Rizal, José (hōsā` rēsäl`), 1861–96, Philippine nationalist, author, poet, and physician, b. Calamba, Laguna prov. He studied at a Jesuit school in Manila, at the Univ. of Madrid (M.D., 1884; Ph.D., 1885), and in Paris, Berlin, Heidelberg, and Leipzig. In Berlin he published his first novel, Noli me tangere (1886, tr. The Lost Eden, 1961), a diatribe against Spanish administration and the religious orders in the Philippines. Because of this attack he was compelled by Spanish officials to leave the islands soon after his return home in 1887. He lived successively in China, Japan, the United States, England, and France, before establishing himself in Hong Kong to practice medicine. In 1890 he published an annotated edition of Antonio Morgas's Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, and in 1891 he published his second novel, El filibusterismo (tr. The Subversive, 1962), a sequel to his first. Returning to Manila in 1892, he was arrested as a revolutionary agitator and banished to Dapitan on Mindanao. While on his way to Cuba in 1896, he was arrested and returned to Manila. There he was given a farcical trial and executed as an instigator of insurrection and founder of secret revolutionary societies. His martyrdom incited a full-scale rebellion against Spanish rule. He also wrote articles; Mariang Makiling (1890), a Philippine folk tale; and considerable poetry.

Bibliography

See his letters, tr. by J. P. Apostol (1959); his reminiscences and travels, ed. by E. Alzona (Vol. I, 1961); biographies by C. Quirino (1958), L. M. Guerrero (1963), and A. Coates (1968).

Rizal (y Alonso), José

in full José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda

(born June 19, 1861, Calamba, Phil.—died Dec. 30, 1896, Manila) Filipino patriot, physician, and man of letters. Beginning in his youth, Rizal committed himself to the reform of Spanish rule in his home country. He lived in Europe (1882–92), where he published novels exposing the evils of Spanish rule and became the leader of the Propaganda movement, which produced reform-oriented articles, magazines, and poetry. He returned to the Philippines to found a nonviolent-reform society and was deported to Mindanao, where he spent four years. When the Katipunan nationalist secret society revolted in 1896, the Spanish arrested and executed Rizal, though he had no connection with the group and had taken no part in the insurrection. His martyrdom convinced Filipinos that there was no alternative to independence from Spain.