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By Kallie Szczepanski, About.com Guide Jose Rizal was a man of incredible intellectual power, with amazing artistic talent as well. He excelled at anything that he put his mind to - medicine, poetry, sketching, architecture, sociology... the list seems nearly endless. Thus, Rizal's martyrdom by the Spanish colonial authorities while he was still quite young was a huge loss to the Philippines, and to the world at large. Today, the people of the Philippines honor him as their national hero.
Early Life:
On June 19, 1861, Francisco Rizal Mercado and Teodora Alonzo y Quintos welcomed their seventh child into the world at Calamba, Laguna. They named the boy Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. The Mercado family were wealthy farmers who rented land from the Dominican religious order. Descendants of a Chinese immigrant named Domingo Lam-co, they changed their name to Mercado ("market") under the pressure of anti-Chinese feeling amongst the Spanish colonizers. From an early age, Jose Rizal Mercado showed a precocious intellect. He learned the alphabet from his mother at 3, and could read and write at age 5.
Education:
Jose Rizal Mercado attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, graduating at the age of 16 with highest honors. He took a post-graduate course there in land surveying. Rizal Mercado completed his surveyor's training in 1877, and passed the licensing exam in May 1878, but could not receive a license to practice because he was only 17 years old. (He was granted a license in 1881, when he reached the age of majority.) In 1878, the young man also enrolled in the University of Santo Tomas as a medical student. He later quit the school, alleging discrimination against Filipino students by the Dominican professors.
Program of Reforms:
Both in his novels and in newspaper editorials, Jose Rizal called for a number of reforms of the Spanish colonial system in the Philippines. He advocated freedom of speech and assembly, equal rights before the law for Filipinos, and Filipino priests in place of the often-corrupt Spanish churchmen. In addition, Rizal called for the Philippines to become a province within Spain, with representation in the Spanish legislature (the Cortes Generales). Rizal never called for independence for the Philippines. Nonetheless, the colonial government considered him a dangerous radical, and declared him an enemy of the state.
He was allowed to marry Josephine two hours before his execution by firing squad on December 30, 1896. Jose Rizal was just 35 years old.
Source: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/joserizalbio.htm