Rizal spent his childhood in Calamba, Laguna. Some of his earliest memories included playing happily in his family's garden at age 3 and participating in daily prayers. He showed an early talent for art and writing, producing his first poem at age 8. Rizal was deeply devoted to religion in his early years. He went on a pilgrimage to Antipolo with his father at age 7. Both environmental and hereditary influences shaped Rizal into a man with great artistic ability, intellect, and love for his homeland.

1. Chapter 2
Childhood Years in Calamba
Biñan

2. Calamba, the Hero’s Town
• Calamba was an hacienda
town which belonged to
the Dominican Order,
which also owned all the
lands around it. It is a
picturesque town nestling
on a verdant plain
covered with irrigated
ricefields and sugar-lands.

3. Mount Makiling

4. Laguna de Bay
• An inland lake of
songs and
emerald waters
beneath the
canopy of azure
skies.

5. Island of Talim

6. Antipolo
• Famous
mountain
shrine of the
miraculous
Lady of Peace
and Good
Voyage.

7. Earliest Childhood Memories
• The first memory of Rizal was his happy days
in the family garden when he was 3 years old.
• Second childhood memory of Rizal was the
daily Angelus Prayer.
• Third childhood memory was the nocturnal
walk in the town, when there was a moon.

8. The Hero’s First Sorrow
• In 1865, Concha (Concepcion) died of
sickness at the age of three.
Devoted Son of the Church
• At the age of three, he began to take part
in the family prayers.
• When he was five years old, he was able
to read haltingly the Spanish family Bible.

9. • He loved to go to church, to pray, to take part
in novenas, and to join the religious
processions.
• He was so seriously devout that he was
launghingly called Manong Jose by the
Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras.
• The scholarly Father Leoncio Lopez, the town
priest that he used to visit and listen to his
stimulating opinions on current events and
sound philosophy of life.

10. • Jose learned to write and read thru a private
tutor Maestro Celestino and the second
Maestro Lucas Padua.
• Leon Monroy a former classmate of Rizal’s
Father became the boy’s tutor

11. Pilgrimage to Antipolo
• On June 6, 1868, Jose and his father left
Calamba to go on a pilgrimage to Antipolo, in
order to fulfill his mother’s vow which was
made when Jose was born.
• After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of
Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila.
They visited Saturnina, who was then a
boarding student at La Concordia College in
Santa Ana.

12. Artistic Talent
• Since early
childhood Rizal
revealed his God-
given talent for art.
• At the age of five, he
began to make
sketches with his
pencil and to mould
in clay and wax
objects which
attracted his fancy.

13. First Poem by Rizal
• Since early boyhood he
had scribbled verses on
loose sheets of paper and
on the textbooks of his
sisters.
• At the age of eight, Rizal
wrote his first poem in the
native language entitled
Sa Aking Mga Kababata
(To My Fellow Children)

14. Rizal as Boy Magician
• Since early manhood Rizal had been interested in
magic. He learned various tricks such as making a
coin appear or disappear in his fingers and making a
handkerchief vanish in thin air.
• He entertained his town folks with magic-lantern
exhibitions.
• He also gained skill in manipulating marionettes
(puppet show).

15. • In later years when he attained manhood,
he continued his keen predilection for
magic. He read many books on magic and
attended the performances of the
famous magicians of the world.
• In chapter XVII and XVIII of his second
novel, El Filibusterismo (Treason), he
revealed his wide knowledge of magic.

16. Influences on the Hero’s Boyhood
1. Heredity Influence:
• Malayan ancestors- love for freedom,
innate desire to travel and indomitable
courage.
• Chinese ancestors- serious nature,
frugality, patience and love for children.
• Spanish ancestors- elegance of bearing,
sensitivity to insult and gallanty to ladies.

17. • Father- Profound sense of respect, the love
for work and the habit of independent
thinking.
• Mother- religious nature, the spirit of self-
sacrifice and the passion for arts and
literature.
2. Environmental Influences:
• The scenic beauties of Calamba and the
beautiful garden of the Rizal family- inborn
artistic and literary talents of Jose Rizal.

18. • The religious atmosphere at his home-
religious nature.
• Brother, Paciano- love for freedom and
justice.
• Sisters- courteous and kind to women.
• Aya (Nurse Maid)- interest in folklore and
legends.
• Tito Jose Alberto- artistic ability.
• Tito Manuel- frail walking and wrestling.
• Tito Gregorio- voracious reading of good
books.

19. • Father Leoncio Lopez- love for scholarship
and intellectual honesty.
• Sorrows in his family- character, enabling him
to resist blows of adversity in late years.
3. Aid of Divine Providence:
• God- versatile gifts of a genius, the vibrant
spirit of nationalism and the valiant heart to
sacrifice for a noble cause.

20. Biñan Laguna

21. Biñan Laguna
• First Teacher in Biñan of Pepe Maestro
Justiniano Aquino Cruz
• Pepe lived in a small hut about 30 meters
from the home of the aunt.
• Jose used to wear a sinamay shirt,woven by
the skilled hands of the women of Batangas.
• Jose challenged Pedro to a fight
• First Painting lesson by a painter Juancho

22. Injustice to Hero’s Mother
• Before June of 1872,tragedy struck the Rizal
family.Dona Teodora was suddenly arrested on
a malicious charge that she and her brother.
• Jose Alberto wife was poison
• Jose Alberto ,a rich Binan ilustrado ,had just
returned from a business trip in Europe.
• After arresting Dona Teodora, the sadistic
Spanish Lieutenant forced her to walk from
Calamba to Santa Cruz a distance of 50
kilometers.