The Humanism of Rizal

Humanism is defined as:

“any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests,
values, and dignity predominate”

Three basic concerns of Humanism:

- Human Interests
- Values
- Dignity
 The Pursuit of Humanism
A. Development of “Whole Person” (Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers)
B. Components of “Whole Person”
- Intelligence
- Emotion
- Social Capacities
- Artistic and practical skills
C. Study of “Humanities”
- Grammar, Rhetoric, History, Literature, and Moral Philosophy
Characteristics of a Humanist
A. Cultured
B. Pacified Attitude
C. A Lover of Language
D. A Lover of Nature
Stages of Rizal’s Development of Humanism

A. Calamba to Biñan
B. Biñan to Intramuros
C. Intramuros to Europe
D. Europe to Dapitan
E. Dapitan to Death
Calamba to Biñan
A. Ancestry and Birth of Rizal
B. First formal education from Doña Teodora
C. Artistic talents in Sculpture and Sketching
D. Education in Biñan
Biñan to Intramuros
A. Rizal in Ateneo 1872 - 1877 (Bachiller En Artes)
- An Externo in Ateneo
- Discipline, Character Building, and Religion
- The class in Ateneo was divided into two
- In the beginning, Rizal had educational struggle in Ateneo
- Fr. Francisco Paula de Sanchez was Rizal’s guide in his study and writing of poetry
“ Un Recuerdo a Mi Pueblo”
“ Alianza Intima Entra la Religion y la Buena Educacion”
- A member of the Academy of Spanish Literature and Academy of Natural
Sciences
B. Rizal in UST 1877 – 1882 (Medicine)
- He took a vocational course in Ateneo (1877 – 1888)
- Classes in UST for a day last for three hours and students are not required to attend
morning mass
- Rizal continued his poetry writing
-A la Juventud Filipina (1st prize winner at the Liceo Literario de Manila, 1880)
-El Consejo de los Dioses (Grand prize winner at the Liceo-Artistico Literario, 1880)
- “Racial discrimination in UST and below
standard education”
Reasons why there is no discrimination in UST
• Rizal was granted to take up Curso de Ampliacion while in his First year
of Medicine in UST
• In terms of scholastic performance, it is inappropriate to compare
Rizal’s Ateneo grades and that of UST
• In Rizal’s batch, there were 24 students (six insulares), but only seven
(one insular) managed to reach the fourth year with Rizal being ranked
second in class
Reasons why education in UST was not below standard
• The Faculty of Medicine was established only in 1871
• In 1883, the UST Museum had a collection of 5,747 biological and
physical specimens
• The Library had 12,000 books in its shelves. Physical laboratory had 300
instruments and had latest inventions of Gramme’s Electrodynamic
machine, Morin’s machine for measuring gravity, Faraday’s
electromagnet, Cooke’s radiometer, phonographs and telephone; a
depository of Cadavers
• The best evidence of the excellent quality of education in UST during
the 19th century was its graduates who made names for themselves:
- M.H. Del Pilar, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Jacinto, Numeriano
Adriano, Nicanor Padilla
Reasons why Rizal did not perform well in UST
• University culture is different with that of the Ateneo
• At that time, Rizal was not so inclined in the Sciences but
Humanities
• Medicine is a difficult course
• Distractions from his extracurricular activities
- Still active in the Academias of Ateneo
- A member of El Compañerismo
- He fell in love: Segunda Katigbak, Miss L, Leonor Valenzuela
(Orang), Leonor Rivera (Taimis) and Vicenta Ybardaloza
The Tree where the teenage Rizal fasten his horse whenever he visits Segunda
The visit of former US President William H. Taft and Commodore Dewey
in the House of Segunda Katigbak
 Intramuros to Europe
A. Decision to go to Europe
To some biographers:
- it is because of the discrimination and bigotry in UST
- his family was persecuted and he was on the blacklist of the government
The more factual reasons:
- his family had the means to send him abroad
- Rizal aims to obtain more valuable knowledge since Europe at that time
flourishes in Science and Education
- it follows the tradition of Spanish Philippines
- to work for reforms in the Philippines through propaganda work
B. A student of Universidad Central de Madrid
- Medicine (1884) and Philosophy and Letters (1885)
- Private lessons in Painting, Sculpture, and Languages (French, German, and English) at
the Academy of San Carlos
C. Further study in Medicine
- specializes in Ophthalmology by working as an assistant of: Dr. Louis Weckert in France
(1885-1886), Dr. Javier Galezowsky and Dr. Otto Becker in Heidelberg Germany (1886), Dr.
R. Schulzer and Dr. Schwigger in 1887.
- Rizal became the first Asian eye doctor, and in Calamba when he came back in 1887, he
was called Dr. Uliman
D. The Reformist in Europe
• Circulo-Hispano Filipino – a social conglomeration of both Filipino and Spanish liberals
• Freemasonry (1883)
– against religious superstition and obscurantism and government despotism
- he joined through Lodge Acacia in Madrid with a Masonic name Dimasalang
- he became a master mason at the Lodge Solidaridad in 1890 and a master mason
of Le Grand Orient in Paris in 1892
• Rizal’s Brindis speech to Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo – first public speech
• Annotation of Sucecos de las Islas Filipinas written by Dr. Antonio de Morga
• A contributor in the newspaper La Solidaridad
- Sobre La Indolencia de Los Filipinos
- Filipinas Dentro de Cien Años
• A contributor in Diariong Tagalog
- Amor Patrio
• The novelist
- Noli Me Tangere
- El Filibusterismo
• The Sculptor
- The Triumph of Death over Life
- The Triumph of Science over Death
• The poet
- A Las Flores de Heidelberg
- Me Piden Versos
 E. The Lover
1. Consuelo Ortiga y Rey

- Every Saturday Rizal visits the house of a Spanish liberal Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey

- Rizal did not allow their romance to

prosper because he still engaged to
Leonor Rivera (A la Señorita C.O. y R)
 2. Usui Seiko (O Sei San)
- a daughter of a former Samurai and a cultured woman who
worked at Spanish consulate

“. . . O-Sei-san, sayonara, goodbye! I have spent a

lovely golden month; I do not know if I will have
another one like it in all my life. Love, money,
friendship, esteem, privileges… no woman like you
has ever loved me..no woman has made such
sacrifices as you have…you shall never know what
I still think of you, and that your image lives on in
my memory..when shall I return to spend another
divine afternoon like that in the temple of
Meguro?..when will the sweet hours I  spent with
you come back?…everything is at an end!
Sayonara, goodbye!
3. Gertrude Beckett
- the eldest daughter of Rizal’s landlord when he stayed in London
 4. Nelly Boustead
- a daughter of a Peninsular Spaniard who owned a business in
Manila
 5. Suzanne Jacoby
- the Belgian niece of Rizal’s landlady when he stayed in Belgium for six
months
“After your departure, I did not take
the chocolate. The box is still intact
as on the day of your parting. Don’t
delay too long writing us because I
wear out the soles of my shoes for
running to the mailbox to see if there
is a letter from you. There will never
be any home in which you are so
loved as in that in Brussels, so, you
little bad boy, hurry up and come
back…”
“Where are you now? Do you think of me once in a
while? I am reminded of our tender conversations,
reading your letter, although it is cold and indifferent.
Here in your letter I have something which makes up
for your absence. How pleased I would be to follow
you, to travel with you who are always in my thoughts.
You wish me all kinds of luck, but forget that in the
absence of a beloved one a tender heart cannot feel
happy.
A thousand things serve to distract your mind, my
friend; but in my case, I am sad, lonely, always alone
with my thoughts – nothing, absolutely nothing
relieves my sorrow. Are you coming back? That’s what
I want and desire most ardently – you cannot refuse
me.
I do not despair and I limit myself to murmuring
against time which runs so fast when it carries us
toward a separation but goes so slowly when it’s
bringing us together again.
I feel very unhappy thinking that perhaps I might
never see you again.
Goodbye! You know with one word you can make me
very happy. Aren’t you going to write to me?
F. Decision to leave Europe (1891)
Reasons:
- to make himself near to the Philippines
- to distance himself from his former colleagues in Europe
- to continue his propaganda work in Hong Kong
In Hong Kong (1891- 1892)
• He rejoined with his family again
• He set up two clinics and was successful
• He made a translation of “Rights of Man” written by Jean
Jacques Rousseau
• He made a constitution of La Liga Filipina
• He planned on settlement with his fellow from Calamba in
Sandakan, North Borneo in Malaysia
 Europe to Dapitan (1892 – 1896)
A. The founding of the La Liga Filipina on July 3, 1892 at the house
of Doroteo Ongjunco at Ilaya St. Tondo, Manila
B. On July 15, 1892 Rizal was exiled in Dapitan

In Dapitan:
1. Rizal described it as “… a district that lacks everything…”
2. Rizal as an agent of change in Dapitan:
“I am going to tell you how we live here. I have a square house, another
“My life passes hexagonal, another octagonal – all made of bamboo, wood, and nipa. In the square
peacefully and one my mother, my sister Trinidad, a nephew, and I live. In the octagonal my boys
monotously! To kill time live – some boys whom I teach arithmetic, Spanish, and English - and now and
and to be able to help a then a patient who has been operated on. In the hexagonal are my chickens. From
little the inhabitants of my house I hear the murmur of a crystalline rivulet that comes from the high
this place, I have rocks. I see the beach. The sea where I have two small crafts – two canoes or
barotos, as they call them here. I have many fruit trees – mangoes, lanzone,
become a merchant.”
guayabanos, baluno, nanka, etc. I have rabbits, dogs, cats, etc. I get up early - at
Rizal to his Family 5:00. I visit my fields, I feed the chickens, I wake up my folks, start them
moving. At 7:30 we take breakfast – tea, pastry, cheese, sweets, etc. Afterwards
I treat my poor patients who come to my land. I dress and go to the town in my
baroto, I treat the people there and I return at 12:00 and take lunch.
Afterwards I teach the boys until 4:00 and I spend the afternoon farming. I
spend the evening reading and studying”
Rizal to F. Blumentritt
“I have established a “With respect to what Abelardo may “Tell Silvestre that I do not see the
commercial company here. I have, you can be right, so that indication of pilocarpine, for I cannot
have taught the poor Mindanao hydrotherapy is not contraindicated. examine his vision from here. But if
folk to unite for trading so that It would not be bad in my opinion to his sickness arises from paludism, I
they may become independent give him something of strychnine, but advise him to take arsenic, beginning
and free themselves from the one must know how to administer it” with ten drops daily of Fowler’s
Chinese and thus be less arsenical liquor and increasing by two
exploited…. Fortunately the every day until 30 drops.”
company is prospering; and the
poor Dapitan folk are becoming
“The medicine for ringworm (tinea
active and satisfied.” Rizal to F.
flaba) is Pomada antihereptica to be
Blumentritt
applied after washing the skin with
soap and water” “Concerning your toothache may be you
have been given a medicine containing
mercury. You can tell this if your mouth
“I have very many patients who come waters. Buy lozenge of chlorate of
from different towns and now I have potash you gargle with the water of
my lands dotted with little hospital- boiled areca nut.”
houses”

“Here I have become half physician, half businessman” Rizal to F.

Blumentritt
“…but I am very sorry to see so many twisted things and not to be able to remedy,
for there is no money or means to buy instruments and medicine. Here a man fell
from a coconut tree and perhaps I could have saved him if I had instruments and
chloroform on hand. I perform operations with the little that I have. I treat lameless
and hernias with reeds and canes. I do the funniest cures with the means available.”
Rizal to Jose Ma. Basa

I have also my own collection of seashells of more than 200 species,

already classified and arranged. Do you want it? How much would they
give me for it? They are all shells of the district of Dapitan.” Rizal to
A.B. Meyer

Draco rizali (a flying dragon), Apogonia Rizali (a small beetle), and

Rhacophorus Rizali (a rare frog)
“I try to write to you in various “The French, English, Dutch, and
languages because here I speak German linguists are very much
with no one in these tongues and interested in you. They are
I am forgetting them. Thanks to asking me how you are there, how
they treat you, and if they
our friend A. B. Meyer I have
accord you the distinction that a
German books. man of so much talent and
Rizal to F. Blumentritt reputation in the learned world
of Europe deserves.”
F. Blumentritt to Rizal
 3. Last touch of European love
- He met the 18 year old Josephine Bracken
when Josephine arrived in Dapitan
accompanying her
blind step father Mr. George Taufer
- Mr. Taufer was against the relationship of
the two
saying Rizal will take away the only “eyes” he
had
- Rizal’s family was against as well in their
relationship, because of Josephine’s
suspicious background
- Fr. Obach refused to marry them unless
Rizal retracts from Masonry
- They did not live happily ever after…..
4. A visit of Dr. Pio Valenzuela
- In June 1896, the KKK through Dr. Valenzuela asked Rizal’s blessing
on the planned revolution against Spain likewise to help him
escape.
- Rizal rejected both the idea of Revolution, telling that “it was
futile and nonsense”, and to help him escape
5. Rizal leaves Dapitan
- after 7 months, Rizal received a letter s
from Governor General Ramon
Blanco to be a volunteer who will serve the Spanish medical corps in Cuba
- on July 31, 1896 Rizal left Dapitan; he burned down his house, sold off his
properties and gave a piece of land to his trusted workers
- as Rizal was about to leave that night of July 31, the Dapitan folks wept for
they considered Rizal as a cherished neighbor and a good friend. They send
off a band for Rizal playing a funeral piece while the ship sailed away
 Dapitan to Death
A. Rizal had his chance to escape:
- First in Dapitan on June 16, 1896
- Second, while in the Spanish cruiser Castilla (August 6 to September 2, 1896), the
KKK through Emilio Jacinto, tried to convince him to escape
B. On November 3, 1896, Rizal was imprisoned in Fort Santiago
C. On December 15, 1896, Rizal issued a manifesto condemning the Philippine Revolution
and the KKK for using his name without permission
D. On December 30, 1896, Rizal was executed in Bagumbayan
In fields of battle, deliriously fighting, Ang nanga sa digmaan dumog sa
Others give you their lives, without doubt, paglaban
without regret;
handog din sa iyo ang kanilang buhay,
The place matters not: where there’s
hirap ay di pansin at di gunamgunam
cypress, laurel or lily,
ang pagkaparool o pagtagumpay.
On a plank or open field, in combat or
cruel martyrdom,
Bibitaye’t madlang mabangis na sakit
It’s all the same if the home or country
asks. o pakikibakang lubhang mapanganib,
pawang titiisin kung ito ang nais
ng bayang' tahanang pinakaiibig.