THE TRAIL TO FREEDOM: WHERE DO I BEGIN?

By roman romeo g. nagpala

June 12, 2008: The country celebrates the 110^th Philippine Independence Day.

June 19, 2008: The 147^th birthday of the national hero is commemorated.

These double historical festivals this bridal month June, drove me back to the so-called centennial freedom trail of the Philippine revolution. Browsing “On the Trail to Freedom,” a historical adventure on the centennial Freedom Trail, this senior citizen (Lolo Ome) focused on Laguna, the first chapter of the source book.

Laguna takes pride of Calamba, the cradle town (now a city) of our national hero Gat Jose Rizal. Is Calamba, indeed, the place where the seed had been sown for the indelible trail to freedom? Remember that Rizal’s writings sparked the deepest fervor of patriotism among Filipinos; his gallant death ignited and sustained the burning spirit of the long and arduous Philippine revolution.

Let us look back how the trail to freedom had really begun since 1861.

Bahay-na-bato

In the 19^th century stood the first bahay-na-bato (stone house) in the heart of Calamba. It was a sign of prosperity for the industrious Mercado family in this rural town. This stone house was a happy home filled with the joy and laughter of eleven children, namely, Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olimpia, Lucia, Maria, Jose (Pepe), Concepcion (who died at the age of three), Josefa, Trinidad, and Soledad.

This is where Pepe Rizal grew up and was raised. Here are some trivia in his birth and boyhood.

Pepe’s birth

It was said that Rizal announced his birth in a most unusual way. It was customary in women about to give birth to visit the church for confession and communion. Doña Teodora went to church on the eve of her seventh childbirth.

The legend goes that in the middle of her confession, a soulful wail was audibly heard from her womb. The startled priest was interrupted and asked Teodora if she had brought along a child. On her way out of the confessional, an old woman also asked why her unborn child mournfully protested. Could this be the omen of Rizal’s historical cross path with the church?

Doña Lolay hurried home just across the street embarrassed, confused, and worried as the pangs of labor had started which lasted until the next day. Her labor ended with a difficult delivery just before midnight of June 19, 1861.

The Mercado family welcomed as their second son a tiny delicate child whose head was unusually large in size. On June 22, 1861 the baby was baptized as Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda by Padre Rufino Collantes. Padre Pedro Casañas stood as Ninong or main sponsor as attested to by a national historical marker in the parish church across the Rizal Shrine in Calamba.

The unusual size of the baby’s head solicited a remark from Padre Collantes: “Lolay, remember this. Take good care of this child, for someday he will be a great man.”

Rizal’s boyhood

Rizal’s grandniece, Asuncion Lopez-Bantug shares many intimate stories told by her Lola Narcisa in her book Lolo Jose. The story goes that Pepe’s head grew disproportionately, and when he begun to walk by himself he often fell, his head being too heavy for his frail body. Thus he needed an aya to look after him.

Aquilina Alquitran, Pepe’s nursemaid, spent days with the little boy with a big head in the backyard orchard in his small bahay kubo playhouse as he grew mischievously. Maybe to frighten obedience into the mischievous boy, she told folklore tales about men on the moon, giants, and monsters. Some of these legends would later be found in his novels. What fascinated Pepe was “Tantes,” his word for Gigantes or Giants, as he would stretch his tiny body up to his father’s waist in hopes he would grow big and strong. It was evident Pepe was sensitive about his height.

Wiz kid trivia

Pepe at the age of two had learned the alphabet being taught by his mother to his 4-year old sister Maria while he was playing quietly nearby. One morning, Doña Teodora included him in the lesson and by supper time, he had memorized most of the alphabet in the Cartilla (spelling book). One day, his sisters found him lying on his stomach with Maria’s Caton, a basic reader with pictures. Using the Cartilla, he spelled out the words in one book using the letters in the other. Pepe taught himself to read.

Doña Teodora started honing his talent early. He was real bright, curious, and inquisitive but sometime got into mischief.

Little kid mischief

Listening to his mother prayed the rosary one night he suddenly called out: “Mother.” “Yes son?” as she paused in her prayers but he was silent. Minutes later he again interrupted with” “Mother.” She frowned at him: “Well, what do you want?” Again there was no reply. After the third “Mother,” she was quite annoyed: “But what is it Jose? You keep repeating Mother!” The boy looked at her and said: “I was only wondering, Inay, if God becomes annoyed when we keep repeating and repeating the Padre Nuestro (Our Father).”

Mind and body

It was his uncle Manuel who sought to relieve Rizal’s anxiety about his puny body by making him skip, jump, and run. It was difficult for the frail boy but his will bit his flesh and soon became robust and vigorous, yet lighter and quicker. He got into sports to build his body: swimming, riding, wrestling, and boxing.

For the rest of his life Rizal balanced the development of both mind and body. He stood tall at five feet and three inches, broad shouldered, yet slim with only 25 to 26 inch waistline.

Doña Teodora played vital role in the intellectual and spiritual growth of her children. The family had a library of books, a luxury for a rural town household. She would often read poetry and stories to her siblings. She nurtured their creativity in the fine arts: music, painting, and sculpture. The children were encouraged to speak up, inquire and argue with reason and enlightenment. In those days, children were normally seen but not heard. She taught them to be practical, industrious, and thrifty.

Caned by schoolmaster

Rizal attended school in Biñan at the age of nine. He stayed with relatives there. This kept him away from his “beloved Calamba,” so he did not care for his studies. Although he was bright for his class, Jose paid for his pranks, as even he admitted that not a day went by without his getting caned by the schoolmaster. He learned to channel his mischievous behavior into something more positive. He was often discouraged but never gave up easily, as he later wrote: “I had entered school still a boy…by dint of studying, of analyzing myself, of reaching out for higher things, and of a thousand corrections I was transformed little by little…”

Walk the freedom trail?

The young Rizal was a serious fellow whom neighbors dubbed “Hermano Jose” because he was usually wrapped in thought as he walked down the streets of Calamba. In those deep thoughts, had he in mind how the streets he plodded on in his “beloved Calamba” would bear the initial thuds of the indelible trail to freedom?

Rizal, even as a little boy, was already creative and artistic. He wrote simple poems and stories. He would sketch and draw cartoons to illustrate his tales.

No wonder, not only the Filipino nation but other nations, too, acknowledged the greatness of his immortal novels – the Noli and the Fili! Historians realized that Rizal was, indeed, the Filipino trailblazer to freedom.