Profile of Jose Rizal on Famous Like Me

José Protacio Rizal Mercado Alonzo y Realonda (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), the "Pride of the Malay Race" and "The Great Malayan," is the national hero of the Philippines.

As a polyglot, he mastered 22 languages including Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Malay, Sanskrit, Spanish, Tagalog, and other Philippine languages.

As a polymath, he was also an architect, artist, educator, economist, ethnologist, scientific farmer, historian, inventor, journalist, linguist, musician, mythologist, nationalist, naturalist, novelist, ophthalmologist, physician, poet, propagandist, sculptor, and sociologist.

A famous patriot, the anniversary of Rizal's death, December 30, is now celebrated as a holiday in the Philippines, called Rizal Day.

Family

The seventh of the eleven children of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonzo. José Rizal was born into a prosperous middle class Filipino family in the town of Calamba, Laguna. Dominican friars granted the family the privilege of the lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm, but contentious litigation followed.

Education

He first studied under Justiniano Cruz in Biñan, Laguna. He went to Manila to study at the Ateneo de Manila University) where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1877. He continued his education in the Ateneo Municipal to obtain a degree in land surveying and assessor, and at the same time in the University of Santo Tomas where he studied Philosophy and Letters. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he then decided to study medicine (ophthalmology) in the University of Santo Tomas, but did not complete it because he felt that Filipinos were being discriminated by the Dominicans who operated the University.

Against his father's wishes, he traveled to Madrid and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. His education continued at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg where he earned a second doctorate.

Writings

José Rizal was known for two novels, Noli Me Tangere (1887) published in Berlin and El Filibusterismo (1891) published in Ghent, which are social commentaries of the Philippines under Spanish colonial rule. These books, inspired by Cervantes' Don Quixotes' ideals are responsible for the development of a unified Filipino consciousness and identity, which led to the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

Legacy

Rizal was a reformer for an open society rather than a revolutionary for political independence. As a leader of the Propaganda Movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed newspaper articles to La Solidaridad in Barcelona with the following agenda:

• That the Philippines be a province of Spain
• Representation in the Cortes (Parliament)
• Filipino priests rather than the Spanish Augustinians, Dominicans, or Franciscans
• Freedom of assembly and speech
• Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)

Last days

In 1896, the Katipunan, a patriotic secret society, launched a revolution. Rizal had been given leave by the colonial government to serve in Cuba as a volunteer to minister to victims of yellow fever.

He was arrested en route, imprisoned in Barcelona, and returned to stand trial. He was implicated by association with members of the Katipunan and tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition, and establishing an illegal association. During his internment, he had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so. Rizal was convicted of all three accusations and sentenced to death.

With his execution nearing, he wrote his last poem, "Mi Último Adiós" (My Last Farewell), which played a role in later events. In the early morning, he attended two Masses and was finally allowed to marry his fiancée and lover, Josephine Bracken at 5:30 am, after having been denied a marriage license the year before. He was executed by firing squad in Bagumbayan Field (now Rizal Park) in Manila) some two hours later. His body was buried in a secret grave in Paco Cemetery, registered as a suicide.

A statue is present now at the place where he fell, designed by the Swiss Richard Kissling of the famed "William Tell" sculpture, with the inscription "I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him".

The USS Rizal (DD-174) destroyer was named in his honor.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jose Rizal