José Rizal

Filipino political leader and author

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Alternative Title: José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
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.
Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892. He founded a nonviolent-
reform society, the Liga Filipina, in Manila, and was deported
to Dapitan in northwest Mindanao. He remained in exile for the next
four years. In 1896 the Katipunan, a Filipino nationalist secret society,
revolted against Spain. Although he had no connections with that
organization and he had had no part in the insurrection, Rizal was
arrested and tried for sedition by the military. Found guilty, he was
publicly executed by a firing squad in Manila. His martyrdom
convinced Filipinos that there was no alternative to independence
from Spain. On the eve of his execution, while confined in Fort
Santiago, Rizal wrote “Último adiós” (“Last Farewell”), a masterpiece
of 19th-century Spanish verse.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and
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LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

Southeast Asian arts: The Philippines

The most famous author was José Rizal, who wrote a series of brilliant social novels,
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whose poem “Filipinas” was later adopted as the national…
 

Philippines: The 19th century

José Rizal, this movement’s most brilliant figure, produced two political novels—Noli me
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…Kartini and the Filipino patriot José Rizal. The newer generation, however, was more
certain in its opposition to colonial rule (or, in Siam, rule by the monarchy), clearer and far
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José Rizal
QUICK FACTS

BORN
June 19, 1861
Calamba, Philippines
DIED
December 30, 1896 (aged 35)
Manila, Philippines
NOTABLE WORKS
 “The Social Cancer”
 “The Reign of Greed”
FOUNDER OF
 Liga Filipina
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