• Francisco Mercado wanted Jose to be enrolled in Colegio de San Juan de Letran but he was admitted in Ateneo Municipal

de Manila with the help of Manuel Xeres Burgos, which is nephew of Fr. Burgos of GOMBURZA. His first professor in
Ateneo was Fr. Jose Bech.
• Ateneo Municipal de Manila is known before as Escuela Pia and being ran by the Jesuits. The Jesuit system in education,
the students were being challenged, the class was divided into two groups, Romans and Carthaginians.
• Romans refer to the class that are residing inside the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
• Carthaginians refer to the class that are residing outside the vicinity of Ateneo Municipal de Manila and Rizal is
categorized in this group but on his remaining years, he was categorized as Roman because he decided to live inside the
Ateneo to focus on his studies.
• Because Rizal is really excellent, he ranked first–Emperor of Carthaginians and eventually the Emperor of Romans after
living in Ateneo.
• During summer vacation, Rizal stayed in Calamba and spent time reading novels like The Three Musketeers. He also likes
the Mount of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
• After the release of his mother, he made a poem Mi Primera Inspiracion, especially dedicated to his mother.
• Even if Rizal was a foreign citizen abroad, he was able to learn and speak 22 languages and to name a few, Arabic, French,
Russian.
• While he is studying at Universidad de Manila, he was able to write a Spanish poem A La Juventud Filipina and it was the
first poem in Spanish being written by a Filipino.
• There are three women whom Rizal loved; the first is Segunda Katigbak but they part ways because Segunda is set to
marry Manuel Luz; the second is Leonor Valenzuela, their relationship didn’t last long because he is still in love with
Segunda; and Leonor Rivera which is his romantic sweetheart for 8 years even if Rizal was in abroad.
• Noli Me Tangere is the novel of Dr. Jose Rizal that means “Huwag mo akong salingin” or “touch me not” in English.
• While studying ophthalmology in Germany, he was assigned as assistant of Dr. Otto Becker at the University of
Heidelberg.
• While not working at Dr. Weckert’s clinic, Rizal visited his friends, such as the family of Pardo de Taveras, Juan Luna and
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. Rizal spent many happy hours in the studio of Luna. Luna discussed with Rizal various
problems on art and improved his own painting technique. Rizal posed for a painting of Luna. He was one of the Egyptian
priests in Luna’s painting “The Death of Cleopatra”.
• The portion of Noli Me Tangere was written when Rizal was in Germany after reading the Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
Beecher Stowe, a novel where he drew inspiration in exposing the Spanish colonial abuse to Filipino people.
• He finished the Noli Me Tangere in Germany on February 21, 1887 and was able to publish it on March 21, 1887. Since
Rizal is running out of money, Maximo Viola financed the publishing of his novels.
• His novel became a threat to the Spaniards and Governor-general Emilio Terrero asked Jose Rizal to explain the content
of the Noli Me Tangere and denied the accusation that Noli Me Tangere was a threat to them. Because of this, his family
urged him to go back abroad so that he could be safe from the hands of Spaniards.
• If only Jose Rizal had no patriotic mission and no political will, he would have married her and settled in Japan for good.
It was during Rizal’s second trip abroad when he met Seiko Usui. From Hong Kong, he arrived in Japan in February 1888
and moved to the Spanish Legation in the Azabu district of Tokyo upon the invitation of an official in the legation.
• Ferdinand Johann Franz Blumentritt is well known in the Philippines for his close friendship with the writer and
Propagandist José Rizal, and the numerous correspondence between the two provide a vital reference for Rizal historians
and scholars, including his last letter from prison before the execution.
• The second novel of Rizal is the El Filibusterismo that is dedicated to the martyr GOMBURZA that was put to death in
public. It was published in Ghent, Germany in 1891. Because Rizal financially incapacitated by that time, he pawned his
properties abroad and Valentin Ventura helped him financed P10,000.00 for the publishing of the novel.
 • Don Santiago “ Kapitan Tiago” de los Santos is the
father of Maria Clara
• Crisostomo Ibarra - symbolizes the educated Filipino
elite who seek reform in Spanish colonial Philippines.
• Padre Damaso - symbolizes the corrupt and abusive
Spanish friars who abuse their power and intimidate
the natives.
• Elias - symbolizes the uncorrupted and revolutionary
spirit of the Filipinos, who are willing to fight against
Spanish oppression.
• Maria Clara - symbolizes the purity and innocence of
the Filipino woman, who is often objectified and
abused by the Spanish colonizers. and is considered
as typical lady in Rizal’s time.
• Sisa - symbolizes the suffering and exploitation of the
Filipino peasants, who are often oppressed by the
Spanish colonial rulers.
• Don Rafael Ibarra - father of Crisostomo Ibarra,
buried in Chinese cemetery.
• Simuon - rich jeweler (Crisostomo Ibarra).
• Doña Victorina - ridiculously pro-Spanish native
woman
• Padre Salvi - Franciscan friar and former cura of San
Diego.
• Basilio - son of Sisa and a promising medical student.
• Quiroga - Chinese merchant that is helping Simoun.
• Cabesang Tales - father of Juli who dispossessed land
by the friars.

La Liga Filipina was founded by Rizal secretly, and its goals are the following:

1. To unite the whole archipelago into one vigorous and homogeneous organization

2. Mutual protection in every want and necessity

3. Defense against all violence and injustice

4. Encouragement of instruction, agriculture, and commerce

5. Study the application of reforms.

• The Constitution of La Liga Filipina was printed in Hong Kong in the year 1892 but to confuse the Spanish authorities,
they decided to give false information that it was published in London.
• La Solidaridad was edited by Graciano López Jaena and later on by Marcelo H. del Pilar. The social, cultural, and economic
conditions of the colonial Philippines were published. Speeches of the Spanish liberals about the Philippines were also
featured in the newspaper.
• The time that Rizal was arrested on board ship going to Spain and shipped back to the Philippines, he arrived in Manila
on November 3 1896 and was confined incommunicado in Fort Santiago.
• Governor-General Eulogio Despujol made public the order of the deportation of Dr. Jose Rizal to Dapitan, through a
decree published in the Gaceta, to the remote town in Zamboanga. Rizal was exiled in Dapitan. The time he won the
lottery in Manila, he purchased land in Dapitan and started planting crops. He taught the farmers the use of fertilizers,
crop rotation and taught them to use machineries in farming.
• The disbandment of La Liga Filipina, Andres Bonifacio lead the Katipunan to waged against the Spanish colonization.
• Josephine Bracken is the wife of Rizal, she is the foreigner alluded to in his immortal poem Mi Ultimo Adios where he
wrote “Farewell my sweet foreigner, my darling, my delight”, the letter was inserted in the alcohol lamp.
• When his family came to see him, he asked pardon from his mother and talked to his sisters as they entered his cell one
by one. He also wrote letters. In his last letter, addressed to Paciano Rizal, he asked his brother to ask their father for
forgiveness for all the pain he had caused him. To his friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, he wrote: “When you receive this
letter, I shall be dead by then…. Tomorrow at seven, I shall be shot; but I am innocent of the crime of rebellion…. I am
going to die with a tranquil conscience.”
• At 7 a.m. on December 30, 1896 at Luneta, Manila, the 35-year-old patriot was shot in the back by a firing squad. He
hesitated, turned halfway around to face his executioners, and fell on his back to face the Philippine sun.