in our history.

It may be said that Rizal’s foremost mission in life had been determined for him by
fate- and early in his life. In 1872 Fathers Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomes and Jacinto
Zamora, priests whose names were identified with the movement to reform the
priesthood, and the Catholic Church itself, in the Philippines, were executed on the
ground of inciting the Mutiny of Cavite. That execution proved to be Rizal’s political
epiphany, the beginning of his coming of age as a Filipino aware of being part of one
nation. It was to culminate in full fruition at his death more than 20 years later, but by
then a generation of his fellow natives had been molded, by his life’s work, into Filipinos
with a sense of nation.

The generation into which Rizal was born was the generation that up till then
produced the greatest of Filipino youth. It grew up in the worst and best of times, a time
of upheaval, and revolution and sacrifice, the call to which Rizal and his fellow youth
had unhesitatingly, and without looking back, answered.

Among them, however, Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, a fellow Propagandist, stood
out for their determination. Del Pilar had left homeland, wife and two daughters to wage
his political struggle in Spain. He would die there. Rizal was driven by one thing and
one thing only: to serve the nation. He spoke of it a year after he left his homeland for
studies in Spain: “In my heart I have suppressed all loves, except that of my native
land; in my mind I have erased all ideas which do not signify her progress; and my lips
have forgotten the names of the native races in the Philippines in order not to say more
than Filipinos.”

Rizal’s chief aim was to reform Philippine society, first by uncovering its ills and
second, by awakening the Filipino youth. His enemies were the oppressive colonial
government, but especially the corrupt elements among the friars, members of the
religious orders that exerted the greatest influence over the government and thereby
held complete sway over the lives of the Filipinos.
 Rizal knew the best way to awaken the youth and lead them toward right action was
through education, but especially foreign education. For local education, being
controlled by the friars then kept the Filipinos in the dark, ignorant of their rights and
heritage- and meek in the face of oppression. This was partly why he left for Spain in
1882, to continue his studies there.

Championing the cause of the nation for him entailed becoming the best person he
could be. He carried over to his activism the mental and physical disciplines he learned
from his elders.

His capacity for self-denial had developed to such a degree that enabled him -when
he was short on funds abroad- to breakfast on a few biscuits for days on end; to take
exams on an empty stomach or go for hours without food; to burn the candle at both
ends studying his lessons or learning a new language; to steel himself from falling into
the trap of drinking and gambling, which had waylaid many of his compatriots from their
mission; to retain his empathy for the downtrodden as when moved upon encountering
a child begging in the streets of Madrid, perhaps reminding him of the child beggars
back home.

He plunged himself into the thick of the Propaganda, a movement that agitated for
government reforms in the Philippines, foremost of which was Filipinos’ assimilation in
the Spanish nation through representation in the Cortes (Spanish Parliament). He
waged his campaign among progressive members of the Cortes and Spanish
intellectuals; he wrote letters and articles for La Solidaridad, the Propaganda
mouthpiece, as well as other publications, producing some of his best work during this
period such as “The Indolence of the Filipinos”; “Message to the Women of Malolos”, or
“The Philippines a Century Hence”.

Despite his deprivations, he continued to push himself to serve his nation’s cause finally
producing his greatest work, the novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, works
that paved his way to an untimely death but also to a lasting place in the hearts and
minds of his compatriots.

Of his vision for the Filipinos, Rizal wrote his comrade Mariano Ponce in 1888: “Let
this be our only motto: For the welfare of the Native Land. On the day when all Filipinos
should think like him [Del Pilar] and like us, on that day we shall have fulfilled our
arduous mission, which is the formation of the Filipino nation”. To Rizal that nation was
a nation free of injustice, oppression and corruption. May the Filipinos of today finally
begin fulfilling this timeless challenge of Rizal.
FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY
by Ma. Cielito Reyno

Jose Rizal is said to have first expressed his sense of nation, and of the Philippines as
a nation separate from Spain, as a young student in Manila. Proof of this, it is said, can
be found in two of his writings. In his poem “To the Philippine Youth”, which he wrote
in 1879, when he was 18 years old (and which won a prize from the literary group), Rizal
speaks of the Filipino youth as the “Fair hope of my Motherland”, and of the “Indian
land” whose “son” is offered “a shining crown”, by the “Spaniard… with wise and
merciful hand”. Still in this poem, Rizal considered Spain as a loving and concerned
mother to her daughter Filipinas.

In his memoirs as a student, later published as Reminiscences, he spoke of the time

spent in his sophomore year at the Ateneo as being essentially the same as his first year,
except that this year, he felt within himself the stirrings of “patriotic sentiments” and of
an “exquisite sensibility”1. He might have been only referring to the sense that the
Philippines, was a colony of Spain, and as such, the Philippines was a part of Spain. If
this were the case, his patriotism was therefore directed toward Spain for being the
Philippines’ mother country. Seen in another light, these words may have evidenced
Rizal’s moment of epiphany, his own portent of a future time when he would awake to
the tragedies that were the lot of his fellow indios, the rightful heirs of the Filipinas their
motherland.

Some cite Rizal’s verse-play “Beside the Pasig” (written in 1880, when was 19), as his
allegory of the Filipinos’ bondage under Spain2; however, the play’s protagonists are a
young boy named Leonido, who defends the Christians, and Satan, who speaks against
Spain for bringing Christianity to the Philippines.

As fate had it, Rizal ultimately awoke to the real state of the Philippines under the
hands, not of a loving Mother Spain, but of an exploitative despot represented by the
colonial government in Manila and the friars who held great influence over the
government. His awakening may have come by way of his own experiences at the
university, his family’s experience at the hands of the religious group that owned their
farmland; and perhaps, from the stories about the reformist movement and the sacrifice
of the three priests, collectively known as Gomburza, of ten years before. This last most
likely were from his older brother Paciano, who had been close to Fr. Jose Burgos, and
had been an outspoken critic of abuses during his years in college at the Colegio de San
Jose.

Rizal saw the many injustices suffered by his fellow Filipinos: they depended on the
religious corporations or on big landowners, for land to till, or for their living; people
were afraid of airing their grievances or of talking or protesting against the friars or the
government, in short, there was no real freedom of the press or speech. Most Filipinos
lacked the privilege of education, and its resultant benefits, or if they did have
education, this was the obscurantist kind generally propagated by the colonialist policy,
which not only kept Filipinos in the dark about their rights, but worse, had molded them
into an abject, submissive people ignorant or worse, ashamed of their own proud
heritage, a heritage that existed even before the arrival of the Spaniards. Finally, Rizal
realized that the Philippines had not been consistently represented in the Spanish
parliament. For Rizal, this was the root of the absence of justice in the country, or of
their being deprived of basic rights.

His essay “Love of Country” which he wrote in June 1882 (but appeared in the
newspaper Diariong Tagalog Manila in August)3, when he was already in Spain, and he
was 21 years old. In it he talks of “love of country” which “is never effaced once it has
penetrated the heart, because it carries with it a divine stamp..;” that it is “the most
powerful force behind the most sublime actions” and for that reason, love of country “of
all loves…is the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested”.4 He speaks of the
Motherland for whom “some have sacrificed their youth, their pleasures…others their
blood; all have died bequeathing to their Motherland…Liberty and glory.”5

It can be inferred from his words that at this point Rizal’s sense of nation was now fully-
formed and complete, and perhaps not by happenstance, its expression coincides with
his departure from his country. While there is still no outright and open criticism of the
friars, or the colonial government, or even of Spain for he may have only been being
careful, Rizal by this time had become a nationalist and had gone abroad for the cause of
his countrymen. This is confirmed by a line from a letter written to him by his friend
Vicente Gella, in the same month he wrote “Love of Country”, (June 1882):

“If the absence of a son from the bosom of his esteemed family is sad, no less will be
that of a friend who, being very dear to all of us …his friends and comrades, now is
away from us seeking the welfare that we all desire. Had it not been for that, the
separation would have been more painful for the distance that separates us. May God
help you for the good that you do to your fellow countrymen.”

Another letter written by his friend Jose M. Cecilio, dated August 28, 1882, also
corroborates this:

“I’m very glad that you will go to Madrid where you can do many things in favor of
this country jointly with the other Filipinos..so long as they will not give us freedom of
the press, abuses, arbitrariness, and injustices will prevail more than in other parts of
the world.”6

Ultimately, it does not matter when or even how Rizal’s politicization came, or why
he went abroad: to complete his medical studies there; or, to expand his opportunities
for establishing himself as a writer7; or to embark on a career as an activist-writer who
would use his pen to secure long-needed reforms in the social and political fabric of his
country. And because the space for agitating for changes in the country was getting
smaller by the day, it was time for him to leave. Under his leadership, together with the
other Filipino youth, the Reform- or Propaganda movement– as it became known,
flourished and triumphed. It triumphed not in the sense that it attained its main goals
of obtaining parliamentary representation for the Filipinos, and freedom of the press,
for these did not come to pass, but in the after- effects of its campaign, despite its
apparent failure: other youths followed in their footsteps and took the next step- to
begin the campaign for separation and independence. This was carried out by
Bonifacio and the Katipunan, which launched the Revolution that, in turn, led to the
birth of the Filipino nation.

And so Rizal became a crusader for his country’s freedom. He decided that love of
country should supplant all other considerations, even that of his family or his own, or
even of the woman he loved. From his correspondence with friends and family, he
remained constant to his Muse and his cause: the Motherland and her freedom.

When he had completed his education, and his formation as a son deserving of the
Motherland, Rizal felt it was time to return to her. Friends and family stopped him from
returning, but he was determined to do so, for he believed that the true arena for the
fight was his country itself, not some foreign land. In a letter dated October 1891, Rizal
wrote,

“If our countrymen are counting on us here in Europe, they are very much
mistaken…The battlefield is the Philippines: There is where we should meet…there we
will help one another, there together we will suffer or triumph perhaps. The majority
of our compatriots in Europe are afraid, they flee from the fire, and they are brave
only so long as they are in a peaceful country! The Philippines should not count on
them; she should depend on her own strength.”8

Rizal returned to the land of his birth knowing that its liberty cannot be
“obtained…without pain or merit… nor is it granted gratis et amore.”9 He was
prepared to return despite the risk of death, as he had written in June 1892 days before
his arrival in Manila: “I offer my life gladly… Let those who deny us patriotism see that
we know how to die for our duty and convictions…What does it matter to die, if one
dies for what one loves, for the Native Land?” Rizal returned and offered up his life for
his nation’s freedom four years later. Would that the nation born out of the ashes of his
sacrifice continue to look up to him and live up to the legacy he left behind.