Chapter II

childhood days
in calamba
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WHO
SAY?
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WHO
SAY?

J O S E
• Jose Rizal, just like Filipino boys, had many
beautiful memories of childhood.
• He have a happy home, filled with parental
affection, impregnated with family joys, and
sanctified by prayers.
• In the midst of such peaceful, refined, God-
loving family, he spent the early years of his
childhood.
 Calamba, the Hero’s Town
• Calamba, was an hacienda town which belonged
to the Dominican Order
• It is a picturesque town nestling on a verdant
plain covered with irrigated rice fields and sugar
lands
• A few kilometres to the south looms is the
legendary Mount Makiling in somnolent
grandeur.
• In 1876, when he was 15 years old and was
a student in Ateneo de Manila, he
remembered his beloved town.
• He wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo
(In Memory of my Town)
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P R A Y
 Earliest Childhood Memories

• The first memory of Rizal, in his infancy,

was his happy days in the family garden.
• Because he was frail, sickly, and undersized
child, he was given the most tender care by
his parents
• His father built a nipa cottage in the garden
for him to play in the daytime
• Another childhood memory was the daily
Angelus prayer.
• By nightfall, Rizal related, his mother
gathered all the children at the house to pray
the Angelus.
• With nostalgic feeling, he also remembered
the happy moonlit nights at the azotea after
the rosary.
• The aya related stories to Rizal children
many stories about fairies, tales of buried
treasure and trees with blooming diamonds,
and other fabulous stories.
• Sometimes, when he did not like to take his
supper, the aya would threaten him that the
aswang, the nuno, the tigbalang, or a terrible
bearded Bombay would come to take him
away if he would not eat his supper.
• Another memory of his infancy was the
nocturnal walk in the town, especially when
there was a moon.
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C R Y
 The Hero’s First Sorrow

• The Rizal children were bound together by the

ties of love and companionship.
• Their parents taught them to love one another,
to behave properly in front of elders, to be
truthful and religious, and to help one another.
• They affectionately called their father “Tatay”
and mother “Nanay”.
• Jose was jokingly called Ute by his brother
and sisters. The people in Calamba knew
him as Pepe or Pepito.
• Of his sisters, Jose loved most little Concha
(Concepcion)
• He was one year old older than Concha.
• He played with her, and from her, he learned
the sweetness of brotherly love.
•Unfortunately, Concha died of
sickness in 1865 when he was 3
years old
•Jose, who was very fond of her,
cried bitterly to lose her
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R E L I G I O U S
 Devoted Son of Church
• Young Jose was a religious boy.
• A scion of a Catholic clan, born and bred in a wholesome
atmosphere of Catholicism, and possessed of an inborn
spirit, Rizal grew up a good Catholic.
• At the age of 3, he began to take part in the family prayers.
• When he was five years old, he was able to read haltingly
the family bible.
• He loved to go to church to pray, to take part in novenas and
to join the religious processions.
• It is said he was so seriously devout that he
was laughingly called Manong Jose by the
Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras.
• One of the men he esteemed and respected
in Calamba during his boyhood was the
scholarly Father Leoncio Lopez, the town
priest.
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T R I P
 Pilgrimage to Antipolo

• On June 6, 1868, Jose and his father left for

Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo,
in order to fulfil his mother’s vow which
was made when Rizal was born.
• It was the first trip of Jose across Laguna de
Bay and his pilgrimage to Antipolo.
•He was thrilled, as a typical boy
should, by his first lake voyage.
•After praying at the Shrine of the
Virgin Antipolo, Jose and his father
went to Manila.
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W R I T E
 First Education from Mother

• Jose’s first teacher was his mother.

• At the age of 3, Jose learned the alphabet
and prayers from her
• Seeing Rizal had a talent for poetry, she
encouraged him to write poems. She gave
her all her love and all that she learned in
college.
 The Story of the Moth

• Of the story told by Dona Teodora to Jose, it

was that of the young moth made the
profoundest impression on him.
• The tragic fate of the young moth, which
died a martyr to its illusions, left a deep
impress on Rizal’s mind.
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U N C L E
 Rizal’s three Uncles
• There were 3 uncles, brothers of his mother, who
played a great part in the early education of Rizal.
• Uncle Gregorio was a lover of books.
• He instilled into the mind of his nephew a great love
for books.
• He taught him to work hard, to think for himself, and
to observe life keenly.
•Uncle Jose, who had been educated at
Calcutta, India, was the youngest brother
of Teodora.
•He encouraged his nephew to paint,
sketch and sculpture.
• Uncle Manuel was a big, strong and husky
man.
• He looked after the physical training of his
sickly and weak nephew.
• He encouraged Jose to learn swimming,
fencing, wrestling and other sports, so that in
later years Jose’s frail body acquired agility,
endurance and strength.
Uncle Gregorio
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T A L E N T
 Artistic Talents

• Since early childhood revealed his God-given

talents for the arts.
• He drew sketches and pictures on his books of
his sisters, for which reason he was scolded by
his mother.
• He carved figures of animals and persons out of
wood.
• Even before he learned to read, he could
already sketch pictures of birds, flowers,
fruits, rivers, mountains, animals and
persons.
• Jose had a soul of a genuine artist.
• He loved to ride on a spirited pony ( which
his father bought for him) or take long walks
in the meadows and lakeshore with his big
black dog named Usman.
• In his room, he kept many statuettes which
he made out of clay and wax.
• At one time, his sisters teased him: “Ute,
what are you doing with so many
statuettes?” He replied: “ Don’t you know
that people will erect monuments and statues
in my honour for the future?”
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P O E T
 Prodigy of the Pen

• Not only was little Jose skilled in brush,

chisel, and pen-knife, but also in pen.
• He was born poet.
• His mother encouraged him to write poetry.
• At an early age when children usually begin
to learn ABC, he was already writing poems.
The first known poem that he wrote was a
tagalog poem entitled “Sa Aking Mga
Kababata ( To my Fellow Children)”.
• Before he was eight year old, he wrote a
tagalog drama.
• This drama was stages in Calamba in
connection with the town fiesta.
 Lakeshore Reveries
• During the twilight , hours of summertime, Rizal,
accompanied by his dog, used to meditate at the
shore of Laguna de Bay on the sad conditions of
his oppressed people.
• Young that he was, he grieved deeply over the
unhappy situation of his beloved fatherland.
• The Spanish misdeeds awakened in his boyish
heart a great determination to fight tyranny.
 Influence on Hero’s Boyhood

• In the lives of all men, there are influences

which cause some to be great and others not.
In the case of Jose, he had all favourable
influences which no other child in our
country enjoyed.
 1. Hereditary Influence
• According to biological science, there are
inherent qualities which a person inherits from
ancestors and parents.
• From Malayan ancestors, Rizal evidently
inherited his love for freedom, his innate desire
to travel and his indomitable courage.
• From Chinese ancestors, he derived his serious
nature, frugality, patience and love for children.
• From Spanish ancestors he got his elegance
of bearing, sensitivity to insult and gallantry
to ladies.
• From his father, he inherited a profound
sense of self-respect, the love for work and
the habit of independent thinking.
• And from his mother, his religious nature,
the spirit of self-sacrifice and the passion for
arts and literature.
 2. Environmental Influence

• According to psychologist, environment as

well as heredity affects the nature of a person.
• It includes places, associates and events.
• The beautiful scenic of Calamba and the
beautiful garden of the Rizal family
stimulated the inborn artistic and literary
talents of Jose Rizal.
• The religious atmosphere at his home
fortified his religious nature.
• His brother Ponciano instilled in his mind
the love for freedom and justice.
• From sisters he learned to be corteous and
kind to women.
• The fairytales told by his aya awakened his
interest in folklore and legends.
• Father Leoncio Lopez, a Parish Priest in
Calamba fostered Rizal’s love fore
scholarship and intellectual honesty.
• The sorrow in his family such as death of
Concha in 1865 and the imprisonment of his
mother in 1872-18874 contributed to
strengthen his character, enabling him to
resist blows adversity in later years.
 3. Aid of Divine Providence

• Greater than heredity and environment in the

fate of man is the aid of Divine Providence.
• A person may have everything in life, brains,
wealth, and power but without the aid of
Divine Providence, he cannot attain
greatness in the annals of the nation.
• Rizal was providentially destined to be the
pride and glory of his nation.
• God had endowed him with the versatile
gifts of a genius, the vibrant spirit of
nationalist and the valiant heart to sacrifice
for a noble cause.
Thank you!
God Bless!
- Lhana Joy Lingas & Isabel Maħas
Credits :)