Rizal Class 10-16-20

After two and a half years, the Royal Audiencia acquitted his mother on the ground of innocence.

The Royal Audiencia is now the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Interestingly, Rizal had predicted the released of his mother through his dream a few days before the
court had made the decision.

He even rushed to Santa Cruz to tell his mother about it.

The biographers of Rizal 's Blancaflor and Belarmino, had presented another version of the freedom of
his mother by narrating an incident in Calamba prior to the release of Donya Teodora.

According to them, the Governor General went to see a program in Calamba where he saw how
beautifully the youngest sister of Rizal, Soledad danced during the show.

The official was greatly amazed that before going back to manila he called for Soledad and asked she
wanted most and he will give it.

And since their mother was in prison, it was assumed that what was asked was the freedom of their
mother.

The Governor General was the highest ranking Spanish official in the government during the Spanish
period.

They wielded enormous powers and at a time, even sat in the Royal Audiencia.

They also represented the king of Spain and enjoy the power to either implement or not the laws of
Spain in the Philippines.

Such power was known as the cumplase.

The moment their mother got freed, Rizal regained his usual vigor in studying and went on to reclaim
the position of emperor and received more medals.

All his grades from first to his last year were all marked excellent . And he graduated with a
sobresaliente honors in 1877.

Sobresaliente means excellent and according to Gregorio Zaide, equivalent to a valedictorian.

Getting that honor led some people to believe that he was on top of his class.

But that was the case.

In the year 1877, of the 12 graduates, 9 got the same honors including him.

Rizal even admitted that he had some

Classmates who were smarter than him especially the Spaniards who were used to Spanish that they
readily understand the lessons while he must master first the language before he learned the lessons.

In other words, he had to catch up and so he did by going to Santa Isabel College during his afternoon
breaks to learn.
The Jesuits however considered Rizal as their foremost alumnus.

Before he can proceed further in his studies, his family had debated whether he should since his mother
thought that he had learned enough and he continues, and learn more, the Spaniards will only kill him.

This opinion of his mother was considered prophetic and Rizal had said that it was third eye of his
mother that seeing something far ahead.

But his father really wanted him to continue because his brother had already quit and because the
Filipino families even then were patriarchal, the opinion of his mother was ignored and he went back to
Manila in the coming school year.

By the time he was in Manila, he was not yet decided as to what course to take and he went back to
Ateneo to seek the guidance of Father Pablo Ramon.

But the Jesuit was in Mindanao and cannot advised so he enrolled in UST taking the course metaphysics.

His choice led some people to believe that he wanted to be a priest since metaphysics was a
prerequisite course to theology.

But actually he was just undecided

Around that time, his mother was beginning to lose her vision due the cataract that was growing in her
cornea.

Out of pity, he thought of curing his mother's affliction by becoming a doctor and in the next term, he
shifted to the college of medicine.

UST is a Dominican university founded in 1611 and considered to be the oldest in southeast Asia.

That university had been given through a royal decree the status of being the pontifical university of the
Philippines.

His choice was lauded by many even by Father Ramon when they met again in Manila.

Around this time, he was already 18 and he developed a radiant personality making him a status symbol
that some of his biographers believed that many hoping eyes of women followed him with the dream of
catching his attention .

But he seemed to be ignorant about female attraction until he felt it one day when he met a girl along
the river bank in Los banos and met his first love Segunda Katigbak in Manila.

I said he was ignorant because at this time, he was not able to express his feelings and have even one of
the two girls to be his girlfriend.

He blamed his shyness for his first heartache but he rebounded by using his experience in winning the
hearts of many women he met afterwards.

In UST, he had mentioned that he was treated differently by his Dominican professors who he said were
hostile to him and his native students.

Aside from the hostility, the Dominicans were also discriminate and prejudice.
He even criticized their antiquated methods and obsolete instruction.

And another thing be quite hated in UST was the superiority of the Spanish students towards them.

As if they had a lot of enemies in the campus.

In fact, Rizal had enough bouts against prejudice and discrimination when he was studying in Santo
Tomas.

Around this atmosphere, he became adversarial.

Whenever the Dominicans insulted them in the classroom, he stood up and fought which always
resulted in getting thrown out from the class.

He begun to organize his native classmates in order to gain strength by establishing the group he called
the Children of Jehu after the biblical soldier of the same name.

But his comrades were helpless in his personal bout against prejudice and discrimination when he was
sent to jail and got humiliated in a literary contest he joined.