About this product

José Rizal, in full José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda,
(born June 19, 1861, Calamba, Philippines—died December 30, 1896,
Manila), patriot, physician, and man of letters who was an inspiration
to the Philippine nationalist movement.


The son of a prosperous landowner, Rizal was educated in Manila and at the University
of Madrid. A brilliant medical student, he soon committed himself to
the reform of Spanish rule in his home country, though he never
advocated Philippine independence. Most of his writing was done in
Europe, where he resided between 1882 and 1892.


In 1887 Rizal published his first novel, Noli me tangere (The Social Cancer), a
passionate exposure of the evils of Spanish rule in the Philippines. A
sequel, El filibusterismo (1891; The Reign of Greed), established his
reputation as the leading spokesman of the Philippine reform movement.
He published an annotated edition (1890; reprinted 1958) of Antonio
Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, hoping to show that the native
people of the Philippines had a long history before the coming of the
Spaniards. He became the leader of the Propaganda Movement, contributing
numerous articles to its newspaper, La Solidaridad, published in
Barcelona. Rizal’s political program included integration of the
Philippines as a province of Spain, representation in the Cortes (the
Spanish parliament), the replacement of Spanish friars by Filipino
priests, freedom of assembly and expression, and equality of Filipinos
and Spaniards before the law.