GREAT LIVES

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Sylvia Mendez Ventura

Tahanan Books for Young Readers

Manila

C.r!r portraii bl, Yasnrin Alm.rnte

of lhc plctures irl this book.lre coLrrtrs!
Libr.rr):
(,1 the
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.orrrles! of the A-yala NIusum Lib.arl .ind l.onograPhic Archnrs.
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br Taharlan Books ior You)13 Rcaders

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All rights res.r\1'.1
The

\ntlonal Library ol th PhiliPPilr.s C.rtaloging jn l!bli.ation t)nta

Reconrnrcrlded entry:

\rentura, Sylvia, \lendez

losi Rizal/ SYlvja \,lendez
Vcntur.l Nink.lti, Nletro M.rnila
Tairanan Books for Yo'rnE Readers,
cI'192. 32 p.-(Gre.i livs)
1. Rizal,v -{1onso, Jos6.
2.

Hcroes-Ph ippine.-BiograPhI I. Tiile

DS675.8R5 1992 920 P922000397

ISIIN 971 630 000-X (pbk.)

Book design and tt poBraPh]: tt'ln1aBeSetters

Prinied in the Phillppines by St Faustina Press

911

13

l5

11 12

10

ne morning a teacher took his pupils out to sea in

a small sailboat. The boat had a tiny hole plugged with
a piece of wood. When they were nearing the deep part
of the sea, the teacher unplugged the hole. The boat

began to sink.
The teacher shouted, "Mariners! Swim for your lives!
Look out for sharksl"
The boys jumped into the water and raced to shore.
This was the way their teacher taught them not only to

swim but to think fast.

The teacher was Dr. Jos6 Rizal, the man we all know
as the national hero of the Philippines.
Jos6 Protacio Rizal Mercado was born in the small
town of Calamba, Laguna, on June 19, 1861. He had nine
sisters and one brother. Their parents, Francisco Mercado
and Teodora Alonso, owned the first stone house in Calamba.

I
IU

tuzal's house in Calarnba, Laguna

They also olr,ned a flour mill, a drugstore, and a store

which sold a Iot of goods on market day. They had about
a thousand books in their library.
Jos6 $,as the seventh child in the family. He was born
tinv they say his head was too big for his body-but he
grew up like any normal boy. He loved the birds and
fruit trees in the family garden. He went fishing in the
river and rode around Calamba on horseback. He exercised to build a strong body.
But Jos6 was different in some ways from other children his age. He learned the ABC at the age of two and
could read his sister's picture book by the time he was
three. His mother, a well-educated woman, was his first

teacher. She read him stories in Spanish and tauSht him

how to write poems in Tagalog.
Jos6 was only four when he began to mold figures
out of wax and clay. At the age of five he could draw
pictures of people and animals. He colored them with
the juice of fruits and vegetables. For the color black he
used the soot from a cooking pot.
When he was six, he was asked to draw the picture
of a saint for the arch to be used at a fiesta. After that
he made masks for every town fiesta. Instead of being
paid money for them, he asked only for firecrackers.
When he was eight years old, he wrote a Tagalog
poem for children. Its title was "Sa Aking Kabahata." The
poem was about the need to love one's native tongue.
One night Jos6's mother saw him watching moths as
they flew around an oil lamp. She then told him the story
of a young moth who loved to fly near the flame of a
lamp. The moth's mother told him not to go too near the
flame, but the moth did not obey her. His wings were
burned and he died.
Jos6 understood why the moth flew near the beautiful
flame. Like the moth, Jos6 wanted to be near the light, even
if it could mean death. To him the light was the truth.
Early in Iife Jos6 learned the truth about his native
Iand. At that time the Philippines was not a free country.
It was owned by Spain and was ruled by a Spanish governorgeneral. The natives were calTed indios. They were not
treated as equals of the Spaniards.
The town of Calamba was part of an hacienda, a large
farm, planted to sugar and other crops. The hacienda

was owned by a Spanish religious society called the Dominican Order. The farmers rented land from the Dominican priests, better known as friars. In those days the
friars in the Philippines were very powerful. They behaved like rulers of the country.
Another powerful grouP was the guardia clol/. These
soldiers helped the friars rule the indios. If a native
failed to salute a soldier, the soldier would whip him.
Rizal was once u,hipped by a guardia civil because he did
not see the man's uniform in the dark.
No wonder that many years later, Rizal wrote: "The
Philippines is not Spain; she only belongs to Spain. The
happiness ofSpain is not the happiness of the Philippines...."
During Jos6's childhood, most Filipinos did not know
of any other country excePt Spain. They did not know
that the laws in the Philippines were unjust. Jos6's mother,
Dofla Teodora, suffered from this cruel system. She was
accused of trying to poison her cousin's wife, It was a big
1ie. But Dofla Teodora spent two-and-a-half years in jail.
Another event that brought sorrow to the Mercado
family was the Cavite Mutiny of 1872. On January 20 of
that year, two hundred Filipino soldiers in Cavite attacked and killed some Spanish officers. The revolt u'as easily
stopped but someone had to be blamed for it. Among those
blamed were three Filipino Priests-Fathers Jos6 Burgos,
Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora. They had done no
wrong, but they were put to death in Bagumbayan Field.
Father Burgos had been a teacher and close friend of
Jos6's brother Paciano. Jos6 had often heard Paciano and
Father Burgos talk about the need for reforms in their
country.

A painting of young Rizal

q,hg

to stop his mother frombeing arrested

When Jos6 was eleven years old, he enrolled at the

Ateneo, a school run by Jesuit priests in Manila. Paciano
told him to use the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the Mercados had been friends of Father Burgos.
Paciano did not want his brother to get into trouble with
the government.
Since Jos6 had enrolled Iate and was short for his age,
he was put at the tail-end of his c1ass. After a month,
however, he was at the head of the class. Everybody
called him "emperor." He vl'on the most medals and was
graded excellent in all subjects. His Jesuit teachers were
very fond of him.
After finishing with highest honors at the Ateneo,
Rizal enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas. He

los6 in his Atenco uniform

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studied medicine although he liked art and poetry

better. His grades at the university were not as high as
those he had gotten at the Ateneo. However, he believed
he could best serve his people as a doctor. Besides, his
mother was going blind, and he wanted to help her.
At about this time Rizal fell in love with Leonor Rivera.
She was a student at La Concordia College, where his
sisters were enrolled. Leonor also fell deeply in love
with him and promised to marry him in the future. She
became the model for Maria Clara in his novel Noll Me
Tdn&ere.

At the age of 18, Rizal won a special prize in a poetry-writing contest for his poem in Spanish, "To the
Filipino Youth." Here he wrote that young Filipinos were
the "fair hope" of their "motherland." It was the first
time anyone had called the Philippines the motherland
of the Filipino people.
Rizal also won first prize for his play Tle Council of
the Gods. When the judges learned that the writer was
an indio, they took the prize from him and gave it to the
second-prize winner, a Spaniard. Rizal was given the
second prize instead.
However, he never lost his love for writing. In 18E0
he wrote a play, Beside the Pasig, in honor of the Blessed
Virgin. It was set to music and staged at the Ateneo
thea te r.

When he was 21, Rizal told his brother he wanted to

finish his medical studies in Spain. Paciano gave him 356
pesos so he could take the trip.
Rizal sailed from Manila on May 3, 1882, and arrived
in Europe more than a month later. During the trip he
10

diary about the countries he visited and the PeoPle

he met. Wherever he went, he was well-liked because he
was good-looking, friendly, and polite. It u'as a pleasure
to listen to him. Young ladies found him attractive.
Rizal stayed in Barcelona, Spain, for a few months,
and then moved to Madrid. He liked Madrid because it
was gay and colorful. But he was disappointed in the
Iazy Filipino students there. They did not speak up for
their homeland. In Spain, people were free to say u'hat
they wanted, even if it was against the government.
Rizal continued his medical course at the Universidad
Central de Madrid. He also took lessons in German,
English, art, and fencing. His brother sent him fifty pesos
a month. It took forty-five days for the money to reach
Spain from Manila.
Since Rizal had such a small allowance, he ate littleOnce he became very ill because he starved himself. When
he had no money for streetcar fare, he walked until his
feet were swollen. He mended his torn clothing and
seldom bathed during winter. A bath in Madrid cost
thirty-five centavos! He preferred to spend his money on
wrote

books.
June 25, 1884, brought good and bad news for Rizal.
The good news was that he had r'r'on first prize in a Greek
contest at the university. The bad news he rt'rote in his
diary: "After the contest I was hungry, but I had nothing
to eat, and no money."
But there was other good news-and a good mealto cheer him up. Two Filipinos, Juan Luna and Felix R.
Hidalgo, had won the top prizes in a big art contest in
Madrid. The Filipinos in the city gave a dinner for the
11

A page from a letter Rizal wrote in German

Rizal fences wiih his good ftiend Iuan Luna

fl.fil in

the painter's garden in Paris

artists. They asked Rizal to make a speech. In the speech

he praised the Filipino people. He said that Filipinos
\\,ere just as good as Spaniards. He asked Spain to make
the Philippines a better place to Iive in.
There was loud clapping after the speech. Never
before had an indio dared speak so boldly. But when
Rizal's parents heard about the speech, they r,r,'ere very
worried.
Rizal was not a bit afraid. He began to write a novel
that n,ould tell the sad truth about tl.re Philippines under
Spain. It would reveal that the friars and political leaders were keeping the indios poor and ignorant. Rizal
would call the novel Noli Me Tdngere, meaning "Touch
Me Not."
13

In

1884 Rizal finished his medical course. The next

year he went to Paris to train in eve surgery at the clinic
of the famous Dr. Louis de Wecker. While in Paris, he
lived with Juan Luna. Sometimes Rizal modeled for Luna's

paintings.
Another well-known Filipino who modeled for Luna
was Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera. Tavera's daughter Paz
once asked Rizal to n,rite something in her album. He
wrote the Filipino tale of "The Monkey and the Turtle"
and drew pictures for it. Rizal loved folk tales, fairy
tales, and legends. He translated stories by Hans Christian Andersen into Tagalog for his nieces and nephews.
From Paris, Rizal went to Heidelberg, Germany, to
train under another eye specialist. In Germany he met
Karl Ullmer, the pastor of a village called Wilhelmsfeld.
Rizal spent one summer in Ullmer's home so he could
learn to speak better German. He dreu' pictures and a
comic strip for the pastor's son Fritz. After two months,
Rizal walked back to Heidelberg, three hours awav. The
Ullmers'pet dog followed him all the way to the city.
Rizal also became a dear friend of Ferdinand Blumentritt,
an Austrian professor. Blumentritt was very interested
in Philippine languages and customs. For ten years he
and Rizal wrote each other enough Ietters to fill two
books. The Blumentritt children called Rizai "uncle."
Rizal finished the Noli in February 1887. The indios
in the Philippines read it eagerly. Of course the novel
made the friars very angry. They tried to stop the sale
of the book.
Rizal's friends warned him not to go home, but he
told them he wanted to help his family. On July 3, 1887,
1.4

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The ori8inal manuscript ofRizal's Sreat novel

he said goodbye to Europe-he called

liberty"-and sailed for Manila.

it

"the land of

His f amily was delighted to see him again. However,

they knew his life was in danger. His father told him not
to eat out for fear he might be poisoned by his enemies.
A Jesuit friend, Father Faura, warned that he might be
hanged some day.
Rizal had his medical practice to keep him busy at
home. He operated on the eyes of Patients who thought
they would never see again. In Calamba he was called
"the German doctor. "
In the meantime, the Dominicans began to raise the
rent of their farm lands. While the friars were getting
richer, the farmers were getting poorer. Rizal led a protest against the high rent. This made the friars hate him
even more. They wanted the governor-general to jail him.
Rizal's family advised him to rush back to Europe.
He wanted to marry Leonor but there was no time to
even visit her in Pangasinan. His stay in Calamba lasted
only five months.
On his way to Europe, Rizal passed through Hong
Kong, Japan, and the United States. After three weeks
in the United States, he sailed to England. He spoke to
passengers on the ship in their natiYe language. They
enjoyed watching him do tricks with his yo-yo, a toy they
had never seen before.
While in Europe, Rizal learned that the friars had
taken away the land of Paciano and his four brothers-inlaw. Many Filipinos had been jailed for speaking against
the friars. "My happy days are over," he wrote. "I am
a burden to my family."
"t7

But Rizal hoped that every Filipino would face

danger without fear. He said that when one person
is killed, many others take his place and do his work.
Just like ants-the more of them are killed, the more
they grow in number. "Whv shouldn't we be like
a

nts?" he as ked.
To work for reforms in their homeland, the Fiiipinos

in Barcelona published a paper called La Solidttriclad. Among

those who wrote for the PaPer rt,ere Craciano L6pezlaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Antonio Luna,
Rizal, and Blumentritt. Rizal wrote many articles in defense
of his people. He wrote that it was SPain's dutv to treat
the Philippines as an equal partner. Otherwise, the Filipinos would ask for independence.
In May 1889, Rizal received more bitter neu's from home.
One of his brothers-in-law had died but the Church did not
allow him a Christian burial. Paciano and his other brothersin-law had been exiled to islands in the south. People in
Calamba were being forced to leave their homes and farms
Their houses were being torn down. Francisco Mercado was
given twelve hours to leave his house.
AIso sad was the report that Leonor Rivera had married an Englishman. Rizal did not blame her' "An Englishman is a free man, and I am not," he said. Blumentritt

tried to comfort Rizal with these words: "You have

brave and noble heart, and a more noble woman looks at

vou lovingly: your Native Land."

In September 1891, Rizal finished $'riting his second
novel, El Filibusterismo. He dedicated it to the memory
of Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora. It was a
much braver novel than the Noll. He said that the
18

,, *" ts

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Itizal rvith iwo l\,riiers of L, solrdrridrd: editor Marcelo H. del P ar f.r,rttr) and
Mariano Ponce

(/rtll)

wotd filibustero meant "a dangerous patriot who will

soon be hanged. "
Rizal norv felt that he could no longer serve his country by living in Europe. "The battlefield is the Philippines," he wrote. He left Europe on October 18, 1891. On
the trip he u,rote his diary in five European languages.
At that time he could speak eleven languages.
Rizal first stopped in Hong Kong to earn money and
plan for the future. His father, brother, and a brotherin-law escaped from Manila and joined him in Hong Kong.
Dona Teodora was not \,\,ith them because she had been
arrested by the guardia civil. At the age of 64 and almost
blind, she had been forced to walk from Calamba to Santa
Cruz, Laguna. It was a four-day hike. The governor felt
so sorry for her that he set her free. She then went to
Hong Kong with two of Rizal's sisters.
Rizal operated on his mother's left eye so it could see
again. He had a lot of patients in Hong Kong. They
called him "the Spanish doctor."
Rizal liked Hong Kong but he could not forget what
his family had suffered. He asked a Spanish official in
Hong Kong if he could return to the Philippines. He
wanted to face any charges against himself and his family. The official said he could go. So Rizal and his sister
Lucia boarded a ship for Manila. The Spaniard then sent
a cable to the governor-general in Manila. The cable
said: "The rat is in the trap."
Soon after arriving in Manila, Rizal took a train to the
northern provinces. Many people recognized him. They
crowded around him and touched him. He was their

20

Dr. Jos6 Rizal's operating tools

idol. But the government had him followed, ready to

spring the trap.
One day Rizal and some friends formed a society called
La Liga Filipina. Rizal gave a speech saying that the Liga
would unite the Filipinos throughout the land. Three days

iater he was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Santiago. He

was banished to Dapitan, a Ionely town in Zamboanga.
News of Rizal's exile upset people around the world
Among the angry ones was a poor Filipino named Andres
Bonifacio. He had read the Noll and the Iill. With several friends, he organized the KatiPunan, a secret society.
Its goal was to free the Philippines from Spain by force

of arms,

Rizal landed in Dapitan on July 77 , 1892. It was the

most boring place he had ever seen. "This town is sad,
truly sad," he wrote his family. But his presence soon
made the torvnspeople happy. The military commander,
Captain Ricardo Carnicero, became his good friend. The
commander said, "Dr. Rizal is a perfect gentleman."
Even in exile, Rizal made good use of his time. With
part of the prize money he won in a lottery, he bought
a piece of land along tl.re beach. He planted pineapples,
coconuts, bananas, lanzones, coffee, and cacao. He built
a house made of tree trunks, bamboo, and nipa. In the
garden he planted fruit trees and flowers. He called the
place Talisay.
He donated money to the town so it could have electric lights. He designed a water distribution system. He
and his former Latin teacher, Father Sanchez, made a
huge relief map of Mindanao for the plaza. Rizal gave
money to the church for an organ, and money to the
school for books.
Dapitan had only one school. So Rizal opened his
on'n school for boys. He taught reading, writing, math,
geography, Spanish, English, sports, and good manners.
The boys lived with him for free as long as they helped
on the farm. They helped him build a swimming pool
with a waterfall. They learned to make furniture.
Grown-ups also learned from him. He taught fishermen how to mend their nets. He taught poor folk how
to buy and sell abaca fiber. Rizal himself made two
hundred peso5 in the abaca business.
When his mother and sisters came to Dapitan, they
lived with him in a square house. He built other houses
22

A model of one of the houses that Rizal built in DaPiian

of different shapes and sizes. The house with six sides

was for chickens, rabbits, dogs, and cats. The house with
eight sides was for his pupils and for Patients who were
recovering from surgery. Rizal's rich Patients Paid him
well but he did not charge his Poor patients.
Rizal's mind and hands were always active. He carved
faces, figures, and chess Pieces out of clay and wood. He
taught himself Russian, Malay, Visayan, and several
Moro languages. His mailbox was filled with letters
and books from friends in Europe. To European scientists he sent shells and dried insects, plants, and animals.

He discovered three new tyPes of animals: a trog, a

beetle, and a lizard. The scientists named these animals
rizali.
23

Rizal's Jesuit teachers visited him. They tried, but failed,

to win him back to the Church. Although Rizal had faith
in God, he did not Iike the n,ay the friars practiced their

religion.
One day a man arrived from Hong Kong for eye treatment. With him was his stepdaughter, Josephine Bracken.
Rizal and Josephine fell in love with each other. After
sending her father back to Hong Kong, Josephine stayed

in Dapitan.
In those days, only the Church could give permits to
marry. Rizal asked the Bishop of Cebu if he could marry
Josephine. The answer was no, because Rizal had refused to return to the faith. However, the lovers agreed
to live together as husband and wife.
On July 1, 1896, a doctor named Pio Valenzuela came
to Dapitan. He brought a message for Rizal from Andres
Bonifacio. The Katipunan was about to begin a revolution against Spain. Valenzuela advised Rizal to escape
from Dapitan.
Rizal replied that the people were not prepared for a
revolution. They lacked arms, money/ and ships. There
would be much useless suffering. Little did he know he
had been chosen honorary president of the Katipunan.
Rizal could have escaped quite easily but he had

promised the authorities he would never do so. However, he missed his freedom very much. Six months before
Valenzuela's visit, Rizal had written Governor Ramon
Blanco for permission to work in Cuba as a doctor. On
July 30, he received Blanco's permission to leave.
The day Rizal left Dapitan, hundreds of people came
to bid him goodbye. He gave his pupils some of his own
24

'irr

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losephine Brac(n

things to remember him by. He gave a piece of land to

the boy who had been his first pupil. As Rizal was leaving, a band played a funeral march.
He sailed to Manila on July 31, 1E96. While waiting for
ship to take him to Cuba, he spent a month on a small ship
in Manila Bay. He had no contact with the Katipunan.
The revolt of the Katipunan had been set for August 30.
However, by August 19 the secret had leaked out. Hundreds of rebels were jailed. Bonifacio and his men had
to begin the revolution three days earlier than planned.
The Spaniards were frightened and angry. They never
thought the indios would dare raise their Dolos against
their rulers.
Governor Blanco allowed Rizal to leave for Cuba on
September 2. However, when the ship landed in Barcelona
on its way to Cuba, Rizal was arrested and shipped back
to Manila. He was suspected of being the leader of the
Katipunan. He wrote in his diary that he had never
plotted against Spain. He added a prayer to God: "Thy
will be done, I am all too ready to obey it!"
a

Upon reaching Manila, Rizal was locked up in

Fort Santiago. He was asked many questions about
the Katipunan. He said he had never been a member
of it. He did not even know Bonifacio. But nobody
believed him. They pointed to his novels. They mentioned La Liga Filipina. They thought it was the
same as the Katipunan.
On December 28 Jos6 Rizal was found guilty of having caused the revolution. He was sentenced to be shot
in Bagumbayan on December 30 at 7 a.m. He was only
35 years old.
26

Thirteen years before, on December 30, 1883, he had

dreamt he was dying. Now the dream was about to come
true. For years he had thought of how sweet it would
be to die for one's country. In 1886 he had written Pastor
UIImer: "ln my motherland vou will alu'ays find a good
friend, if I don't die early."
The day before the execution, Rizal's mother, sisters,
a niece, and a nephew visited him in his cell. The guards
did not allow him to embrace his weeping mother' He could
only kiss her hand. He gave his chair to his sister Narcisa,
a handkerchief to his niece, and a belt and chain to the
little bov. He told his sisters his alcohol burner n'ould
be sent to them. They would find something in it
After Rizal's family 1eft, it was Josephine's turn to visit
him. He gave her his copy of the book Illlitation of Christ.

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eve of his execution, Rizal dcdi.atd his coPlr of the book

to losephine.

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Im#'tto' olc'r'isf

At 6:30 a.rn. on December 30, 1896, Rizal began his

march to Bagumbavan. He r'r,ore a black suit, a white shirt,
and a black hat. His elbol,s r'r,ere tied rvith rope. Tvr,'o Jesuit
priests walked besicle him. Rizal remarked that it 'as a
beautiful dalr Passing the walled city of Intramuros, he sau,
the Ateneo. "I spent some years of my life there," he said.

Crorvds had gathered in Bagumbayan Field. The1,

saw no sign of fearon Rizal's face or bodv. A doctor felt
his pu1se. lt rvas beatjng normallr,, not like the pulse of
a man about to be shot.
Rizal r^,,antecl to face the firir.rp; scluad. The soldiers,
hou'ever, had been ordered to shoot him in the back. He
said he was not a traitor. But he obeyed and stood with
his back to them. Whcn thc bullcts hit him, hc quickly
turned aroulrd. He fell rvith his face to the skv.

fr.

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A photoBraph taken minuies belorc Rizal $.as shot in Bagumbavan Field

Nil)\,

los6 Rizal, naiional hero and marb,r

That evening Rizal's sisters opened the alcohol burner.

In a hole at the bottom they found a small, folded piece
of paper. On it was a poem their brother had written. It
'ir.as his "Last Farewell" to his beloved Philippines. He
wrote that he was happy to die because his death would
give life to his native Iand.
Indeecl Rizal's death made the Philippines come alive.
The rebels grew in number, like ants. They fought bravely
against Spain. For the first time, indios all over the
Islands were united. For the first time they became a real
nation-the Filipino nation.
The Philippines is proud to have produced a son like
Jos6 Rizal. It is not easy to find a writer, artist, doctot
teacher, scientist, farmer, and speaker of eighteen languages,
all in one person. However, some people think Rizal should
have been an armed rebel, too. Instead, he believed peaceful
reform could make the Philippines a part of Spain.
But perhaps, after Spain sentenced him to die, Rizal
changed his mind about peaceful reform. He had thought
of revolution before. He had written that "if there remains to us no other hope than to seek our ruin in war,
rvhen the Filipinos shall prefer to die rather than endure
their miseries any longer," he would choose war.
Thus, in his "Last Farewell," he praised the Filipinos

who were giving their lives joyfully on the battlefield.

When home and country call you, it does not matter how
or where you answer the cali. But you must answer it.

30

BibliograPhY
Thc Rizat-Bllt|]Lennitt Catrcspondenct, vols. I and II Manila: .los6 Rizal
National Ccniennial Commission, 1961.
One H dr.d Lettets of lo.i Rizil to His Parentt, Broilrcrs, Sislr/s, Rr/dti.cs
Manila: Philippine National Historical Socieiy, 1959
Miscellnrreorrs Nritirys ol losi Rizrl. N{anila: \ational Heroes Commission,
196,1.

Ri:rl's l'losc. Nlanila: los6 Rizal National Ccntennial Colnmission, 1962'

Rizal, Ios6. Rrlairis..r.ts anLl Trnul Dlati.s Manila: Jos6 Rlzal NaiiLnral
Centennial Commission, l96l.
Ri.i!'s Corres])ondn.c 'illl F dlolL, R.Jormjsts (1882 1E96). ManilaiNational
Hcroes Com ission, 1963.
Ltttrts B.tueen Rizdt atLd Fan1i1! Mtr,r.rs (1876-1896). Manila: National
Heroes Conlmission. 1964.
MiscclldltcotLs Curcrpolder.. ( I 8771 896). \'lanila : N ational Heroes Commission,
1963

Agoncillo, Teodoro and Milatros Guerrero Hisfor! af ttu Filillinr PeaPle

(seventh ediiion). Quezon Cit),: It.P. Garcia Publishing Co., 1987.
Bantut, Asuncion Lopez. rolo losJi An I11iit,:1lt Portrdit o,a Ri:rl. Manila:
The lntramuros Administration, Ministrl' of Human Settlemenis, 1982'
Capino, Diosdado. Ios! Ri:"1's Chrncter T chings ard Erd",fieq. Quezon
Cit,v: Nlanlapaz Publishing Co., 1e74
Coates, Austin. Ri.al: Philippin Nrtio Lllisl n d M4ltyl. Hong Kont:
Oxford University Press, 1968.
Dahn, Bernhard. "ltizal and ihe European lnfluence," in Solidrriirl, APrilTune 1991.
Fernandez, Ios6 Baron. losi Rizal: FiliPi o Dnctat d d Pdttiot. Translated
bt'Lilia Hidalgo Laurel. PhiliPPins. Manuel L. Morato, 1980.
Guerrero, I-con Ma. Tl,c In.sl FiliPiln: A Btt)graPhy ol.losl Ri:"1. Vanila:
los6 Rizal Naiional Centennial Commission, 1963.
Mendcz, Paz P,rlicarpio. At1'ocnttu$ uRi.dhrrr. NlanilarNational Historical
Tnsiiiute. 1978.
It)si Rizdl folCfiildrer. Manila: N{acaraigPublishing Co', 19i0'
Orosa, Sixto, Severina Luna-Orosa, Leonor Orosa, Rosalinda Orosa /osl
Rizul: Mdn a d Helo. Quezon CiiY, 1963.
Palma, Rafael. Ttu Pride of lhe MBln! Rn.r. Translated b)' Ronan Ozaeta'
-.
Ne(. Yorkr Preniice-Ha11, Inc., 1949
Russcll, Charles Edrvard and E B Rodriguez. The Htra ai the Filipinos: The
Stor! af lost tu2l'1, Poel, Pdtrial, a d Malivr' New York and Londoni
The Century Co., 1923

31

About the Author

Sylvia Mendez Ventura inherited her fasci-

nation for los6 Rizal from her mother, Paz

Policarpio Mendez, n,ho wrote a biography of
Rizal for children in 1950. On a trip to Europe,
the author's parents discovered a box of memorabilia that Rizal irad given to a German family
in 1886. In the box r,r,ere a note, a comic strip,
a buttonhole, a few pen-and-ink sketches and
letters by Rizal, and an original edition of the
Noli Me Tdngere.
Ms. Ventura graduated lvith degrces in English frorn Barnard College and Columbia Univers i ty.

In addition to dozens of book reviews and

articles, she has written fables and children's
stories. Her story "The Tangerine Gurnamela"
won second prize in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1984.

Ms. Ventura Iives with her husband,

Constante Ventura, in Quezon City. This is
her first biography for children.

The Great Lives Series

Tahan.rn Books for Young RraLlers milkes historr aome .rlila

in ihis first ever biographjcal s.,ies of gre.il lipinos ior

chilclren. Each book is \rrittelr by an estilLrlished histLrli.ll

or wrjter, jn \rorLls simple ettough for voung 1-,ec,p1e

to unclerslancl. Each book i-r illustr,iteLl rrith hisiorital
phohrgl irphs.

Siudents, p.rents, and ieachers r.r-ill fincl thcsc bctks

a solid introtluction to thc 1ir,cs oi men and tt.omen ho
m.rde a diifcrcnce in l]l.rilippine hisnrn.
ITFAD ALL TIIE BOOKS

1\

THE GRE,,\T LI\TES SERIES:

EN{ILIO ACUINALDO
br Elmer A. OrclofreT

JUAN LLNA
bl Carlos Quirino

TEODORA.A.LONSO
br- Anrbr.ih R. L)camprr

APOLINARIO MABINl
br- Dr. Sie:phcn Lakrne

BENIG\O AQUINO
bI S\.1lia Nlendez \ entu1.

MANUEL L. QUEZON
bv Carkrs Quirino
JOSE RIZAL

ANDRES BONIFACIO
bv l-"alati ll. \leclin.r

L.r' Svlr-ia

MOTHER IGNACIA
bv Dulce l;estin Baybal.

CARLOS P. RO\{ULO
'or Sr.h'Lr \lerclez \ cntura

ANTONIO LUNA

GABRIELA SILA\C
br'\cni 5la. Ilomar-ra Cruz

l.v Vir-encio

R. Jose

\lelclez Ventur.r

ISBN 971-630-000-

78

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