RIZAL'S OWN STORY OF HIS LIFE
"IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND THERE
ARE NAMES WHICH OF THEMSELVES SIGNIFY
ACHIEVEMENTS. THEY CALL FORTH
REVERENCE AND REMIND US OF GREATNESS."
EDITED BY AUSTIN CRAIG, RIZAL
RESEARCH-PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF THE PHILIPPINES
National Book Company
MANILA 1918
COPYRIGHT 1918 BY AUSTIN CRAIG
Registered in the Philippine Islands
Printed in the United States of America (Philippine Islands)
Press of E. C. McCullough & Co., Manila, P. I.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dr. W. W. Marquardt suggested this book.
Miss Josephine Craig advised and assisted in the selections.
Hon. C. E. Yeater read and criticised the original manuscript.
Miss M. W. Sproull revised the translations.
Dean Francisco Benitez acted as pedagogical adviser.
Miss Gertrude McVenn simplified the language for primary school use.
Mr. John C. Howe adapted and arranged the music.
Mr. Frederic H. Stevens planned the make-up and, in spite of wartime
difficulties, provided the materials needed.
Mr. Chas. A. Kvist supervised the production.
Mr. C. H. Noronha, who, in 1897, in his Hongkong magazine Odds and
Ends, first published Rizal's farewell poem "My Last Thought", was
the careful and obliging proofreader.
Assistant Insular Architect Juan Arellano, a colleague of the editor
on the Dapitan Rizal national park committee, designed the sampaguita
decorations.
Mr. A. Garcia achieved creditable illustrations out of poorly preserved
photographs whose historical accuracy has not been impaired by the
slightest embellishment.
And the entire establishment of Messrs. E.C. McCullough &
Company--printers, pressmen and bookbinders--labored zealously and
enthusiastically to do credit to the imprint: "Made in Manila--The
Work of Filipinos".
The Memory of Rizal is kept alive in many ways:
1. A province near Manila bears his name.
2. The anniversary of his death is a public holiday.
3. A memorial school has been built by the Insular Government in his
native town.
4. His home in exile has been made a national park.
5. The first destroyer of the future Philippine navy is named "Rizal".
6. Rizal's portrait appears on the two-peso bill.
7. Rizal's portrait appears on the two-centavo postage stamp.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
Rizal's pencil sketch of himself 1
Rizal at 14 4
Rizal's painting of his sister Saturnina 6
Rizal's portrait on Philippine postage and money 8
Rizal's home, Kalamba 12
Rizal's mother and two of his sisters 16
Clay model of dog and cayman combat 17
Where Rizal went to school in Biñan 18
Rizal monument, Biñan 24
Santa Rosa Gate, on Biñan-Kalamba road 26
Model of a Dapitan woman at work 28
Rizal's uncle 29
Rizal's uncle's home in Biñan 30
Guardia Civil soldier 31
Rizal's mother 33
Rizal's father 34
One of Rizal's teachers, Terracotta bust by Rizal 36
Padre Sanchez, Rizal's favorite teacher in the Ateneo 37
Carving of the Sacred Heart, made by Rizal in the Ateneo 44
Wooden bust of Rizal's father 45
Rizal at 18 48
Rizal's sacrifice of his life 57
Professor Burgos 58
The lake shore at Kalamba 60
A Manila school girl, drawn by Rizal 62
Rizal in Paris 64
Rizal at 30 66
Crayon portrait of Rizal's cousin Leonore 70
Dapitan plaza and townhall 80
Wooden medallion of Mrs. José Rizal 84
Chalk pipehead, Rizal's last modeling 86
Rizal at 27 90
Manila skyline, sketched by Rizal 92
Rizal at 22 104
Rizal at 24 106
Rizal at 26 108
Rizal at 28, from a group picture 110
Rizal at 28, profile 114
Rizal Mausoleum, Luneta, Manila 118
Noli Me Tangere manuscript-cover design, by Rizal 120
El Filibusterismo manuscript-cover, lettered by Rizal 121
Portrait of Rizal at time of finishing El Filibusterismo 121
Los Baños house where El Filibusterismo was begun, drawn
by Rizal 121
Diploma of Merit awarded Rizal for allegory "The Council
of the Gods" 123
Silver pen prize won by Rizal for poem "To Philippine
Youth" 125
Alcohol lamp in which Rizal hid poem "My Last Thought" 125
CONTENTS
Handwritten quote: It is commonly said that the life of a
good writer is best read in his works.
--Autographic quotation from Rizal.
Page
Rizal's Song "Hymn to Labor" 2
Rizal's Song "Maria Clara's Lullaby" 3
My Boyhood 13
My First Reading Lesson 49
My Childhood Impressions 59
The Spanish Schools of My Boyhood 61
The Turkey that Caused the Kalamba Land Trouble 65
From Japan to England Across America 69
My Deportation to Dapitan 73
Advice to a Nephew 81
Filipino Proverbs 83
Filipino Puzzles 84
Rizal's "Don'ts" 85
Poem: Hymn to Labor 87
Memory Gems from Rizal's Writings 91
Mariang Makiling 93
NOT BY RIZAL
The Memory of Rizal 8
Rizal Chronology 101
A Reading List 119
Philippine National Hymn (by José Palma) 126
Song: Hail, Philippines (by H. C. Theobald) 128
RIZAL'S OWN STORY
MY BOYHOOD
José Rizal wrote the first three chapters in 1878. He was seventeen
years old at that time.
CHAPTER I
My Birth and Earliest Years in Kalamba
I was born on Wednesday, the nineteenth of June, 1861. It was a few
days before the full of the moon. I found myself in a village. I had
some slight notions of the morning sun and of my parents. That is as
much as I can recall of my baby days.
The training which I received from my earliest infancy is perhaps
what formed my habits. I can recall clearly my first gloomy nights,
passed on the azotea of our house. They seem as yesterday! They were
nights filled with the poetry of sadness and seem near now because
at present my days are so sad. On moonlight nights, I took my supper
on the azotea. My nurse, who was very fond of me, used to threaten
to leave me to a terrible but imaginary being like the bogey of the
Europeans if I did not eat.
I had nine sisters and a brother. Our father was a model parent. He
gave us the education which was suitable in a family neither rich
nor poor. He was thrifty. By careful saving, he was able to build
a stone house. He also bought another house; and he put up a nipa
cottage on our plot of irrigated ground. The cottage was shaded by
bananas and trees.
At nightfall, my mother had us all say our prayers together. Then
we would go to the azotea or to a window to enjoy the moonlight;
and my nurse would tell us stories. Sometimes sad and sometimes gay,
nurse's stories were always oriental in their imagination. In these
stories, dead people, gold, and plants on which diamonds grew were
all mixed together.
When I was four years of age, my little sister Concha died, and for
the first time I cried because of love and sorrow. Till then I had
shed tears only for my own faults, which my loving, prudent mother
well knew how to correct.
I learned to write in my own village. My father looked after my
education. He paid an old man, who had been his schoolmate, to teach
me the first steps in Latin. This teacher lived in our house till he
died, five months later. He had been in almost perfect health and it
was at the moment of death that he received extreme unction.
In June of 1868, I went to Manila with my father. That was just after
the birth of Trinidad, the third sister younger than myself. We went in
a casco which turned out to be a clumsy boat. I shall not try to tell
how happy I was at each new stop on the banks of the Pasig. Beside
this same river, a few years later, I was to be very sad. We went
to Cainta, Taytay, and Antipolo, and then to Manila. In Santa Ana I
visited my eldest sister, Saturnina, who at that time was a student
in La Concordia College. Then I returned to my village and remained
until 1870.