不详（1896 年行刑前照片，作者未署名） · 公有领域
19 June 1861–30 December 1896
José Rizal, full name José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
José Rizal · 菲律宾
Late-19th-century Philippine nationalist writer, ophthalmologist, and reform movement leader, revered as a founding-level national hero of the Philippines.
Born on 19 June 1861 in Calamba, Laguna Province, he entered Ateneo de Manila in 1872, later studied medicine at the University of Santo Tomas, and in 1882 went to the University of Madrid in Spain to complete degrees in medicine and literature, also studying in Paris and Heidelberg. In 1887 he published *Noli Me Tángere* (*Social Cancer*) in Berlin, and in 1891 published its sequel *El Filibusterismo* (*The Subversive*) in Ghent, exposing the abuses of the friars and colonial rule and becoming the core pen of the Propaganda Movement. In 1892 he returned home and founded La Liga Filipina, was promptly arrested and exiled for four years to Dapitan, Mindanao, where he practised medicine, ran a school, and built a water supply. After the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896, although there was no evidence that he took part in planning it, he was nevertheless sentenced to death by a Spanish military court for rebellion and executed by firing squad on 30 December at Bagumbayan, Manila (now Rizal Park), writing *Mi Último Adiós* (*My Last Farewell*) in Fort Santiago the night before his execution.
People & stories
Places in their life
Birthplace Calamba; places of study and activity Manila (Ateneo, University of Santo Tomas, Fort Santiago); place of exile Dapitan; place of execution and burial memorial Rizal Park, Manila (his remains are buried in the park monument).
People
Cultural significance
A symbol of non-violent reform by the pen; his martyrdom is recognised as a turning point that pushed more Filipinos toward the road to independence; 30 December is Rizal Day in the Philippines.