Rizal spent his early childhood in Calamba, Laguna in a happy home filled with love. He showed early talents in art, poetry, and academics. His mother and uncles were influential in developing these talents. Witnessing the oppression of the Filipino people by Spanish authorities awakened his patriotism from a young age. Rizal's upbringing and natural abilities, combined with influences from his family and environment, positioned him to become the pride and inspiration of the Philippine nation.

1. Chapter 2
Childhood days
in Calamba

3. • Jose Rizal, just like Filipino boys, had
many beautiful memories of childhood.
• He have a happy home, filled with
parental affection, impregnated with
family joys, and sanctified by prayers.
• In the midst of such peaceful, refined,
God-loving family, he spent the early
years of his childhood.

4. Calamba, the Hero’s Town
• Calamba was an hacienda town which belonged
to the Dominican Order.
• It is a picturesque town nestling on a verdant
plain covered with irrigated rice fields and
sugar-lands.
• A few kilometers to the south looms is the
legendary Mount Makiling in somnolent
grandeur.

7. • Beyond this mountain is the province of
Batangas.
• East of the town is the Laguna de Bay.
• In the middle lake towers is the storied
island of Talim and beyond it towards
north is the distant Antipolo, famous
mountain shrine of the miraculous Lady
of Peace and Good Voyage.

8. Laguna de Bay
Batangas

10. •In 1876 when he was 15 years old
and was a student in the Ateneo
de Manila he remembered his
beloved town.
•He wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A
Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My
Town).

11. Ateneo de Manila

12. EarliEst Childhood
mEmoriEs.
• The first memory of Rizal, in his
infancy, was his happy days in
the family garden.
• Because he was frail, sickly, and
undersized child, he was given
the most tender care by his
parents.

13. • His father built a nipa cottage in the
garden for him to play in the daytime.
• Another childhood memory was the
daily Angelus prayer.
• By nightfall, Rizal related, his mother
gathered all the children at the house
to pray the Angelus.

14. • With nostalgic feeling, he also
remembered the happy moonlit
nights at the azotea after the rosary.
• The aya related stories to Rizal
children many stories about fairies;
tales of buried treasure and trees
with blooming diamonds, and other
fabulous stories.

15. • Sometimes, when he did not like to
take his supper, the aya would
treaten him that the aswang, the
nuno, the tigbalang, or a terrible
bearded Bombay would come to
take him away if he would not eat
his supper.
• Another memory of his infancy was
the nocturnal walk in the town,
especially when there was a moon.

16. • Recounting this childhood
experience, Rizal wrote: “Thus my
heart fed on sombre and melancholy
thoughts so that even still a child, I
already wandered on wings of fantasy
in the high regions of the unknown.

17. The Hero’s First
Sorrow
• The Rizal children were bound
together by the ties of love and
companionship.
• Their parents taught them to love one
another, to behave properly in front
of elders, to be truthful and religious,
and to help one another.

18. • They affectionately called their father
Tatay, and mother Nanay.
• Jose was jokingly called Ute by his
brother and sisters. The people in
Calamba knew him as Pepe or Pepito.
• Of his sisters, Jose loved most little
Concha (Concepcion).

19. • He was one year older than Concha.
• He played with her, and from her, he
learned the sweetness of brotherly love.
• Unfortunately, Concha died of sickness in
1865 when he was 3 years old.
• Jose, who was very fond of her, cried
bitterly to lose her.

20. Devoted Son of
Church
•Young Rizal was a religious boy.
•A scion of a Catholic clan, born
and bred in a wholesome
atmosphere of Catholicism, and
possessed of an inborn spirit,
Rizal grew up a good Catholic.

21. •At the age of 3, he began to take part
in the family prayers.
•When he was five years old, he was
able to read haltingly the family
bible.
•He loved to go to church to pray, to
take part in novenas, and to join the
religious processions.

22. •It is said that he was so seriously
devout that he was laughingly called
Manong Jose by the Hermanos and
Hermanas Terceras.
•One of the men he esteemed and
respected in Calamba during his
boyhood was the scholarly Father
Leoncio Lopez, the town priest.

23. Father
Leoncio
Lopez

24. Pilgrimage to
Antipolo•On June 6, 1868, Jose and his father left
for Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to
Antipolo, in order to fulfill his mother’s
vow which was made when Rizal was
born.
•It was the first trip of Jose across Laguna
de Bay and his pilgrimage to Antipolo

25. • He was thrilled, as a typical boy should, by
his first lake voyage.
• He did not sleep the whole night as the
casco sailed towards the Pasig River because
he was awed by “ the magnificence of the
watery expanse and the silence of the night.
• After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of
Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila.

26. First Education from
Mother
• Jose’s first teacher was his mother.
• At the age of 3, Jose learned the alphabet
and prayers from her.
• Seeing Rizal had a talent for poetry, she
encouraged him to write poems. She gave
her all her love and all that she learned in
college.

27. The Story of
the Moth
• Of the story told by Dona Teodora to
Jose, it was that of the young moth
made the profoundest impression on
him.
• The tragic fate of the young moth,
which died a martyr to its illusions, left
a deep impress on Rizal’s mind.

29. Rizal’s Three
Uncles
• There were 3 uncles, brothers
of his mother, who played a
great part in the early
education of Rizal.

30. • Uncle Gregorio was a lover of
books.
• He instilled into the mind of his
nephew a great love for books.
• He taught him to work hard, to
think for himself, and to observe
life keenly.

31. • Uncle Jose, who had been
educated at Calcutta, India,
was the youngest brother of
Dona Teodora.
• He encouraged his nephew to
paint, sketch, and sculpture.

32. • Uncle Manuel was a big, strong, and husky man.
• He looked after the physical training of his sickly
and weak nephew.
• He encourage Rizal to learn swimming, fencing,
wrestling, and other sports, so that in later years
Rizal’s frail body acquired agility, endurance, and
strength.

33. Artistic Talents
• Since early childhood Rizal revealed
his god-given talents for the arts.
• He drew sketches and pictures on his
books of his sisters, for which reason
he was scolded by his mother.

34. • He carved figures of animals and
persons out of wood.
• Even before he learned to read, he
could already sketch pictures of
birds, flowers, fruits, rivers,
mountains, animals and persons.
• Jose had a soul of a genuine artist.

35. • Rather an introvert child, with a
skinny physique and sad dark eyes,
he found great joy looking at the
blooming flowers, the ripening fruits,
the dancing waves of the lake, and
the milky clouds in the sky; and the
listening to the songs of the birds, the
chirpings of the cicadas, and the
murmurings of the breezes.

36. • He loved to ride on a spirited pony
( which his father bought for him)
or take long walks in the
meadows for him) or take long
walks in the meadows and
lakeshore with his big black dog
named Usman.

37. • In his room, he kept many statuettes which
he made out of clay and wax.
• At one time, his sisters teased him: “Ute,
what are you doing with so many
statuettes?” He replied: “ Don’t you know
that people will erect monument and statues
in my honor for the future?”

38. Prodigy of the
Pen• Not only was little Jose skilled in brush,
chisel, and pen-knife, but also in pen.
• He was born poet.
• His mother encouraged him to write
poetry.

39. • At an early age when children
usually begin to learn ABC, he was
already writing poems.
• The first known poem that he
wrote was a Tagalog poem entitled
Sa Aking Mga Kababata (To My
Fellow Children).

41. • Before he was eight years old, he
wrote a Tagalog drama.
• This drama was stages in Calamba
in connection with the town fiesta.

42. Lakeshore Reveries
• During the twilight hours of
summertime, Rizal,
accompanied by his dog, used
to meditate at the shore of
Laguna de Bay on the sad
conditions of his oppressed
people.

44. • Young that he was, he grieved
deeply over the unhappy situation
of his beloved fatherland.
• The Spanish misdeeds awakened
in his boyish heart a great
determination to fight tyranny.

45. Influences on
Hero’s Boyhood
• In the lives of all men there are
influences which cause some to be
great and others not. In the case
of Rizal, he had all favorable
influences, which no other child
in our country enjoyed.

46. Hereditary Influence
• According to biological science there
are inherent qualities which a person
inherits from ancestors and parents.

47. •From Malayan ancestors,
Rizal evidently, inherited his
love for freedom, his innate
desire to travel and his
indomitable courage.
•From Chinese ancestors he
derived his serious nature,
frugality, patience and love for
children.

48. • From Spanish ancestors he got his
elegance of bearing, sensitivity to
insult and gallantry to ladies.
• From his father he inherited a profound
sense of self-respect, the love for work
and the habit of independent thinking.
• And from his mother his religious
nature, the spirit of self-sacrifice and
the passion for arts and literature

49. EnvironmEntal influEncE
• According to psychologist, environment as
well as heredity affects the nature of a
person.
• It includes places, associates and events.
• The beautiful scenic of Calamba and the
beautiful garden of the Rizal family stimulated
the inborn artistic and literary talents of Jose
Rizal.

50. • The religious atmosphere at his home
fortified his religious nature.
• His brother Paciano instilled in his mind
the love for freedom and justice.
• From sisters he learned to be courteous
and kind to women.
• The fairy tales told by his aya awakened
his interest in folklore and legends.

51. • Father Leoncio Lopez a parish priest in
Calamba fostered Rizal’s love for
scholarship and intellectual honesty.
• The sorrows in his family such as death
of Concha in 1865 and the
imprisonment of his mother in 187-74
contributed to strengthen his character,
enabling him to resist blows adversity
in later years.

52. • The Spanish abuses and cruelties which
he witnessed in his boyhood such as
brutal acts if the lieutenant of the
Guardia Civil and the alcalde, the unjust
tortures inflicted on innocent Filipinos
and the execution of Fathers Gomez,
Burgos and Zamora in 1872 awakened
his spirit of patriotism and inspired him
to consecrate his life and talents to
redeem his oppressed people.

53. Aid of Divine Providence
• Greater than heredity and
environment in the fate of
man is the aid of Divine
Providence.

54. • A person may have everything in life brains,
wealth, and power but without the aid of
Divine Providence ne cannot attain greatness
in the annals of the nation.
• Rizal was providentially destined to be the
pride and glory of his nation.
• God had endowed him with the versatile gifts
of a genius, the vibrant spirit of a nationalist
and the valiant heart to sacrifice for a noble
cause.

55. Reported
by: