FAMILY TREE

Calamba at the time of Rizal’s Birth

 An agricultural town
 Owned by the Dominican friars
 Became prosperous due its specialization in sugar
The Role of the Chinese in the Philippines

 Chinese immigration to the Philippines has been

going on since pre colonial period
 They came here for trade and commerce only
 They came to the Philippines during the Ming
dynasty
 The Chinese left various influences among the
precolonial natives such as the yellow color to
denote royalty: the use of loose fitting pants and
vests and the manufacture of tools and weapons.
 The Chinese heavily influenced Filipino cuisine
 Parian- Chinese community
 Skills of Chinese:
1. Skilled bakers
2. Cooks
3. Stonemasons
4. shoemakers
 Becoming Christians not only allowed the Chinese
to stay in the islands but also to conduct business
with the Spaniards
 The Spaniards depended on the Chinese as they
were skilled artisans and workers
 A new social classification was created in 1741 for
taxation purposes:
1. Pure Chinese was taxed 6 pesos
2. A mestizo Chinese was taxed at 3 pesos
3. An idio paid 1.50
4. Spanish and Spanish Mestizo exempted
Birth of the young Jose
 Born on June 19, 1861
 His mother nearly died during his delivery because of his big
head
 Baptized after 3 days by Fr. Rufino Collantes, his godfather
was Fr. Pedro Casanas
 7th child of the family of Don Francisco and Dona Teodora
Immediate Family
 Reared in a typical middle class
 Lived a life of comfort and affluence
 Proof of affluence:
1. Families predeliction for studies
2. Stone house of adobe and hardwood
3. Carrige and horses
4. Home library
5. Servants
6. Private tutor
Don Francisco Mercado

 Educated man
 Took courses in Latin and Philosphy at Colegio de San Jose
 Honesty
 Frugality
 industrious
Teodora Alonso

 Educated woman
 Went to Colegio de santa Rosa
 Disciplinarian
 Woman of more than average education
 Woman of culture and religion
 Sacrificing and industrious wife
 At the age of three he learned how to pray and read the Bible
 Age of four, his sister Concepcion died.
 He mastered the alphabet at three years old
 Great interest in reading, sketching, painting and sculpture
 In 1848 Governor General Narciso Claveria issued
a decree ordering that all natives adapt new
surnames so that they can be taxed properly
 This would solve confusion as there were many
people with identical surnames.
 While it helped facilitate the collection of taxes the
decree had an unintended effect: it helped erase
historical connections between families and made
historical research very complicated and difficult.
Is rizal and Indio or a Mestizo?
Since the Mercado Family already intermarried with
mestizos and lived in the islands for generations, they
were now considered as NATIVES
First taste of injustice

 When his mother was arrested and imprisoned in 1871 due to

alleged attempted murder
 Arrested and made to walk a distance of 50 km
 Imprisoned for 2 and a half years
 Influenced also by the martyrdom of the Gomburza
 movie