Few national heroes have told their own story with such clarity and quiet conviction. In this intimate autobiographical narrative, José Rizal recalls the world that shaped him: his childhood in Calamba, his mother's unjust imprisonment, his first poems, his schooldays under the Jesuits at the Ateneo, and the momentous 1882 voyage that carried him from Manila to Spain and, ultimately, to the ideas that would transform his country. Written in his own hand and voice, it is history from the inside — the making of a reformer before the novels, the exile, and the martyrdom. This edition presents the complete, unabridged original text, newly introduced and accompanied by reader's notes that illuminate the people, places, and events behind every chapter. Whether you are meeting Rizal for the first time or returning to a founding voice of the Philippines, this is the story as he wished it remembered. Part of The Founding Texts Library.