RIZAL’S VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES (1888)

· April 28, 1888- the steamer Belgic, with Rizal on board, docked at San Francisco on Saturday morning
· May 4, 1888- Friday afternoon, the day Rizal was permitted to go ashore
· Palace Hotel- Rizal registered here which was then considered a first-class hotel in the city
· Rizal stayed in San Francisco for two days—May 4 to 6, 1888
· May 6, 1888-Sunday, 4:30PM, Rizal left San Francisco for Oakland
· May 13, 1888-Sunday morning, Rizal reached New York, thus ending his trip across the American
continent
· Rizal stayed three days in this city, which he called the “big town.”
· May 16, 1888- Rizal left New York for Liverpool on board the City of Rome. According to Rizal, this
steamer was “the second largest ship in the world, the largest being the Great Eastern”
· Rizal had good and bad impressions of the United States. The good impressions were (1) the material
progress of the country as shown in the great cities, huge farms, flourishing industries and busy factories (2) the drive and energy of the American people (3) the natural beauty of the land (4) the high standard of living (5) the opportunities for better life offered to poor immigrants
· One bad impression Rizal had of America was the lack of racial equality: “America is the land par
excellence of freedom but only for the whites”

RIZAL IN LONDON (1888-1889)
-After visiting the United States, Rizal lived in London from May, 1888 to March, 1889 for three reasons: (1) to improve his knowledge of the English language (2) to study and annotate Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, a rare copy of which he heard to be available in the British Museum (3) London was a safe place for him to carry on his fight against Spanish tyranny

TRIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
· The trans-Atlantic voyage of Rizal from New York to Liverpool was a pleasant one.
· Rizal entertained the American and European passengers with his marvelous skills with the yo-yo as an offensive weapon.
· Yoyo-is a small wooden disc attached to a string from the finger.
· May 24, 1888-Rizal arrived at Liverpool, England
· Adelphi Hotel-Rizal spend the night here while staying for one day in this port city
· According to Rizal, “Liverpool is a big and beautiful city and its celebrated port is worthy of its
great fame. The entrance is magnificent and the customhouse is quite good.”

LIFE IN LONDON
· May 25, 1888- a day after docking at Liverpool, Rizal went to London
· Rizal stayed as guest at the home of Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, an exile of 1872 and a practicing lawyer in London. By the end of May, Rizal found a modest boarding place at No. 37 Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill
· Dr. Reinhold Rozt- librarian of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an authority on Malayan languages and customs
-He was impressed by Rizal’s learning and character and he gladly recommended him to the authorities of the British Museum. He called Rizal “a pearl of a man” (una perla de hombre)
· Both good and bad news from home reached Rizal in London. Of the bad news, were the injustices
committed by the Spanish authorities on the Filipino people and the Rizal Family
· The greatest achievement of Rizal in London was the annotating of Morga’s book, Sucesos de las
Islas Filipinas (Historical Events of the Philippine Islands), which was published in Mexico, 1609.
· September 1888- Rizal visited Paris for a week in order to search for more historical materials in the
Bibliotheque Nationale
· Rizal was entertained in this gay French metropolis by Juan Luna and his wife (Pas Pardo de Tavera),
who proudly showed him their little son Andres (nickname Luling)
· December 11, 1888-Rizal went to Spain, visiting Madrid and Barcelona
· Rizal met, for the first time, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Mariano Ponce, two titans of the Propaganda
Movement 19
· December 24, 1888-Rizal returned to London and spent Christmas and New Year’s Day with the
Becketts
· Rizal sent as Christmas gift to Blumentritt a bust of Emperador Augustus and a bust of Julius Caesar to another friend, Dr. Carlos Czepelak (Polish scholar)
· The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist-a Christmas gift from Rizal’s landlady,
Mrs Beckett