The world when Rizal was born

What the then-future hero ‘saw’ when he opened his eyes

- By DOM GALEON

On June 19, 1861, José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born in Calamba, Laguna. His life is not foreign to most Filipinos, as it has been shown in a great many books and films (TV shows included). Yet, to fully understand Jose Rizal, it helps to examine the time in which he lived. And this starts by looking at the year—1861—that saw the birth of the so-called “First Filipino” (a moniker given to the five-foot-three-inches tall man from Laguna attributed to Leon Ma. Guerrero).

As if to herald Rizal’s birth, the year 1861 was not a particularly quiet one. Globally, it was a year of conflict and, interestingly, a year of transition, which is not different from the life the yet-to-be hero was to live.