Jose Rizal

Jose Rizal, born on June 19, 1861, was a man of many talents and intelligence—he could speak over ten languages, paint, sculpt, and write. He is considered the patriotic hero to the Filipino people during the Spanish colonial period, and played a key role in informing the Filipino people of social reform and inspired them to fight against Spanish rule through non violent means.
Perhaps one of the many things worth mentioning about Rizal, aside from his notorious reputation with having affairs with women, is his strenuous and dedicated path in building his education. Rizal began his education career at the Ateneo Municipla de Manila and was one of nine students to graduate his class with the honorary title of sobresaliente or “outstanding” student and earning his Bachelors of Art degree. He continued his journey at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters where he was focused on Philosophy, but upon hearing the bad news about his mother’s failing eye condition, switched to the Medicine and Surgery school to focus on ophthalmology in order to find ways to aid her. He was unable to finish his degree in Medicine however, due to the discrimination that he claimed was placed upon him by the Spanish Dominican friars that held authority at the school. Rizal decided to depart the Philippines, without the consent of his parents, and study abroad in Madrid where he would earn two degrees in Medicine: one at the University Central de Madrid and one at the University of Paris. He would receive and achieve more success in his academic career throughout his life, such as being inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological and Anthropological Societies, but it was not until Rizal began his first influential novel titled Noli Me Tangere that he was considered an important figure of social reform and a threat to the Spanish authority.
Noli Me Tangere and the sequel novel El Filibusterismo became defining masterpieces in Rizal’s career that sparked much controversy due to the light that it shined on issues of social unjust that existed in the Philippines. With the novel’s many insulting symbolism directed at Spanish colonial authority and the governing friars, Spaniards and the Filipinos that supported them were extremely angered and wanted Rizal prosecuted. Unfazed by the criticism and threats he received, Rizal preceded with educating the general Filipino public through writing essays, editorials, poems, allegories for newspapers such as La Solidaridad where he echoed the ideas of freedom and equal rights for the Filipino people. Rizal would later be affiliated with a civic movement called La Liga Filipina which advocated for social reforms using legal means and not violence. However, this movement was short lived and suppressed by the government. As the Filipino Revolution began to build momentum, Rizal was exiled to Dapitan for four years. During this time, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death due to his affiliations with the secret militant group named Katipunan that were active in the rebellion against Spanish colonial rule. From his earliest days of being a social reformist, to his last breaths before his execution, Jose Rizal remained calm, collected, and true to his ideals of a non-violent and peaceful reform. Jose Rizal, like Martin Luther King Jr., projects the ideals that equality and justice can be achieved through intelligent words instead of acts of violence or war.