José Rizal

José Rizal trained as an eye doctor but spent the 1880s writing political reform essays as part of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, arguing for change within Spanish rule. By the early 1890s, amid a land dispute in Calamba, his position hardened toward separation, putting him at odds with fellow reformers. On July 6, 1892, days after founding the secret society La Liga Filipina in Manila, Spanish authorities arrested him for possession of a seditious document and exiled him to Dapitan on Mindanao, where he met Josephine Bracken, who became his common-law wife. After four years, he left for Cu…