José Rizal (born June 19, 1861, Calamba, Philippines—died December 30, 1896, Manila) was a 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.
Quick Facts
In full: José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
Born: June 19, 1861, Calamba,
Philippines
Died: December 30, 1896,
Manila (aged 35)
Founder:
Liga Filipina
Notable Works:
“The Reign of Greed” “The Social Cancer”
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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.

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monument to José RizalMonument (centre) to José Rizal in Rizal Park, Manila.

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How José Rizal became the face of the Philippine independence movementLearn more about the life of José Rizal and how he became the face of the Philippine independence movement.(more)
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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.