National Hero of Philippines:

Jose Rizal

Main Life Accomplishments:

He was a Filipino polymath, nationalist and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is considered the Philippines' national hero and the anniversary of Rizal's death is commemorated as a Philippine holiday called Rizal Day. Rizal's 1896 military trial and execution made him a martyr of the Philippine Revolution.

 

Basics:

Born: June 19, 1861, Calamba, Laguna

Died: December 30, 1896 (aged 35), Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park), Manila, Philippines

Nationality: Filipino

Religion: Roman Catholic

Fields: Politics, Military

 

Main Accomplishments:· José Rizal's most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These writings angered both the Spaniards and the hispanicized Filipinos due to their insulting symbolism. They are highly critical of Spanish friars and the atrocities committed in the name of the Church. Rizal's first critic was Ferdinand Blumentritt, a Sudetan-German professor and historian whose first reaction was of misgiving. Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him however from writing the preface of El Filibusterismo after he had translated Noli me Tangere into German. Noli was published in Berlin (1887) and Fili in Ghent (1891) with funds borrowed largely from Rizal's friends. As Blumentritt had warned, these led to Rizal's prosecution as the inciter of revolution and eventually, to a military trial and execution. The intended consequence of teaching the natives where they stood brought about an adverse reaction, as the Philippine Revolution of 1896 took off virulently thereafter. As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed essays, allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona. The core of his writings centers on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines is battling, in Rizal's own words, "a double-faced Goliath"--corrupt friars and bad government.

 

 

Chronology of Life Events:

1848, June 28

Rizal’s parents married in Kalamba, La Laguna: Francisco Rizal-Mercado y Alejandra (born in Biñan, April 18, 1818) and Teodora Morales Alonso-Realonda y Quintos (born in Sta. Cruz, Manila, Nov. 14, 1827).

1861, June 19 

Rizal born, their seventh child.

1861, June 22 

Christened as José Protasio Rizal-Mercado y Alonso-Realonda

1870, age 9 

In school at Biñan under Master Justiniano Aquin Cruz.

1871, age 10

In Kalamba public school under Master Lucas Padua.

1872, June 10, age 11

Examined in San Juan de Letran college, Manila, which, during the Spanish time, as part of Sto. Tomás University, controlled entrance to all higher institutions.

1872, June 26 

Entered the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, then a public school, as a day scholar.

1875, June 14, age 14 

Became a boarder in the Ateneo.

1876, March 23, age 15

Received the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree, with highest honors, from Ateneo de Manila.

1876, June

Entered Sto. Tomás University in the Philosophy course.

1877, June, age 16. 

Matriculated in the medical course. Won Liceo Artistico-Literario prize, in poetical competition for “Indians and Mestizos”, with the poem “To the Philippine Youth”.

1877, Nov. 29 

Awarded diploma of honorable mention and merit by the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, Amigos del País, for the prize poem.

1880, April 23, age 19

Received Licco Artístico-Literario diploma of honorable mention for the allegory, “The Council of the Gods”, in competition open to “Spaniards, mestizos and Indians”. Unjustly deprived of the first prize.

1880, Dec. 8. 

Operetta “On the Banks of the Pasig” produced.

1881, age 20. 

Submitted winning wax model design for commemorative medal for the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country centennial.

Wounded in the back for not saluting a Guardia Civil lieutenant whom he had not seen. The authorities ignored his complaint.

1882, May 3, age 21

Secretly left Manila with the passport of a cousin, taking at Singapore a French mail steamer for Marseilles and entering Spain at Port Bou by railroad. His brother, Paciano Mercado, furnished the money.

 

1882, June.

Absence noted at Sto. Tomás University, which owned the Kalamba estate. Rizal’s father was compelled to prove that he had no knowledge of his son’s plan in order to hold the land on which he was the University’s tenant.

1882, June 15

Arrived in Barcelona.

1882, Nov. 3

Began studies in Madrid.

1885, June 19, age 24

Received degree of Licentiate in Medicine with honors from Central University of Madrid.

Clinical assistant to Dr. L. de Weckert, a Paris oculist.

Visited Universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Berlin.

1887, Feb. 21, age 26. 

Finished the novel Noli Me Tangere in Berlin.

Traveled in Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

1887, July 3

Sailed from Marseilles.

1887, Aug. 5

Arrived in Manila. Traveled in nearby provinces with a Spanish lieutenant, detailed by the Governor-General, as escort.

1888, Feb

Sailed for Japan via Hong Kong.

1888, Feb. 28 to April 13, age 27

A guest at the Spanish Legation, Tokyo, and traveling in Japan.

1888, April-May

Traveling in the United States.

1888, May 24

In London, studying in the British Museum to edit Morga’s 1609 Philippine History.

1889, March, age 28

In Paris, publishing Morga’s History. Published “The Philippines A Century Hence” in La Solidaridad, a Filipino fortnightly review, first of Barcelona and later of Madrid.

1890, February to July, age 29

 In Belgium and Holland, finishing El Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed), which is the sequel to Noli Me Tangere.

Published “The Indolence of the Filipino” in La Solidaridad.

1890, August 4

Returned to Madrid to confer with his countrymen on the Philippine situation, then constantly growing worse.

1891, January 27

Left Madrid for France.

1891, November, age 30

Arranging for a Filipino agricultural colony in British North Borneo.

Practiced medicine in Hong Kong.

1892, June 26, age 31

Returned to Manila under Governor-General Despujol’s safe conduct pass.

Organized a mutual aid economic society: La Liga Filipina.

1892, July 6

Ordered deported to Dapitan, but the decree and charges were kept secret from him.

Taught school and conducted a hospital during his exile, patients coming from China coast ports for treatment. Fees thus earned were used to beautify the town. Arranged a water system and had the plaza lighted.

1896, August 1, age 35

Left Dapitan en route to Spain as a volunteer surgeon for the Cuban yellow fever hospitals. Carried letters of recommendation from Governor-General Blanco.

1896, August 7 to September 3

On Spanish cruiser Castilla in Manila Bay.

Sailed for Spain on Spanish mail steamer and just after leaving Port Said was confined to his cabin as a prisoner on cabled order from Manila. (Rizal’s enemies to secure the appointment of a governor-general subservient to them, the servile Polavieja had purchased Governor-General Blanco’s promotion.)

1896, October 5

Placed in Montjuich Castle dungeon on his arrival in Barcelona and the same day re-embarked for Manila. Friends and countrymen in London by cable made an unsuccessful effort for a Habeas Corpus writ at Singapore. On arrival in Manila was placed in Fort Santiago dungeon.

1890, December 3

Charged with treason, sedition and forming illegal societies, the prosecution arguing that he was responsible for the deeds of those who read his writings.

1896, December 12

Wrote the poem “My Last Farewell” (later concealed in an alcohol cooking lamp) after appearing in a courtroom where the judges made no effort to check those who cried out for his death.

1896, December 15

Wrote an address to insurgent Filipinos to lay down their arms because their insurrection was at that time hopeless. Address not made public but added to the charges against him.

1896, December 26

Formally condemned to death by a Spanish court martial.

Pi y Margall, who had been president of the Spanish Republic, pleaded with the Prime Minister for Rizal’s life, but the Queen Regent could not forgive his having referred in one of his writings to the murder by, and suicide of, her relative, Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria.

1896, December 30, age 35 years, 6 months, 11 days

Married in Fort Santiago death cell to Josephine Bracken, Irish, the adopted daughter of a blind American who came to Dapitan from Hong Kong for treatment.

Shot on the Luneta, Manila, at 7:03 a.m., and buried in a secret grave in Paco Cemetery. (Entry of his death was made in the Paco Church Register among suicides.)

1887, January

Commemorated by Spanish Free-masons who dedicated a tablet to his memory, in their Grand Lodge hall in Madrid, as a martyr to Liberty.

1898, August

Filipinos who placed over it in Paco cemetery, a cross inscribed simply “December 30, 1896”, sought his grave, immediately after the American capture of Manila. Since his death his countrymen had never spoken his name, but all references had been to “The Dead”.

1898, December 20

President Aguinaldo, of the Philippine Revolutionary Government, proclaimed December 30th as a day of national mourning.

1898, December 30

 Filipinos held Memorial services at which time American soldiers on duty carried their arms reversed.

1911, June 19

Birth semi-centennial observed in all public schools by an act of the Philippine Legislature.

1912, December 30

Rizal’s ashes transferred to the Rizal Mausoleum on the Luneta with impressive public ceremonies.

 

 

Early Life:

 Rizal was a 6th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co (Chinese: 柯仪南; pinyin: Ke Yinan), a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines from Jinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century. Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley native of Luzon. To free his descendants from the anti-Chinese animosity of the Spanish authorities, Lam-co changed the family surname to the Spanish surname "Mercado" (market) to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. In 1849, Governor-General Narciso Claveria ordered all Filipino families to choose new surnames from a list of Spanish family names. José's father Francisco adopted the surname "Rizal" (originally Ricial, the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, "a friend of the family". However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name "Rizal Mercado" as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname "Mercado". Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, José dropped the last three names that make up his full name, at the advice of his brother, Paciano Rizal Mercado, and the Rizal Mercado family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, Rizal writes: "My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!" This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links with Filipino priests who were sentenced to death as subversives. From early childhood, José and Paciano were already advancing unheard-of political ideas of freedom and individual rights which infuriated the authorities. Despite the name change, Jose, as "Rizal" soon distinguishes himself in poetry writing contests, impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing essays that are critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his El Filibusterismo, this second surname had become so well known that, as he writes to another friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name..." José became the focal point by which the family became known, at least from the point of view of colonial authorities.

 

Aside from indigenous Filipino and Chinese ancestry, recent genealogical research has found that José had traces of Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. His maternal great-great-grandfather (Teodora's great-grandfather) was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers, who married a Filipina named Benigna (surname unknown). These two gave birth to Regina Ursua who married a Sangley mestizo from Pangasinán named Atty. Manuel de Quintos, Teodora's grandfather. Their daughter Brígida de Quintos married a Spanish mestizo named Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, the father of Teodora. Austin Craig mentions Lakandula, Rajah of Tondo at the time of the Spanish incursion, also as an ancestor

 

Rizal first studied under the tutelage of Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna. He was sent to Manila and enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1877 and graduated as one of the nine students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor's degree, and at the same time at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Philosophy and Letters where he studied Philosophy and Letters. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he decided to study medicine specializing in ophthalmology at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery but did not complete the program claiming discrimination made by the Spanish Dominican friars against the Filipino students.

Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Europe: Madrid in May 1882 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. In Berlin, he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the anthropological society on the orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He left Heidelberg a poem, "A las flores del Heidelberg," which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and the unification of common values between East and West.

At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal, completed in 1887 his eye specialization under the renowned Prof. Otto Becker. There he used the newly invented opthalmoscope (invented by the famous Professor Helmholtz) to later operate on his own mother's eye. From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: “I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, of the disease of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends.” He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhemsfeld, where he wrote the last few chapters of “Noli Me Tangere”

A plaque marks the Heidelberg building where he trained with Professor Becker, while in Wilhemsfeld, a smaller version of the Rizal Park with his bronze statue stands and the street where he lived was also renamed after him. A sandstone fountain in Pastor Ullmer’s house garden where Rizal lived in Wilhemsfeld, stands.

Rizal's multifacetedness was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Meyer, as "stupendous." Documented studies show him to be a polymath with the ability to master various skills and subjects. He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting. He was a Freemason

 

 

Wife Background:

Born of Irish parents, James Brown and Elizabeth MacBride, Josephine Leopoldine or Joserina as she was affectionately called by Filipinos, was born in Victoria City, Hong Kong on August 9, 1876. She took the family name Bracken from her adopted father, a Mr. Bracken.

On February 5, 1895, Josephine Bracken, accompanying George Edward Taufer, a 63-year old blind American widower and machinist from New York City, her foster father, and a 40-year old lady from Macau (Francesca Spencer) landed in Manila.

The trio stayted at No. 5 Ylaya Street in Tondo. Taufer's plan was to consult Jose Rizal, a well-known ophthalmologist, for an operation on his double cataracft. Julio Llorente, a Filipino resident of Hong Kong recommended Rizal as a specialist who could cure his eyes.

In the same month (February 1895), Josephine and her foster father went to Dapitan in Zamboanga to consult Rizal on his ailment. The following month on March 14, Josephine went back to Hong Kong returning to Dapitan with Mrs. Narcisa Rizal-Lopez, Rizal's eldest sister. This was on July 4 of the same year.

Josephine became Rizal's sweetheart at Dapitan.

 

Father Background:

 

He is the seventh child of Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandra II (1818-1898)

 

Mother Background:

His mother was Teodora Morales Alonso Realonda y Quintos (1827-1911)

 

 

 
 
SuperAttainer

ANALYSIS SECTION:

 
 
1. Early Success
 

When did the SuperAttainer first display ability that was greatly above average and what were his accomplishments? 
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
2. Contrarian

 
What actions did the SuperAttainer take that demonstrated a mindset that was very different from those around him?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
3. Conceited
 
What are the actions and documented statements that exhibit an elevated sense of self importance of the SuperAttainer? 
 
REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
4. Hard-Knocked 
 
During what events did the SuperAttainer experience personal misery and severe anxiety?
  

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
5. Loner
 
Is there evidence of the SuperAttainer being comfortable spending time apart from others? 
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
6. Mentored & Motivated
 
Who was vital to developing the SuperAttainer and guiding his career and what significant actions were taken?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
7. Discontent
 
What evidence is there that the SuperAttainer was unsatisfied with even great personal accomplishment?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

  
 
8. Promoted
 
What actions or events were responsible for publicizing the tremendous achievements and abilities of the SuperAttainer?
 

REFERENCES:

1.

Overall Score:

x out of 8 = xx% 

PASS

SuperAttainer Type:

Describe the factors in the SuperAttainer’s background to indicate whether he is a Come-From-Nothing or Aristocratic type..

Conclusion:

Executive Search & Management Consulting:

Chalre Associates provides its Executive Search & Management Consulting services throughout the emerging countries of the Asia Pacific region with specific focus on Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.  Regional Managers use us to help bridge the gap between local environments and the world-class requirements of multinational corporations.