My Overused Sketchpad

harapirena:

 ❝ I die without seeing dawn’s light shining on my country … You, who will see it, welcome it for me … don’t forget those who fell during the nighttime ❞

——– Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal

José Rizal was born on 19 June 1861 in Calamba, Laguna, Spanish Philippines. Educated at the best schools & universities in Manila (including University of Santo Tómas or UST where he originally studied law before switching to medicine) & in Europe, Rizal eventually left the Philippines at the age of twenty one to study medicine & humanities in the University of Madrid. There, the polyglot earned a degree in medicine, specializing in ophthalmology. 

While he was in Spain, Rizal also worked with Philippine exiles. Together, they organized & developed groups which called for reforms of Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines. He did not advocate for complete independence, however, his writings served as fuel for the fight for independence from Spain. He did, however, advocate for the Philippines to be made a province of Spain, have representation in the Cortes & to have freedom of speech & assembly. He also advocated for Filipino priests over Spanish friars. He also called for equal rights before the law for both the Filipino & Spanish. 

From 1882 to 1887, he wrote Noli Me Tángere. The book was published in Berlin at his own expense. The book condemned & exposed the abuses of the Catholic Church in the Philippines & the ruling government. His second novel El filibusterismo, was published in 1891 in Ghent & is the sequel to Noli Me Tángere. Both of these novels (along with many of his other writings) were written in Spanish which was the lingua franca in Spanish Philippines. These writings became fuel for the Philippine revolutionary movement.

After Noli Me Tángere was published, Rizal found himself suspected of treason & followed by the police when he returned to the Philippines. When he returned again to his homeland in 1892, he formed the La Liga Filipina which advocated for peaceful social reforms through legal means. 

He was eventually branded an enemy of the state by Spanish authorities & was deported to Dapitan in Zamboanga, Mindanao. There, he continued to practice medicine, taught students, collected flora & fauna, & wrote. 

By 1896, anticolonial hostilities exploded, fueled by the Katipunan, a secret militant society. 

Rizal (who had volunteered to serve as a doctor in Cuba) was arrested en-route to Cuba via Spain. He was imprisoned in Barcelona on 6 October 1896 before he was sent back to Manila. He was imprisoned in Fort Santiago where he wrote a manifesto condemning & disavowing the violent movement. In it, he declared that education for the Filipino people & achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom. 

Rizal was convicted on all three charges of rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy by a court-martial. Queen-Regent Maria Cristina of Spain was pressured by the Spanish Catholic friars, lead by Bernardino Nozaleda who was Archbishop of Manila, to replace Governor-General Ramón Blanco (who was sympathetic to Rizal & forced out of office) with Camilo de Polavieja. This sealed Rizal’s fate.

On 30 December 1896, José Rizal was executed by firing squad comprised of Filipino soldiers in the Spanish army with a backup force ready to shoot if the Filipino soldiers did not. 

His last words were the same ones spoken by Jesus Christ: consummatum est (It is finished).