“I WAS BORN IN KALAMBA ON THE 19TH OF JUNE 1861 BETWEEN

ELEVEN AND TWELVE O’CLOCK AT NIGHT, A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE

FULL OF THE MOON.”

~JOSE RIZAL

CHAPTER 1A HERO IS BORN, 1861

DR. JOSE RIZAL

Dr. Jose Rizal, the greatest hero of the Philippines,was a “many-splendored” genius. He was richly doweredby god with superb intellectual, moral and physicalqualities. Truly, he ranks with the world’s geniuses. Hewas an anthropologist, botanist, businessman,cartographer, dramatist, economist, educator, engineer,essayist, entomologist, ethnologist, farmer, folklorist,geographer, grammarian, historian, horticulturist,humorist, lexicographer, linguist, musician, novelist,painter, physician, poet, philologist, philosopher,polemist, psychologist, satirist, sculptor, sportsman,sociologist, surveyor, traveler, and zoologist. More thanall these, he was a patriot, hero and martyr. Unlikemany geniuses, he consecrated his God-given talents,and even sacrificed his own life, for the redemption andwelfare of his people. Verily, a man of his heroism andversatility appears not once in the history of any nation.

The World When Rizal Was Born

In 1861, the year when Rizal was born, thePhilippines was browsing redolently beneath theshadow of the Cross. Pax Hispanica reigned over theentire archipelago. The people, despite their bondageto Spain, were enjoying their serene, simple, andChristian way of life. Comparatively speaking, theywere better off than the subject peoples in theEnglish, Dutch and Portuguese colonies during thatage. The Spanish governor-general then was a goodmilitarist, General Jose Lemery, whose achievementworthy of historical citation was the establishment ofthe Politico-Military Government of the Visayas andMindanao. No bloody Muslim piratical raid, no seriousnative uprising, no frightful upsurge of banditry, andno threat of foreign invasion marred the generaltranquility of the land.

General Jose Lemery

Beyond the frontiers of the Philippines, theworld was seething in the throes of political strifes,social upheavals, and international intrigues.Gargantuan China was prostrate, impotent to stopthe predatory Western powers who were busylooting her riches. Her futile wars with England andFrance were ended by the infamous “Conventions ofPeking” (October 22, 1860), in which she lost moreterritories and was forced to grant more commercialconcessions to the imperialist “foreign devils.” Toworsen matters for the tottering Manchu dynasty,the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was ravaging therich provinces south of the Yangtze.

The Imperialist Western powers, flushed withtheir victories in China, tried to make a repeatperformance in Japan, whose door was unlocked in1854 to the world by the American commodore,Matthew C. Perry. Their efforts were, however,foiled by the valiant Japanese people whoseBushido spirit outmatched by the intruders’ superiorfire-power.

In Indo-china, the French troops of EmperorNapoleon III, strangely aided by Filipino soldiersfrom Manila, were smashing down Annameseresistance. In 1858 Saigon was captured by thecombined Filipino-French forces, and four yearslater France acquired Cochin China.

Matthew C. Perry Emperor Napoleon III

By fire and sword, the British East India Companyarmies were establishing the British raj (rule) all overthe sub-continent of India beyond the western frontiersto Burma. The destructive Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, lastserious resistance to British imperialism in India, wassuppressed at a staggering cost of money and humanlives. England had to fight three Burmese Wars (1824-26; 1862-63; and 1885-86) to subdue Burma.

In January, 1861, Benito Juarez, Indian-bloodedhero, entered Mexico City, at the head of his victoriousIndian and Mexican troops, and proclaimed therestoration of Mexican independence. ArchdukeMaximilian of Austria, who had dreamed of ruling Mexicowith the help of French bayonets, was executed.

Benito Juarez Archduke Maximilian

March of 1861 saw the emancipation of the serfs in Russia byCzar Alexander II. The following month of Civil War exploded in theUnited States over the slavery question and the issue of secession.

Europe was in turmoil. The German States were being forgedinto one nation by Bismarch, notwithstanding Austria’s opposition.South of the Alps, Cavour and Garibaldi, in defiance of Austria’smight, were rallying the Italians to unite and fight for ItaliaRedenta. In France, the Second Napoleonic Empire, beset bydomestic and foreign troubles and misgoverned by Napoleon III, wascrumbling to pieces. Only England, of all the Great Powers, wasexperiencing relative peace and prosperity. Under the able rule ofQueen Victoria she defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853-54),acquired rich colonies in the East, and attained a new height of gloryin diplomacy and literature.

Czar Alexander II Queen Victoria

Spain, unlike England, fared ill under the rule of a woman – Queen Isabela II (1833-68). She had lost her rich colonies (except Cuba and Puerto Rico) in the New World. Her decadence was accelerated by the chronic Carlist War, the ruinous political squabbles, and the bungling policies of her inept monarch.

Such was the global situation at the time of Rizal’s advent.

Queen Isabela II

The Birth of A Hero

Near midnight of Wednesday, June 19, 1861,when the Philippines was in deep slumber, a frailbaby-boy was born to the Rizal family inCalamba, Laguna. It was a moonlit night, being“a few days before the full of the moon.” Thedelivery was exceedingly difficult, and the motheralmost died. Her seemingly miraculous survivalwas attributed to Our Lady of Peace and GoodVoyage. Years later Jose Rizal recorded in hisboyhood memoirs: “It was a Wednesday, and myarrival in this valley of tears would have cost mymother her life had she not vowed to the Virgin ofAntipolo that she would take me on a pilgrimageto that shrine.’

Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage

The baby boy was baptized by Rev. RufinoCollantes in the Catholic church of Calamba onJune 22, 1861, three days after his birth. Hisgodfather was Rev. Pedro Casañas. He wasnamed “Jose” by his pious mother, in honor of St.Joseph. It was customary for Catholic parents toname their children after the saints.

The full name of the baby boy, who wasdestined to become the greatest genius and heroof the Philippines, was Jose Protasio RizalMercado y Alonso Realonda.

Parents

Jose was the seventh of the eleventh children ofFrancisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo Realonda. Bothfather and mother were Filipino parents – devoutly religious,educated, industrious, affectionate but strict, hospitable andcivic-spirited.

The hero’s father, Francisco (1818-1898), was born inBiñan, Laguna, on May 11, 1818 and died in Manila onJanuary 5, 1898, at the age of 80. He was an educated farmerhaving studied Latin and Philosophy at the College of San Josein Manila. In early manhood, after his mother’s death, hemoved to Calamba and became a tenant-farmer of theDominican estate. He married a college-bred Manileña,Teodora Alonzo Realonda, on June 28, 1848. Dr. Rizal, hisgreatest child, affectionately called him “a model of fathers.”He was quiet, serious, frugal man, taller than the averageFilipino, with wide shoulders, brown complexion, prominentforehead, large dark eyes, large ears and firm jaws.”

The hero’s mother, Teodora (1826-1911), wasborn in Manila on November 8, 1826 and died inManila on August 16, 1911, at the age of 85. Agraduate of Santa Rosa College, she was talentedwoman with high culture, business ability andliterary gift. Dr. Rizal, loving her as much as hisfather said of her: “My mother is more than awoman of ordinary culture; she knows literatureand speaks Spanish better than I . . . She is amathematician and has read many books.” Asidefrom helping her husband in farming andbusiness, she looked after the education andmoral training of her numerous children.

Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo Realonda

The Rizal Children

God blessed the marriage ofFrancisco Mercado Rizal and TeodoraAlonso Realonda with eleven children –two boys and nine girls. These childrenwere as follows:

1. Saturnina (1850-1913) She was the oldest of the Rizal children. She married Manuel T. Hidalgo.

2. Paciano (1851-1930) He was the older brother of Dr. Rizal.

After his younger brother’s execution, he joined the Revolution and became a general. After the Revolution he retired to his farm in Los Baños and led the life of a gentleman farmer. He died an old bachelor, though he had a common-law wife.

3. Narcisa (1852-1939) She married Antonino Lopez, a school teacher of Morong, Rizal.

4. Olympia (1855-1887) She married Silvestre Ubalde, a telegraph operator from Manila.

5. Lucia (1857-1919) She married Mariano Herbosa of Calamba.

6. Maria (1859-1945) She married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Biñan, Laguna.

7. JOSE (1861-1896) The “lucky seven” in a family of eleven children. He married Josephine Bracken, a pretty Irish from Hongkong.

8. Concepcion (1862-1865) She died at the age of three.

9. Josefa (1865-1945) She did not marry; she died an old maid.

10. Trinidad (1868-1951) She died an old maid, like Josefa.

11. Soledad (1870-1929) She was the youngest of the Rizal children. She married Pantaleon Quintero of Calamba.

Ancestry of Rizal

Jose Rizal, like a typical Filipino, was of mixedancestry. In his veins flowed the bloods of bothEast and West – Negrito, Indonesian, Malay,Chinese, Japanese and Spanish.

Rizal’s paternal great-great-grandfather was aChinaman named Domingo Lam-co, a native ofChinchew, “China’s City of Spring”. His father,Francisco, was a great grandson of Lam-co. Bothhis father’s father and grandfather had beenCapitanes (town mayors) of Biñan.

It is said that on the maternal side, Rizal’s ancestorwas Lakan-Dula, the last Malayan King of Tondo. Amaternal great-great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua, ofJapanese blood. Jose’s mother Teodora belonged to a clanof gifted men. Her brothers Gregorio, Manuel and Josewere men of unusual talents. Her father, Lorenzo AlbertoAlonso, was an engineer who was awarded by Spain withthe coveted decoration of “Knight of the Grand Order ofIsabela the Catholic.” Her maternal grandfather was Manuelde Quintos, a prominent Manila lawyer. Her paternalgrandfather, Cipriano Alonso, was a Captain of Biñan. In1849, when Governor Narciso Claveria ordered the Filipinofamilies to choose new surnames from a list of Spanishfamily names, the children of Lorenzo Alberto Alonsoadopted the name ‘Realonda”. Hence Teodora Alonsobecame Teodora Alonso Realonda.

Lakan Dula Eugenio Ursua

Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo and Manuel Alberto Alonzo

The Name “Rizal”

The original name of the Rizal was “Mercado”. Itwas a surname adopted in 1731 by Domingo Lam-co,the paternal Chinese ancestor. In English, it means“market”. Evidently, Lam-co liked it because itappealed to his business nature and also because itreminded him of his Chinchew ancestors who weremostly merchants.

In the year 1849, as mentioned above, GovernorClaveria issued a decree directing all Filipino familiesto choose new surnames from a list of Spanish familynames. The purpose of this gubernatorial decree wasto Hispanize the Filipino surnames which were difficultfor the Spanish authorities to pronounce, much less toremember.

Jose’s father, Francisco, scanned the list ofSpanish surnames sent to Calamba, such as“Cruz”, “Santos”, “Ramos”, “Rivera”, etc. he didnot like these surnames. Being a man ofindependent character, he chose his own surnameRizal, which was not in the list recommended bythe Spanish authorities. He considered this newfamily name as more fitting for his farming clanthan Mercado which signifies “market”.

The term “Rizal” came from the Spanish wordrcial which means “green field” or “new pasture”.

Mercado which means “market”

Rizal which means “rice field”

The Rizal Family

The Rizal family was one of the richest families inCalamba during the time prior to its persecution by thefriars. Rizal’s parents, by their industry and frugality, wereable to honestly build up a large fortune. By present-daystandards, they were rich. They were the first to build alarge stone house in Calamba, the first to own a carruaje(horse-drawn carriage), the first to have a home library(estimated to consist of more than 1000 volumes) and thefirst to educate their children in the colleges of Manila.

The Rizal family raised rice, corn, and sugar on largetracts of land rented from the Dominican estate ofCalamba. It operated a sugar mill, a flour mill, and ahome-made ham press. It engaged successfully in the dyeand sugar business and in the barter trade (exchange ofproducts with other towns).

A “carruaje”

Teodora, the hero’s mother, owned a store intown which sold many articles of trade needed by thepeople. She was a successful businesswoman, and theprofits of this store augmented the family income.

In due time, the Rizal family was able to purchaseanother stone house in Calamba. This was anotherproof of the family affluence.

Not only was the Rizal family of Calamba’s richestfamilies; it was, withal, highly esteemed andrespected. Combining wealth and culture, hospitalityand charm, it participated in all social and religiousactivities in the community.

Don Francisco and Doña Teodora weregracious hosts to all visitors – priests, alferez(lieutenant of the Guardia Civil), Spanishofficials, and Filipinos – during holidays suchas Christmas, town fiesta and otheroccasions. Beneath the Rizal roof, all guests,irrespective of their color social position, oreconomic status, were treated equally – withall courtesy and hospitality.

The house of the Rizal family was one of thedistinguished stone houses in Calamba during the Spanishtimes. It was rectangular in shape, “of adobe stone andhardwood with a red-tiled roof.” Behind it were the poultryyard full of turkeys and chickens and the garden of tropicalfruit trees – atis, balimbing, macopa, papaya, santol, tampoy,etc.

It was a happy home where parental affection andchildren’s laughter reigned. By day, it hummed with thejubilant noises of the children at play. By night, it echoed withthe dulcet notes of family prayers. Both parents and childrenwere harmoniously united by strong ties of affection andunderstanding.

Such a wholesome home, naturally, bred a wholesomefamily. And such a family was the Rizal family.

The Rizal Home

Submitted by:

Alvero, Clarice Anne M.