Jose P. Rizal may sound like a South American rapper, but the Filipino Doctor-Poet has a park dedicated to him in the centre of the Philippines' capital, Manila, and has a garden to commemorate his execution. I knew very little (read: nothing) of the history of the Philippines. A collection of islands that were united and subjugated by the Spanish in 1565, and named after their reigning monarch, Phillip II. Jose P Rizal comes in at the end of the Colonial Philippines. He was born in Calamba, Laguna (some thirty miles south of Manila), to a wealthy family. His ancestors were a mix of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, the most notable of whom were Chinese merchants and entrepreneurs. At an early age, Rizal and his brother were already annoying the aurthorities with their political ideas
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