José Rizal

In one recorded account detailing Rizal's 1887 visit to Prague, Maximo Viola wrote that Rizal succumbed to the temptation of a 'lady of the camellias'. Viola, a friend of Rizal's and an early financier of Noli Me Tangere, was alluding to Dumas's 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man who fell in love with a courtesan. While the affair was on record, there were no further details in Viola's letter concerning the duration and nature of the affair. [29][30][note 6]

A crayon portrait of Leonor Rivera by José Rizal

Leonor Rivera is thought to be the inspiration for the character of María Clara in Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.[31] Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when Rivera was only 14 years old. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was 16 years of age. Their correspondence began when Rizal left a poem for Rivera saying farewell.[32]

The correspondence between Rivera and Rizal kept him focused on his studies in Europe. They employed codes in their letters because Rivera's mother did not favor Rizal. A letter from Mariano Katigbak dated June 27, 1884, referred to Rivera as Rizal's "betrothed". Katigbak described Rivera as having been greatly affected by Rizal's departure, frequently sick because of insomnia.

When Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera and her family had moved back to Dagupan, Pangasinan. Rizal was forbidden by his father Francisco Mercado to see Rivera in order to avoid putting the Rivera family in danger because at the time Rizal was already labeled by the criollo elite as a filibustero or subversive[32] because of his novel Noli Me Tángere. Rizal wanted to marry Rivera while he was still in the Philippines because of Rivera's uncomplaining fidelity. Rizal asked permission from his father one more time before his second departure from the Philippines. The meeting never happened. In 1888, Rizal stopped receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although Rizal kept sending letters to Rivera. The reason for Rivera's year of silence was the connivance between Rivera's mother and the Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway engineer who fell in love with Rivera and was favored by Rivera's mother.[32][33] The news of Leonor Rivera's marriage to Kipping devastated Rizal.

His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces of paper. In the home of a Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, he left an impression that was to be remembered by his daughter, Consuelo. In her diary, she wrote of a day Rizal spent there and regaled them with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Antonio de Morga's writings, he became a regular guest in the home of Reinhold Rost of the British Museum who referred to him as "a gem of a man."[26][note 7] The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts saved even buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes. They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of memorabilia.

Josephine Bracken was Rizal's common-law wife whom he reportedly married shortly before his execution.

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong Kong, when she accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eyes checked by Rizal.[34] After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love with each other. They applied to marry but, because of Rizal's reputation from his writings and political stance, the local priest Father Obach would only hold the ceremony if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu. He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism.[6]

After accompanying her father to Manila on her return to Hong Kong, and before heading back to Dapitan to live with Rizal, Josephine introduced herself to members of Rizal's family in Manila. His mother suggested a civil marriage, which she believed to be a lesser sacrament but less sinful to Rizal's conscience than making any sort of political retraction in order to gain permission from the Bishop.[35] Rizal and Josephine lived as husband and wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a son who lived only for a few hours; Rizal named him after his father Francisco.[36]

Bust of Padre Guerrico in clay, by Rizal

Rizal's pencil sketch of Blumentritt

Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was disbanded by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novel.

Rizal was implicated in the activities of the nascent rebellion and in July 1892, was deported to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga, a peninsula of Mindanao.[42] There he built a school, a hospital and a water supply system, and taught and engaged in farming and horticulture.[43] Abaca, then the vital raw material for cordage and which Rizal and his students planted in the thousands, was a memorial.

The boys' school, which taught in Spanish, and included English as a foreign language (considered a prescient if unusual option then) was conceived by Rizal and antedated Gordonstoun with its aims of inculcating resourcefulness and self-sufficiency in young men.[44] They would later enjoy successful lives as farmers and honest government officials.[45][46][47] One, a Muslim, became a datu, and another, José Aseniero, who was with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga.[48][49]

In Dapitan, the Jesuits mounted a great effort to secure his return to the fold led by Fray Francisco de Paula Sánchez, his former professor, who failed in his mission. The task was resumed by Fray Pastells, a prominent member of the Order. In a letter to Pastells, Rizal sails close to the deism familiar to us today.[50][51][52]

We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt His when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to Him; before theologians' and philosophers' definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: ‘It could be’; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!...I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human 'fingernail' and the stamp of the time in which they were written... No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness of God, His love, His providence, His eternity, His glory, His wisdom? ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.[53]

His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends and fellow-scientists who wrote a stream of letters which arrived in Dutch, French, German and English and which baffled the censors, delaying their transmittal. Those four years of his exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution from inception and to its final breakout, which, from the viewpoint of the court which was to try him, suggested his complicity in it.[26] He condemned the uprising, although all the members of the Katipunan had made him their honorary president and had used his name as a cry for war, unity, and liberty.[54]

He is known to making the resolution of bearing personal sacrifice instead of the incoming revolution, believing that a peaceful stand is the best way to avoid further suffering in the country and loss of Filipino lives. In Rizal's own words, "I consider myself happy for being able to suffer a little for a cause which I believe to be sacred [...]. I believe further that in any undertaking, the more one suffers for it, the surer its success. If this be fanaticism may God pardon me, but my poor judgment does not see it as such."[55]

In Dapitan, Rizal wrote "Haec Est Sibylla Cumana", a parlor-game for his students, with questions and answers for which a wooden top was used. In 2004, Jean Paul Verstraeten traced this book and the wooden top, as well as Rizal's personal watch, spoon and salter.

By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a full-blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising.[56] Rizal had earlier volunteered his services as a doctor in Cuba and was given leave by Governor-General Ramón Blanco to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Rizal and Josephine left Dapitan on August 1, 1896, with letter of recommendation from Blanco.

Rizal was arrested en route to Cuba via Spain and was imprisoned in Barcelona on October 6, 1896. He was sent back the same day to Manila to stand trial as he was implicated in the revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan. During the entire passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to escape but refused to do so.

While imprisoned in Fort Santiago, he issued a manifesto disavowing the current revolution in its present state and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom.

Rizal was tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy, and was convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Blanco, who was sympathetic to Rizal, had been forced out of office. The friars, led by then-Archbishop of Manila Bernardino Nozaleda had 'intercalated' Camilo de Polavieja in his stead as the new Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines after pressuring Queen-Regent Maria Cristina of Spain, thus sealing Rizal's fate.

• "El amor patrio", 1882 essay[62]
• "Toast to Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo", 1884 speech given at Restaurante Ingles, Madrid
• Noli Me Tángere, 1887 novel (literally Latin for 'touch me not', from John 20:17)[63]
• Alin Mang Lahi ("Whate'er the Race"), a Kundiman attributed to Dr. José Rizal[64]
• "Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga-Malolos" (To the Young Women of Malolos), 1889 letter
• Annotations to Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, 1889
• "Filipinas dentro de cien años" (The Philippines a Century Hence), 1889–90 essay
• "Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos" (The Indolence of Filipinos), 1890 essay[65]
• "Como se gobiernan las Filipinas" (Governing the Philippine islands), 1890 essay
• El filibusterismo, 1891 novel; sequel to Noli Me Tángere
• Una visita del Señor a Filipinas, also known as Friars and Filipinos, 14-page unfinished novel written in 1889[66]
• Memorias de un Gallo, 2-page unfinished satire[66]
• Makamisa, unfinished Tagalog-language novel written in 1892

The Triumph of Science over Death, by Rizal

• "Felicitación" (1874/75)
• "El embarque"[67] (The Embarkation, 1875)
• "Por la educación recibe lustre la patria" (1876)
• "Un recuerdo á mi pueblo" (1876)
• "Al niño Jesús" (c. 1876)
• "A la juventud filipina" (To the Philippine Youth, 1879)
• "¡Me piden versos!" (1882)
• "Canto de María Clara" (from Noli Me Tángere, 1887)
• "Himno al trabajo" (Dalit sa Paggawa, 1888)
• "Kundiman" (disputed, 1889) - also attributed to Pedro Paterno
• "A mi musa" (To My Muse, 1890)
• "El canto del viajero" (1892–96)
• "Mi retiro" (1895)
• "Mi último adiós" (1896)
• "Mi primera inspiracion" (disputed) - also attributed to Antonio Lopez, Rizal's nephew

• El Consejo de los Dioses (The Council of Gods)
• Junto al Pasig (Along the Pasig)[68]^:381
• San Euistaquio, Mártyr (Saint Eustache, the martyr)[69]

Rizal also tried his hand at painting and sculpture. His most famous sculptural work was "The Triumph of Science over Death", a clay sculpture of a naked young woman with overflowing hair, standing on a skull while bearing a torch held high. The woman symbolized the ignorance of humankind during the Dark Ages, while the torch she bore symbolized the enlightenment science brings over the whole world. He sent the sculpture as a gift to his dear friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, together with another one named "The Triumph of Death over Life".

The woman is shown trampling the skull, a symbol of death, to signify the victory the humankind achieved by conquering the bane of death through their scientific advancements. The original sculpture is now displayed at the Rizal Shrine Museum at Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. A large replica, made of concrete, stands in front of Fernando Calderón Hall, the building which houses the College of Medicine of the University of the Philippines Manila along Pedro Gil Street in Ermita, Manila.

Several historians report that Rizal retracted his anti-Catholic ideas through a document which stated: "I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications and conduct have been contrary to my character as a son of the Catholic Church."[note 11] However, there are doubts of its authenticity given that there is no certificate of Rizal's Catholic marriage to Josephine Bracken.[70] Also there is an allegation that the retraction document was a forgery.[71]

After analyzing six major documents of Rizal, Ricardo Pascual concluded that the retraction document, said to have been discovered in 1935, was not in Rizal's handwriting. Senator Rafael Palma, a former President of the University of the Philippines and a prominent Mason, argued that a retraction is not in keeping with Rizal's character and mature beliefs.[72] He called the retraction story a "pious fraud."[73] Others who deny the retraction are Frank Laubach,[21] a Protestant minister; Austin Coates,[33] a British writer; and Ricardo Manapat, director of the National Archives.[74]

Those who affirm the authenticity of Rizal's retraction are prominent Philippine historians such as Nick Joaquin,[note 12] Nicolas Zafra of UP[75] León María Guerrero III,[note 13] Gregorio Zaide,[77] Guillermo Gómez Rivera, Ambeth Ocampo,[74] John Schumacher,[78] Antonio Molina,[79] Paul Dumol[80] and Austin Craig.[24] They take the retraction document as authentic, having been judged as such by a foremost expert on the writings of Rizal, Teodoro Kalaw (a 33rd degree Mason) and "handwriting experts...known and recognized in our courts of justice", H. Otley Beyer and Dr. José I. Del Rosario, both of UP.[75]

Historians also refer to 11 eyewitnesses when Rizal wrote his retraction, signed a Catholic prayer book, and recited Catholic prayers, and the multitude who saw him kiss the crucifix before his execution. A great grand nephew of Rizal, Fr. Marciano Guzman, cites that Rizal's 4 confessions were certified by 5 eyewitnesses, 10 qualified witnesses, 7 newspapers, and 12 historians and writers including Aglipayan bishops, Masons and anti-clericals.[81] One witness was the head of the Spanish Supreme Court at the time of his notarized declaration and was highly esteemed by Rizal for his integrity.[82]

Because of what he sees as the strength these direct evidence have in the light of the historical method, in contrast with merely circumstantial evidence, UP professor emeritus of history Nicolas Zafra called the retraction "a plain unadorned fact of history."[75] Guzmán attributes the denial of retraction to "the blatant disbelief and stubbornness" of some Masons.[81] To explain the retraction Guzman said that the factors are the long discussion and debate which appealed to reason and logic that he had with Fr. Balaguer, the visits of his mentors and friends from the Ateneo, and the grace of God due the numerous prayers of religious communities.[81]

Supporters see in the retraction Rizal's "moral courage...to recognize his mistakes,"[77][note 14] his reversion to the "true faith", and thus his "unfading glory,"[82] and a return to the "ideals of his fathers" which "did not diminish his stature as a great patriot; on the contrary, it increased that stature to greatness."[85] On the other hand, senator Jose Diokno stated, "Surely whether Rizal died as a Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino... Catholic or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal – the hero who courted death 'to prove to those who deny our patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our beliefs'."[86]

The poem is more aptly titled "Adiós, Patria Adorada" (literally "Farewell, Beloved Fatherland"), by virtue of logic and literary tradition, the words coming from the first line of the poem itself. It first appeared in print not in Manila but in Hong Kong in 1897, when a copy of the poem and an accompanying photograph came to J. P. Braga who decided to publish it in a monthly journal he edited. There was a delay when Braga, who greatly admired Rizal, wanted a good facsimile of the photograph and sent it to be engraved in London, a process taking well over two months. It finally appeared under "Mi último pensamiento," a title he supplied and by which it was known for a few years. Thus, the Jesuit Balaguer's anonymous account of the retraction and the marriage to Josephine was published in Barcelona before word of the poem's existence had reached him and he could revise what he had written. His account was too elaborate for Rizal to have had time to write "Adiós."

Six years after his death, when the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 was being debated in the United States Congress, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin rendered an English translation of Rizal's valedictory poem capped by the peroration, "Under what clime or what skies has tyranny claimed a nobler victim?"[87] Subsequently, the US Congress passed the bill into law, which is now known as the Philippine Organic Act of 1902.[88]

This was a major breakthrough for a U.S. Congress that had yet to grant the equal rights to African Americans guaranteed to them in the U.S. Constitution and at a time the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in effect. It created the Philippine legislature, appointed two Filipino delegates to the U.S. Congress, extended the U.S. Bill of Rights to Filipinos and laid the foundation for an autonomous government. The colony was on its way to independence.[88] The United States passed the Jones Law that made the legislature fully autonomous until 1916 but did not recognize Philippine independence until the Treaty of Manila in 1946—fifty years after Rizal's death. This same poem, which has inspired independence activists across the region and beyond, was recited (in its Indonesian translation by Rosihan Anwar) by Indonesian soldiers of independence before going into battle.[89]

Josephine Bracken, whom Rizal addressed as his wife on his last day,[90] promptly joined the revolutionary forces in Cavite province, making her way through thicket and mud across enemy lines, and helped reloading spent cartridges at the arsenal in Imus under the revolutionary General Pantaleón García. Imus came under threat of recapture that the operation was moved, with Bracken, to Maragondon, the mountain redoubt in Cavite.[91]

She witnessed the Tejeros Convention prior to returning to Manila and was summoned by the Governor-General, but owing to her stepfather's American citizenship she could not be forcibly deported. She left voluntarily returning to Hong Kong. She later married another Filipino, Vicente Abad, a mestizo acting as agent for the Tabacalera firm in the Philippines. She died of tuberculosis in Hong Kong on March 15, 1902, and was buried at the Happy Valley Cemetery.[91] She was immortalized by Rizal in the last stanza of Mi Ultimo Adios: "Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy...".

Polavieja faced condemnation by his countrymen after his return to Spain. While visiting Girona, in Catalonia, circulars were distributed among the crowd bearing Rizal's last verses, his portrait, and the charge that Polavieja was responsible for the loss of the Philippines to Spain.[92] Ramon Blanco later presented his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.

The confusion over Rizal's real stance on the Philippine Revolution leads to the sometimes bitter question of his ranking as the nation's premier hero.[93][94] But then again, according to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Section Chief Teodoro Atienza, and Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, there is no Filipino historical figure, including Rizal, that was officially declared as national hero through law or executive order.[95][96] Although, there were laws and proclamations honoring Filipino heroes.

Some suggest that Jose Rizal was made a legislated national hero by the American forces occupying the Philippines. In 1901, the American Governor General William Howard Taft suggested that the U.S. sponsored Philippine Commission name Rizal a national hero for Filipinos. Jose Rizal was an ideal candidate, favourable to the American occupiers since he was dead, and non-violent, a favourable quality which, if emulated by Filipinos, would not threaten the American rule or change the status quo of the occupiers of the Philippine islands. Rizal did not advocate independence for the Philippines either.[97] Subsequently, the US-sponsored commission passed Act No. 346 which set the anniversary of Rizal's death as a “day of observance.”[98]

Renato Constantino writes Rizal is a "United States-sponsored hero" who was promoted as the greatest Filipino hero during the American colonial period of the Philippines – after Aguinaldo lost the Philippine–American War. The United States promoted Rizal, who represented peaceful political advocacy (in fact, repudiation of violent means in general) instead of more radical figures whose ideas could inspire resistance against American rule. Rizal was selected over Andrés Bonifacio who was viewed "too radical" and Apolinario Mabini who was considered "unregenerate."[99]

On the other hand, numerous sources[100] quote that it was General Emilio Aguinaldo, and not the second Philippine Commission, who first recognized December 30 as "national day of mourning in memory of Rizal and other victims of Spanish tyranny. As per them, the first celebration of Rizal Day was held in Manila on December 30, 1898, under the sponsorship of the Club Filipino.[101]

The veracity of both claims seems to be justified and hence difficult to ascertain. However, most historians agree that a majority of Filipinos were unaware of Rizal during his lifetime,[102] as he was a member of the richer elite classes (he was born in an affluent family, had lived abroad for nearly as long as he had lived in the Philippines) and wrote primarily in an elite language (at that time, Tagalog and Cebuano were the languages of the masses) about ideals as lofty as freedom (the masses were more concerned about day to day issues like earning money and making a living, something which has not changed much today).[103]

Teodoro Agoncillo opines that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other countries, is not "the leader of its liberation forces". He gives the opinion that Andrés Bonifacio not replace Rizal as national hero, like some have suggested, but that be honored alongside him.[104]

Constantino's analysis has been criticised for its polemicism and inaccuracies regarding Rizal.[105] The historian Rafael Palma, contends that the revolution of Bonifacio is a consequence wrought by the writings of Rizal and that although the Bonifacio's revolver produced an immediate outcome, the pen of Rizal generated a more lasting achievement.[106]

Others present him as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in "Rizal: the Tagalog Hamlet", said of him, “a soul that dreads the revolution although deep down desires it. He pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair.”[107] His critics assert this character flaw is translated into his two novels where he opposes violence in Noli and appears to advocate it in Fili, contrasting Ibarra's idealism to Simoun's cynicism. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced when Simoun is struck down in the sequel's final chapters, reaffirming the author's resolute stance, Pure and spotless must the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable.[108]

Many thinkers tend to find the characters of María Clara and Ibarra (Noli Me Tángere) poor role models, María Clara being too frail, and young Ibarra being too accepting of circumstances, rather than being courageous and bold.[109]

In El Filibusterismo, Rizal had Father Florentino say: “...our liberty will (not) be secured at the sword's point...we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn.”[108] Rizal's attitude to the Philippine Revolution is also debated, not only based on his own writings, but also due to the varying eyewitness accounts of Pío Valenzuela, a doctor who in 1895 had consulted Rizal in Dapitan on behalf of Bonifacio and the Katipunan.

Upon the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, Valenzuela surrendered to the Spanish authorities and testified in military court that Rizal had strongly condemned an armed struggle for independence when Valenzuela asked for his support. Rizal had even refused him entry to his house. Bonifacio, in turn, had openly denounced him as a coward for his refusal.[note 15]

However, years later, Valenzuela testified that Rizal had been favorable to an uprising as long as the Filipinos were well-prepared, and well-supplied with arms. Rizal had suggested that the Katipunan get wealthy and influential Filipino members of society on their side, or at least ensure they would stay neutral. Rizal had even suggested his friend Antonio Luna to lead the revolutionary forces since he had studied military science.[note 16] In the event that the Katipunan was discovered prematurely, they should fight rather than allow themselves to be killed. Valenzuela said to historian Teodoro Agoncillo that he had lied to the Spanish military authorities about Rizal's true stance toward a revolution in an attempt to exculpate him.[110]

Before his execution, Rizal wrote a proclamation denouncing the revolution. But as noted by historian Floro Quibuyen, his final poem Mi ultimo adios contains a stanza which equates his coming execution and the rebels then dying in battle as fundamentally the same, as both are dying for their country.[111]

José Rizal was imprisoned at Fort Santiago and soon after he was banished at Dapitan where he plunged himself into studying of nature. He then able to collect a number of species of various classes: insects, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, shells, snakes and plants.

Rizal sent many specimens of animals, insects, and plants for identification to the (Anthropological and Ethnographical Museum of Dresden[123]), Dresden Museum of Ethnology. It was not in his interest to receive any monetary payment; all he wanted were scientific books, magazines and surgical instruments which he needed and used in Dapitan.

During his exile, Rizal also secretly sent several specimens of flying dragons to Europe. He believed that they were a new species. The German zoologist Benno Wandolleck named them Draco rizali after Rizal. However, it has since been discovered that the species had already been described by the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1885 as Draco guentheri.[124]

There are three species named after Rizal:

• Draco rizali – a small lizard, known as a flying dragon
• Apogania rizali – a very rare kind of beetle with five horns
• Rhacophorus rizali – a peculiar frog species. Rhacophorus rizali[125]

• Although his field of action lay in politics, Rizal's real interests lay in the arts and sciences, in literature and in his profession as an ophthalmologist. Shortly after his death, the Anthropological Society of Berlin met to honor him with a reading of a German translation of his farewell poem and Dr. Rudolf Virchow delivering the eulogy.[126]
• The Rizal Monument now stands near the place where he fell at the Luneta in Bagumbayan, which is now called Rizal Park, a national park in Manila. The monument, which also contains his remains, was designed by the Swiss Richard Kissling of the William Tell sculpture in Altdorf, Uri.[note 21] The monument carries the inscription: "I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him."[26]
• The Taft Commission in June 1901 approved Act 137 renaming the District of Morong into the Province of Rizal. Today, the wide acceptance of Rizal is evidenced by the countless towns, streets, and numerous parks in the Philippines named in his honor.

• 
  Close-up image of Rizal's statue at the Rizal Monument in Manila
• 
  Rizal Monument
• 
  Second tallest José Rizal statue in the world. Located at Calamba, Laguna, Rizal's hometown. It was inaugurated on 2011, on the 150th birth celebration of the hero.
• 
  Rizal on the obverse side of a 1970 Philippine peso coin
• 
  The Rizal Park at the Bulacan State University
• 
  The Portrait of Rizal, painted in oil by Juan Luna

• Republic Act 1425, known as the Rizal Law, was passed in 1956 by the Philippine legislature requiring all high school and colleges to offer courses about his life, works and writings.
• Monuments erected in his honor can be found in Madrid;[128] Tokyo;[129] Wilhelmsfeld, Germany; Jinjiang, Fujian, China;[130] Chicago;[131] Jersey City; Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey; Honolulu;[132] San Diego;[133] Los Angeles including the suburbs Carson and West Covina (both near Seafood City, Mexico City, Mexico;[134] Lima, Peru;[135] Litomerice, Czech Republic;[136] Toronto;[137] Markham;[138] and Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• A two-sided marker bearing a painting of Rizal by Fabián de la Rosa on one side and a bronze bust relief of him by Philippine artist Guillermo Tolentino stands at the Asian Civilisations Museum Green marking his visits to Singapore in 1882, 1887, 1891 and 1896.[139]
• A Rizal bronze bust was erected at La Molina district, Lima, Peru, designed by Czech sculptor Hanstroff, mounted atop a pedestal base with four inaugural plaque markers with the following inscription on one: "Dr. José P. Rizal, Héroe Nacional de Filipinas, Nacionalista, Reformador Political, Escritor, Lingüistica y Poeta, 1861–1896."[140][141]
• A Rizal bust sits in front of the Filipino American Council of Chicago, celebrating a one-day visit Dr. Rizal made to Chicago on May 11, 1888, as seen below.

• 
  The USS Rizal (DD-174) launched in 1918
• 
  The statue of Rizal at the Rizal Park in Wilhelmsfeld, Germany
• 
  The National Historical Institute logo for the 150th birth anniversary of José Rizal
• 
  The Hong Kong Government erected a plaque beside Dr. José Rizal's residence in Hong Kong.

• A plaque marks the Wilhelmsfeld building where he trained with Professor Becker. There is a small park in Wilhelmsfeld named after Rizal with a bronze statue of Rizal, and the street where he lived on was also renamed after him. Wilhelmsfeld's local government gifted the sandstone fountain in Pastor Ullmer's house garden where Rizal lived to the Philippine government and is now located at Rizal Park in Manila.[142]
• In Heidelberg, a small stretch along the Neckar River is named after Rizal. In 2014, a commemorative sandstone plaque was placed there in Rizal's honor.[143]
• Throughout 2011, the National Historical Institute and other institutions organized several activities commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Rizal, which took place on June 19 of that year.
• The London Borough of Camden placed a Blue Plaque at 37 Chalcot Crescent, where Rizal lived for some time, with the words: "Dr. José Rizal, Writer and National Hero of the Philippines".
• A monument in honor of Rizal was planned in Rome.[144]
• In the City of Philadelphia, the 'City of Murals' first Filipino mural in the US east coast honoring José Rizal was to be unveiled to the public in time for Rizal's Sesquicentennial year-long celebration.[145]
• A street in Chanakyapuri, the Diplomatic Enclave of New Delhi, India, is named Dr. Jose P. Rizal Marg
• The Grand Oriental Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka has a suite named after Jose P. Rizal as he had stayed there in May 1882.
• Nearly every town and city in the Philippines contains a street named after Rizal (Rizal street and Rizal Avenue)
• At least ten towns / cities in the Philippines are named "Rizal" (for example: Rizal – Cagayan)

BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150) during the launching ceremony

• A road in the Chanakyapuri area of New Delhi (India) is named Dr. Jose P Rizal Marg.
• A road in Medan, Indonesia is named Jalan Jose Rizal after him.
• The USS Rizal (DD-174) was a Wickes-class destroyer named after Rizal by the United States Navy and launched on September 21, 1918.
• The José Rizal Bridge and Rizal Park in the city of Seattle are dedicated to Rizal.[146]
• On 19 June 2019, on Rizal's 158th birthday, he was honored with a Google Doodle.[147]
• A bronze bust of Rizal by F.B. Case was gifted to the City of Toronto by the Government of the Philippines in 1998. It is located at Earl Bales Park in the neighbourhood of Lansing.[137]
• A monument by Mogi Mogado was unveiled at Luneta Gardens (similar name as the park where Rizal is buried - Luneta Park or now as Rizal Park) in 2019 as a gift from the Filipino Canadian community of Markham to the City of Markham. It is located in the Box Grove area of Markham, Ontario near Rizal Avenue, which is also named for him.[148]
• A Jose Rizal-class frigate of the Philippine Navy was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Two ships were ordered in 2016. They are the first guided missile frigate to enter service with the Philippine Navy. The lead ship, BRP Jose Rizal, arrived in the Philippines on May 22, 2020.[149]

The cinematic depiction of Rizal's literary works won two film industry awards more than a century after his birth. In the 10th FAMAS Awards, he was honored in the Best Story category for Gerardo de León's adaptation of his book Noli Me Tángere. The recognition was repeated the following year with his movie version of El Filibusterismo, making him the only person to win back-to-back FAMAS Awards posthumously.

Both novels were translated into opera by the composer-librettist Felipe Padilla de León: Noli me tangere in 1957 and El filibusterismo in 1970; and his 1939 overture, Mariang Makiling, was inspired by Rizal's tale of the same name.[150]

Ang Luha at Lualhati ni Jeronima is a film inspired by the third chapter of Rizal's El filibusterismo.[151]

• Portrayed by Eddie del Mar in the 1956 film, Ang Buhay at Pag-ibig ni Dr. Jose Rizal
• Portrayed by Albert Martinez in the 1997 film, Rizal sa Dapitan
• Portrayed by Dominic Guinto and Cesar Montano in the 1998 biographical film, José Rizal
• Portrayed by Joel Torre in the 1999 mockumentary film, Bayaning 3rd World
• Portrayed by Nasser in the 2013 TV series, Katipunan
• Portrayed by Jhiz Deocareza and Alden Richards in the 2014 TV series, Ilustrado.
• Portrayed by Jericho Rosales in the 2014 film, Bonifacio: Ang Unang Pangulo
• Portrayed by Tony Labrusca in the 2019 iWant original series, Ang Babae sa Septic Tank 3: The Untold Story of Josephine Bracken

• Rizal appeared in the 1999 video game Medal of Honor as a secret character in multiplayer, alongside other historical figures such as William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill. He can be unlocked by completing the single-player mode, or through cheat codes.[152][153]
• The Tekken series introduced a character by the name of Josie Rizal in acknowledgement of José Rizal.