ON June 19, 1861, at Calamba, Laguna a baby boy was born. He was named as Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. He was commonly known as Jose Rizal. He was a patriot, physician, and a man of letters whose life and literary works were an inspiration to the Philippine Nationalist Movement in fighting against our Spanish colonizers. This year, it is Rizal’s 161st birthday.
Jose Rizal (1861-1896) is one of the most revered figures in Philippine history. He was a multifaceted intellectual and a political activist, best known for his political writings that inspired the Philippine revolution and ultimately led to his execution by the Spanish colonizers. Rizal was also a physician who was trained in ophthalmology under two prominent European ophthalmologists, namely Louis de Wecker and Otto Becker ( Jose Rizal: Philippine National Hero and Ophthalmologist retrieved from Error! Hyperlink reference not valid., June 5, 2022 ).
Rizal was born into a prominent Filipino family. Jose was the seventh of eleven children. His parents were Francisco Mercado and Teodoro Alonso Realonda. He was taught first by his mother, and later by private tutors. The young Rizal grew up in an intellectually stimulating atmosphere. His brother and sisters were all well-educated and his family’s private library, of more than 1000 volumes, was quite possibly the largest in the Philippines at that time. Rizal was an extremely gifted student, especially in the humanities. He won literary competitions from a young age. He had an extraordinary capacity for language; ultimately, he spoke 22 languages and dialects. His professor of Greek in Spain said that he never encountered a student who excelled like Rizal. Additionally, he studied drawing, painting and sculpture, throughout his life; he even exhibited a bust at the Salon de Paris in 1889 (Jose Rizal: Philippine National Hero and Ophthalmologist retrieved from www.jamanetwork.com, June 5, 2022).
Historians cannot deny that Rizal played a major part in the country’s struggle for reforms and independence. His writings, particularly the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were viewed as the guiding force for other patriots to rally for the country’s cause (Jose Rizal and the Revolution by Chris Antonette Piedad-Pugay, posted in National Historical Commission of the Philippines website, September 18, 2012).
Rizal had helped the Filipinos for us to gain independence from the foreign invaders like the Spanish colonizers. He was fighting the colonizers silently through his literary works, especially his two prominent novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Rizal showed his love and passion for the Filipinos and the Philippines through his literary works. He did not also like that our country will be under the power and influence of the colonizers. He also wanted that our country to have its independence from other countries around the world. He loved the Filipinos and our country, the Philippines.
We, Filipinos must not only remember Rizal’s execution and death every December 30 of every year. Let us also remember him every June 19 which is his birthday. We can offer flowers to his monument and offer him prayers. We can conduct a simple program to give proper importance to all of his contributions to our country. We can do some activities on June 19 to remember Rizal’s birthday. We can also teach our youngsters about Rizal for them not to forget Rizal who is our national hero. We should inject to our youths about Jose Rizal and everything regarding our history. It is simply because those things are very important. All of us can learn from our history or our past and those learnings of ours can also be used by us in facing the future. Let us remember that we can learn from our past. Let us all remember that today, June 19, 2022, is the 161st birthday of our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Remembering Rizal on his 161st birthday today.
