Narrative Report:

JOSE RIZAL

Jose Rizal was born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Philippines. While living in

Europe, Rizal wrote about the discrimination that accompanied Spain’s

colonial rule of his country. He returned to the Philippines in 1892, but was exiled due to his desire for
reform. Although he supported peaceful change, Rizal was convicted of sedition and executive on
December 30,1896, at age 35. Jose Rizal whose full name was Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Alonzo Y
Realonda, was a national of the Philippines and lived between 1861 to 1896.

Jose Rizal is widely regarded by many Filipino’s as the most revered and

documented Filipino that has ever lived. Though he lived a short life, Jose Rizal attained the status of
national hero in the heart of many Filipino’s for hisimmense contribution towards securing
independence for the Philippines from its Spanish colonial overlords. He was a remarkable man in many
respects and left his foot prints in the sands of time within the short period that he lived. He was born on
the 19th

of June 1861 to the affluent Mercado-Rizal family in Calamba, Laguna in the Philippines. His parents
were Francisco Mercado II and Teodora Alonzo Realonda and he had ten siblings; a brother and nine
sisters. From a tender age, Jose Rizal showed precocity in his natural ability and his brother, Paciano,
embraced political ideas that were far ahead of there

times. Rizal’s early education was under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Laguna. He

was later sent by his father to Manila to take the entrance examinations into Colegio de San Juan de
Letran which he did but elected to join the Atenio Municipal de Manila instead and graduated as one
among nine distinguished students. He proceeded to study Land surveyans assessor obtained a degree in
the same institution while at the same time took a course of preparation in law at the University of Santo
Tomas

. When he found out his mother’s eye

problems, he decided to switch from law to ophthalmology. While studying in Madrid he also took
Medical lectures in the University of Paris and the University of Heidenberg, Berlin.

He wrote many poems and novels such as “ Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo” and other which
contend revolutionary ideas of freedom and
the rights of the individuals. His works were also critical of the Spanish colonial authorities of their
double standards as well as the Spanish Friars of there corrupt ways. His works eventually influenced the
freedom activities of many Filipino activities – both the peaceful and violent ones – which resulted into
a revolution which took place shortly after his death in 1896.

His activities earned him the inmity of Spanish authorities and in October 1896, he waqs arrested on his
way to Cuba where he was heading to as a medical volunteer. Rizal was imprisoned in Barcelona, later
repatriated back to the Philippines and tried by a military tribunal which found him guilty and was
summarily executed by firing squad that same year. Jose Rizal was a remarkable man in many ways. He
was both a polyglot and polymath and displayed rare courage and intellect quite far ahead of his times.
He laid the foundation the eventual independence of the Philippines from its Spanish

overlord by successfully challenging spain’s moral right to rule. He is quite

rightly rega

rded as a National hero by many Filipino’s.

While in Europe, Jose Rizal became part of Propaganda movement, connecting

with other Filipino’s who wanted reform. He also wrote his first novel, Noli Me

Tangere (Touch me not/The social cancer), a work that detailed the dark aspects of spains colonial rule
in the Philippines, with particular focus on the role of catholic friars. The book was band in the
Philippines , Though copies

were smuggled in. Because of this novel, Rizal’s return to the Phillippines in

1887 was cut short hi was targeted by the police. Rizal returned to Europe and continued to write,
releasing his follow-up novel, El Filibusterismo(the reign of greed) in 1891. He also published the articles
in La Solidaridad, a paper aligned with the Propaganda movements. The reforms Rizal advocated for did
not include independence-

he called for equal treatment of the Filipino’s,

liminating the power of Spanish friars and representation for the Philippines in the spanish Cortes
( Spanish Parliament)