Jose Rizal: A Beloved Figure
José Rizal was one of the Philippines' most prominent critics of Spain's colonial rule
in the Philippines and later wrote his first novel, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me
Not/The Social Cancer). His return to the Philippines in 1887 was cut short when he
was targeted by police for his work on the subject (The Arena Group, 2014).
Noli Me Tangere is a broad and impassioned expose of the violence and corruption
of Spanish authority in the Philippines that became a timeless masterpiece and still
taught to Filipino students until this day (Rizal, 2020).
He is also a well-known writer whose writings are studied by many academics.
There is a study that investigates the historiography, or the authoring, interpretation,
and presentation of Rizal as a martial artist in popular biographies, sources, and web
publications (Pawilen, 2020, p.127).
