Jose Rizal: A Biographical Sketch
BY TEOFILO H. MONTEMAYOR
Having traveled extensively in Europe, America and Asia, he mastered
22 languages. These include Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Malayan, Portuguese,
Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Tagalog, and other native dialects. A
versatile genius, he was an architect, artists, businessman,
cartoonist, educator, economist, ethnologist, scientific farmer,
historian, inventor, journalist, linguist, musician, mythologist,
nationalist, naturalist, novelist, opthalmic surgeon, poet,
propagandist, psychologist, scientist, sculptor, sociologist, and
theologian
He was an expert swordsman and a good shot. In the hope of securing
political and social reforms for his country and at the same time
educate his countrymen, Rizal, the greatest apostle of Filipino
natiofaults but even fabricating charges to pin him down. Thus, he was
imprisoned in Fort Santiago from July 6, 1892 to July 15, 1892 on a
charge that anti-friar pamphlets were found in the luggage of his
sister Lucia who arrive with him from Hong Kong. While a political
exile in Dapitan, he engaged in agriculture, fishing and business; he
maintained and operated a hospital; he conducted classes- taught his
pupils the English and Spanish languages, the arts.
The sciences, vocational courses including agriculture, surveying,
sculpturing, and painting, as well as the art of self defense; he did
some researches and collected specimens; he entered into
correspondence with renowned men of letters and sciences abroad; and
with the help of his pupils, he constructed water dam and a relief map
of Mindanao - both considered remarkable engineering feats. His
sincerity and friendliness won for him the trust and confidence of
even those assigned to guard him; his good manners and warm personala
man whose 35 years of life had been packed with varied activities
which proved that the Filipino has capacity to equal if not excel even
those who treat him as a slave, was shot at Bagumbayan Field.