The Mercado-Rizal Family
The Rizal family is considered one
of the biggest families during that time. Domingo Lam-co, the family’s paternal
ascendant was a full-blooded Chinese who came to the Philippines from Amoy,
China and married a Chinese half-breed lady named Ines de la Rosa. It was also
said that the Mercado-Rizal family had also traces of Japanese, Spanish, Malay,
and Negrito.
Jose Rizal’s family is composed of
13 members including his parents, and nine sisters and one brother. Jose is the
7th child in the family.
Francisco Mercado (1818-1898)
Jose's
father is Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro is an industrious father
whom Rizal called "a model of fathers". He came from Biñan, Laguna.
His parents are Juan and Cirila Mercado and was the youngest of the 13 offsprings.
He was born in Biñan, Laguna on April 18, 1818. He studied in San Jose College,
Manila. He died in Manila on 1898.
Teodora
Alonzo (1827-1913)
Jose’s mother is Teodora Alonzo y
Quintos is a highly cultured and accomplished woman whom Rizal called “loving
and prudent mother”. Her parents were Lorenzo Alonzo and Brijida de Quintos.
She was born on November 14, 1827 in Sta. Cruz, Manila. She studied at the
Colegio de Santa Rosa. She was a business-minded woman, courteous, religious,
hard-working, artistic, and well-read. She died in Manila on 1913.
Saturnina
Rizal (1850-1913)
Saturnina is the eldest child in the
family. She married Manuel Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas. Their children were
Alfredo (1883-1952), who married Aurora Tiaoqui; Adela (1886-1946), who married
Jose Ver; Abelardo; and Amelia and Augusto, who both died young. In 1909 Doña
Saturnina published Pascual Poblete’s Tagalog translation of the Noli Me
Tangere.
Paciano
Rizal (1851-1930)
Paciano is the only brother of Jose
Rizal and the second child in the family. He studied at San Jose College in
Manila and became a farmer and later became a general of the Philippine
Revolution.
Narcisa
Rizal (1852-1939)
Narcisa is the third child in the
family. She married Antonino Lopez, a teacher and musician from Morong, Rizal.
Their children were Emilio; Angelica, who married Benito Abreu; Antonio
(1878-1928), who married Emiliana Rizal (the daughter of Paciano Rizal);
Consuelo; Leoncio, who married Natividad Arguelles; and Isabel, Francisco,
Arsenio, and Fidela, all of whom died young. It is said that Doña Narcisa could
recite from memory almost all the poems of Rizal.
Olympia
Rizal (1855-1887)
Olympia is the fourth child in the
family. She married Silvestre Ubaldo, a telegraph operator from Manila. Their
children were Aristeo, who married Leonarda Limjap; Cesario and another boy,
both of whom died young.
Lucia
Rizal (1857-1919)
Lucia is the fifth child in the
family. She married Mariano Herbosa of Calamba, Laguna. Their children were
Delfina, first wife of Gen. Salvador Natividad and who helped Marcela Agoncillo
make the first Filipino flag in Hong Kong; Concepcion; Patrocinio, who married
Jose Battalones; Teodosio, who married Lucina Vitingco; Estanislao; and Paz,
Victoria, and Jose, all of whom died young.
Maria
Rizal (1859-1945)
Maria is the sixth child in the
family. She married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Biñan, Laguna. Their children were
Encarnacion, who married Rosendo Banaad; Mauricio, who married Concepcion
Arguelles; and Petrona, Paz, and Prudencio, who all died young.
Jose
Rizal (1861-1896)
Jose is the second son and the
seventh child in the family. He was born in Biñan, Laguna on June 19, 1861 and
died in Bagumbayan, Manila on December 30, 1896 through execution of the
Spaniards.
Concepcion
Rizal (1862-1865)
Concepcion is the eight child in the
family. She died early at the age of 3 and became Jose Rizal’s first sorrow
since the two were very close.
Josefa
Rizal (1865-1945)
Josefa is the ninth child in the
family. She was an epileptic and died a spinster.
Trinidad
Rizal (1868-1951)
Trinidad is the tenth child in the
family. She also died a spinster and was the last of the family who died.
Josefa and Trinidad lived together
until their deaths. Both became members of the Katipunan. Trinidad was the
custodian of Rizal’s elegy, “Mi Ultimo Adios.”
Soledad
Rizal (1870-1929)
Soledad was the youngest child in
the family. She married Pantaleon Quintero of Calamba, Laguna. Their children
were Trinitario, who married Maria San Mateo; Amelia, who married Bernabe
Malvar (son of Gen. Miguel Malvar); Luisa, who married Jose Arguelles; and
Serafin and Felix, both of whom died young. Soledad, who became a teacher, is
said to have been “the best educated” among Rizal’s sisters.
His
sisters’ families also became very much involved in Rizal’s life. Saturnina,
Narcisa, and Lucia, along with their parents and Manuel Hidalgo and Mariano
Herbosa, were ordered to be deported, charged with rousing the people to refuse
to pay land rent, and with causing the unrest in Calamba. Hidalgo was first
exiled “as a conspirator and representative of Jose Rizal,” and again, as Rizal
observed, “without any accusation, without his knowing any crime of which he
was accused, excepting that he was my brother-in-law.” Herbosa, who died of
cholera in 1889, was denied a Christian burial because of his relation to
Rizal. Rizal’s nephews were also known to have traveled with Rizal to Dapitan
in 1893 or visited him there.
Rizal’s sisters figured largely in his life as much as his brother Paciano did.
With Concepcion, Rizal shared games and stories made up by their governess.
Rizal confided to Olimpia about his first sweetheart, Segunda Katigbak; and to
Maria, he talked about wanting to marry Josephine Bracken, whom Rizal’s family
apparently disapproved of. To support Rizal’s studies in Europe, the two older
sisters pawned their jewelry and peddled clothes. All of Rizal’s sisters wrote
to him about their parents and their own families as well as local occurrences
such as the outbreak of cholera or the land taxes being imposed by the friars.
They also visited him when he was exiled in Dapitan and right before his
execution in 1896 (Trinidad had planned Rizal’s escape from Dapitan
beforehand). Narcisa painstakingly searched the cemeteries in Manila for
Rizal’s burial place. She had to bribe a gravedigger to place a marker on it,
for she would not be allowed near the body, which had been buried without a box
of any kind. Two years later, Rizal’s sisters dug up the body at the Paco
cemetery. They found only the hero’s bones, shoes, and hat.
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