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José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda widely known as Dr. Jose Rizal and Pepe as his alias. He is regarded as the national hero of the Philippines for his intellectual brilliance, reformist ideals, and sacrifices for his country. Born on June 19, 1861, In Calamba, Laguna, to a wealthy and well-educated family, Rizal was exposed to an environment that valued learning, discipline, and social responsibility which nurtured her growth as an individual. He was the Son of Fransico Mercado and Teodora Alonso which greatly influenced his early love for reading, writing, and critical thinking.

The injustices faced by his family left him eager to seek a strong sense of justice and reform. Rizal grew up in Calamba and in his childhood he was surrounded by an environment enriched by nature, family traditions, and early exposure to literature that helped him shape his character and creativity. His formal education began in Biñan and continued at the Ateneo Municipal De Manila was formerly known as the Escuela Pia, where he excelled in academics, later pursuing higher education at the University of Santo Tomas and eventually in Europe. Through his writings, particularly Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, and his advocacy for peaceful reforms, Rizal became a leading voice in awakening Filipino nationalism. His life, work and his act of sacrifice by being a martyr in 1896 remain central to the struggle for independence which continues to inspire the pursuit of justice and nation-building today.

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Rizal’s Early Life, Family, and Education

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Rizal’s Early Life, Family, and Education

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José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda was the seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso Realonda. His father was a prosperous farmer while his mother was a woman of culture who became his first teacher. José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda was born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Laguna, a town known for its fertile land, nestled between Mount Makiling and Laguna de Bay. The beauty of nature that the town had to offer was one of the main things that inspired Rizal's love for nature which he kept throughout his life.

The Rizal family was from the principalia class, educated, industrious, and wealthy, they were highly respected in Calamba. They were descendants of Lam-co, a Chinese immigrant from Fujian who came to the Philippines in the 1600s and changed his name to “Mercado.” Through the years, the family grew to be one of the substantial landowners, and at the period of Francisco and Teodora, they had already become notable in the locality, erecting one of the earliest brick houses in Calamba.

One of the things that the siblings of Jose Rizal did was to shape his life. Paciano Rizal, his older brother took care of the moral aspect, teaching him the reformist ideals, on the other hand, his sisters- Saturnina, Narcisa, Olympia, Lucia, Maria, Josefa, Trinidad and Soledad were not only present but were pillars of support first for his studies and later for his patriotic works. The house they lived in was a loving and supportive one, and shared prayers during the Angelus and evenings of family storytelling in the garden were some of the things that they did together. These beloved childhood rites not only consolidated the spirituality, the creative side, and the liking for family that was in Rizal but also developed them further.

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Rizal The Writer, The Polyglot, The Opthamologist

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Rizal The Writer, The Polyglot, The Opthamologist

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Sometimes when I look at the blank page, I think of José Rizal. He too must have faced the silence of paper before the first word cut through it. And yet, unlike me, he did not just write, he carved a nation’s heartbeat into his novels. Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were not merely stories; they were mirrors that forced Filipinos to see the chains that have been unwillingly cast upon them.

Rizal was not only a writer. He was also an opthamologist . A doctor who gave sight back to the blind, a scholar who mastered languages as if words bowed to him, an artist who captured meaning in both sketch and verse. And yet, he carried himself not as some untouchable genius, but as a man who felt the weight of injustice deeply enough to bleed for it with ink first, and with his life later

He chased freedom, and though it led him to Bagumbayan, it also led him to immortality. His death was the closing line of a life-long poem, one that still echoes louder than anything I could write.

Still, I cling to him, not the monument, not the hero carved in stone, but the writer who once sat with nothing but a pen, daring to believe his words could move his people. If Rizal could do it, perhaps there’s still hope that even a struggling hand like mine can write something that matters.

How do you even measure yourself against that? You don’t. You just sit with the thought that one man could hold so much brilliance, and still chose to spend it on his people. That’s Rizal. Writer. Polyglot. Ophthalmologist.

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When he was still a young boy, Jose Rizal showed brilliant and creative thinking. Due to his weak health, he was a listener to the servants who used to tell stories from the folklore and legends after the morning Angelus, and this eventually sparked his interest in storytelling and mythology (Zaide & Zaide, 2008). Not only did his mother, Teodora, teach him to pray but she was also the one who introduced the alphabet to him when he was three years old. She instilled the love of reading in him and also gave the green light to his first compositions of poetry (Constantino, 1975). When she realized his gift, she hired private tutors to give him more lessons (Guerrero, 1998).

Rizal's primary education was under the care of Maestro Celestino, Maestro Lucas Padua, and Leon Monroy who taught him Latin, reading, and writing which gave him a very good local basis. After that, he went to school with Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan where he was a very good student and learned painting from Juancho, Cruz's father-in-law (Reyno, 2012). Rizal's daily schedule in Biñan was very strict—he might have been waking early for Mass or study, attending classes from morning till late afternoon, praying with his cousins at dusk, and finishing the day with more study before going to bed.

At nine years old, Rizal went on to the Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he always stood out from the rest of his classmates and obtained several awards. It was a period that marked the beginning of his extraordinary academic career, which was very much influenced by the discipline, faith, and intellectual curiosity that had been instilled in him since childhood.

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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jose-Rizal

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367306269_Jose_Rizal_The_Life_of_the_National_Hero

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The most important works of Rizal to the Filipinos. The Noli is a social novel that portrays the Philippines during the Spanish regime through the story of Crisostomo Ibarra, a young man who returns home after studying in Europe. He dreams of reforming the country through education and peaceful means. However, his ideals are crushed by the hypocrisy of the church and government officials. The El Fili is its darker sequel, following Ibarra’s transformation into Simon, a wealthy jeweler who seeks revenge through revolution. It is a bitter and more political novel that highlights the futility of reform under an oppressive system. It portrays the growing anger and despair among Filipinos, hinting that true freedom might only come through resistance.

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Pamilya Rizal (A4 Document) | PDF | Art | History

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The document presents a family tree of Jose Rizal’s family. It shows that he was the seventh child of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso. The tree lists the names of his parents and 11 siblings, including Jose, in order from the oldest to the youngest sibling. It provides their birth and death years and their corresponding order in the family.

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On the cold morning of December 30, 1896, José Rizal awoke in his cell at Fort Santiago, calm and resolute despite knowing it would be his last day. The night before, he had written letters to his loved ones, prayed quietly, and secretly tucked his farewell poem, Mi Último Adiós, inside an oil lamp. His family had come to see him one final time, his mother’s tears, his sisters’ trembling hands, and Josephine Bracken’s brave goodbye lingered in his heart. As dawn broke, he walked out of his cell surrounded by Spanish guards, his hands bound but his spirit unbroken. The streets were silent as he made his way to Bagumbayan Field, where the firing squad waited. He refused to be blindfolded, choosing instead to face death with open eyes. When the shots rang out, Rizal turned just enough to fall facing the rising sun. A final act of defiance, as if to tell his people to look toward the light of freedom. His last words, “Consummatum est,” echoed softly, marking not just the end of his life, but the beginning of a nation’s awakening.

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In the days following his execution, grief filled the streets of Manila. His family mourned quietly, and his remains were buried in an unmarked grave at Paco Cemetery, as if the government sought to erase his memory. Yet, Rizal’s ideas could not be buried. Copies of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo continued to circulate, his words echoing through secret meetings and revolutionary gatherings. The Katipunan, inspired by his writings and sacrifice, rose in open revolt against Spain. Even those who once doubted him now saw the truth in his struggle that were the weapons of his true freedom.

Over time, Rizal’s martyrdom reshaped the Filipino identity. He became not just a national hero, but a symbol of moral strength, intelligence, and love for one’s country. His legacy encouraged generations to believe that change could begin with thought, compassion, and action. The Rizal Monument now stands where he fell not as a tomb, but as a reminder that his spirit lives on in every Filipino who dreams of a better nation. The aftermath of his death was not silence, but a revolution, the rebirth of a people who finally realized that the light of liberty could rise from the shadow of one man’s sacrifice.

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Who Was Dr Jose Rizal, the National Hero of the Phillipines?

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Ang Talambuhay ni Jose Rizal (Tagalog) | NoypiTV

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Jose Rizal's final poem titled "Mi Ultimo Adios" or "My Last Farewell", written before his execution, was recited before the US Congress after the end of the Philippine-American war by US representative, Henry A. Cooper, and this poem was so powerful that it managed to convince Congress to pass the Cooper Act, or better known as "The Philippine Organic Act of 1902", which created a Philippine Assembly elected by Filipinos, appointed two Filipino delegates to the US Congress, extended the Bill of Rights to Filipinos, and laid the foundation of an autonomous government and ultimately independence from America.