Dr. Jose Rizal's Mi último adiós

Happy Birthday to Filipino National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal!

BELATEDLY… I was meaning to write about Dr. Jose Rizal yesterday but was too busy and too lazy to do anything after going out to visit the bank for some transactions for the first time since the quarantine, which surprisingly went well. The short queue made it bearable after registering my name and details with the bank for possible contact-tracing, in case anyone in the bank became sick.

So yesterday, we celebrated the 159th birth anniversary of one of the most well-known Filipino in history. Dr. Jose Rizal was born José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda in Calamba, Laguna on June 19, 1861. He dropped the last names Mercado y Alonso Realonda upon entering the Ateneo de Manila to disassociate himself from his brother Paciano and the Mercado family who were linked to the GOMBURZA priests (portmanteau of the surnames of Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora) who were executed in relation to the Cavite mutiny of 1872. After he published his second novel, the Rizal surname had become so well known that all his family members used Rizal.

Photo by Jim Stapleton on Unsplash

EDUCATION
He finished with a double major degree in Philosophy (pre-law) and and surveyor and assessors degree at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, but shifted to medicine when he learned that his mother had eye problems.

Madrid, Paris and Berlin
With his brother secretly supporting him, Jose Rizal traveled to Spain in 1882 for his Licentiate in Medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid. He also attended lectures at the University of Paris and eye specialization at the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Rizal wrote the last few chapters of the novel Noli Me Tángere in Heidelberg.

POLYMATH & POLYGLOT
Jose Rizal conversed in 22 languages and is skilled in art and the sciences. He painted, did wood carving and sculpted while being a prolific writer, among many other things he did well. His two most famous works, the Noli Me Tángere and the El filibusterismo, inspired revolutionaries and reformist alike.

LAST FAREWELL
Dr. Rizal was the first Filipino executed because of his writings. One of his last works, known as Mi Ultimo Adios, was written while he was waiting for execution at his cell. It was hidden inside an alcohol stove lamp in his cell and later on given to the Rizal family. Copies of it were distributed to Rizal’s friends afterwards. When a copy and accompanying photograph came into the hands of J.P. Braga, he decided to publish it in 1897 with the title 'Mi último pensamiento’.

The undated, unsigned and untitled 14 five-line stanza poem inspired Indonesian soldiers before going into battle. Here is the first stanza from the original by Dr. Rizal:

Adiós, Patria adorada, región del sol querida,

(Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed)

Perla del mar de oriente, nuestro perdido Edén!

(Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost)

A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida,

( With gladness I give you my life, sad and repressed)

Y fuera más brillante, más fresca, más florida,

( And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best)

También por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

( I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.)

Representative Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin recited the poem before his colleagues in the United States Congress to help convince them to grant self-government to the Philippines. The Philippine Organic Act of 1902 became a breakthrough because the U.S. have not granted equal rights to African Americans at that time.

His love for his wife Josephine Bracken was also immortalized in the last stanza of Mi Ultimo Adios, saying:

Adiós, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría (Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way)

The effects of Dr. Rizal's life and works extends beyond the Philippines and its borders. Aside from the many places that honored him with statues and monuments, Rizal appeared as a secret character in the 1999 video game Medal of Honor's multiplayer mode.

And I will end here. Kudos to all the modern heroes who followed in Dr. Rizal's footsteps, the medical professionals and other frontliners risking their lives to follow the Hippocratic oath. And, thanks for dropping by and reading my post.

Wishing you all the best. :)

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