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Childhood in Calamba

Rizal was born on Wednesday, June 19, 1861. It was a few days before the full moon. His only memory of his years as a baby comprised of slight notions of the morning sun and of his parents. 

The training he received from his infancy very likely formed his habits. He recalls his first gloomy nights, passed on the azotea of their house. On moonlit nights, he took his supper on the azotea. His nurse, who was very fond of the young Jose, used to threaten to leave him to a terrible but imaginary being like the bogey of the Europeans if he did not eat his food. 


Jose Rizal had nine sisters and a brother. He had an excellent father who gave them the education they needed and who, at the same time, was thrifty. By careful saving, Rizal's father was able to build a stone house for his family as well as to put up a nipa cottage on their plot of irrigated ground. This cottage was shaded by bananas and trees.

At nightfall, Rizal's mother had him and his brother and sisters say all their prayers together. Then they would go to the azotea or to a window to enjoy the moonlight, and Jose's nurse would tell them stories. Sometimes sad and sometimes happy, these stories were always oriental in their imagination. 

When Rizal was four years old, his little sister Concha died and for the first time he cried because of love and deep sorrow. Until then, he had only shed tears for his own faults, which is loving, prudent mother well knew how to correct.

Rizal learned to write in his own village. His father paid an old schoolmate to teach Rizal the first steps in Latin. This teacher lived in their house until the day of his death five months later.

In June of 1868, Rizal went to Manila with his father. This was just after the birth of his sister Trinidad. They went in a casco which turned out to be a clumsy boat, regardless, the young Jose was extremely happy at each new stop on the banks of the Pasig. Beside this same river a few years later, he was to be full of sorrow. They went to Cainta, Taytay and Antipolo, and then to Manila.  In Santa Ana they visited his eldest sister, Saturnina, who at the time was a student in La Concordia College. Following this trip, Rizal returned to his village and remained there until 1870.

Salient Points:

  • Rizal's childhood was the happiest period of his life.
  • Calamba, the hero's hometown, belonged to the Dominican Order.
  • A few kilometers south of Calamba lies mount Makiling.
  • East of the town is Laguna de Bay.
  • Rizal was a student in the Ateneo de Manila in 1876 when he was 15 years old.
  • When he was fifteen, he wrote the poem entitled In Memory of My Town (Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo)
  • Rizal was sickly, underweight, undersized, and frail as a child.
  • He had his own nipa cottage where he played in the day, built by his father.
  • He had an aya (nurse maid) who has a kind old woman and who took care of him and his health.
  • He began birdwatching at the age of 3, observing the culiauan, the maya, the maria capra, the martin, and the pipit.
  • He recited the Angelus prayer daily.
  • Of all his sisters, Jose loved little Concepcion best.  She was only a year younger than him, and fell ill and died at the age of 3.
  • The death of his sister was Jose's first grief.
  • Jose and his father went on a pilgrimage to Antipolo on June 6, 1868 so that they could fulfill his mother's vow, which she made when Jose was born.  Teodora could not join them on this pilgrimage because she had given birth to Jose's sister Trinidad.
  • After the pilgrimage, Jose went with his father to Manila where they visited his sister Saturnina, who was then a boarding student at La Concordia College in Santa Ana.
  • On "The Story of the Moth," Rizal thought that the creature's death was justified because he believed that to sacrifice one's life for one's ideals is worthwhile.
  • He began sketching at the age of five.
  • At the age of eight, Jose wrote his first poem entitled Sa Aking Mga Kabata (To My Fellow Children).
  • When he was also eight years old, Rizal write his first dramatic work, which was a Tagalog comedy.  It was staged in a festival in Calamba, and was later sold to a gobernadorcillo from Paete for two pesos.
  • Jose was skilled in operating marionettes.
  • He used to meditate by Laguna de Bay with his pet dog, Usman.