CHAPTER II

CHILDHOOD DAYS IN CALAMBA

Jose Rizal, like many Filipinos 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 midst of such peaceful, refined,
God loving family , he spent the early years of his childhood. The beauties of
Calamba impressed him as a growing child and deeply influenced his mind
and character. The happiest period of his life was truly his childhood days in
his natal town.
Rizal loved Calamba with all his heart and soul. In 1876, when he was
15 years old and was a student n this Ateneo, he remembered his beloved
town. Accordingly, he wrote apoem Un Recuerdo A Mi pueblo (In Memory of
My Town).
The first memory of Rizal, in his infancy, was his happy days in the
family garden when he was three years old. Because he was a frail,sickly,
and undersized child, he was given tenderest care by his parents. His father
built a little nipa cottage in the garden for him to play in daytime. A kind old
woman was employed as an aya(maid) to look after his comfort. Sometimes,
when Rizal did not like to take his supper, the aya would threaten him that
the asuang, the nuno, the tigbalang, or a terrible bearded and turbaned
Bombay would come to take him away if he would not eat his supper.
The Rizal children were bound together by ties of love and
companionship. They were well bred, for their parents taught them to love
one another, to behave properly in the presence of elders, to be truthful and
religious, and to help one another. They affectionately called their father
(tatay), and their mother(nanay). Jose was jokingly called Ute by his brother
and sister. The people in Calamba knew him as Pepe or Pepeto . Jose was
closest to his older brother Paciano. Between the two brothers sprang a
strong bond of friendship, stronger than mere blood brotherhood. Paciano
loved his younger brother and was proud of his genius. On the other hand,
Jose respected Paciano, regarding him almost his second father. Of his
sisters, jose loved most the little Concha (Concepcion). He was one year
older than Concha. He played with her, and from her he learned the
sweetness of brotherly love. Unfortunately , Conchan died of sickness in
1865 when she was only three years old. Jose, who was very fond of her,
cried bitterly to lose her. when he was four years old he said. I lost my

little sister Concha, and then for the first time I wept tears of love and grief.
The death of little Concha brought him his first sorrow.
Young Rizal was a religious boy. A scion of catholic clan, born and bred
in a whole some atmosphere of Catholicism, and possessed of an inborn
pious spirit, he grew up as a good Catholic. When he was five years old, he
was able to read haltingly the Spanish family Bible. Evidence he was
studying in Binan, laguna(1870-1871), he often heard Mass in the parish
church at 4:00 A.M. He started his life as a student in the Ateneo in june,
1872 with a prayer, continued it with daily prayers, and ended it with a
prayer. One of the men he steemed and respect in Calamba during his
boyhood was the scholarly Father Leoncio Lopez, the town priest. He use to
visit this learned Filipino priest and listened to his stimulating opinions on
current events and sound philosophy of life. On june 6, 1868, jose and his
father left Calamba to go on pilgrimage to Antipolo in order to fulfill his
mothers vow which was made when jose was born. Doa Teodora could not
accompany them because she had just given birth to Trinidad. It was the
first trip of Jose across Laguna De Bay and his first pilgrimage to Antipolo.
He and his father road in a casco(barge). He was trilled, as a typical boy
should, by his first lake voyage, he did not sleep the whole night as a casco
sailed towards the Pasig river because he was awed by magnificence of the
watery expanse and the silence of the night. After the praying at the shrine
of the Virgin of Antipolo , Jose and his father went to manila. It was the first
time Jose visited manila. They went to Santa Ana and visited Saturnina, who
was then a student in La Concordia College.
Joses first teacher was his mother. A woman of good character and
fine education, Doa Teodora was a splendid teacher. At the age of three,
jose learned the alphabet and the prayers from her. My mother, said Rizal
taught me how to read and to say hastingly the humble prayers which I
raised fervently to God Shes patient and loving, but strict as a tutor.