The Rizal family was regarded as one of the largest families in those days and was

known to be a wealthy one in Calamba, Laguna. Their family belonged to the principal class or
the ruling elite of their town because they lived in comfort and affluence. Jose Rizal was born
into a household of 13 people, including his mother Teodora Alonso Realonda and father Don
Francisco Mercado II. Jose Rizal has a brother and nine sisters. The oldest of the siblings was
Saturnina Rizal, who was followed in age by Paciano, Narcisa, Olympia, Lucia, Maria, Jose,
Concepcion, and Josefa; Soledad was the youngest.
Rizal was born into a mixed-race family; his paternal ascendant was full-blooded Chinese
Domingo Lamco and Ines de la Rosa, a well-off Chinese mestiza, was his wife. Domingo Lamco
used the surname Mercado, which means "market," in compliance with Narciso Claveria's edict
prohibiting the use of Spanish surnames. The couple left the Parian in Manila and relocated to
Binan, Laguna where they took up residence in the Dominican ranch as tenants. Rizal's father is
one of the 14 children of Juan Mercado - his paternal grandfather, while his grandmother Cirila
Alejandrino is a Chinese-Filipino mestiza. Juan Mercado was elected governor of Binan Laguna.
A Chinese mestizo from Lingayen, Pangasinan named Manuel de Quintos was Rizal's maternal
great grandfather. The grandmother of Rizal, Brigida, was born when Manuel married Regina
Ursua, a woman of Japanese descent. Brigida later married Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, another
one-off their.
As Jose Rizal grew older, his parents hired private tutors to teach him at home to get
him ready for his formal schooling. Leon Monroy, a classmate of his father who had taught him
the fundamentals of Latin, was one of them. Around this time, Uncle Manuel Alberto, the
cousin of his mother, who frequently visited the family in Calamba, began to worry about his
nephew's growth physically. Rizal was subsequently taught by him how to improve his
swimming, fencing, wrestling, and other sporting abilities, while Uncle Jose taught him how to
appreciate and cherish nature. On the other side, Rizal has been influenced by his learned
uncle, Uncle Gregorio, who has taught him the value of hard effort, the joy of learning, how to
think for himself, and how to pay close attention to his environment.
Moreover, Jose Rizal had mastered the alphabet at the age of 3 and could read and
write by the time he was 5. In my early years, I learned the alphabet at age 4 and writing and
reading at age 5. Jose Rizal had already demonstrated an interest in the arts at an early age. His
clay moldings, doodles, and pencil paintings captivated his family which is also the same for me.
I am also interested in arts ever since I was a kid. Later in his youth, he showed a great ability
for painting and drawing. He also composed a short Spanish play that was shown at the school
and a Tagalog play that was performed at the Calamba Festival. I was young and carefree at the
time. My childhood was spent outside playing traditional Filipino games like langit-lupa, taguan,
sipa, turumpo, patintero, and many others. I was raised there. I'm not as book smart as Jose
Rizal; back then, I was just a street-smart scoundrel. The early years of Jose Rizal's life were
spent at Calamba Laguna, his own homeland. He had many of pleasant memories. He had
loving parents, considerate siblings, and a patient upbringing. I also had a lot of wonderful
memories growing up, and I had one sister, one brother and loving parents. My parents wanted
me to learn about both sides of the coin, so while my dad showed me how lovely the world is,
my mom made sure that I also understood what the actual world is just like Jose Rizal’s mother
to him.

Rubric for Assessment:

Content – 40
Presentation – 30
Organization – 20
Technicalities – 10
Total: 100 points

ecanino@psu.palawan.edu.ph