Jose Rizal Reflective

1. Brief Summary of Chapter 1.

ADVENT OF A NATIONAL HERO
Jose Rizal born on June 19, 1861. It was Franciso Mercado Rizal was born on May 11, 1818 in Binan Laguna. He was a graduate of the College of San Jose Manila, studying Latin and Philosophy. Francisco moved to Calamba to become a tenant-farmer of a hacienda owned by the Dominicans. He dided at the age of 80 on January 5, 1898 in Manila. About his father, Jose Rizal says that he is a “model of fathers”. Teodora Alonso Realonda was born on November 8, 1926 in Manila. She was a graduate the College of Santa Rosa. She died at age of 85 on August 16, 1911 in Manila. About his mother, Jose Rizal says “ My mother is a woman of more than ordinaryt culture; she knows literature and speaks Spanish better than I. She corrected my poems and gave me gppd advice when i was studying rhetoric. She is a mathematician and has read many books. Rizal is the sevent of eleven children: Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olimpia, Lucia, Maria, Jose, Concepcion, Josefa, Trinidad and Soledad. Rizal’s family was a mixture of races. They were a combination of Negrito, Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese. And Spanish, though Jose was predominantly Malayan.

The surname Mercado was the original surname of the Rizal family. Domingo Lamco, Jose’s great-great grandfather, adopted the name Rizal in 1731 and it became a second surname of the family. In Jose’s letter to Ferdinand Blumentritt, he says: “ i am the only Rizal in because at home mty parents, my sisters my brother, and my relatives have always preferred our old surname Mercado. Our family name was in fact Mercado, but there were many Mercados in the Philippines who are not related to us. It is said that an alcalde mayor, who was a friend of our family added Rizal to our name. My family did not pay much attention to this, but now i have to use it. In this way, it seems that i am an illegitimate son .”

2. What can you say about the Chapter discussed?

In this Chapter I have learned a lot about Rizal and his family, not only about them. The Chapter also states the way of living of our lolos and lolas during the Spanish times. Also the chapter shows how the parents of the older times has disciplined their children and how they taught them good manners.

3. What message or good things can we get in Rizal’s life in that Chapter?

Good things i can get in this chapter was even rizal’s have so many sisters and brothers he

CHAPTER 2
Childhood in Calamba
Rizal’s childhood was the happiest period of his life. Calamba, the hero’s hometown, belonged to the Dominican Order. A few kilometers south of Calamba lies mount Makiling. East of the town is Laguna de Bay. Rizal was a student in the Ateneo de Manila in 1876 when he was 15 years old. When he was fifteen, he wrote then poem entitled In Memory of My Town (Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo). Rizal was sickly, underweight, undersized, and frail as a child. He had hos own nipa cottage where he played in the day, built by his father. He had an aya (nurse maid) who has a kind old woman and who took care of him and his health. He began bird watching at the age of 3, observing the culiauan, the maya, the maria capra, the martin, and the pipit. He recited the Angelus prayer daily. OF all his sisters, Jose loved little Concepcion best. She was only year younger than him, and fell ill and died at the age of 3. The death of his sister was Jose’s first grief. Jose and his father went on a pilgrimage to Antipolo on June 6, 1868 so that they could fulfill his mother’s vow, which she made when Jose was born.

Teodora could not join them on this pilgrimage because she had given birth to Jose’s sister Trinidad. After the pilgrimage, Jose went with his father to Manila where they visited her sister Saturnina, who was then a boarding student at La Concordia College in Santa Ana. On “The Story of the Moth,” Rizal thought that the creature’s death was justified becausehe believed that to sacrifice one’s life for one’s ideals is worthwhile. He began sketching at the age of five. He had a black dog named Usman. At the age of eight, Jose wrote his first poem entiled Sa Aking Mga Kababata (To My Fellow Children). When he was also eight years old, rizal write his first dramatic work, which was a Tagalog comedy. It was staged in a festival in Calamba,and was later sold to a gobernadorcillo from Paete for two pesos. Jose was skilled in operating
marionettes. He used tomeditate by Laguna de Bay with his pet dog, Usman.