MODULE 5 Family, Childhood, and Early Education of

Rizal
FAMILY ROOT

1. Introduction/Overview

This module presents the background of Rizal's life and his family and his childhood
years in Calamba.

Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Y Alonzo Realonda was born on June 19, 1861 in Calamba,
Laguna. The seventh son of eleven children born to a relatively well-off family in a
Dominican-owned tenant land in Calamba, Laguna, Jose Rizal lived and died during the
Spanish colonial era in the Philippines.

            In his early childhood, Jose had mastered the alphabet and learned to write
and read. His early readings included Spanish version of the Vulgate Bible. At a young
age, he already showed inclination to the arts. He amazed his family by his pencil
drawings, sketches, and moldings of clay. Later in his childhood, he showed special
talent in painting and sculpture, wrote a Tagalog play, which was presented at a town
fiesta (and later penned a story play in Spanish, which was presented in school.
Don Francisco Mercado

            Jose’s father, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado, was a productive farmer

from Biñan, Laguna. He was an independent-minded, taciturn, but dynamic gentleman
from whom Jose inherited his “free soul”. Don Francisco became tiniente
gobernadorcillo (lieutenant governor) in Calamba and was thus nicknamed tiniente Kiko.
(Some student’s comical conjecture that the fictional Character Kikong
Matsing  of Batibot was named after Don Francisco is, of course, unfounded.)

            Francisco’s great grandfather was Domingo Lam-co, a learned pro-poor

of maka-masa Chinese immigrant businessman who married a sophisticated
Chinese mestiza of Manila named Ines de la Rosa. One of their two children, Francisco
(also), resided in Biñan and married Bernarda Monicha. Francisco and Bernarda’s son,
Juan Mercado, became the gobernadorcillo (town mayor) of Biñan, Laguna. He married
Cirila Alejandra, they had 12 children, the youngest being Jose Rizal’s father,
Francisco.

            Don Francisco was born on May 11, 1818 in Biñan, Laguna. When he was eight
years old, he lost his father. He was nonetheless educated as he took Latin and
Philosophy at the College of San Jose in Manila, where he met and fell in love with
Teodora Alonzo, a student in the College of Santa Rosa. Married on June 28, 1848,
they settled down in Calamba where they were granted lease of a rice farm in the
Dominican-owned haciendas.

Doña Teodora Alonzo

            Jose’s mother, Teodora Alonzo (also spelled “Alonso”), was born and educated
and highly cultured woman from Sta. Cruz, Manila. Common biographies state that Doña
Teodora Alonzo Quintos Realonda, known as “Lolay”, was born on November 8, 1926 in
Sta. Cruz, Manila. Strangely however, the volume in the church books that supposedly
contained Teodora’s baptismal records was the only one missing from the otherwise
complete record down to the eighteenth century (Ocampo, 2012, p.39). Asuncion Rizal-
Lopez Bantug, the granddaughter of Jose’s sister Narcisa, contrarily claims that Lola
Lolay and all her siblings were born in Calamba, but (just) lived in Manila (Bantug &
Ventura, 1997. P. 18).

            Doña Lolay was educated at the College of Sta. Rosa, an esteemed school for
girls in Manila. She was usually described as a diligent business-minded woman, very
graceful but courageous, well-mannered, religious, and well-read. Very dignified, she
disliked gossip and vulgar conversation. Possessing refined culture and literary talents,
she influenced her children to love the arts, literature, and music. Herself an educated
woman, Lolay sent her children to colleges in Manila. To help in the economy of the
family, she run sugar and flour mills, and a small store in their house, selling home-
made ham, sausages, jams, jellies, and many others. (Looking back, her business, in a
way, predated the meat-processing commerce of the Pampangueños today and the ube
jam production of some nuns in Baguio.)

            It is believed that Doña Teodora’s family descended from Lakandula, the last
native king of Tondo. (For young Filipino generations, Lakandula has to be distinguished
from the unofficial Hari ng Tondo, Asiong Salonga, the Manila kingpin who was
immortalized in the movie recently by Laguna’s own governor E. R. Ejercito.)

Lolay’s great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua (of Japanese descent) who married a
Filipina named Benigna. Regina, their daughter, married a Filipino-Chinese lawyer of
Pangasinan, Manuel de Quintos. Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo, a well-off Spanish-Filipino
mestizo in Biñan, took as his “significant other” Brigida Quintos, daughter of Manuel
and Regina Quintos. The Lorenzo-Brigida union produced five children, the second of
them was Jose’s mother, Teodora Alonzo Quintos.
Through the Claveris decree of 1849 which changed the Filipino native surnames, the
Alfonsos adopted the surname Realonda, Rizal’s mother thus became Teodora Alonzo
Quintos Realonda.

Jose’s Siblings

            Saturnina Rizal (1850-1913) is the eldest child of Don Francisco and Teodora

Alonzo. She and her mother provided the little Jose with good basic education that by
the age of three, Pepe’s Jose’s nickname) already knew his alphabet.

            Paciano Rizal, Jose’s only brother, was born on March 7, 1851 in Calamba,
Laguna. He was fondly addressed by his siblings as Ñor Paciano, short for “Señor
Paciano.” The 10-year older brother of Jose studied in San Jose College in Manila,
became a farmer, and later a general of the Philippine revolution.

            After Jose’s execution in December 1896, Paciano joined the Katipuneros  in

Cavite under General Emilio Aguinaldo. Paciano was commissioned as general of the
revolutionary forces and elected as secretary of finance in the Department
Government of Central Luzon.

            Narcisa Rizal (1852-1939) or simply “Sisa” was the third in the family. Later in
history, Narcisa (like Saturnina) would help in financing Rizal’s studies in Europe, even
pawning her jewelry and peddling her clothes if needed. It was said she could recite
from memory almost all of the poems of our national hero.

            Olympia Rizal (1855-1887) was the fourth child in the Rizal family. Jose loved
to teas her, sometimes good-humoredly describing her as his stout sister. Jose’s first
love, Segunda Katigbak, was Olympia’s schoolmate at the La Concordia College. Rizal
confided to Olympia (also spelled “Olimpia”) about Segunda, and the sister willingly
served as mediator between the two teenage lovers.

            Lucia Rizal (1857-1919) was the fifth child in the family. She married Mariano
Herbosa of Calamba, Laguna. Charged of inciting the Calamba townsfolk not to pay land
rent and causing unrest, the couple was ordered to be deported along with some Rizal
family members. (Lucia’s husband died during the cholera epidemic in May 1889 and
was refused a Catholic burial for not going to confession since her marriage to Lucia, in
Jose’s article in La Solidaridad tiled Una profanacion (A Profanation), he scornfully
attacked the friars for declining to bury in “sacred ground” a “good Christian” simply
because he was the “brother-in-law of Rizal.”)
Maria Rizal (1859-1945) was the sixth child in the family. It was to her whom Jose
talked about wanting to marry Josephine Bracken when the majority of the Rizal
family was apparently not amenable to the idea. In his letter dated December 12, 1891,
Jose had also brought up to Maria his plan of establishing a Filipino colony in North
British Borneo. In his letter dated December 28, 1891, Jose wrote to Maria, “I’m told
that your children are very pretty.” Today, we have historical proof that Maria’s
progenies were indeed nice-looking (lahing maganda). Maria and Daniel had five
children: Mauricio, Petrona, Prudencio, Paz, and Encarnacion. Their son Mauricio
married conception Arguelles and the couple had a son named Ismael Arguelles Cruz.
Ismael was the father of Gemma Cruz Araneta, the first Filipina to win Miss
International title, also the first Southeast Asian to win an international beauty-
pageant title. 

Also called “Concha” by her siblings, Concepcion Rizal (1862-1865) was the eight child
of the Rizal family. She died at the age of three. Of his sisters, it was said that the
young Pepe loved most the little Concha who was a year younger than he. Jose played
games and shared children stories with her, and from her he left the beauty of the
sisterly love at a young age. 

Josefa Rizal’s nickname is “Panggoy” (1965-1945H). She was the ninth child in the
family. Panggoy died a spinster. Among Jose’s letter to Josefa, the one date October
26, 1893 was perhaps the most fascinating. Written in English, the letter addressed
Josefa as “Miss Josephine Rizal.” (After Jose’s martyrdom, the epileptic Josefa
joined the Katipunan and was supposed to have been elected the president of its
woman section. She was one of the original 29 women admitted to the Katipunan along
with Gregoria de Jesus, the wife of Andres Bonifacio. They safeguarded the secret
papers and documents of the society and danced and sung during sessions so that civil
guards would think that the meetings were just harmless social gatherings.)

Trinidad Rizal (1868-1951) or “Trining” was the tenth child. Historically, she became
the custodian of Rizal’s last and greatest poem. Right before Rizal’s execution,
Trinidad and their mother visited him in fort Santiago prison cell. As they were
leaving, Jose handed over to Trining an alcohol cooking stove, a gift from the Pardo de
Taveras, whispering to her in a language, which the guard could not understand, “there
is something in it.” That something was Rizal’s elegy now known as “Mi Ultimo Adios.”
Like Josefa, Paciano, and two nieces, Trinidad joined the Katipunan  after Jose’s death.

Also called “Choleng”, Soledad Rizal (1870-1929) was the youngest child of the Rizal
family. Being a teacher, she was arguably the best-educated among Rizal’s sisters. In
his long meaty letter to Choleng dated June 6, 1890 (“Jose Rizal on Facebook
Courtship,” 2013), Jose told her sister that he was proud of her becoming a teacher.
He thus counseled her to be a model of virtues and good qualities “for the one who
should teach should be better than the persons who need her learning.” Rizal
nonetheless used the topic as leverage in somewhat rebuking her sister for getting
married to Pantaleon Quintero of Calamba without her parent’s concent. “Because of
you,” he wrote, “the peace of our family has been disturbed.”

Choleng’s union with Pantaleon, nonetheless, resulted in the Rizal’s family’s becoming
connected by affinity to Miguel Malvar (the hero who could have been listed as the
second Philippines President for taking over the revolutionary government after Emilo
Aguinaldo’s arrest in 1901). Soledad and Pantaleon had five children: Trinitario, Amelia,
Luisa, Serafin, and Felix. Their daughter Amelia married Bernabe Malvar, son of Gen.
Miguel Malvar.

5. THE SURNAME RIZAL

Had their forefathers not adopted other names, Jose and Protacio could have been
known as “Lamco” (and not Rizal) brothers.

Their paternal great-great grandfather, Chinese merchant Domingo Lamco adopted

the name “Mercado” which means “market”. But Jose’s father, Francisco, who
eventually became primarily a farmer, adopted the surname “Rizal” (originally “Ricial”,
which means “the green of the young growth” or “green fields”). The name was
suggested by a provincial governor who a friend of the family. The new name, however,
caused confusion in the commercial affairs of the family. Don Francisco thus settled
on the name “Rizal Mercado” as a compromise, and then just used his more known
surname “Mercado.”

When Paciano was a student at the College of San Jose, he used “Mercado” as his last
name. But because he had gained notoriety with his links to father Burgos of the
“Gomburza,” he suggested that Jose use the surname “Rizal” for Jose’s own safety.

Commenting on using the name “Rizal” at Ateneo, Jose once wrote: “My family never
paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving
me the appearance of an illegitimate child!” (As cited in Arriza, 2012, para. 8)

But this very name suggested by Paciano to be used by his brother became so well
known by 1891, the year Jose finished his El Filibusterismo. As Jose wrote to a friend,
“All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal
means persecution! God! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name…”
(as cited in Arriza, 2012 para. 8).
Rizal’s Birth

            Doña Teodora was said to have suffered the greatest pain during the delivery
of her seventh child, Jose. Her daughter Narcisa recalled: “I was nine years of age
when my mother gave birth to Jose. I recalled it vividly because my mother suffered
great pain. She labored for a long time. Her pain was later attributed to the fact that
Jose’s head was bigger than normal” (as cited in “Lola Lolay.” 2013, para 8).

Jose Rizal was born in Calamba. In 1848, his parents decided to build a home in this
town in Laguna, Southern Luzon. The name Calamba was derived from kalan-banga,
which means “clay stove” (kalan) and “water jar” (banga).

            Jose’s adoration of its scenic beauty---punctuated by the sights of Laguna de

Bay, Mount Makiling, palm-covered mountains, curvy hills, and green fields---was
recorded in the poem he would later write at Ateneo de Manila in 1876, Un Recuerdo A
Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town). (If Rizal’s poem were written today, he might
mention the tree-floor SM mall, shopping centers and the South Luzon Expressway
(SLEX) terminus in the place. A city since 2001, Calamba is said to have earned the
nickname resorts in the place today.)

The first massive stone house (or bahay na bato) in Calamba was the very birthplace of
our national hero. It was a rectangular two-storey building, built of adobe stones and
solid wood, with sliding capiz  windows. Its ground floor was made of lime stone, the
second floor of hard wood, except for the roof, which was of red tiles. There was
an azotea and a water reservoir at the back. Its architectural style and proximity to
the church implied Rizal family’s wealth and political influence.

6. The Childhood of a Phenom

A phenom is someone who is exceptionally talented or admired, especially an up-and-

comer. Rizal, especially during his childhood, was none less than a phenom.

            Jose’s first memory, in his infancy, was his happy days in their family garden
when he was three years old. Their courtyard contained tropical fruit trees, poultry
yard, a carriage house, and a stable for the ponies. Because the young Pepe was weak,
sickly, and undersized, he was given the fondest care by his parents, so his father
built a nipa cottage for Pepe to play in the daytime.

            Memory of his infancy included nocturnal walk in the town, especially when
there was a moon. Jose recalled the “aya” 9nursemaid) relating to the Rizal children in
their home to pray the Angelus. At the early age of three, he started to take a part in
the family prayers.

             When Concha died of sickness in a865, Jose mournfully wept at losing her. He
later wrote in his memoir, “When I was four years old, I lost my little sister Concha,
and then for the first time I shed tears caused by love and grief” (“Memoirs of a
Student,” n.d., para. 3).

            At the age of five, the young Pepe learned to read Spanish the family Bible,
which he would refer to later in his writings. Rizal himself remarked that perhaps the
education he received since his earliest infancy was what shaped his habits (“Memoirs
of a Student,” n.d., para. 3).

            As a child, Rizal loved to go to the chapel, pray, participate in novenas, and join
religious processions. In Calamba, one of the men he esteemed and respected was the
scholarly Catholic priest Leoncio Lopez, the town priest. He used to visit him and listen
to his inspiring opinions on current events and through life views.

            Also at the age of five, Pepe started to make pencil sketches and mold in clay
wax objects, which attracted his fancy. When he was about six years old, his sisters
once laughed at him for spending much time making clay and wax images, he then
prophetically told them “All right laugh at me now! Someday when I die, people will
make monuments and images of me.”

            When Jose was seven years old, his father provided him the exciting
experience of riding a ”casco” (a flat-bottomed boat with a roof) on their way to a
pilgrimage in Antipolo. The pilgrimage was to fulfill a vow made by Jose’s mother to
take him to a Shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo should she and her child survive the
ordeal of delivery, which nearly caused her life. From Antipolo, Jose and his father
proceeded to Manila to visit her sister Saturnina who was at the time studying at the
La Concordia College in Sta. Ana.

            As a gift, the child Jose received a pony named “Alipato” from his father
(Bantug and Ventura, 1997, p. 23). As a child, he loved to ride this pony or take long
walks in the meadows and lakeshore with his black dog named “Usman.”

            The mother also induced Jose to love the Arts, literature, and the classics.
Before he was eight years old, he had written a drama (some sources say “ a Tagalog
comedy,”) which was performed at a local festival and for which the municipal captain
rewarded him with two pesos. (Some references specify that it was staged in Calamba
festival and that it was a gobernadorcillo from Paete who purchased the manuscript
for two pesos.)

            Contrary to the “former” common knowledge however, Rizal did not write the
Filipino poem “ Sa Aking Mga Kababata/Kabata” (To My Fellow Children). The poem was
previously believed to be Rizal’s first written poem at the age of eight and was said to
have been published posthumously many years after Rizal’s death. However, Rizal Had
a preserved correspondence (letters) with his brother Paciano admitting that he
(Jose) had only encountered the word “kalayaan” when he was already 21 years old. The
term (“kalayaan”) was not used just in the Poem “Sa Aking Mga Kababata/Kabata.”(For
more details concerning this matter, read the article, “Did Jose Rizal Write the Poem
“Sa Aking Mga Kabata”?” in OurHappySchool.com).

            The young Rizal was also interested in magic. He read many books on magic. He
learned different tricks, such as making a coin disappear and making handkerchief
vanish in thin air.

            Some other influences of Rizal’s childhood involved his three uncles;
his Tio Jose Alberto who inspired him to cultivate his artistic ability; his Tio Manuel
who encouraged him to fortify his frail body through physical exercises; and
his Tio  Gregorio who intensified Rizal’s avidness to read good books.
To import essential life lessons, Lolay held regular storytelling seesions with the young
Rizal. Doña Teodora loved to read to Pepe stories from the book Amigo de los Niños
(The Children’s Friend). One day, she scolded his son for making drawings on the pages
of the story book. To teach the value of obedience to one’s parents, she afterward
read him a story in it.

            Lolay chose the story about a daughter moth who was warned by her mother
against going too near a lamp flame. Though the young moth promised to comply, she
later succumbed to the pull of light’s mysterious charm, believing that nothing bad
would happen if she approached it with caution. The moth then flew close to the flame.
Feeling comforting warmth at first, she draw closer and closer, bit by bit, until she
flew too close enough to the flame and perished.

            Incidentally, Pepe was watching a similar incident while he was listening to the
storytelling. Like a live enactment, a moth was fluttering too near to the flame of the
oil lamp on their table. Not merely acting out, it did fall dead as a consequence. Both
moths in the two tales paid the price of getting near the fatal light.
            Many years later, Rizal himself felt that the moth’s tale could serve as an
allegory of his own destiny. (A good summary of Rizal’s life is presented in Appendix B:
Jose Rizal: A Biography Outline.) About himself, he wrote:

                        Years have pass since then. The child become a man…Steamships have
taken him across seas and oceans. He has received from experience bitter lessons,
much bitter than the sweet lessons that his mother gave him. Nevertheless, he has
preserved the heart of a child. He still thinks that light is the most beautiful thing in
creation, and that it is worthwhile for a man to sacrifice life for it.” (as cited in “My
First Reminiscence,” n.d.. para. 9)

8. RIZAL'S EDUCATION

Education in Calamba

            The familiar statement that Doña Teodora was Rizal’s first teacher is not just
a sort of “venerating” his mother who sacrificed a lot for our hero. It was actually a
technical truth. In his Memoirs, Rizal wrote, “My mother taught me how to read and to
say haltingly the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God.”

            In Rizal’s time, seldom would one see a highly educated woman of fine culture,
like Doña Teodora who had the capacity to teach Spanish, reading, poetry, and values
through rare story books. Lolay, indeed, was the first teacher of the hero---teaching
him Spanish, correcting his composed poems, and coaching him in rhetoric. On her lap,
Jose learned the alphabet and Catholic prayers at the age of three, and learned to
read and write at age of 5.

            Aside from his mother, Jose’s sister Saturnina and three maternal uncles also
mentored him. His uncle Jose Alberto taught him painting, sketching, and sculpture.
Uncle Gregorio influenced him to further love reading. Uncle Manuel, for his part,
developed Rizal’s physical skills in martial arts, like wrestling.

            To further enhance what Rizal had learned, private tutors were hired to give
him lessons at home. Thus, Maestro Celestino tutored him, and Maestro Lucas Padua
later succeeded Celestino. Afterward, a former classmate of Don Francisco, Leon
Monroy, lived at the Rizal home to become the boy’s tutor in Spanish and Latin. Sadly,
Monroy died five months later. (Of course, there was no truth to some naughty
student’s comical insinuation that Rizal had something to do with his death.)

Education in Biñan
            Rizal was subsequently sent to a private school in Biñan. In June 1869, his
brother Paciano brought him to the school of Maestro Justiniano Cruz. The school was
in the teacher’s house, a small nipa house near the home of Jose’s aunt where he
stayed. In Rizal’s own words, his teacher “knew by the heart the grammars by Nebrija
and Gainza.”

            During Rizal’s first day at the Biñan School, the teacher asked him:

                        “Do you know Spanish?”

                        “A little, sir.” Replied Jose.

                        “Do you know Latin?”

                        “A little, sir.”

            Because of this, his classmates, especially the teachers son Pedro, laughed at
the newcomer. So later in that day, Jose challenged the bully Pedro to a fight. Having
learned wrestling from his Uncle Manuel, the younger and smaller Jose defeated his
tormentor: (Compared to bullying victims, we can say that Rizal did not wait for anyone
to enact a law against bullying, but rather took matters into his own hands.)

            After the class, he had an arm-wrestling match with his classmate Andres
Salandanan. In that match, however, Jose lost and almost cracked his head on the
sidewalk. (That only proves that merely being a deperado won’t make you win all your
fights.)

            In the following days, Jose was said to have fights over Biñan boys. (If his
average was two fights per day, as what happened during his first dau in Biñan school,
then he might have been more active than today’s MMA [mixed martial arts fighters.]
For his scuffles, he nonetheless received many whippings and blows on the open palm
from his disciplinarian teacher.

            Rizal might not have won all his brawls but he, nevertheless, beat all Biñan boys
academically in Spanish, Latin, and many other subjects. After sometime, Jose told his
father that he had already learned all there was to be taught in Biñan. Don Francisco
firmly scolded Jose and hustled him back to school. Maestro Curz, Jose’s teacher in
Biñan, later confirmed, however, that Jose had indeed finished already all the needed
curricular works. So despite his wife’s reluctance, Don Francisco then declared to send
Jose to a school in Manila.