JOSE
P. RIZAL
Born: June 19, 1861
Died: December 30, 1896
Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal, the national hero, was born in Calamba, Laguna
to Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso. His education began at
home with his mother and at the age of nine, he was sent to study in
Biñan, Laguna. Rizal went on to Ateneo Municipal de Manila and
finished Bachelor of Arts with highest honours on March 23, 1876. At
the University of Santo Tomas, Rizal studied medicine. He then went to
Europe and finished medicine and philosophy at the Central University
of Madrid in 1885. He took up graduate studies in France. Rizal became
a linguist and learnt Greek and Latin. During his time in Europe, He
wrote Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Rebel),
which told of the oppression by Spanish colonial rule.
Rizal returned to the Philippines in June 1892. He founded La Liga
Filipina, a forum for Filipinos to express their for hopes for freedom
from Spanish rule. His writings and La Liga Filipina were banned. Rizal
was arrested as a revolutionary and imprisoned in Fort Santiago on July
6, 1892. On July 14, he was exiled to Dapitan. He stayed there for four
years, treating the sick, opened up a school and tried to make the
place beautiful and safe. In order to escape his exile, Rizal
volunteered to serve as a doctor for the Spanish forces with the
breakout of the Cuban revolution for independence.
Rizal was arrested while in transit to Cuba and sent back to the
Philippines. Again, he was jailed in Fort Santiago and on December 26,
1896, the Spanish authorities tried him and found Rizal guilty of
inciting rebellion and sedition. Rizal was executed by a firing squad
on December 30, at Bagumbayan (now Luneta). On the eve of his
execution, Rizal wrote his most famous poem, Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last
Farewell):
Farewell, dear
fatherland, clime of the sun caress'd.
Pearl of the Orient seas,
our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give
thee this faded life's best,
And were it brighter,
fresher or more blest,
Still I would give it
thee, nor count the cost.
.
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