A Brief Introduction About Jose Rizal (continued)

Because of extensive records of the life of Jose Rizal, his short life is well documented. As mentioned earlier Dr Rizal is a prolific writer as well as a regular letter writer and diarist, so most everything about him is stored in some recorded material. Biographers of Jose Rizal, however, have faced the difficulty of translating his writings because of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to another. Drawing largely from travel diaries of Jose Rizal, biographers gathered insights of a young Asian met the west for the first time. They included his roundtrip trips between the Philippines and Europe, Japan, the United States.

European friends of Jose Rizal kept almost everything he gave them, including scribbling on pieces of paper as memorabilia. Jose Rizal was well liked throughout his travels, including the people he has known in Spain and London because of his quick wit and social graces.

As mentioned previously, the two most famous works of Jose Rizal are his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Because these writings angered both the Spaniards and the Hispanicize Filipinos due to their insulting symbolism, These writings of Jose Rizal were highly critical of Spanish friars and the atrocities committed in the name of the Church. Authorities warned Rizal that these writings promoted him as the inciter of revolution and leading to a military trial and execution. As Jose Rizal taught the natives and spread his radical teachings of freedom like a virus, this brought about an adverse reaction known as the Philippine Revolution of 1896.

As a leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, Jose Rizal contributed many writings to the Spanish newspaper in Barcelona, including: essays, allegories, poems, and editorials. The major core writings centered on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines are battling, in the words of Jose Rizal, "a double-faced Goliath"--corrupt friars and bad government. Commentaries by Jose Rizal reiterate the following agenda including: declaring Philippines as a province of Spain, fair representation in Cortes, replace Spanish friars with Filipino priests, equal rights before the law for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs and freedom of assembly and speech.

Despite that these reforms were more openly endorsed by Spanish intellectuals, the colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reform. Jose Rizal returned to return to Manila in 1892 and formed formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina La Liga Filipina. Unfortunately, the league was disbanded by the governor despite that the league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, At that time, Jose Rizal had already been declared an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novels.