FACTS ABOUT RIZAL

Our  Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal may have been sentenced to death by the Spaniards on December 30, 1896 but he also lived in the land of the colonizers around the 1880s.     Rizal, author of the novels “Noli Me Tángere” and “El Filibusterismo” as well as a number of poems and essays, had Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish ancestors.     Born to a wealthy family in Calamba, Laguna on June 19, 1861, Rizal was a polyglot who was conversant in 22 languages.      According to the document “Rizal’s Madrid” produced by the Philippine Embassy in Spain, Rizal first arrived in Madrid in 1882 to study medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid.       The website of the Jose Rizal University said Rizal left the Philippines for the first time on May 3, 1882 and headed towards Spain using a passport under the name Jose Mercado, obtained for him by his uncle Antonio Rivera, father of Leonor Rivera. He travelled across Europe, including France and Germany, until 1886. 

 
Based on “Rizal’s Madrid,” some of the little-known facts about Rizal’s life in Spain include: 

1. Rizal had a limited allowance of P50 a month when he was studying in Madrid. This was further reduced to P35 a month when their family farm in Laguna had bad harvests.

2. Rizal first lived at the Amor de Rios house close to the Universidad Central de Madrid.

3. Rizal liked to take light meals with wine at the Viva Madrid restaurant, also a favorite ofjournalist and revolutionary Graciano Lopez Jaena.

 
4. While studying medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid, he also went to the nearby Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando to study painting.

5. Rizal’s favorite park in Spain is the Parque del Buen Retiro which inspired him to name his place of exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga as “Mi Retiro.”

6. Rizal attended theatrical presentations, music and poetry recitals and book launchings at the Ateneo de Madrid, which is not an educational institution but an exclusive men’s club.

7. There were times when Rizal was in dire financial difficulties in Spain. Once, he had to pawn his sister Saturnina’s ring to pay for his exams. At another time, he did not at all for one whole day. However, in his letters to his family, he only mentioned his high grades and victories in contests. 8. Rizal and the other Filipino propagandists lobbied at the Congreso de los Diputados (the Spanish congress) for the recognition of the Filipinos’ right to autonomy and for equal rights with Spanish citizens. 

9. A marker stands along the corridor of the Colegio de Medicina in Madrid indicating Rizal studied medicine there from October 2, 1882 until June 1884.

10. In an undated letter to his family, Rizal indicated that his last place of residence in Spain was the Casa Cedaceros. He told his family that he planned to study ophthalmology in Germany because the eyesight of his mother Teodora Alonso had gotten worse and he wanted to treat her when he returned to the Philippines