CHAPTER IV

The Injustice Done My Mother

(This chapter and the next one, Rizal wrote in 1879. At that time he

was eighteen years old.)

Some days after my return to Kalamba, my parents decided that I

should remain, and that later, I should go to Manila. I wanted to

study with a teacher of the town, even though I could learn no more

than multiplication, so I entered the village school.

At this time, an uncle of mine, Don José Alberto, returned from

Europe. He found that during his absence, his wife had left his

home and abandoned her children. The poor man anxiously sought his

wife and, at my mother's earnest request, he took her back. They

went to live in Biñan. Only a few days later the ungrateful woman

plotted with a Guardia Civil officer who was a friend of ours. She

accused her husband of poisoning her and charged that my mother was

an accomplice. On this charge, the alcalde sent my mother to prison.

I do not like to tell of the deep grief which we all, nine sisters

and brothers, felt. Our mother's arrest, we knew, was unjust. The

men who arrested her pretended to be friends and had often been

our guests. Ever since then, child though I was, I have distrusted

friendship. We learned later that our mother, away from us all and

along in years, was ill. From the first, the alcalde believed the

accusation. He was unfair in every way and treated my mother rudely,

even brutally. Finally, he persuaded her to confess to what they wished

by promising to set her free and to let her see her children. What

mother could resist that? What mother would not sacrifice life itself

for her children?

They terrified and deceived my mother as they would have any

other mother. They threatened to condemn her if she did not say

what they wished. She submitted to the will of her enemies and

lost her spirit. The case became involved until the same alcalde

asked pardon for her. But this was only when the matter was before

the Supreme Court. He asked for the pardon because he was sorry

for what he had done. Such was his meanness that I felt afraid of

him. Attorneys Francisco de Marcaida and Manuel Masigan, Manila's

leading lawyers, defended my mother and they finally succeeded in

having her acquitted. They proved her innocence to her judges, her

accusers and her hosts of enemies. But after how much delay?--After

two and a half years.

Meanwhile my father decided to send me to Manila with my brother

Paciano. I was to take the entrance examinations for the secondary

course in the Ateneo Municipal. I arrived in Manila on June 10th,

1872. I found out for the first time what examinations were like. My

examinations were in Christian doctrine, arithmetic and reading,

in San Juan de Letran College. They gave me a passing mark and I

returned to my home. A few days later came the celebration of the

town festival, after which I went to Manila. But even then, I felt

that unhappiness was in store for me.