José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a prominent Filipino nationalist, writer, and polymath who was active during the final years of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines. He is widely regarded as the national hero of the Philippines, despite the absence of an official formal proclamation declaring him as such.
A trained ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal was a significant figure in the Filipino Propaganda Movement during the 1880s. This movement sought to advocate for various political reforms for the Philippine colony under Spanish rule through his writings and activism.