LIFE AND
WORKS
OF RIZAL
CHAPTER 2 :
CHILDHOOD YEARS
IN CALAMBA
Objectives:
At the end of the discussion the class will be able
to:
Understand the childhood story and memories of
Rizal in Calamba.
Know better his happy days and first grief.
Learn his writings and artworks.
Encounter his teachers during his days in Biñan
as a learner.
CALAMBA
✣ Calamba, the Hero’s Town.
✣ Named after a big native jar.
✣ Hacienda town which belonged to the
Dominican order.
✣ Natal town of Rizal
✣ Happiest period of Rizal life was spent in this
lakeshore town, a worthy prelude to his Hamlet-
like tragic manhood.
Earliest childhood memories
✣ The first memory of Rizal in his infancy was his happy
days in the family garden when he was 3 years old.
✣ A little nipa cottage was built for him.
✣ He has an “aya”.
✣ The imaginary tales told by his aya aroused his interest to
folklore and legends.
✣ Began birdwatching at the age of 3, ( culiauan, maya,
maria capra, martin pitpit and other birds and listened
with “wonder and joy”.
The hero’s first sorrow
✣ Death of little Concha
(Concepcion)
✣ He lost his sister at the age of 4.
His sister is one year younger than
him, fell ill and died at the age of 3.
✣ The death of his sister is his first
grief.
✣ Devoted Son of the Church.
✣ He grew up a good Catholic.
✣ At the age of 3, he began to take part in the family prayer.
His mother taught him the Catholic prayers.
✣ 5 years old, he was able to read the Spanish family bible.
✣ He was so seriously devout that he was laughingly called
Manong Jose by the Hermanos & Hermanas Terceras.
✣ Father Leoncio Lopez, town priest, one of the men he
esteemed & respected in Calamba during his boyhood.
Pilgrimage to antipolo
✣ June 06, 1868- Jose and his father left Calamba to go on a
pilgrimage to Antipolo.
✣ First trip of Jose across Laguna de Bay and his first
pilgrimage to Antipolo, They rode in a Casco (barge)
✣ He was awed by "The magnificence of the water expanse
and the silence of the night"
✣ After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo, Jose
and his father went to Manila and visited Saturnina, who
was then a boarding student at La Concordia College in
Santa Ana.
Pilgrimage to antipolo
The story of the moth
✣ The story of the moth and the flame was told to Rizal by
his mother on a night when her mother was teaching him
how to read a book entitled "The Children's Friend" (El
Amigos de los Niños)
✣ His mother grew impatient of his poor reading and lack of
focus and always straying his eyes on the flame of the
lamp and the cheerful moths surrounding it.
✣ However, it's not the story's moral that truly struck him,
he actually envied the moths and their fate and
considered that the light was worth dying for.
11
First poem and drama
✣ Age 8, Rizal wrote his first
poem in the native language
entitled "Sa Aking Mga
Kabata" (To My Fellow
Children). He wrote it in an
appeal to our people to love
our national language.
✣ Age 8, Rizal wrote his first
dramatic work which was a
Tagalog Comedy. It was
staged in a Calamba festival.
A gobernadorcillo from Paete
purchased the manuscript for
2 pesos.
RIZAL AS BOY MAGICIAN
✣ He learned various tricks such as making a coin appear and
disappear in his fingers and making a handkerchief vanish in
thin air.
✣ Entertained his town folks with magic-lantern exhibitions. This
consisted of an ordinary lamp casting its shadow on white
screen. Also gained skill in manipulating marionettes (puppet
shows).In Chapter XVII and XVIII of his second novel, El
Filibusterismo (Treason), he revealed his wide knowledge of
magic.
Lakeshore Reveries
✣ He used to meditate at the shore of Laguna de Bay,
accompanied by his pet dog, on the sad conditions of his
oppressed people.
✣ He wrote to his friend, Mariano Ponce: "In view of these
injustices and cruelties, although yet a child, my imagination
was awakened and I made a vow dedicating myself someday
to avenge many victims.
✣ With this idea in my mind, I studied, and this is seen in all my
writings. Someday God will give me the opportunity to fulfill
my promise."
Influences in the hero’s
boyhood
✣ Hereditary influences ✣ Environmental influences
✣ Malayan ancestors ✣ Paciano
✣ Chinese ancestors ✣ Fairytales
✣ Spanish ancestors ✣ Sorrows in his family
✣ Father ✣ Spanish abuses and
✣ Mother cruelties
✣ Aid of divine providence
CHAPTER 3 :
EARLY EDUCATION
IN CALAMBA
AND BIÑAN
The story of the moth
✣ Jose Goes to Biñan
✣ After Monroy's death, Rizal's parents
decided to send him to a private
school in Biñan.
✣ June 1869 Jose left Calamba for Biñan
with Paciano.
✣ Carromata- mode of transportation
✣ Aunt’s house- where he lodged
✣ First Day in Biñan School
✣ Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz - owner and teacher of the
school.
✣ Rizal described Maestro Justiniano as "tall, thin, long-
necked, and sharp-nosed with a body slightly bent forward.“
✣ First School Brawl
✣ Jose challenged Pedro to a fight and he won having learned
the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel.
✣ Andres Salandaan challenged Rizal to an arm-wrestling
match. Jose, having the weaker arm, lost and nearly
cracked his head on sidewalk.
✣ Painting lessons
✣ Old Juancho, father-in-law of the
school teacher, freely gave Jose
painting lessons.
✣ Jose Rizal and his classmate Jose
Guevarra became apprentices of
the old painter.
Daily life in Biñan
1. Hears mass at 4:00 AM or studies lesson at that hour
before going to mass.
2. Goes to the orchard to look for a mabolo to eat.
3. Breakfast: rice and 2 dried small fish.
4. Goes to class until 10:00 AM and goes home for lunch.
5. Goes back to school at 2:00 PM and comes out at 5:00 pm.
6. Prays with cousins and returns home.
7. Studies lesson and draws a little.
8. Supper: one or 2 rice with an ayungin
9. Prays again and if there's a moon, plays with cousins.
✣ Best Student in School
✣ Jose surpassed his classmates in Spanish, Latin, and other
subjects. His older classmates were jealous and wickedly
squealed to the teacher whenever he had fights.
✣ End of Biñan Schooling
✣ December 17, 1870 - Jose left Biñan using the steamer
Talim for Calamba.
✣ Arturo Camps - Frenchman and friend of his father who took
care of him during his trip.
Martyrdom of Gom-Bur-Za
✣ January 20, 1872- Cavite Mutiny.
✣ February 17, 1872 - Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos,
and Jacinto Zamora were implicated and executed.
✣ The GOMBURZA were leaders of the secularization
movement.
✣ The martyrdom of the 3 priests inspired Rizal to fight the
evils of Spanish tyranny.
✣ Paciano quit his studies at the College of San Jose and
returned to Calamba, where he told the heroic story of
Burgos to Rizal. In 1891, Rizal dedicated his second novel El
Filibusterismo to GOMBURZA.
Injustice to the Hero's Mother.
✣ In 1872, Doña Teodora was arrested on a malicious charge
that she aided his brother Jose Alberto in trying to poison
his wife.
✣ Jose Alberto planned to divorce his wife because of her
infidelity. His wife connived with the Spanish lieutenant of
the Guardia Civil and filed a case against Rizal's mother.
✣ 50 kilometers - Doña Teodora was made to walk from
Calamba to the provincial prison in SantaCruz.
✣ Don Francisco de Mercaida and Don Manuel Marzan - most
famous lawyers of Manila, defended Doña Teodora in court.
✣ After 2 ½ years the Royal Audencia acquitted Doña Teodora.
ACTIVITY:
Make a simple POEM
about the Story of
the Moth.
