Name: Patrick Andrei H.

Reyes

Course & Section: BIT31

Subject: Rizal

Professor: Sir Jumel G. Estrañero

University: De la Salle University Dasmarinas

Dr. José Rizal

José Rizal, son of a Filipino father and a Chinese mother, came from a wealthy family. Despite
his family's wealth, they suffered discrimination because neither parent was born in the
peninsula. Born 40 miles south of Manila at Calamba, into a prominent Filipino family,was the
seventh of 11 children. Taught first by his cultured mother, and later by private tutors, the young
Rizal grew up in an intellectually stimulating atmosphere. His brother and sisters were all well-
educated and his family's private library, of more than 1000 volumes, was quite possibly the
largest in the Philippines at that time. Rizal was an extremely gifted student, especially in the
humanities. He won literary competitions from a young age. He had an extraordinary capacity
for language; ultimately, he spoke 22 languages and dialects. His professor of Greek in Spain
said that he never encountered a student who excelled Rizal. Additionally, he studied drawing,
painting, and sculpture, throughout his life; he even exhibited a bust at the Salon de Paris in 1889
Rizal studied at the Ateneo, a private high school, and then to the University of St. Thomas in
Manila. He did his post graduate work at the University of Madrid in 1882. For the next five
years, he wandered through Europe discussing politics wherever he went. In 1886, he studied
medicine at the University of Heidelberg and wrote his classic novel Noli me Tangere, which
condemned the Catholic Church in the Philippines for its promotion of Spanish colonialism.
Immediately upon its publication, he became a target for the police who even shadowed him
when he returned to the Philippines in 1887.
Although Rizal completed a thesis for his doctorate in medicine, he did not technically receive
this degree, since he did not appear to read his thesis aloud as required by the Central University
of Madrid. At the time Rizal completed the thesis, he was already studying ophthalmology in
Germany. Reading his thesis in Madrid would have required an additional trip to Spain, which
Rizal could not afford. Instead, he mailed his thesis to the university and hoped for its acceptance
in this manner.

While in Europe, José Rizal became part of the Propaganda Movement, 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.

The son of a prosperous landowner, Rizal was educated in Manila and at the University of
Madrid. A brilliant medical student, he soon committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in
his home country, though he never advocated Philippine independence. Most of his writing was
done in Europe, where he resided between 1882 and 1892.

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.

In 1887 Rizal published his first novel, Noli me tangere (The Social Cancer), a passionate
exposure of the evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines. A sequel, El filibusterismo (1891; The
Reign of Greed), established his reputation as the leading spokesman of the Philippine reform
movement. He published an annotated edition (1890; reprinted 1958) of Antonio Morga’s
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, hoping to show that the native people of the Philippines had a long
history before the coming of the Spaniards. He became the leader of the Propaganda Movement,
contributing numerous articles to its newspaper, La Solidaridad, published in Barcelona. Rizal’s
political program included integration of the Philippines as a province of Spain, representation in
the Cortes (the Spanish parliament), the replacement of Spanish friars by Filipino priests,
freedom of assembly and expression, and equality of Filipinos and Spaniards before the law.