José Rizal
(José Rizal y Alonso; Calamba, Philippines, 1861-Manila, 1896) Filipino politician and writer.He began his university studies with the Jesuits in Manila, and in 1882 he entered the University of Madrid, from which he graduated in medicine and in philosophy and letters.During a trip to Europe he wrote Noli me tangere , an anti-colonial novel in which he denounced the abuses of the Spanish Administration in the Philippines, where its publication was prohibited.Rizal, whose political militancy had begun in the university cloister, was strongly opposed to the inordinate power of the Spanish Catholic Orders.In this sense, his work El filibusterismo summed up his nationalist ideology, which he later spread through the Philippine League, a secret society he founded in Hong Kong.
Thanks to a government opening, in 1887 he was able to return to his homeland, but the close police surveillance to which he was subjected forced him to leave the following year.He returned in 1892, having promised not to carry out any political activity.However, the dramatic situation of the Calamba peasants, who had been dispossessed of their homes, led him to take an open side for them.That same year, he went to Hong Kong, where he tried to create a colony in Borneo and found the Philippine League there, for which, accused of being part of secret societies, he was deported to Mindanao.
In 1896 he undertook a trip to Barcelona and was again accused, this time unfairly, of intervening in the insurrection of the Katipunan secret society.Arrested and transferred to Manila, he was court-martialed.Pi y Margall, with whom he had a deep friendship, requested a pardon, but the request was rejected by Cánovas.Shot in Manila, his fight for the Filipino people made him a champion of independence.
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