Dianna Lee Fabila

BSBio Blk 2- 3rd year

Life and Work of Rizal

Rizal is a name that is familiar to many not just limited to us, Filipinos. It has been used as a
brand name, school, street, buildings, parks, and-the-like. A name that enkindles the spark of Nationalism
in the hearts of the early Filipinos, yet it is also a name that eerily drifted away from our consciousness.
At the time, our hero was viewed as privileged. He came from a family. They were regarded as ilustrados,
indicating that they are capable of reading and writing in a period when ordinary Filipinos were denied
access to education. Doa, his motherTeodora Alonso, a woman of great culture who had the opportunity
to studybecause of the affluence of her family. While Francisco Mercado, his father, comes from a family
of business people. They were the ones that relocated to Calamba when building a stone home initially.
They anticipated that Rizal's familial background would lead to the Principalia class, an educated upper-
class group with political authority. be chosen. The students in this class preferred the titles Don or Doa.

We should understand the life of Dr. Jose Rizal, because he’s one of the Filipino changed our
future, because of him we survived until this day and were living in freedom without Spaniards. However,
the case is different now. As denial and indifference of Filipinos towards history continuously transpire, it
will only lead to identity crisis, which is quite alarming. In that sense, it was like a bucket of cold water
throwing unto me. We will perceive history as mere documented events in the past that no longer valuable
to our contemporary world. As scholars, the first thing we must do is to fill the gap in our knowledge and
be immersed with all the information that will be significant in the way how we describe nationalism and
patriotism.