Childhood years in Calamba

I. Calamba, the hero’s town a) Calamba was a hacienda town owned by the Dominican order, it was a just few kilometers to the south looms the legendary mount makiling and beyond this mountain is the province batangas. Calamba was named after a big native jar. b) East of the town is the laguna de bay an inland lake of songs and the emerald waters beneath the canopy of azure skies. In the middle of the lake towers the storied island of talim, and beyond it, towards north is the distant antipolo, famous mountain shrine of the miraculous lady of peace and good voyage. c) In 1876, when he was 15 years old and was a student in the ateneo de manila, he wrote a poem un recuerdo a mi pueblo (in memory of my town) II. Earliest childhood memories a) Because he was frail, sickly and undersized child, his father built a little nipa cottage in the garden for him to play in the daytime. b) The daily angelus prayer. c) Happy moonlit nights at the azotea after the nightly rosary. d) The nocturnal walk in town, especially when there was a moon. III. The Hero’s First Sorrow a) Jose loved most little concha (concepcion). Unfortunately, concha died of sickness in 1865 when she was only three. Jose was only four then. IV. Devoted son of the church a) Rizal grew up as a good catholic. At three he began to take part in the family prayers and at five, he was able to read haltingly the Spanish family bible. b) He loved to go to church, to pray, to take parts in the novenas and to join the religious processions. He was laughingly called manong jose by the hermanos and hermanas terceras. c) One of the men he esteemed and respected in calamba during his boyhood was the scholarly father leoncio lopez, the town priest. V. Pilgrimage to antipolo a) On june 6, 1868, jose and his father left