Rizal's Life, Family, Childhood, and Early Education

19 June 1861
JOSE RIZAL, the seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos,
was born in Calamba, Laguna.

22 June 1861
He was baptized JOSE RIZAL MERCADO at the Catholic of Calamba by the parish priest Rev.
Rufino Collantes with Rev. Pedro Casañas as the sponsor.

28 September 1862
The parochial church of Calamba and the canonical books, including the book in which
Rizal’s baptismal records were entered, were burned.

1864
Barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet from his mother.

1865
When he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child in the Rizal family, died at
the age of three. It was on this occasion that Rizal remembered having shed real tears for
the first time.

1865 – 1867
During this time his mother taught him how to read and write. His father hired a classmate
by the name of Leon Monroy who, for five months until his (Monroy) death, taught Rizal the
rudiments of Latin.

At about this time two of his mother’s cousin frequented Calamba. Uncle Manuel Alberto,
seeing Rizal frail in body, concerned himself with the physical development of his young
nephew and taught the latter love for the open air and developed in him a great admiration
for the beauty of nature, while Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, instilled into the mind of the boy
love for education. He advised Rizal: "Work hard and perform every task very carefully;
learn to be swift as well as thorough; be independent in thinking and make visual pictures of
everything."

6 June 1868 
With his father, Rizal made a pilgrimage to Antipolo to fulfill the vow made by his mother to
take the child to the Shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo should she and her child survive the
ordeal of delivery which nearly caused his mother’s life.

From there they proceeded to Manila and visited his sister Saturnina who was at the time
studying in the La Concordia College in Sta. Ana.

1869
At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem entitled "Sa Aking Mga Kabata." The poem
was written in tagalog and had for its theme "Love of One’s Language."
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.

THE MUTUAL MEETING

There were at least nine women linked to Jose Rizal. These Jose Rizal women were
Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor River, Consuelo Ortiga, Josephine Bracken,
Suzanne Jacoby, O-Sei San, Gertrude Beckette, and Nelly Boustead. Jose Rizal standing at 4
feet and 11 inches was only a short man but like most women, the women in Jose Rizal’s life
may have been mesmerized by his intelligence, wit and charm.

Segunda Katigbak, a short woman who hailed from Lipa, Batangas was considered the
puppy love of Jose Rizal. However, this puppy love of Rizal was already betrothed to her
towns mate, Manuel Luz.

Rizal’s admiration with Segunda Katigbak was followed by his affair with Leonor Valenzuela
who was a tall lass from Pagsanjan, Laguna. Rizal used an invisible ink in writing love notes
sent to Leonor. The love notes can be read only through the heat emitted by a lamp or
candle. His last encounter with Leonor was when he bade her goodbye before leaving for
Spain.

Another Leonor but with a surname of Rivera also become one of the many Jose Rizal
women. Leonor Rivera became his sweetheart or girlfriend for 11 years and stopped him
from falling for other women even when traveling. However, Leonor’s mother disagreed with
the relation of her daughter with Rizal, who was known as a filibuster. All letters sent by
Rizal to Leonor Rivera were hidden by her mother, making Leonor believe that Rizal has
forgotten her.

While Rizal was in Madrid, the pretty Consuelo Ortiga fell in love with him and he
compensated her affection with one of his best poems. Consuelo lived in Madrid and her
house was often visited by Rizal and his friends. Rizal backed out before the affair became a
serious romance since he was seriously in love with Leonor Rivera.

O Sei San, a daughter of a Japanese samurai, taught Rizal the Japanese art of painting
known as su-mie. She also taught Rizal to learn the Japanese language.
Gertrude Beckett also fell in love with Rizal but Rizal hastily left London for Paris to avoid
Gertrude who was then seriously falling in love with him.

After learning that Leonor Rivera already was engaged, Rizal thought of courting other girls
and came to know Nellie Boustead when he was a guest of the Boustead family at their
resort residence in Biarritz. Rizal even nearly started a fight with Antonio Luna who was also
a suitor after Antonio Luna said malicious remarks against Nellie Boustead in a party
sponsored by Filipinos in Madrid.

Rizal met Suzanne Jacoby in Brussels and they were deeply in love with each other.

During Rizal’s exile in Dapitan in 1895, he also met another European lass, Josephine

Bracken. Rizal was physically attracted to her and asked Josephine to marry him but
Josephine was not ready to make a decision due to her responsibility to her father who had
an eye ailment. He still took her as his wife even without the Church blessings.

THE STORY OF MOTH

One night, all the family, except my mother and myself, went to bed early.  Why, I do not know,
but we two remained sitting alone.  The candles had already been put out.  They had been blown out in
their globes by means of a curved tube of tin. That tube seemed to me the finest and most wonderful
plaything in the world.  The room was dimly lighted by a single light of coconut oil. In all Filipino homes
such a light burns through the night. It goes out just at day-break to awaken people by its spluttering.

My mother was teaching me to read in a Spanish reader called "The Children's Friend" (El Amigo de los
Ninos). This was quite a rare book and an old copy. It had lost its cover and my sister had cleverly made a
new one. She had fastened a sheet of thick blue paper over the back and then covered it with a piece of
cloth.

This night my mother became impatient with hearing me read so poorly.  I did not understand Spanish
and so I could not read with expression.  She took the book from me.  First she scolded me for drawing
funny pictures on its pages.  Then she told me to listen and she began to read.  When her sight was
good, she read very well. She could recite well, and she understood verse-making, too. Many times
during Christmas vacations, my mother corrected my poetical compositions, and she always made
valuable criticisms.

JOURNEY TO HIS EARLY EDUCATION

FIRST DAY IN BINAN

The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of
Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30 meters
from the home of Jose’s aunt.

Paciano knew the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He
introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return to Calamba.
Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the class. The teacher asked him:

"Do you know Spanish?"

"A little, sir," replied the Calamba lad.
"Do you know Latin?"
"A little, sir."

The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher’s son laughed at Jose’s answers.

The teacher sharply stopped all noises and begun the lessons of the day.

Jose described his teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with sharp
nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a sinamay shirt, woven by the
skilled hands of the women of Batangas. He knew by the heart the grammars by Nebrija
and Gainza. Add to this severity that in my judgement was exaggerated and you have a
picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but I remember only this."

First School BrawlIn the afternoon of his first day in school, when the teacher was having
his siesta, Jose met the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of him during
his conversation with the teacher in the morning.

Jose challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking that he could easily
beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and younger.

The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of their classmates.
Jose, having learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger
boy. For this feat, he became popular among his classmates.

After the class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan challenged him to
an arm-wrestling match. They went to a sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms.
Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on the sidewalk.

In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of Biñan. He was not quarrelsome by
nature, but he never ran away from a fight.