UNIT II

“Rizal Childhood”
 Childhood Days

■ Chapter 2 Childhood days in Calamba 

■ • 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. 
 Childhood Days

■ . 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 kilometers to the south
looms is the legendary Mount Makiling in
somnolent grandeur. 
■ Beyond this mountain is the province of Batangas. •
East of the town is the Laguna de Bay. • In the
middle lake towers is the storied island of Talim and
beyond it towards north is the distant Antipolo,
famous mountain shrine of the miraculous Lady of
Peace and Good Voyage. 
■ Laguna de Bay Batangas 
■ •In 1876 when he was 15 years old and was a student
in the Ateneo de Manila he remembered his beloved
town. •He wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo
(In Memory of My Town). 
■ Ateneo de Manila 
■ 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 treaten 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. 
■  Recounting this childhood experience, Rizal wrote:
“Thus my heart fed on sombre and melancholy
thoughts so that even still a child, I already wandered
on wings of fantasy in the high regions of the
unknown. 
■  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 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. 
■ Devoted Son of Church •Young Rizal 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 that 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. 
  Father Leoncio Lopez 
■ Pilgrimage to Antipolo•On June 6, 1868, Jose and his
father left for Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo,
 in order to fulfill 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. • He did not sleep the whole night as
the casco sailed towards the Pasig River because he
was awed by “ the magnificence of the watery
expanse and the silence of the night. • After praying
at the shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo, Jose and his
father went to Manila. 
■  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. 
■  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 Dona 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 encourage Rizal to learn
swimming, fencing, wrestling, and other sports, so
that in later years Rizal’s frail body acquired agility,
endurance, and strength. 
■ Artistic Talents • Since early childhood Rizal 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. 
■ Rather an introvert child, with a skinny physique and
sad dark eyes, he found great joy looking at the
blooming flowers, the ripening fruits, the dancing
waves of the lake, and the milky clouds in the sky;
 and the listening to the songs of the birds, the
chirpings of the cicadas, and the murmurings of the
breezes. 
■ He loved to ride on a spirited pony ( which his father
bought for him) or take long walks in the meadows
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 monument
and statues in my honor for the future?” 
■ 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 years 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. 
■  Influences 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 Rizal, he had all
favorable influences, which no other child in our
country enjoyed. 
■ 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 
■ 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 Paciano instilled in his
mind the love for freedom and justice. • From sisters
he learned to be courteous and kind to women.
 The fairy tales told by his aya awakened his interest
in folklore and legends. 
■ • Father Leoncio Lopez a parish priest in Calamba
fostered Rizal’s love for scholarship and intellectual
honesty. • The sorrows in his family such as death of
Concha in 1865 and the imprisonment of his mother
in 187-74 contributed to strengthen his character,
enabling him to resist blows adversity in later years. 
■ The Spanish abuses and cruelties which he witnessed
in his boyhood such as brutal
 acts if the lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and the
alcalde, he unjust tortures inflicted on innocent Filipinos
and the execution of Fathers Gomez, Burgos and
Zamora in 1872 awakened his spirit of patriotism and
inspired him to consecrate his life and talents to redeem
his oppressed people. 
■  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 ne 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 a
nationalist and the valiant heart to sacrifice for a
noble cause. 
END