José Rizal Trivia
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100 free José Rizal trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
José Rizal packed an astonishing amount into 35 years: an ophthalmologist who operated on his own mother, a novelist whose two books helped start a revolution, a sculptor, a Freemason, a polyglot said to handle twenty-two languages, and finally a prisoner who walked to Bagumbayan on December 30, 1896 with a poem hidden in an alcohol stove. These 100 questions run from the easy facts every Filipino student knows — Calamba, Laguna; June 19, 1861; Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo — through the details that make his life read like a novel: the pony named Alipato, the class 'emperor' at the Ateneo, the French ship Djemnah, Leonor Rivera's railway engineer, the school he ran in Dapitan, the trial at Fort Santiago, the grave marked 'RPJ' and the Swiss sculptor whose second-place design became the Rizal Monument. The hardest ask about Wenceslao Retana, the Indonesian soldiers who recited his poem, and how many of his 56 sculptures survive. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a one-line explanation. Whether you need 20 trivia about Jose Rizal for a classroom, a Rizal Day quiz or a Buwan ng Wika activity, play it here or print it.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Laguna town was José Rizal born in 1861?
Calamba
His parents leased a hacienda and rice farm there from the Dominican Order.
Q 02What was Rizal's profession, the one he used on his own mother's eyes?
Ophthalmologist
He trained in Heidelberg under Otto Becker and used the newly invented ophthalmoscope.
Q 03Which island was Rizal banished to in 1892, to the town of Dapitan?
Mindanao
He spent four years there, building a school, a hospital and a water system.
Q 04Which Irish woman became Rizal's common-law wife during his exile?
Josephine Bracken
She came to Dapitan so Rizal could examine her blind adoptive father's eyes.
Q 05For what crime was Rizal executed in December 1896?
Rebellion
A court-martial convicted him of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy.
Q 06Where was Rizal headed when he was arrested at a stopover in Barcelona in 1896?
Cuba
He had volunteered to serve as a doctor treating yellow fever victims there.
Q 07Which two novels by Rizal are together taken as a national epic?
Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo
They were published in 1887 and 1891 respectively.
Q 08Which surname did the Mercado family adopt after an 1849 decree on Spanish surnames?
Rizal
The family kept using Mercado as well, which is why his full name is so long.
Q 09Rizal's paternal line traced back to Lam-co, a merchant from which Chinese province?
Fujian
Lam-co immigrated to the Philippines in 1697 and settled in Calamba.
Q 10Rizal was which child of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso?
Seventh
Teodora taught him the alphabet at three; by five he could read and write.
Q 11What was the name of the pony Rizal's father gave him as a birthday gift?
Alipato
Usman was his black dog; Talim was the steamboat he took home from Biñan.
Q 12In which town did the young Rizal first study under Justiniano Aquino Cruz?
Biñan
He thought the town 'large and rich, but ugly and dismal' and missed Calamba badly.
Q 13Which school gave the young Rizal the class title of 'emperor'?
Ateneo Municipal de Manila
He graduated there on March 23, 1877 with a Bachelor in Arts and a pile of medals.
Why did Rizal switch from Philosophy and Letters to medicine at Santo Tomas?
Q 21Which Masonic body did Rizal join in Spain, becoming a Master Mason in 1884?
Acacia Lodge No. 9
Freemasonry later fed the long dispute over whether he retracted before his execution.
Q 22Who was the 14-year-old Batangueña Rizal later called his first love?
Segunda Katigbak
He sketched her portrait at his grandmother's house, but she was already engaged.
Q 23Which distant cousin, thought to inspire María Clara, corresponded with Rizal for eight years?
Leonor Rivera
Her mother disapproved, so the two wrote to each other in code.
His mother was going blind
He stayed on at Santo Tomas for four more years before leaving for Spain.
Q 15Rizal's 1879 prize-winning poem 'A La Juventud Filipina' was addressed to whom?
Filipino youth
It won a contest held by the Artistic-Literary Lyceum of Manila.
Q 16Rizal's 1880 prize play El Consejo de Dioses is set where?
Mount Olympus
Greek gods argue in it over who is the best moral writer.
Q 17Who secretly supported Rizal's 1882 departure for Spain, which his parents knew nothing about?
His brother Paciano
Paciano woke him at dawn and also supplied most of his allowance in Europe.
Q 18Which French ship carried Rizal from Singapore to Europe in 1882?
Djemnah
The Salvadora was the steamship that took him only as far as Singapore.
Q 19In which German city did Rizal finish his eye specialisation under Otto Becker?
Heidelberg
He split his days there between German lessons and diseases of the eye.
Q 20How many languages is Rizal said to have been conversant in?
Twenty-two
His biographers complain that he switched languages mid-letter.
Q 24Henry Kipping, the Englishman who married Rizal's long-time sweetheart, had what job?
Railway engineer
News of the marriage devastated Rizal, who had kept writing for a year without reply.
Q 25Where in Hong Kong did Rizal run his ophthalmology clinic in 1891-92?
D'Aguilar Street
He lived at Rednaxela Terrace and saw patients from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Q 26Why did the blind George Taufer travel to Dapitan with his adopted daughter in 1895?
An eye examination
Taufer was blind; after repeated visits Rizal and Josephine fell in love.
Q 27Rizal's only child, a son who lived a few hours, was named after whom?
His father Francisco
The couple lived as husband and wife in Talisay, Dapitan.
Q 28Rizal annotated a 1609 history of the Philippines by which Spanish author?
Antonio de Morga
He researched the Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas at the British Museum in London.
Q 29After his Berlin essay 'Dimanche des Rameaux', Rizal was suspected of spying for whom?
France
The essay read Palm Sunday as a political blow against despotism.
Q 30In which city was El filibusterismo published in 1891?
Ghent
Rizal paid for it with money borrowed from friends.