Rizal's Life: Family, Childhood & Early Education PDF

LIFE AND WORKS OF JOSÉ RIZAL Reading Material for Chapter 3 Rizal’s Life: Family, Childhood, and Early Education DR. JOSÉ PROTACIO RIZAL MERCADO Y His godfather (ninong) was Father Pedro Casanas, ALONZO...

LIFE AND WORKS OF JOSÉ RIZAL Reading Material for Chapter 3 Rizal’s Life: Family, Childhood, and Early Education DR. JOSÉ PROTACIO RIZAL MERCADO Y His godfather (ninong) was Father Pedro Casanas, ALONZO REALONDA native of Calamba and close friend of the Rizal family. His name “Jose” was chosen by his mother who was a Doctor- completed his medical course in Spain and devotee of the Christian saint San Jose (St. Joseph). was conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine During the christening ceremony Father Collantes by the Universidad Central de Madrid was impressed by the baby’s big head and told the Jose- was chosen by his mother who was a devotee of members of the family who were present: “Take good the Christian saint San Jose (St. Joseph) care of this child, for someday he will become a great Protacio- from Gervacio P. which come from a man.” His words proved to be prophetic, as confirmed Christian calendar by subsequent events. Mercado- adopted in 1731 by Domingo Lamco (the It should be noted that at the time Rizal was born, paternal great-great grandfather of Jose Rizal). In the governor general of the Philippines was Lieutenant Spanish, the term means “market” General Jose Lemery, a former senator of Spain Rizal- from the word ‘Ricial’ in Spanish means a field (member of the upper chamber of the Spanish Cortes). where wheat, cut while still green, sprouts again He governed the Philippines from February 2, 1861- Alonzo- old surname of his mother July 7 1862. Realonda- it was used by Doña Teodora from the Incidentally, on the same date of Rizal’s birth, he surname of her godmother based on the culture by sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of war and that time Ministry of Ultramar in Madrid, denouncing Sultan Pulalun of Sulu and several powerful Moro Datus for ADVENT OF A NATIONAL HERO fraternizing with a British consul. Among his achievements as governor general were (1) fostering the He was a physician (ophthalmic surgeon), poet, cultivation of cotton in the provinces, and (2) dramatist, essayist, novelist, historian, architect, painter, establishing the politico- military governments in the sculptor, educator, linguist, musician, naturalist, Visayas and Mindanao. ethnologist, surveyor, engineer, farmer, businessman, economist, geographer, cartographer, bibliophile, RIZAL’S PARENTS philologist, grammarian, folklorist, philosopher, translator, inventor, magician, humourist, satirist, Don Francisco Mercado (1818-1898) polemicist, sportsman, traveller and prophet. Above and - born in Biñan, Laguna on May 11, 1818 beyond all these, he was a hero and political martyr who - studied Latin and Philosophy at the College of consecrated his life for the redemption of his oppressed San Jose in Manila people. No wonder, he is now acclaimed as the national - became a tenant-farmer of the Dominican- hero of the Philippines. owned hacienda The Birth of a Hero - a hardy and independent-minded man, who talked less and worked more, and was strong in body and valiant in spirit Jose Rizal was born on the moonlit night of Wednesday, June 19, 1861, in the lakeshore town of - died in Manila on January 5, 1898 at the age of Calamba Laguna province, Philippines. His mother 80 almost died during the delivery because of his big head. - Rizal affectionately called him “a model of As he recounted many years later in his student fathers” memoirs “I was born in Calamba on 19 June 1861, between eleven and midnight, a few days before full Doña Teodora Alonso Realonda (1826-1911) moon. It was a Wednesday and my coming out in this - born in Manila on November 8, 1826 vale of tears would have cost my mother her life had - educated at the College of Santa Rosa, a well- she not vowed to the virgin of Antipolo to take me to known college for girls in the city her sanctuary by way of pilgrimage. - a remarkable woman, possessing refined He was baptized in the Catholic Church of his culture, literary talent, business ability, and the town on June 22, aged three days old, by the parish fortitude of Spartan women priest, Father Rufino Collantes, who was a Batangueño. - is a woman of more than ordinary culture: she knows literature and speaks Spanish (according 10. Trinidad Rizal (1868-1951) – Trinidad to Rizal) remained single and shared a home with her - died in Manila on August 16, 1911 at the age sister Josefa. She was the one who received of 85 from Jose an alcohol lamp in which he secretly hid his poem “Ultimo Adios”. She also died an THE RIZAL SIBLINGS old maid in 1951 aged 83. 11. Soledad Rizal Quintero (1870-1929) – 1. Saturnina Rizal Hidalgo (1850-1913) – eldest youngest of the Rizal children; she was called of the Rizal children, nicknamed Neneng; she Choleng; she married Pantaleon Quintero of married Manuel T. Hidalgo of Tanauan, Calamba. Batangas. 2. Paciano RizaL (1851-1930) – elder and only RIZAL’S ANCESTRY brother of Jose Rizal; after his younger brother’s execution, he joined the Philippine As a typical Filipino, Rizal was a product of the Revolution and became a combat general; after mixture of races. In his veins flowed the blood of both the revolution, he retired to his farm in Los East and West – Negrito, Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Baños, where he lived as a gentleman farmer Japanese, and Spanish. and died on April 13, 1930, an old bachelor Predominantly, he was a Malayan and was a aged 79. magnificent specimen of Asian manhood. Rizal’s great- 3. Narcisa Rizal Lopez (1852-1939) – her pet great grandfather on his father’s side was Domingo name was Sisa and she married Antonio Lopez Lamco, a Chinese immigrant from the Fukien city of (nephew of Father Leoncio Lopez), a school Changchow, who arrived in Manila about 1690. He teacher of Morong. became a Christian, married a well to do Chinese 4. Olimpia Rizal Ubaldo (1855-1887) – Ypia Christian girl of Manila named Ines De La Rosa, and was her pet name; she married Silvestre assumed in 1731 the surname Mercado which was Ubaldo, a telegraph operator from Manila. appropriate for him because he was merchant. The 5. Lucia Rizal Herbosa (1857-1919) – she Spanish term Mercado means market in English. married Mariano Herbosa of Calamba, who Domingo Mercado and Ines De La Rosa had a son, was a nephew of Father Casanas. Herbosa died Francisco Mercado, who resided in Binan, married a of cholera in 1889 and was denied Christian Chinese Filipina mestiza, Cirila Bernancha, and was burial because he was a brother in law of Dr. elected gobernadorcillo (municipal mayor) of the town. Jose Rizal. One of their sons, Juan Mercado (Rizal’s grandfather), 6. Maria Rizal Cruz (1859-1945) – Biang was married Cirila Alejandro, a Chinese Filipino mestiza. her nickname, she married Daniel Faustino Like his father, he was elected as gobernadorcillo of Cruz of Binan Laguna. Binan. Capitan Juan and Capitana Cirila had thirteen 7. Jose Protacio Rizal (1861-1896) – the children, the youngest being Francisco Mercado greatest Filipino hero and genius; his nickname Rizal’s, father. is Pepe; during his exile in Dapitan he lived At the age of eight, Francisco Mercado lost his with Josephine Bracken, an Irish girl from father and grew up to manhood under the care of his Hong Kong. He had a son by her, but this baby mother. He studied Latin and Philosophy in the College boy died a few hours after birth, Rizal named of San Jose in Manila. While studying in Manila, he met him “Francisco” after his father and buried and fell in love Teodora Alonso Realonda, a student in him in Dapitan. the College of Santa Rosa. They were married on June 8. Concepcion RIZAL (1862-1865) – her pet 28, 1848, after which they settled down in Calamba, name was Concha; she died of sickness at the where they engaged in farming and business and reared age of 3; her death was Rizal’s first sorrow in a big family. life. It is said that Dona Teodora’s family descended 9. Josefa Rizal (1865-1945) – Unmarried and from Lakan Dula, the last native king of Tondo. Her lived with sister Trinidad until death. Josefa was great grandfather (Rizal’s maternal great great said to have suffered from epilepsy. She died an grandfather) was Eugenio Ursua of (Japanese old maid at the age of 80. Ancestry), who married a Filipina named Benigna (surname unknown). childhood years and profoundly affected his mind and Their daughter, Regina married Manuel De character. The happiest period of Rizal’s life was spent Quintos, a Filipino-Chinese lawyer from Pangasinan. in this lakeshore town, a worthy prelude to his Hamlet- One of the daughters of Manuel and Regina was like tragic manhood. Brigida, who married Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a prominent Spanish Filipino mestizo of Binan. Their Calamba, the hero’s town. Calamba was an children were Narcisa, Teodora (Rizal’s mother), hacienda town which belonged to the Dominican Order, Gregorio, Manuel and Jose. which also owned all the lands around it. It is picturesque town nestling on a verdant plain covered The Surname Rizal. The real surname of the with irrigated rice fields and sugar-lands. A few Rizal family was Mercado, which was adopted in 1731 kilometres to the south looms the Legendary Mt. by Domingo Lamco (the paternal great-great Makiling in somnolent grandeur, and beyond this grandfather of Jose Rizal), who was a full-blooded mountain is the province of Batangas. East of the town Chinese. Rizal’s family acquired a second surname is the Laguna de Bay, an inland lake of songs and RIZAL which was given by a Spanish alcalde mayor emerald waters beneath the canopy of azure skies. In (provincial governor) of Laguna, who was a family the middle of the lake towers the storied islands of friend. Talim, and beyond it towards the north is the distant Whoever that Spanish alcalde mayor was, antipolo, famous mountain shrine of the miraculous commented Ambassador Leon Ma. Guerrero, a Lady of Peace and Good Voyage. distinguished Rizalist and diplomat, “his choice was Rizal loved Calamba with all his heart and soul. In prophetic for Rizal in Spanish means a field where 1876, when he was 15 years old and was a student in wheat, cut while still green, sprouts again”. the Ateneo De Manila, he remembered his beloved town. Accordingly, he wrote a poem Un Recuerdo a Mi The Rizal Home. The house of the Rizal family, Pueblo (In memory of my Town). where the heron was born, was one of the distinguished Earliest childhood memories. The first memory of stone houses in Calamba during Spanish times. It was a Rizal, in his infancy, was his happy days in the family two-storey building rectangular in shape, build of adobe garden when he was tree years old. Because he was stones and hard-woods, and roofed with red tiles. It is frail, sickly and undersized child, he was given the described by Dr. Rafael Palma, one of Rizal’s tenderness care by his parents. His father built a little prestigious biographers. nipa cottage in the garden for him to play in the day- time. A kind old woman was employed as an aya (nurse A Good and Middle-Class Family. The Rizal maid) to look after his comfort. At times, he was left family belonged to the principalia, a town aristocracy alone to muse on the beauties of of nature or to play by in Spanish Philippines. It was one of the distinguished himself. In his boyhood memoirs, he narrated how he, families in Calamba. By dint of honest and hard work at the age of three, watched from his garden cottage, the and frugal living. Rizal’s parents were able to live well. culiauan, the maya, the maria capra, the martin the From the farms, which were rented from the pipit, and other birds and listened “with wonder and Dominican order, they harvested rice, corn and joy” to their twilight songs. sugarcane. They raised pigs, chickens and turkeys in Another childhood memory was the daily angelus their backyard. In addition to farming and stock raising, prayer. By nightfall, Rizal related, his mother gathered Dona Teodora managed a general goods store and all the children at the house to pray the angelus. operated a small flour mill and a home-made ham press. With nostalgic feeling, he also remembered the happy moonlit nights at the azotea after the nighty CHILDHOOD YEARS IN CALAMBA rosary. The aya related to the Rizal children (including Jose) many stories about the fairies; tales of buried Jose Rizal had many beautiful memories of treasure and trees blooming with diamonds, and other childhood in his native town. He grew up in a happy fabulous stories. The imaginary tales told by the aya home, ruled by good parents, bubbling with joy, and aroused in Rizal an enduring interest in legends and sanctified by God’s blessings. His natal town of folklore. Sometimes, when he did not like to eat the Calamba, so named after a big native jar, was a fitting supper, the aya would threaten him that the asuang, the cradle for hero. Its scenic beauties and its industrious, nuno, the tikbalang, or a terrible bearded and turbaned hospitable, and friendly folks impressed him during his Bombay would come to take him away if he would not eat his supper meadows and lakeshore with his black dog named Usman. The Hero’s First sorrow. The Rizal children One interesting anecdote about Rizal was the were bound together by ties of love and companionship. incident about his clay and wax images. One day when They were well-bred, for their parents taught them to he was about six years old his sisters laughed at him for love and help one another. Of his sisters, Jose loved spending so much time making those images rather than most the little Concha (conception). He was a year older participating in their games. He kept silent as they than Concha. He played with her he learned the laughed with childish glee. But as they were departing, sweetness of sisterly love. Unfortunately, Concha died of sickness in 1865 when she was only three years old. he told them: “All right laugh at me now! Someday Jose who was very fond of her, cried bitterly at losing when I die, people will make monuments and images of her. “When I was four years old, “he said, “I lost my me!” little sister Concha, and then for First Poem by Rizal. Aside from his sketching the first time I shed tears caused by love and and sculpturing talent, Rizal possessed a God-given gift grief…”. The death of little Concha brought him his for literature. Since early boyhood he had scribbled first sorrow. verses on loose sheets of paper and on the textbooks of Devoted Son of Church. At the age of three, he his sisters. His mother, who was a lover of literature, began to take part in the family prayers. His mother, noticed his poetic inclination and encouraged him to who was a devout Catholic, taught him the Catholic write poetry. At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first prayers. When he was five years old, he was able to poem in the native language entitled “Sa Aking mga read haltingly the Spanish family Bible. Kabata” (To My Fellow Children), as follows; He loved to go to church, to pray, to take part in novenas, and to join the religious processions. It is said Sa Aking mga Kabata that he was so seriously devout that he was laughingly called Manong Jose by the Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras. Kapagka ang baya’y sadyang umiibig One of the men he esteemed and respected in Sa langit salitang kaloob ng langit Calamba during his boyhood was the scholarly Father Sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapi Leoncio Lopez, the town priest. He used to visit this learned Filipino priest and listen to his stimulating Katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid opinions on current events and sound philosophy of life. Pagka’t ang salita’y isang kahatulan The Story of the Moth. Of the stories told by Sa bayan, sa nayo't mga kaharian Dona Teodora to her favorite son, Jose, that of the young moth made the profoundest impression on him. At ang isang tao’y katulad, kabagay The tragic fate of the young moth, which “died a Ng alin mang likha noong kalayaan. martyr to its illusions,” left a deep impress on Rizal’s Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita mind. He justified such noble death, asserting that “to Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda sacrifice one’s life for it,” meaning for an ideal, is “worthwhile.” And, like that young moth, he was fated to die as a martyr for a noble ideal. Kaya ang marapat pagyamanin kusa Na tulad sa inang tunay na nagpala Artistic Talents. Since early childhood Rizal Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin, revealed his God-given talent for art. At the age of five, he began to make a sketch with his pencil and to mold Sa Ingles, Kastila, at salitang anghel, in clay and wax objects which attracted his fancy. It is Sapagkat ang Poong maalam tumingin said that one day, when Jose was a mere boy in Calamba, a religious banner which was always used Ang siyang naggagawad, nagbibigay sa atin. during the fiesta was spoiled. Upon the request of the Ang salita nati’y tulad din sa iba town mayor, he painted in oil colors a new banner that delighted the town folks because it was better than the Na may alfabeto at sariling letra, original one. Na kaya nawala’y dinatnan ng sigwa Jose had the soul of a genuine artist. Rather an Ang lunday sa lawa noong dakong una. introvert child, with a skinny physique and sad dark eyes, he found great joy look of the lake, and the milky clouds in the sky; and listening to the songs of the birds, This poem reveals Rizal earliest nationalist the chirpings of the cicadas, and the murmurings of the sentiment. In poetic verses, he proudly proclaimed that breezes. He loved to ride on a spirited pony which his a people who truly love their native language will surely father bought for him and take long walks in the strive for liberty like “the bird which soars to freer apace above” and that Tagalog is the equal of Latin, derived his serious nature, frugality, patience and love English, Spanish, and any other language. for children. From his Spanish ancestors, he got his elegance of bearing, sensitivity to insult, and gallantry First Drama by Rizal. After writing the poem To to ladies. From his father, he inherited a profound sense My Fellow Children, Rizal, who was then eight years of self respect, the love for work, and habit of old, wrote his first dramatic work which was a Tagalog independent thinking. And from his mother, he comedy. It is said that it was staged in a Calamba inherited his religious nature, the spirit of self-sacrifice, festival and was delightfully applauded by the audience. and the passion for arts and literatures. A gobernadorcillo from Paete, a town in Laguna famous for lanzones and woodcarvings, happened to Environmental influence. According to witness the comedy and liked it so much that he psychologist, environment, as well as heredity affects purchased the manuscript for two pesos and brought it the nature of the person. Environmental influences to his home town. It was staged in Paete during its town include places, associates and events. The scenic fiesta. beauties of Calamba and the beautiful garden of the Rizal family stimulated the inborn artistic and literary Rizal as Boy Magician. Since early manhood talents of Jose Rizal. The religious atmosphere at his Rizal had been interested in magic. With his dexterous home fortified his religious nature, His brother, hands, he learned various tricks, such as making a coin Paciano, instilled in his mind the love for freedom and appear or disappear in his fingers and making a justice. From his sisters, he learned to be courteous and hankerchief vanish in thin air. He entertained his town kind to women. The fairy tales told by his aya during folks with magic- lantern exhibitions. This consisted of his early childhood awakened his interest in folklore an ordinary lamp casting its shadow on a white screen. and legends. He twisted his supple fingers into fantastic shapes, His three uncles, brothers of his mother, exerted a making their enlarged shadows on the screen resemble good influence on him. Tio Jose Alberto, who had certain animals and persons. He also gained skill in studied for eleven years in a British school in Calcutta, manipulating marionettes (puppet shows). India, and had travelled in Europe inspired him to In later years when he attained manhood, he develop his artistic ability. Tio Manuel, a husky and continued his keen predilection for magic. He read athletic man, encouraged him to develop his frail body many books on magic and attended the performances of by means of physical exercises, including horse riding, the famous magicians of the world. In chapter XVII and walking, and wrestling. And Tio Gregorio, a book VIII of his novel, El Filibusterismo, he reveled his wide lover, intensified his voracious reading of good books. knowledge of magic. Father Leoncio Lopez, the old and learned parish priest of Calamba, fostered Rizal’s love for scholarship Influences on the Hero’s Boyhood. On the night and intellectual honesty. Jose Rizal was born, other children were born in The sorrows in his family, such as the death of Calamba and hundreds of other children were born all concha in 1865 and the imprisonment of his mother in over the Philippines. But why is it that out of all these 1871-74, contributed to strengthen his character, children, only one boy JOSE RIZAL rose to fame and enabling him to resist blows of adversity in later years. greatness. The Spanish abuses and cruelties which he witnessed in In the lives of all men there are influences which his boyhood, such as the brutal acts of the Lieutenant of cause some to be great and others not. In the case of Guardia Civil and the alcalde, the unjust tortures Rizal, he had all the favorable influences, few other inflicted on innocent Filipinos, and the execution of children in his time enjoyed. These influences were the Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora in 1872, awakened following: (1) hereditary Influence (2) environmental his spirit of patriotism and inspired him to consecrate influence, and (3) Aid of divine Providence. his life and talents to redeem his oppressed people. Hereditary Influence. According to biological Aid of Divine Providence. Greater than heredity science, there are inherent qualities which a person and environment in the faith of man is the aid of divine inherits from his ancestors and parents. From his Providence. A person may have everything in life Malayan Ancestors, Rizal, evidently, inherited his love brains, wealth and power but, without the aid of for freedom, his innate desire to travel, and his Divine providence, he cannot attain greatness in the indomitable courage. From his Chinese ancestors, he annals of nation. Rizal was providentially destined to be the pride and glory of his nation. God had endowed him of enjoying the sight Jose became depressed because of with the versatile gifts of a genius, the vibrant spirit of a homesickness. “ nationalist, and the valiant heart to sacrifice for a noble cause. First day in Biñan School. The next morning Paciano brought his younger brother to the school of EDUCATION IN CALAMBA Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz. The school was in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about Rizal had his early education in Calamba and 30 meters from the home of Jose’s aunt. Paciano knew Binan. It was a typical schooling that a son of an the teacher quite well because he had been a pupil under illustrado family received during his time, characterized him before. He introduced Jose to the teacher after by the four R’s reading, writing, arithmetic, and which he departed to return to Calamba. religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge Jose described his teacher in Binan as follows; “he was forced into the minds of the pupils by means of the was tall, thin, long necked, with a sharp nose and a tedious memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear a Despite the defects of the Spanish system of sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the of Batangas. He knew by heart the grammars by Nebrija necessary instruction preparatory for college work in and Gainza. Add to this his severity, that in my Manila and abroad. It may be said that Rizal, who was judgement was exaggerated, and you have a picture, born a physical weakling, rose to become and perhaps vague, that I have made of him, I remember intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, only this.” the outmoded and backward system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last decades of First School Brawl. In the afternoon of his first Spanish Regime. day in school, when the teacher was having his siesta, The Hero’s First teacher. The first teacher of Jose meet the bully Pedro. He was angry at this bully for Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of making fun of him during his conversation with the good character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned teacher in the morning. at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers. “My Jose challenge Pedro to a fight. The latter readily mother” wrote Rizal in his student memoirs “taught me accepted thinking that he could easily beat the Calamba how to read and to say haltingly the humble prayers boy who was smaller and younger. The two boys which I raised fervently to God.” wrestled furiously in the classroom, much to the glee of As a tutor, Dona Teodora was patient. their classmates. Jose having learned the art of wrestling Conscientious, and understanding. It was she who first from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger boy. discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. For this feat he became popular among his classmates. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to Painting Lessons in Biñan. Near the school was stimulate her son’s imagination, she related many the house of an old painter, called Juancho, who was the stories. father-in-law of the school teacher. Jose, lured by his As Jose grew older, his parents employed private love for painting, spent many leisure hours at the tutors to give him lessons at home. The first was painter’s studio. Old Juancho freely gave him lessons in Maestro Celestino and the Second, Maestro Lucas drawing and painting. He was impressed by the artistic Padua. Later, an old man named Leon Monroy, a talent of the Calamba land. Jose and his classmate, Jose former classmate of Rizal’s father become the boy’s Guevarra, who also loved painting, became apprentices tutor. This old teacher lived at the Rizal home and of the old painter. They improved their art, so that in instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he due time they became “the favorite painters of the did not live long. He died five months later. class”. Jose Goes to Biñan. One Sunday afternoon in Best Student in School. In academic studies, Jose June 1869, Jose, after kissing the hands of his parents beat all Binan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish, and a tearful parting from his sisters, left Calamba for Latin and other subjects. Some of his classmates were Binan. He was accompanied by Paciano, Who acted as jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly his second father. The same night, Jose, with his cousin squealed to the teacher whenever Jose had a fight named Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead outside the school, and even told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes. Consequently the teacher had second novel, El Filibusterismo to GOMBURZA. to punish Jose. Thus Rizal said that “in spite of the reputation I had of being a ggod boy, the day was Injustice to Hero’s Mother. Before June of 1872, unusual when I was not laid out on a bench and given tragedy struck the Rizal family. Dona Teodora was five or six blows”. suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that she and her brother, Jose Alberto, tried to poison the Latter’s End of Biñan Schooling. Before the Christmas perfidious wife. Jose Alberto, a rich Binan ilustrador season in 1870, Jose received a letter from his sister had just returned from business trip in Europe. During Saturnina, informing him of the arrival of the steamer his absence his wife abandoned their home and Talim, which would take him from Biñan to Calamba. children. Upon reading the letter, he had a premonition that he When he arrived in Binan, he found her living with would not return to Binan, so that he became sad. He another man. Infuriated by her infidelity, he planned to prayed in the town church, collected pebbles in the river divorce her. Dona Teodora, to avert family scandal, for souvenirs, and regretfully bade farewell to his persuaded him to forgive his wife. The family trouble teacher and classmates. was amicably settled. And Jose Alberto lived again with He left Binan on Saturday afternoon, December his wife. 17, 1870, after one year and a half of schooling in that However, the evil wife, with the connivance of the town. He was thrilled to take passage on the steamer Spanish Lieutenant of the Guardia Civil, filed a case in Talim, for it was the first time he never rode on a court accusing her husband and Dona Teodora of steamer. On board was a Frenchman named Arturo attempting to poison her. Camps, a friend of his father, who took care of him. The lieutenant happened to have an ax to grind against the Rizal family, because at one time Don Martyrdom of GOMBURZA. On the night of Francisco refused to give him fodder for his horse. January 20, 1872, about 200 Filipino soldiers and Taking the opportunity to avenge himself, he Arrested workmen of the Cavite arsenal under the leadership of Dona Teodora, with the help of Calamba’s Lamadrid. Filipino sergeant, rose in violent mutiny gobernadorcillo, Antonio Vivencio Del Rosario, a because of the abolition of their usual priveleges, menial of the friars. These two ungrateful men had been including exemption from tribute and polo by the frequent guests at the Rizal home. reactionary Governor Rafael Izquierdo. Unfortunately, After arresting Dona Teodora, the sadistic Spanish this Cavite mutiny was suppressed two days later by Lieutenant forced her to walk from Calamba to Santa troop reinforcement from Manila. Cruz (Capital of Laguna Province), a distance of 50 The Spanish authorities, in order to liquidate. kilometers. Upon arrival in Santa Cruz, she was Father Mariano Gomez, jose Burgos, and Jacinto incarcerated at the provincial prison, where she Zamora, leaders of the secular movement to Filipinize languished for two years and a half until the Manila the Philippine parishes, and their supporters (Jose Ma. Royal Audiencia (Supreme Court) acquitted her of the Basa, Attorney’s Joaquin Pardo De Tavera and Antonio alleged crime. Ma. Regidor, etc.) magnified the failed mutiny into a Recounting this incidence of his mother’s “revolt” for Philippine Independence accordingly. imprisonment, Rizal said in his student memoirs: “Our Despite the archbishop’s plea for clemency mother was unjustly snatched away from us and by because of their innocence, were executed at sunrise, whom? By some men who had been our friends and February 17, 1872, by order of Governor General whom we treated as honored guests. We learned later Rafael Izquierdo. Their martyrdom was deeply mourned that our mother got sick, far from us and at advanced by the Rizal family and many other patriotic families in age. My mother was defended by Messrs. Francisco De the Philippines. Mercaida and Manuel Marzan, the most famous lawyers Paciano, enraged by the execution of Burgos, his of Manila. She finally succeeded to the acquitted and beloved friend, teacher and housemate, quit his studies vindicated in the eyes of her judges, accusers, and even at the College of San Jose and returned to Calamba, her enemies, but after how long? After two and a hald where he told the heroic story of Burgos to his younger years.” brother Jose, who was then nearly eleven years old. The martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za in 1872 truly inspired Rizal to fight the evils of Spanish tyranny and redeem his oppressed people. In 1891, he dedicated his