Childhood Days in Calamba

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Chapter 2

• Childhood Days in Calamba

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• Jose Rizal, just like Filipino boys, had many
  beautiful memories of childhood.
• His was 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.

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Calamba, Cradle of a Genius

• Rizal loved Calamba with all his heart and soul.
  In 1876, when he was 15 years old and was a
  student in Ateneo, he rememebered his beloved
  town. Accordingly, he wrote a poem Un Recuerdo A
  Mi Pueblo ( In Memory of My Town)

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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.

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• His father built a nipa cottage in the garden for
  him to play in the daytime.

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• 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.

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

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• 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.

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• Another memory of his infancy was the nocturnal
  walk in the town, especially when there was a
  moon.

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• 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.

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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.

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• They affectionately called their father Tatay,
  and mother Nanay.

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• Jose was jokingly called Ute by his brother and
  sisters. The people in Calamba knew him as Pepe
  or Pepito.

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• Of his sisters, Jose loved most little Concha. He
  was one year older than Concha. He played with
  her, and from her, he learned the sweetness of
  brotherly love.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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.

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• He loved to go to church to pray, to take part in
  novenas, and to join the religious processions.
  It is said that he was so seriously devout that
  he was laughingly called Manong Jose by the
  Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras.

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• One of the men he esteemed and respected in
  Calamba during his boyhood was the scholarly
  Father Leoncio Lopez, the town priest.

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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 mothers vow which was made
  when Rizal was born.

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• It was the first trip of Jose across Laguna de
  Bay and his pilgrimage to Antipolo.
• 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.

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• After praying at the shrine of the Virgin of
  Antipolo, Jose and his father went to Manila.

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First Education from Mother

• Joses first teacher was his mother.

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• 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.

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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.

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• The tragic fate of the young moth, which died a
  martyr to its illusions, left a deep impress on
  Rizals mind.

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Rizals Three Uncles

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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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 Rizals frail body
  acquired agility, endurance, and strength.

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Artistic Talents

• Since early childhood Rizal revelaed his
  god-given talents for the arts.

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• He drew sketches and pictures on his books of his
  sisters, for which reason he was scolded by his
  mother.

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• 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.

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• Jose had a soul of a genuine artist.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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 Dont you know that people will erect
  monument and statues in my honor for the future?

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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. At an early age when children usually
  begin to learn ABC, he was already writing poems.

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• The first known poem that he wrote was a Tagalog
  poem entitled Sa Aking Mga Kababata (To My Fellow
  Children).

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

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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.

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• 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.

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Influences on Heros 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 chilld in our country
  enjoyed.

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• 1. Hereditary Influence
• 2. Environmental Influence
• 3. Aid of the Divine Providence