THE RIZAL

FAMILY
• 1. What is a Family?
• 2. How can a family
help in developing
one's character?
• 3. What is the
greatest issues
facing the family
today?
Objectives:
• 1. Be acquainted
with the Rizal
family
• 2. Identify
significant events
that happened to
Rizal and his family
especially during
his early years.
• The Rizal’s were descendants of
Domingo Lam-co, A Chinese
immigrant to Philippines during the
late 1600s. In 1700s, there was a
growing anti- Chinese hostility of
the Spanish authorities. For this
reason, Lam-co changed their
surnames to “Mercado”. Upon the
invitation of Spanish landowners,
Lam-co moved his family to Biñan.
With his wife, Inez dela Roza, he
sired Francisco Mercado I, who later
sired Juan Mercado, the father of
Francisco Mercado II- Jose Rizal’s
father.
• Don Francisco lived in
Biñan until he married
Doña Teodora Alonso y
Realonda. The Mercado
family leased a
Dominican-owned
farmland where they
built a house made of
stone (bahay na bato).
The family belonged to
the leading citizens of
the town or
principales.
The principalía or noble class was the
ruling and usually educated upper class in
the pueblos of the Spanish Philippines,
comprising the gobernadorcillo, who was
later referred to as capitán municipal (who
had functions similar to a town mayor.
•In compliance with
Governor General Narciso
Claveria’s decree in 1849
to adopt new surnames,
Don Francisco adopted the
name “Rizal”. In the same
manner , the Alonso’s
chose the surname
“Realonda”. The word
Rizal comes from the
Spanish word “racial”
which means “the young
green after growth of
fields” or simply “green
field”
• On June 19, 1861, in Calamba,
Laguna, Doña Teodoragave birth
to her seventh child and the
second son, Jose Protacio
Mercado. In his autobiography
entitled, Memoria de un
Estudiante de Manila with the
pen-name of P. Jacinto (Rizal’s pen
name as Writer) recounted that
on the day of his birth, Doña
Teodora made a vow to take on
a pilgrimage to Antipolo as a
gratitude for surviving a difficult
childbirth.
The Mercado Children
The union of Teodora Alonso
Realonda and Francisco was
blessed with 11 children. These
were as follows:

• 1.Saturnina-married
Manuel T. Hidalgo
of Tanauan,
Batangas
• 2.Paciano- a revolutionary
general and retired to
farming, was influential in
the formation of Rizal’s
nationalist view.
•3.Narcisa-married
Antonio Lopez
who was a
teacher from
Morong, Rizal.
•4. Olimpia-married
Silvestre Ubaldo
who was a
telegraph operator.
• 5.Lucia-married
Mariano
Herbosa
of
Calamba
• 6.Maria-married
Daniel
Faustino Cruz
of Biñan,
Laguna
7. Jose-
married Josephine
Bracken

8. Concepcion-
died at the age of
three
•9. Josefa- was the leader of
the women’s Katipunan
chapter leader.
•10. Trinidad- a
Katipunan member.
•11. Soledad- married
Pateleon Quintero
of Calamba
Sorrowful Years to Rizal
and the Family
• In his letter to Ferdinand
Blumentritt, Rizal recalled about
the impact of the event saying,
“I don’t want to tell you our
resentment and profound sorrow.
Since then, though still a child,
I have distrusted friendship and
doubted men. We are in
brothers (brothers-sisters) and
our mother was unjustly
snatched away from us and by
who? By some men who had
been our friends and whom we
had treated as sacred guests.”
• Another remarkable
event in his early
years was during the
February 17, 1872,
when three priests
executed. The event
awakened him that
years later, he
dedicated his book EL
Filibusterismo to the
memory of Mariano
Gomez, Jose Burgos,
and Jacinto Zamora.
• The 1872 mutiny marked the
beginning of a new stage in the
escalating unrest. The
interpretations of the Cavite
mutiny vary from the
perspectives and orientations of
its author as to who are the real
instigators of the unrest. One
of the common interpretation
was that it started when Rafael
de Izquierdo abolished the
exemption from tribute and
compulsory labor obligation given
to the workers in the arsenal
and in the artillery barracks and
engineer corps of Fort San
Felipe in Cavite.