LOS BAÑOS, Laguna—Each public school in Laguna province has a piece of local history to post on its walls.
It is a map not just of Laguna’s topography but also of “Rizal’s Laguna,” as it is called, that features the personalities, events and places associated with the life and works of the national hero, Jose Rizal.
Printed on a 2-by-3-foot glossy poster is the brightly colored map of Laguna, bordered on one side by a sprawling shade of blue that represents Laguna de Bay.
Each of the 30 Laguna municipalities and cities is represented by icons of centuries-old churches, museums and popular tourist destinations that a locality is known for.
On the left and right sides of the map are bits of little-known facts about the 17 towns and cities in Laguna where Rizal and people close to him had rendezvoused at one point in history.
“Even Rizal knew his local geography,” said Provincial Board Member Neil Nocon, whose office initiated the map project.
He said that during one of Rizal’s travels to Europe, Rizal wrote to his family describing the size of Paris as stretching from Calamba and Cabuyao to Sta. Rosa in Laguna.
In the letter, Rizal used common markers drawn from his own experiences to describe foreign places, an indication of the hero’s familiarity with Laguna’s geography, Nocon said.
“Children should grow up to be proud of their country and for that to happen, they should first learn where they come from,” he said.
Nocon, who chairs the provincial board’s committees on education, tourism, history, arts and culture, and on public works, said the maps were “commemorative” of Rizal’s 151st birth anniversary tomorrow.
The first batch of the maps—500 to 600 copies—was handed out to Laguna’s public school teachers during an orientation on the K to 12 curriculum before the school year opened, Nocon said.
Local history
While Rizal was closely associated with Laguna, particularly with his birthplace in Calamba (now a city), history books rarely mention his influence to or the influence on him of the other towns in the province, said Rogelio Opulencia, the education program supervisor on social studies of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Laguna.
“The maps contain well-researched accounts [and] identify historical places influenced by Rizal that you don’t usually find in books,” he said.
He cited for instance that from Paete came the three sculptors named Tomas Edjawan, Mateo Edjawan and Jose Caancan who studied under Rizal when the hero was exiled in Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte.
From Pagsanjan lived one of Rizal’s love interests, “the other Leonor in his life,” Leonor Valenzuela, who came from a local noble clan.
Rizal was said to have visited the Pagsanjan Falls in 1881.
The “Rizal’s Laguna” map was put together by a team of history teachers from the University of the Philippines Los Baños led by associate professor Dwight David Diestro.
The 17 Laguna towns and cities associated with Rizal on the map are San Pedro, Biñan, Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao, Calamba, Los Baños, Bay, Pila, San Pablo, Rizal, Nagcarlan, Sta. Cruz, Pagsanjan, Paete, Majayjay, Pakil and Siniloan.
Opulencia said the maps would serve as visual aids for teachers in the public schools.
“Children learn faster when you teach them with something visual. (The maps) help enhance their interest to learn specially subjects like history,” he said.
DepEd said 321 elementary and 85 secondary public schools in Laguna have at least 250,000 elementary and 112,000 high school students enrolled this school year.
With the introduction of the K to 12, which now includes local history as part of the curriculum for students in Grades 1 to 3, the maps would also serve as basic teaching reference materials until resources for the new curriculum become available, Opulencia said.