Who is Your Country's National Hero?

If you are living in the Pearl of the Orient Seas, you probably know the name of our national hero, he is none other than Jose Rizal.

Today, I have decided to write an article about him. Even though he is well-known locally, I am sure many people from around the world knows him too because he has travelled much during his studies abroad and has interactions with people from other nationalities.

He went to Spain.

He visited Berlin.

He walked the streets of Europe

He went on a trip to Hong Kong.

He had a romantic interlude in Japan.

He ventured the path walks of the United States of America.

He marched the streets of London

He sojourned in Paris.

He set foot in the streets of Belgium.

And lastly he had some serious misfortunes in Madrid.

Having mentioned the places that he went to abroad, it is indeed not a surprise if other people knows him too. In fact, the Britons had an entry in their website about him. In their official site called, The British Museum, they stated that, “Dr. José P. Rizal was a Philipino polymath, nationalist, and the most prominent advocate for reforms in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is considered the Philippines' national hero and the anniversary of Rizal's death is commemorated as a Philippine holiday called Rizal Day. Rizal's 1896 military trial and execution made him a martyr of the Philippine Revolution.”

I was amazed when I saw that they did include him in their official website. He is one of the very few people who were able to accomplish so many things in their short mortal life. He was an author, a poet, a revolutionist, a scientist, a novelist, a playwright, a journalist, an ophthalmologist, a sculpture, and many more!

His literary works are very influential in helping our country and my fellow men have the freedom from the foreign colonizers in the early times.  Two of his famous novels were the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. During my high school days, I remembered how common it was for a student to write his or her reflections about the two novels. In those days, the last two years of high school have the Noli of the El Fili (as we fondly call them). Now I can only recall bits and pieces of the novel, but there were some lessons that really stayed with me though some of the events are unknown already. One of which, is how toxic greed and carnal desires are.

 But today I am going to share with you another work of Rizal, hoping that you will also get an amount of realization from this work of art. It is the poem entitled, “Through Education Motherland Receives Light”.

 This literary art talks about education and its countless benefits to our dear Motherland.  There is a specific line from the poem that for me represents the great advantage that a nation can get when its countrymen are filled with literacy;

 She lifts the motherland to highest station
And endless dazzling glories on her shower

As I was reading this line, I realized how great the vision Rizal has for his country. He surely saw how education allowed him to see things in a better way. As we all know, Rizal pursued education even when he was still little up to the time when he was fit enough to acquire higher education. In fact, he went abroad in order to learn and gain more knowledge. Because of Rizal’s education, he had a lot of realizations. He realized that we were wrongly treated by our colonizers, he found a way to fought them through the use of his mighty pen, he found a way to awaken his fellow Filipinos and fight back, and so many other things that he was able to do- all because of his education.

Now, I was imagining the great advantages if all of us Filipinos are well educated. I know that literacy for all is a difficult task to achieve but just like what Rizal mentioned in his poem, there will be challenges in pursuing education but the rewards of it will make all the hardships worth taking.  So even though we will encounter stumbling blocks along the way, Rizal encourages us to pursue education and face the storms that it brings along, for out of it we will gain rewards of goodness, truth and honor, not just for ourselves but also for our dear country.

He also stressed out the importance of religion in education in this part;
“And by the love of goodness ever lived,
The lords and governors will see implanted
To endless days, the Christian Education,
Within their noble, faith-enrapture nation’

So skillful noble Teaching doth unfold
To living minds the joy of virtuous ways.
She offers our dear motherland the light
That leads us to immortal glory's height.”

After reading this I realized that he is admonishing us to acquire virtue and light by gaining values along with the facts and truths that we can gain as we learn and educate ourselves. And I agree with him because it is such a great thing if we are not only well educated in various professional fields but are also well educated with values and good manners. For me it is very refreshing to see a person that is not just intelligent in his profession but is also well mannered and humble just like Rizal. I see in him the values that his parents taught him even though he already learned so many things abroad. And I think he also wants us to be like that- to be learned in the ways of men but still be good and kind towards all men.

I was not the same when I read this poem of him. It changed me and I hope that it can also help you gain insights that will impact you for good. Literatures like this are timeless and worth the share.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my articles. Anyeong!

Article Title: Who is Your Country's National Hero?
Writer: Betha
Date: April 25,2022
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED