The poem was traditionally believed to be Jose Rizal's (the Philippine national hero) first written Tagalog poem at the age of eight and was said to have been published posthumously many years after Rizal’s death. However, recent investigations cast serious doubts concerning the assumed au...
MANILA, Philippines - Born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Laguna, Jose Protacio Rizal y Alonzo Realonda, was the seventh child in a family of 11 children (2 boys and 9 girls) of Francisco Mercado Rizal, an industrious farmer, and Teodora Alonzo y Quintos, a highly accomplished and ...
…in Rizal’s discourse, assimilation does not mean Hispanization; it simply refers to a non-violent, legal, gradual process that would lead eventually to independence.” In short, to be Hispanized is the logical first step so that Spain would eventually peacefully let go of the Philippine na...
Rizal lived in Europe for 10 years and picked up a number of languages. He could converse in more than 10 different tongues. While in Europe, the young Filipino impressed everyone he met with his charm, intelligence, and mastery of a range of different fields of study. Rizal excelled at ...
Governor-General Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been kicked out of office. Execution and Death Rizal’s last words were those of Jesus Christ, “consummatum est” meaning“it is finished” before his execution on December 30, 1896. His poem “Mi Ultimo Adios” was assumed to ...
Yet, it is also true that Rizal’s Madrid could have been different from ours. He was first of all an intelligent man, a scholar and a student, a man of varied interests that went beyond those possessed by many of us. Even during his time, his contemporaries thought Rizal to be very...
Mariano Ponce was the one who gave the title “Mi Ultimo Pensamiento”(My Last Thought) to the last and most celebrated, but originally untitled, poem of his dear friend Jose Rizal. Today though,the poem is conventionally referred to as “Mi Ultimo Adios” (My Last Farewell). Graciano Lop...