This statue of the young
Jose Rizal, Philippine national hero, is in the
Ateneo de Manila High School and a gift of Class 1997. The inscription at the base is a quotation from Rizal's second novel
El Filibusterismo, published in 1891, and spoken by the priest Father Florentino in the concluding chapter:
Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their dreams, and their enthusiasm to the welfare of their native land? Where are the youth who will generously pour out their blood to wash away so much shame, so much crime, so much abomination? Pure and spotless must the victim be that the sacrifice may be acceptable! Where are you, youth, who will embody in yourselves the vigor of life that has left our veins, the purity of ideas that has been contaminated in our brains, the fire of enthusiasm that has been quenched in our hearts? We await you, O Youth! Come, for we await you!
