Sweet moments with Ms. B

Dr. José Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo Realonda …Universal Hero; Messiah of the Revolution; Great Malayan; Pride of the Malay Race; Messiah of the Redemption; First Filipino; He was an eye surgeon, and so on…

Imagine how many names have been given to this man. Born on June 19, 1861, he was the “guy”. He had curly black hair, kind of “pogi” (handsome) in a way. Actually, if we trace back his ancestors, we would come up with six (6) different races happily mixed together within his blood namely: Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Malay, Sngley Meztizo and our very own- Negrito family.

With all these colors intertwined inside him, one should not wonder why he has become a multi-laurelled individual. He has learned too many languages totalling twenty two (22) of them including: Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Malay, Sanskrit, Spanish, Tagalog, Cebuano and other Philippine languages.

Furthermore, Dr. Jose P. Rizal also became an expert in his own right on other branches of Arts and Sciences as: architect, artist, educator, economist, ethnologist, scientific farmer, historian, inventor, journalist, musician, mythologist, internationalist, naturalist, novelist, ophthalmologist, physician, poet, propagandist, sculptor, and sociologist.

Trully, he was “The Man”. Our inspiration, our collegue, our pride! Our national hero. And today, It’s the 109th anniversary of his death in Bagumbayan (now Luneta), when he was shot at gunpoint from his back for reasons he knew beforehand would kill him. But he didn’t die in vain, instead, he died with dignity and honor for our country. I love his grin, don't you ;-)