RIZAL’S SOCIAL ORIGIN

&
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Topics:
Rizal’s Chinese Ancestry
Liberalizing Hereditary Influence
The Chinese Mestizo
The Cavite Mutiny and The GOMBURZA Execution
Desired learning objectives:
Trace Rizal’s ancestry through family tree making
Discuss the important role of Filipino-Chinese mestizo in
nation-building
Appreciate the Cavite Mutiny and GOMBURZA
Execution
RIZAL’S CHINESE ANCESTRY
Rizal’s Chinese ancestry
Within the walls of Intramuros lived the Spanish rulers and
few other persons who the fear and jealousy of the Spaniards
allowed to come in.
Some were Filipinos who ministered to the needs of the
Spaniards, but a greater numbers were the Sangleys or
Chinese, the mechanics in all trades and excellent workmen.
Domingo Lam-co was a native of the Chinchew district, where
the Jesuits, and later the Dominicans, had a mission and he
perhaps knew something of Christianity before leaving China
Rizal’s Chinese ancestry
 One church account indicated his home definitely, for its specified
Siongque, an agricultural community near the great city
 He was baptized in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday June of
1697
 Following the customs of the other convert on the same occasion, Lam-co
took the name Domingo, the Spanish for Sunday, in honor of the day.
 Domingo Lam-co was influential in building Tubigan barrio, one of the
richest parts of the great estate
 In name and appearance, it recalled the fertile plains that surrounded his
native Chinchew, “the city of the springs.”
Rizal’s Chinese ancestry
His neighbors were mainly Chinchew men;
His wife was also from Chinchew, who was Inez de la Rosa
The couple suffered a great loss in 1741 when their baby
daughter, Josepha Didnio, lived only for five days
They had at that time one other child, a boy of ten, Francisco
Mercado, whose Christian name was given partly because he
had an uncle of the same name
Among the Chinese, the significance of a name count much,
and it is always safe to seek a reason for the choice of a name
Rizal’s Chinese ancestry
The Lam-co family was not given to the practice of taking the
names of their god- parents
“Mercado” recalls an honest Spanish “encomendero” or
merchant
Francisco, therefore, set out in life with a surname that would
free him from the prejudice that followed those with Chinese
names reminding of his Chinese ancestry (Wickberg, 2000)
LIBERALIZING
HEREDITY
INFLUENCE
Liberalizing heredity influence
Francisco Mercado lived near enough to hear the “cajas
abiertas” (exiles) and their ways
He did not live in a Jesuit parish but in the neighboring hacienda
of St. John the Baptist of Calamba
He got married on May 26,1771 to Bernarda Monicha, a
Chinese mestiza of the neighboring hacienda of San Pedro
Tunasan (Craig, 2005)
They had two children, Juan and Clemente (both were boys)
In 1783, he was the alcalde or chief officer of the town, and he
lived til 1801
Liberalizing heredity influence
 His name appears so often as godfather in the registers of baptisms and
weddings that he must have been a good nurtured, liberal, and popular man
 Mrs. Francisco survived with her husband by a number of years
 She helped nursing the baby ailments of their grandson, who also named
Francisco, the father of Jose Rizal, and son the Juan, the eldest of
Francisco
 Juan built a fine house in the center of Binan
 At 22, he married a girl of Tubigan, who was 2 years his senior, Cirila
Alejandra
 Juan Mercado was three times chief officer of Binan in 1808,1813, &
1815
Liberalizing heredity influence
 Young Francisco was only 8y/o when his father died but his mother and
sister Potenciana looked after him very well
 He attended first a Binan Latin School and later seemed to have studied
Latin and Philosophy at the College of San Jose in Manila
 After their mother’s death, Potenciana and Francisco moved to Calamba
 Francisco, in spite of his youth, became a tenant of the estate
 The landlords early recognized the agricultural skill of the Mercados by
further allotments, as they could bring more land under cultivation
Liberalizing heredity influence
A year after his sister Potenciana’s death, Francisco married Teodora
Alonzo, a native of Manila, who for several years had been residing with her
mother in Calamba
 Her father, Lorenzo Alberto, was said to have been very Chinese in
appearance; he had a brother who was a priest, and a sister Isabel, who
was quite wealthy
 Lorenzo was the municipal captain of Binan in 1824
 The grandfather, Captain Gregorio Alonzo, was a native of Quiotan
barrio, and he was municipal captain 2x, in 1763, and 1768
 Lorenzo was educated to be a surveyor
 He was wealthy and had invested a considerable sum of money with the
American Manila shipping firms of Peele, Hubble and Co., and Russell
Sturgis and Co.
Liberalizing heredity influence
Her mother, Maria Florentina was from the famous Florentina
family of Chinese mestizo originating from Baliwag, Bulacan,
And her father was Captain Mariano Alejandro of Binan
Mrs. Rizal was baptized in Santa Cruz, Manila on November
18,1827 as Teodora Morales Alonzo
She was given an exceptionally good fundamental education by
her gifted mother and completed her training at Santa Rosa
College, Manila, which was in charge of Filipino sisters.
Liberalizing heredity influence
 All the branches of Mrs Rizal’s family were much richer than the relatives
of her husband
 There were numerous lawyers and priests among them, old-time proofs of
social standing, and were influential in the country
 Relatives of Mrs. Rizal that would help us understand the prominence of the
family:
◦ Felix Florentino-uncle, first clerk of the Nueva Segovia (Vigan) court
◦ Jose Florentino-cousin-germane; was a Philippine deputy in the Spanish cortes
◦ Manuel- a lawyer
◦ Fr. Leyva-the priest of Rosario, Vicar of Batangas Province; half-blood relation
◦ Fr. Alonzo-another relative priest, Mrs’ Rizal’s paternal uncle
Liberalizing heredity influence
The most obscure part of the Rizal’s family tree was the Ochoa
branch, the family of the maternal grandmother, for all the
archives (church, land, and court) disappeared during the late-
disturbed conditions of which Cavite was the center (Craig, p.70-
71)
The Chinese mestizo
The Chinese mestizo
Early in the 15th century, Chinese mestizos were already
established in the region particularly in Luzon.
The Chinese had been significantly involved in the economic
and social affairs in the Philippines
Direct contact between China and Philippines existed from at
least the Sung Period (960-1279)
Through the junk trade several points in the Philippines enjoyed
regular commercial and cultural contacts with the Chinese
The arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the Philippines in the
1560’s meant new opportunities for the Chinese
The Chinese mestizo
Chinese merchants carried on a rich trade between Manila and
the China coast and distributed the imports from China to the area
of Central Luzon, to the immediate north of Manila
The Chinese established themselves at or near Spanish
settlements, serving them in various ways: as provisionary of
food, as retail traders, and as artisans (Wichkerberg, 1964)
The Chinese mestizo
By 1603, barely 32 years after the founding of Manila as a
Spanish settlement, the Chinese population was estimated at
20,000 in contrast to perhaps 1,000 Spaniards
They were classified into 4 categories by the Spanish
Government in the Philippines:
1. Those who did not pay any tribute (which include Spaniards and Spanish
mestizos)
2. Indios (Malayan inhabitants of the archipelago who are now called
Filipino)
3. Chinese
4. Chinese Mestizos
The Chinese mestizo
 The last three groups were considered tribute-paying classes but the
amount of their tribute payments and the services demanded of them varied.
 Normally, the indios paid the lowest
 The Chinese mestizo paid double the tribute paid
 The maintenance of these categories in orderly fashion was provided by the
Spanish legislation
 Legal Status- as Chinese, mestizo, indio- by the terms of its legislation, was
not ordinarily a matter of personal choice or orientation
 Rather, it was the status of the parents, particularly the father, that was
the most important
The Chinese mestizo
 The son of a Chinese father and an indio or mestiza mother was classified as
a Chinese mestizo.
 Subsequently, male descendants were inalterably Chinese mestizos
 The status of female descendant was determined by their marriages
 A mestiza marrying a Chinese or mestizo remained in the mestizo
classification, the same also with her children
 But by marrying an indio, she and her children became in that classification
 Thus, females of the mestizo group could change their status but males
could not
The Chinese mestizo
 Binondo was founded as a Chinese town in 1594.
 A royal order was passed for the expulsion of all Chinese from the
Philippines; however, Governor Dasmarinas realized that the city of
Manila, the largest Spanish settlement, needed to retain at least a small group
of Chinese for its economic services
 Therefore, he purchased a tract of land across the river from the walled city
and gave it to a group of prominent Chinese merchants and artisans as the
basis for a new Chinese settlement.
 In the beginning, religious and cultural questions were not involved,
The Chinese mestizo
But the missionary enterprise of Spanish Dominicians fathers
soon made Binondo a kind of acculturation laboratory, where
the Dominicans made it a community of married Catholic Chinese
On the other hand, non Catholics in areas within Binondo were
proselytized, baptasized, married and added to the community of
married Catholics, reaching 500 or more in 1600.
The Chinese had founded Binondo on the basis of Dasmarinas’
land grant to be tax free and inalienable to non-Chinese and non-
mestizos
The Chinese mestizo
 The grant was accompanied by limited self-governing privileges.
 Thus, during the 17th century, Binondo was intended to be a settlement for
Catholic Chinese and their mestizo descendants
 However, Indios began to settle in Binondo that eventually resulted to
formation of the separate communities, mestizos, and indios within Binondo
 Later, when the mestizo population grew and became the leading element in
Binondo, they broke away from the Chinese forming their own Gremio de
Mestizo de Binondo in 1741
The Chinese mestizo
They were recognized as a distinct element in Philippine society,
sufficiently numerous to be organized and classified separately
They were bulked in the three central Luzon provinces of
Tondo, Bulacan, and Pampanga, comprising 60% of the
mestizos in the Philippines
The Province of Tondo alone accounted for almost 30% of the
mestizo population
But only 10% mestizos were spread in few spots on the other
island- notably in the provinces of Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, and
Capiz; 90% of them were in Luzon
The Chinese mestizo
 By the middle of 19th century the position of the Chinese mestizo in the
Philippine economy and society was firmly established, 1750-1850, which
brought some interesting changes in their geographic distribution
 Though they were still numerous in Central Luzon, but they began to be
noticed in farther Luzon –Abra and esp. in nueva Ecija
 In the Visayas, the largest group of mestizo before was in Cebu, but
afterward there were a number of them in Antique
 In Mindanao, they were already noticed in the eastern part of the island
(Caraga province) and in Misamis (Wickerberg, 1964)
The Chinese mestizo
 In terms of economic position, it became stronger than ever.
 Not only did they have substantial land interests, but they were well on the
way to monopolizing internal trading with only the provincial governors as
their competitors
 Manila’s retail commerce was handled exclusively by the Chinese mestizo
and the Chinese also had the majority of artisan’s shops and were active in
urban wholesaling.
 They were even described by Bowring, a noted historian, upon his visit in
the Philippines, as being the most industrious, preserving, and economical
element in the Philippines
The Chinese mestizo
 It was mestizos who made Cebu wealthy
 From Cebu, the mestizos sent their purchasing agents eastward to Leyte and Samar,
southward to Caraga and Misamis, and westward to Negros and Panay to buy up local
products for sale to foreign merchants in Manila
 They bought up tobacco, sea slugs and mother-of-pearls, cacao, coconut oil, coffee, and
wax, among some other precious native products
 Mestizos in the other parts in the Visayas had their own ships and had invested in the trade
 It was even noted that the mestizo’s strength in these engaging economic activities made the
Philippines known to some other parts of the world
The Chinese mestizo
 Products were exported to overseas markets
 Philippine products, like the hem and sugar, had already been exported in
quantity
 While the products of European factory industry, particularly the English
Textiles began to find markets in the Philippines
 The rise of the mestizo to economic importance was paralleled by the rise in
social prominence
 Indeed, the mestizo’s wealth and the way they spent it made them, in a sense,
the arbiters of fashion in Manila and in others settlements.
The Chinese mestizo
Although they built up their savings, sometimes into real fortunes,
the Chinese mestizos were fond of gambling and ostentation,
especially in dress
Besides entertaining friends and other with sumptuous feasts,
mestizo families often expended great sums of money on feast
days
Hence, a great prestige came to be attached to the name mestizo
Indeed, there were some places in Central Luzon where everyone
in the region claimed to be mestizo
The Chinese mestizo
The best illustration of this kind of mestizo-craze attitude might
be found in the character of Capitan Tiago in Rizal’s novel
Capitan Tiago is an excellent example of an indio cacique which
means who wished to be regarded as a Chinese mestizo and was
able to purchase for himself a place in the wealthy and famous
Cremio de Mestizos de Binondo (Wickerberg,1964)
The Chinese mestizo
With the rise of the mestizos to a position of affluence and
prestige, their relations with the indios became a matter of
increasing concern to the Spaniards
It was from this time- the middle of the 19th century- that we
began to find the “divide and rule” theme in Spanish writings
The indios and the mestizo must be kept separated
The brains and money of the mestizos must not be allowed to
become allied to the numerical strength of the indios
The Chinese mestizo
 The separate gremios should be maintained and their rivalries encouraged
wherever possible
 From this time onward, Spanish conservatives were haunted by fears of an
indio revolution led by the mestizos
 The last half of the 19th century was so-called period of occupational
rearrangement and social Filipinization
 To a large extent, these two phenomena were the results of changes in
Spanish policy
 Free enterprise was given an opportunity to make the Philippines a
profitable colony for Spain
The Chinese mestizo
 As part of this general policy, in 1844, the Spanish government revoked the
indulto de comercio and henceforth forbade Spanish officials to involve
themselves in trading
 This measure eliminated the last obstacle of the mestizo in their dominance
in international trade
 Spanish policy also pushed aside the barriers to Chinese immigration and
residence, thus Chinese could come to the Philippines without any
restriction
 By the 1880s, the Chinese population had soared to almost 100,000;
Chinese were found in every corner of the Philippines (Wickerberg, 1964)
The Chinese mestizo
Purely in terms of his ancestry, Rizal might be considered a 5th
generation Chinese mestizo
His paternal ancestor, a Catholic Chinese, married a Chinese
mestiza
Their son and grandson both married Chinese mestizas
This grandson, having achieved wealth and status in his locality,
was able to have his family transferred from the mestizo pardon,
or tax census register, to that of the indios
Thus, Rizal’s father and Rizal himself were considered an indio
(Craig, 41)
 Agrarian
Relation and
the Friar
Lands
 Monastic haciendas were the dominant form of land tenure in the region surrounding
Manila.
 Ecclesiastical estates occupied nearly 40 percent of the surface area in the four
Tagalog-speaking provinces.
1.) Bulacan.
2.) Tondo (now known as Rizal).
3.) Cavite.
4.) Laguna de Bay
o According to the documents, four religious orders owned at least 21 haciendas in the
provinces outside Manila.
o In 1903, the American colonial government, fearful of further outbreaks of agrarian
unrest if friar land ownership continues, bought 17 of these estates for division and
sale to the Filipinos while 4 of them remained.
o Three decades later, they were to become principals in the Sakdal Uprising of 1936.
 The four Religious Orders that owned haciendas outside Manila:
1. Dominicans owned 10 estates (calling them the largest landlords in the
region)
2. Augustinians owned 7 estates.
3. Order of St. John with the large Hacienda Buenavista in Bulacan.
4. Recollects owned two valuable and intensively cultivated estates in Cavite
o The Archdiocese of Manila owned the remaining estate – the Hacienda
of Dinalupihan in Bataan province.
o The haciendas ranged in size from the Augustinians’ mini estate of
Binagliag (294 hectares) in Angat, Bulacan.
o There, haciendas boundaries conformed very closely to municipal
boundaries, which had been established as administrative and pastoral
units.
 The close correspondence of town and haciendas seemed to lie in the fact that
in Cavite and Laguna all of the haciendas formed a compact and contiguous
group.
 From Muntinlupa in the north and Calamba in the south, Laguna de Bay in the
east, and Naic in the west, there stretched an unbroken expanse of friar lands.
 Hacienda towns in the Philippines during the 19th century were arranged in the
following: they had a municipal center (municipio) with a centrally located
plaza where the parish church, a government building, and perhaps a jail
usually would be found.
 The residence of the friar administrators (the casa hacienda) and a granary
was the only visible evidence marking the presence of a friar state.
 The municipio was the home for the wealthier citizen of the town- the traders,
artisans, and tenants who leased but did not actually till the land. Outside the
municipio were the barrios where the peasants lived near the fields they
cultivated as sharecroppers and agricultural laborers.
Origin of the Estates
o Historical beginnings of these estates were traced to the land
grants which were made to the early Spanish conquistadores.
o During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, approximately 120
Spaniards received grants within 100- km radius of Manila.
o This land grant consisted of a large unit of land known as a sitio
de gagado mayor (1,742 Hectares) and several smaller units
called caballerias (42.5 hectares) while the larger grants
measured two or three sitios and may have included a sitio de
gagado menor (774 hectares).
o These Spanish landowners sold their lands to some Spaniards
who in turn mortgaged or donated their estates to the religious
orders
 The Cavite Mutiny &
the GomBurZa execution
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 From the beginning, it had been its practice in the long and uninspiring
record of the Spanish occupation in the Philippines: sore oppression leading
to the inevitable revolt and then savage vengeance
 With the rest of these victims of insensate rage, marched on the morning of
February 17,1872, three beloved priests and servants of God, who were put
to death by the Spanish authorities (Schumacher, 1972)
 Their death marked a turning point in the history of Filipino
nationalism, that brought together the liberal reformist elements in the
Philippines society with the growing self-awareness of a people into a
movement that before long would be directed at independent nationhood
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution
 Jose Rizal himself looked to that date, as decisive in his own development as a nationalist,
in a letter to his fellow Filipinos in Barcelona in 1889: To quote:

“Without 1872 there would not now be a Plaridel, a Jaena, Sanciano, nor would
the brave and generous Filipino colonies exist in Europe. Without 1872, Rizal
would now be a Jesuit and instead of writing the Noli me Tangere, would have
written the contrary. At the sight of those injustices and cruelties, though still a
child, my imagination awoke, and I swore to dedicate myself to avenge one
day so many victims. With this idea, I have gone on studying, and this can be
read in all my works and writings. God will grant me one day to fulfill my
promise.”
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

Their death witnessed the long struggle of the Filipino priests in

the aspect of religion
Although the struggle for the rights of the Filipino clergy suffered
an eclipse with the death of the three priests, the concern of
Burgos for the equality of Filipinos with Spaniards and for justice
to all remained at the core of the nationalist aspirations and
representations
These ideal and aspirations had taken root in the course of the
dispute over the rights of Filipino secular priests to the
parishes, an intra-church dispute
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

The roots of controversy went far back in the history of the

church in the Philippines, even to its foundation and fundamental
structure
They are to be found in 3 elements in the history:
◦ The structure of the patronato real
◦ The visitation controversy
◦ The late and erratic development of a native clergy
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 With the grant of the patronato real, the Spanish crown received most of
the control over the church in the indies, including the Philippines, in
exchange for its commitment to financially support the missionary
enterprise
 Their influence increases at the passing of time, the clergy came
increasingly to be considered as employees of the state, and the religion
as a means of government
 With the dissolution of the religious orders in the Peninsula in 1836 and
the confiscation of much of the church properties, the continued existence
of the religious orders in the Philippines was totally dependent on their
political usefulness to a government that had little faith in their religious
mission
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 The age-old visitation controversy was the second element at the root of
the movement of the secularization of the parishes
 It was a struggle of the religious orders or regular clergy to maintain the
corporate freedom of action and unity against the desire of the bishops
to exercise the authority of their office in the governance of their diocese
 With the establishment of a hierarchy, almost every new bishop attempted to
exercise the right and duty of his office to conduct visitation of inspection
in the parishes of his diocese
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

The religious, anxious to preserve their corporate structure

and their subordination to their own superiors, resisted such
visitation, basing themselves on their papal privileges
When pushed to the wall, they responded by threatening to
abandon all the parishes, a threat more than once temporarily
carried out (Schumacher, 1972)
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

The long failure of the bishops to enforce their rights to visitation

was closely linked to the third factor, the failure of the
Spanish missionaries to encourage the development of a
native Filipino clergy
Accounts were made that there were no native Filipino, or indio,
priests ordained before 1698
The only first serious efforts in the direction of the Filipino clergy
were taken at the end of the 17th century
The resistance of the native Filipino priests was under the
leadership of Fr. Pedro Pelaez, seconded by Fr. Mariano
Gomez.
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

With the tragic death of the former, the latter was being passed
on the leadership until his execution in 1872 signaled the failure
of the Filipino priests to obtain their rights
In the process of resistance, however the ecclesiastical dispute
was to become an overly nationalist question, as the Filipino
clergy replied to racial discrimination with a firm and ringing
assertion of their equality as priest in the one Catholic Church
(Schumacher, 1972)
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 During the term of Gov-Gen Carlos Maria Dela Torre (1869-1871), he

showed that he was democratic in his sympathies and quickly named a series
of reform committees for every aspect of government in the Philippines
 However, documents proved that he was suspicious of the Filipino liberals,
particularly of the Filipino accused of anti-Spanish sentiments were placed
under surveillance, and their mails subjected to government inspection
 Though he remained intent on reforms within the government, Dela Torre
did not intend to allow any liberalization, which might endanger Spanish
rule in the Philippines
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 Fr. Burgos challenged openly the religious sector by writing articles in the
Madrid newspaper La Discusion (a republican and anti-clerical newspaper
& appeared to have been the vehicle for a series of attacks on the continued
existence of the friars in the Philippines)
 In retaliation, Fr. Joaquin de Coria, procurator in Madrid of the Philippine
Franciscans, published a series of articles in defense of the Filipino clergy to
extol the works of friars
 Because of opening his identity in criticizing the friars and defending the
clergy, Fr. Burgos temporarily ruptured his friendship with the Jesuits
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

Fr. Pedro Bertran, the Jesuit superior, upbraided him for

bringing ecclesiastical questions into the public press, above all in
anti-clerical publications, such as La Discusion
The anti-clerical activities of the Filipino clergy were supported
by the Filipino liberals in Madrid
They had their own press organ in Madrid to defend their interests
and promote their aspiration
The chief contact, at least of the priests, was Manuel Regidor, a
colleague of the republican politician Rafael M. Labra, who was
publishing the newspaper El Correo
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

 About the same time, a newspaper devoted totally to the Philippines, El Eco
Filipino, begun to published in Madrid by Fr. Federico Lerena, a
peninsular who was brother-in-law of Jose Ma. Basa
 It survived until the time of the Cavite Mutiny.
 While, the policy of vigilance and suspicion on the part of Dela Torre was
replaced by one of the active repressions
 With the change of government in Spain, a new Gov-Gen Rafael de
Izquerdo (1871-1873), had been sent to replace Dela Torre
 His ideas on the governance of a colony were in no way influenced by
liberalism
 Thus, the tentative liberalization was quickly abolished
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

It was in this atmosphere that the outbreak of January 20,1872

took place in the arsenal of Cavite
According to the official version that survives, the revolt on the
part of the garrison which took place was only part of a much
larger revolt, carried out not only by the army but also but the
naval forces directed from Manila with accomplices in the
provinces as well
 The Cavite mutiny & the Gomburza execution

The purpose was to put to death all Spaniards and to proclaim a

provisional government under Fr. Burgos, to prepare the way for
a more permanent government
The principal organizers in Cavite itself were sergeant Lamadrid
and Francisco Zaldua (executed together with GOMBURZA)
who were in contact with the junta headed by Burgos, Pardo de
Tavera, Regidor, and some other lawyers and priests
(Schumacher,1972)