ANDRES

BONIFACIO

Biographical notes
Part I: 1863-1891

Birth and baptism

30 Nov Andres Bonifacio was born in Tondo in a “commodious” house with a nipa thatched
1863 roof and wooden board walls.1 It was located, according to Hermenegildo Cruz, “na
nasa sa harap ng himpilan ngayón ng pero-karil sa daang Azcárraga”.2

Historians generally accept this location to be correct, but they

differ in the way they interpret the phrase “na nasa sa harap”.
Agoncillo uses the words “opposite the present site of the
Tutuban Railroad Station,” and Zaide uses the word “across”
from the station site, both implying a location on the southern
side of Azcarraga (now Recto).3 Other historians, however, have
taken “na nasa sa harap” to mean “in front of,” and today this
commemorative statue stands on the northern side of the street,
by Tutuban Mall.4

2 Dec Bonifacio’s parents named their son Andres because he was born on the feast day of San
1863 Andres, the patron saint of Manila. The Tondo parish register records his baptism as
follows:

“On December 2, 1863, on my authority as Parish Priest, Padre Don Saturnino

Buntan, presbyter cleric, baptized according to the rites of our Holy Mother Church,
and applied the Holy Oils to, Andres Bonifacio, indio three days born, legitimate son
of Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro, of the barangay of Don Patricio
Infante, with Vicente Molina as sponsor at the font.... [Signed] Fr. Gregorio Prieto.”5

Parents

The marriage of Andres’s parents was recorded in the parish register as follows:

"On the 24th of January 1863... Saturnino Buntan, parish priest of Tondo, authorized
the marriage contracted in Tondo between [Santiago Bonifacio], the son of Vicente
1
Bonifacio and Alejandra Rosales... and Catalina de Castro, single, mestiza española, a
native of the province of Zambales and resident in this pueblo of Tondo... daughter
of Martin de Castro and Antonia Gregorio... in the presence of Don Severino Ampil
and Doña Patricia Trinidad as witnesses and sponsors...."6

Prior to their wedding, Santiago Bonifacio was a resident of Barangay No.74 in Tondo,
whose head (cabeza) was Don Patricio Infante, and Catalina de Castro was a resident of
Barangay No.43 in Tondo, whose head was Don Lazaro Ortega. The wedding sponsors,
Severino Ampil and Patricia Trinidad, owned a business renting out horse-drawn
carriages.7

Santiago Bonifacio (c.1841-1885)8 was originally from Taguig, a river and lakeshore
municipality about seven miles to southeast of Manila.9 He is said to have worked in his
younger days as a boatman (banquero), ferrying passengers back and forth to the city
along the Pasig River. It was on one of these trips that he met Catalina de Castro, and he
subsequently moved to Manila to marry her and start a family.

Landing place at Taguig, 1840s Binondo waterfront, c.1890s

Santiago Bonifacio then earned living as a longshoreman (cargador), unloading sacks of

muscovado sugar, bales of abaca, and bundles of rattan from the ships and river barges
(cascos) moored at the Binondo quays.10

After contracting tuberculosis, however, he became too weak for heavy labor and became
a tailor, a trade he had learned from his father. He also started a handicrafts business
making hats, walking canes, feather dusters (plomeros) and fans at home, helped by the
rest of the family.11 Some accounts say he served for a time as the deputy mayor (teniente
mayor) of Tondo, but this has not been confirmed by primary documents.12

Nick Joaquin writes that Santiago Bonifacio “had fame as a duplista. In those days, a
wake and the nine-day prayers that followed were usually enlivened by a duplo, or
dialogue between poet-orators. These were the duplistas. A ‘king’ presided over the
gathering; one orator would rise to ask the king’s permission to, say, kiss the hand of a
girl present; another orator would spring up to demand that the request be denied. The
duplistas would then launch into an argument and the king would decide who had
won.”13

2
Catalina de Castro (c. 1844-1884), according to descendants of her sister Francisca, was
the daughter of Spaniard surnamed Lejarde who owned a silversmiths (platería) in Santa
Cruz. He had a family in Spain, but whilst living in the Philippines he had five children
with a Chinese mestiza from Castillejos in Zambales. Catalina, it is said, was herself born
in Zambales, in barrio Dirita in Iba. She and her siblings took their mother’s name, de
Castro, rather than that of their Spanish father, Lejarde. By this account, it would seem
the detail in the Tondo church register about Catalina being from Zambales was accurate,
but the recorded names of her parents (Andres Bonifacio’s maternal grandparents) were
expedient fictions.14

After her marriage, Catalina worked as a table supervisor (cabecilla), and later as a section
supervisor (maestra), in a tobacco factory in Meisic, probably the Fabrica de Puros de
Meisic.15

The Fabrica de Puros de Meisic Tabaqueras (early 20th century)

In the 1870s the Meisic factory had 220 tables in one building and 180 in another, with
about 10 women on each table. A maestra could earn as much as P16 a month, a good
wage by the standards of the time.16

Education

1860s- Andres Bonifacio had a good basic education. It is said he went to a private elementary
1870s school in Meisic run by a lawyer from Carcar, Cebu, Don Guillermo Osmeña, and also
attended the Escuela Municipal de Niños on Calle Ilaya in Tondo, where the maestro de
instrucción primaria was Don Epifanio L. del Castillo.17 His early studies were
supplemented in the home, it is said, by “a learned and patriotic” aunt, Remigia Castro
de Sanchez.18 According to Pio Valenzuela, he then continued his education at “one of
the private schools of Manila,” and reached the third year of secondary education, called
Latinidad in those days.19

Brothers and sisters

Bonifacio had three brothers and two sisters, who by order of birth were as follows:-

Ciriaco (c.1865–1897), who became a train conductor on the Manila-Dagupan Railroad.20

3
Procopio (c.1869-1897), who also worked for the railroad
company, for a while as a track inspector (vigilante de
anden)21 and at another time as a baggage master (factor) at
Tutuban Station.22

Espiridiona (“Nonay”) (1876-1956), who was the only sibling who later spoke to
journalists and historians seeking information about Bonifacio’s early life. Unfortunately,
none of them wrote up her recollections at length, and the
details they gleaned from their conversations with her
sometimes conflict.

In 1893 Espiridiona married Teodoro Plata, a clerk (oficial de

mesa) in the Binondo court (juzgado), who the previous year had
joined Bonifacio in founding the Katipunan. She had initially
resisted his suit because she was only 17, and he was in his late
twenties or early thirties. She saw him as “an ugly, dark, and
bearded old man.” Bonifacio persuaded her, however, “to
accept the man for the cause they were espousing”. One of their
wedding sponsors was the wife of Estanislao Legaspi, the
branch president of the Liga Filipina in Binondo.23 Photo c.1935

In 1894 Plata was appointed as the senior clerk (escribano) in the court of first instance in
Mindoro, and he lived there until summoned back to Manila by Bonifacio just before the
revolution. He was then named secretary of war in the Katipunan “Council of State,” but
when the Katipuneros assembled at Balintawak in August 1896 he argued the revolution
was premature and doomed to fail. Soon thereafter he returned to Mindoro and
attempted to go into hiding, but was tracked down by Spanish agents, brought back to
Manila and shot at Bagumbayan on February 6, 1897. He left an infant son, who did not
survive. Espiridiona subsequently married Emiliano Distrito, and had a number of
children and grandchildren.24

Troadio (c.1877-?), who joined the Spanish navy, and reportedly served for a time aboard
the cruiser Reina Cristina. In 1896, however, whilst stationed in Hong Kong, he left the
service after getting word from Andres that the revolution was imminent and that he
might be at risk of arrest. Thereafter he reportedly adopted a different name. After
winning a lottery prize, it is said, he went to Macau, where he lived for a time “under the
protection of Doña Ana Pereyra, the Marchioness of Lerma.”25

Some years after the Revolution, Espiridiona heard that Troadio was living in France,
4
and had decided never to return to the Philippines because of the fate that had befallen
his three brothers. By 1930, his sister no longer knew whether he was still alive.26

Maxima (c.1881-?), whose sister Espiridiona told interviewers had died at the age of 15.27
Some say, however, that Maxima in fact survived well into the twentieth century. Like
her brother Troadio, it is said, Maxima felt it prudent to use a different name.
Espiridiona and her other relatives kept her true identity secret in order to protect her
from unwanted attention.28

1870s- Tio Hermogenes: At some point, Santiago Bonifacio’s elder brother (or possibly half-
1880s brother) Hermogenes came to live with the family, and when he later got married his
wife moved in as well. Hermogenes helped in the family handicrafts business, and his
wife worked as a market vendor, selling chicken, fish and sitsaron. Not long after
Hermogenes got married, however, the Guardia Civil Veterana came to the house and
arrested him for evading military service and the polo (forced labor on road building and
other public works). The arrest was brutal. Hermogenes was kicked, punched and hit
with rifle butts. He was then sent to the penal colony at Puerto Princesa, Palawan, but his
wife and the rest of the family were not told what had happened to him, and they only
found out much later.29

1880 Earthquake: In July 1880 the Bonifacio family’s house was destroyed when a massive
earthquake struck Manila, wreaking damage all over the city. “We lost our house and all
our belongings,” Espiridiona recalled. Not a house was left standing all along Azcarraga
from Tutuban up to Calle de Cervantes (now Rizal Avenue). “Our parents worked hard
so that we might build another nipa house”.30 Bonifacio’s parents owned the house and
lot where they lived31, and after the 1880 earthquake they must have built their new
house on the same site, or at least very close by.

1884-5 Death of parents: The Tondo

vecindario (official list of residents)
for 1884, which has come to light
only recently, shows that both his
mother and father were still alive in
1884.32 This disproves the story,
told in most history books, that
Bonifacio was orphaned at the age
of 14 (i.e. around 1878) and had to
leave school and start work in order
to support his five younger
siblings.33

Catalina and Santiago Bonifacio are

both said to have succumbed to
tuberculosis.34 Espiridiona
Bonifacio was not consistent in the
answers she gave to historians who
asked when her parents died, but
on one occasion she was very
precise. Her mother Catalina, she said, died on June 29, 1883, and her father Santiago
5
died on March 5, 1885. Espiridiona also said, however, that both her parents had been
buried in La Loma Cemetery, which did not open until 1884. Together with the evidence
of the 1884 vecindario, this suggests Espiridiona was mistaken about the year of her
mother’s death, but perhaps not the day and month.35

It therefore seems Andres Bonifacio was about 21 when he was orphaned. Ciriaco, the
next eldest, was perhaps 19, and Procopio about 16, but his other brother and his two
sisters were under 9. The youngest, Maxima, was not yet 5. Fortunately, the wife of
Hermogenes Bonifacio was still living in the house at this time, and was able to care for
the younger children. Later, though, she left to join her exiled husband in Palawan. 36

1886-7 Residences: In 1886 or 1887, having inherited the Tutuban property, Bonifacio and his
siblings sold the house to Manila Railroad Company of London (which laid the
cornerstone of Tutuban Station in July 1887) and the lot to the British-owned company J.
M. Fleming & Co., one of the contractors that supplied materials for the construction of
the Manila-Dagupan line.37

Tutuban Station (Estacion Central del Ferrocarril);

Tondo parish church; Calle Aceiteros; Calle Sagunto.

After selling the house, the Bonifacios are said to have moved to a rented nipa house in
the neighboring district of Trozo, but after a matter of only weeks or months this house
was destroyed by fire. They then moved back to Tondo, and lived for a short while near
the parish church in the house of Briccio Pantas, who was the secretary of the court
(juzgado) of Quiapo, and who served for a time as secretary of the KKK Supreme Council.
They subsequently lived for some years in Calle Aceiteros (now M. de Santos, Divisoria),
before moving around 1892 to a more spacious accesoria at 11E Calle Sagunto (now Santo
Cristo).38 It is not known, though, whether Andres Bonifacio lived with his brothers and
sisters throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, or whether he moved out to set up a home
of his own when he married his first wife.

6
Family business

After their parents died, Espiridiona related, Andres Bonifacio took the lead in
continuing the family business, teaching his brothers “how to make paper fans and
canes. They worked together in a row with Andres as the teacher. My brothers sold the
fans and canes in the streets and in the plazas. During the town fiesta they sold them in
the churchyard.”39

When recalling her childhood, Espiridiona accepted that the family had been “poor, and
we all had to help to earn money.” But, she insisted, “we were not as poor as rats as
pictured by some writers. Just because we made fans and canes does not mean we were
destitute. In fact, the family business was doing fairly well, and some of our best canes
sold from P50 to P100 each.”40 In those days P100 was a huge sum – a middle-ranking
clerk would have to work for four months to earn that amount – so perhaps the prices
she recalled were in pesetas (a fifth of a peso), or perhaps her indignation at the family
being depicted “as poor as rats” led her to exaggerate. But it is certainly true that the
family was not destitute. Whether or not this was due, as Espiridiona suggested, to the
handicrafts business doing “fairly well” may be open to debate. All her four brothers, it
is clear, sought and obtained other work in order to supplement whatever profit the fans
and canes were making.

Andres also did other work inside the home. Aside from the fans and canes, it is said he
wove and sold dozens of bamboo hats,41 and having a gift for calligraphy he produced
attractive advertising posters for companies such as clothes dealers.42

Agent and bodeguero

1880s J.M. Fleming: Andres Bonifacio’s first employment outside the home, so far as is known,
was with J. M. Fleming, a British-owned company whose office was located on Calle
Barraca near the Estero de Binondo.43

J.M. Fleming, as noted above, was the company that purchased the lot owned by the
Bonifacios near Tutuban, perhaps to use as a storage yard. It is possible, as Manuel
suggests, that the company’s managers first got to know Andres Bonifacio when
negotiating the purchase of the property, and hired him specifically to work on the
railroad project, acting as their agent in buying tar and timber ties for the tracks.44 Other
sources, though, say Bonifacio first worked for the company as a mandatario (messenger,
errand boy), and was only promoted later to the position of corredor (sales agent), selling
tar, rattan, sahing (pili resin) and other products.45 According to Espiridiona, his salary at
this time was less than P10 per month, but this modest sum was still “better than most
workers in Manila, who received only 15 centavos a day.”46

1890s C. Fressel & Co.: Presumably in order to earn a higher wage, Bonifacio subsequently
7
moved to a German-owned trading company, C. Fressel & Co., which had premises on
Calle Nueva in Binondo.47

Initially, says Espiridiona48, he then earned P12 a month,

but over the years his wages rose substantially, up to P20
a month according to his friend Guillermo Masangkay49
and to P25 a month according to another source.50
Contemporary sources describe his position simply as
bodeguero (warehouseman), but his salary, at least double
that of a laborer at the time, suggests that his duties
included office or sales work as well as manual work.51
Whatever his exact responsibilities, employment in the
capital’s foreign-owned businesses offered good
opportunities for advancement, and was much sought
after. “The fathers of many who at this day figure as men
of position and standing,” commented a British observer
of Manileño society, “commenced their careers as
messengers, warehouse-keepers, clerks etc. of the foreign
houses.”52

Nick Joaquin relates that Bonifacio once worked “as a bodeguero for a
mosaic tile factory in Santa Mesa, owned by the Preysler family. The
Spanish patrona, Doña Elvira Preysler, is said to have recalled later that
the young Bonifacio was a voracious reader; she noticed that he had a
book propped open in front of him even while he was eating lunch.”53 It
seems this factory was acquired by Fressel, and came to be known during
the America era as the Santa Mesa Cement, Tile and Pipe Factory.

1880s Dress and style: Bonifacio’s only surviving photograph (at the top of
these notes) shows him wearing a dark jacket and collared shirt, with a
white bow tie. He is smartly dressed, it is sometimes said, because the
picture was taken on his wedding day, but other sources say the picture
dates from two years later, 1896. In any event, it seems he always liked to
look stylish and urbane when out and about. Masangkay remembered
his friend as “a cultured man. He always wore an open coat, with black
necktie and black hat. He always carried an umbrella.”54 When he went
courting, says another source, he wore a gray, American-style open coat
and white trousers.55

Not Bonifacio, but maybe his style

1880s Marriage(s): Documentary evidence on Bonifacio’s marital status in his twenties is non-

8
existent. Contemporaries recalled that his first wife (whether “official” or “common
law”) was a beautiful girl called Monica who lived in a nipa house in Palomar, a district
of Tondo situated on an estero-ringed island just to the east of Tutuban. When he was
courting, it was said, Bonifacio used to go to Monica’s house together with his friend
Antonio Vasquez, who was courting her sister.56 Bonifacio and Monica eloped, and had
three children, but then Monica contracted leprosy and died. Some sources say that all
the children also died (possibly in the cholera epidemic of 1888-89), but according to José
P. Santos, who interviewed Espiridiona in the 1930s, it was not known whether any were
still living or not.57

According to one of his cousins, Bonifacio later lived with a certain “Teang,”58 named by
some sources as Dorotea Tayson. She too died at an early age and left him a widower for
a second time.59 Guillermo Masangkay, however, disputed this story, and maintained
that Monica was Bonifacio’s only wife (“official” or “common law”) prior to his marriage
to Gregoria de Jesus.60

1880s- Music and drama: Espiridiona related that Bonifacio enjoyed singing. After coming
1890s home from work in the afternoon, she said, “he would call me to sing the songs he had
taught me.” Two of them, she remembered, were the Trovador (perhaps a song from
Verdi’s Il Trovatore) and La Constancia (perhaps the romantic ballad of that name from
which Cervantes quotes a couple of lines in Don Quixote).61

His friend Guillermo Masangkay recalled that Bonifacio belonged to an amateur

dramatic society in the district of Palomar which staged moro-moros, plays about the wars
and chivalric romances of Christians and Moors in medieval Europe. Some of these
plays, performed in a (possibly makeshift) theater called the Teatro Porvenir, would
probably have been dramatized versions of awit (verse stories in dodecalsyllabic
quatrains) such as Los Doce Pares de Francia, Principe Baldovino, and Don Juan Tenorio.
Masangkay remembered that Bonifacio especially liked Bernardo Carpio, the legend (in its
Tagalog variant) of a superhuman hero who gets imprisoned in a cave, but who will one
day set himself free and liberate all the oppressed. Bonifacio, said Masangkay, changed
the Spanish names of places, scenes and mountains in the Bernardo Carpio text to Tagalog
names.62

1880s- Reading: Bonifacio’s classmates said he was a voracious reader even as a boy63, and it
1890s was a habit he retained. As an adult, according to Pio Valenzuela, he went without sleep
in order to read64, and over the years he accumulated a wide range of books on social,
political and religious topics as well as popular novels of the day.65
Valenzuela recalled some of the titles that were in Bonifacio’s
collection in 1896, and to his often-cited list can be added a handful
from other sources.66 The publication details included below are just
speculative, except of course where only a single edition had yet
been printed, as was the case with Rizal’s novels.

Tagalog metrical romances – the Historia Famosa ni Bernaldo Carpio

[e.g. (Manila: n.pub, n.d.)]; and the classic allegorical poem by
Francisco Balagtas, Pinagdaanang buhay ni Florante at ni Laura, sa
cahariang Albania [e.g. (Binondo: Imprenta de M. Perez, 1875)].

9
Literature of the propaganda movement - José Rizal, Noli me tangere: novela tagala (Berlin:
Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschast, 1887); José Rizal, El filibusterismo: novela
filipina (Gent: F. Meyer- van Loo Press, 1891); and the journal edited by Marcelo del Pilar
in Spain, La Solidaridad [fortnightly, Barcelona; Madrid, 1889-95], bound in 3 volumes.

Novels - Spanish translations of French “social novels” such as Eugène Sue, El judío
errante [e.g. (Barcelona: Librería Iberica, 1868-9)]; and Victor Hugo, Los miserables [e.g.
(Madrid: Urbano Manini, c.1880)]; and the famous historical adventure stories of
Alexandre Dumas [père], perhaps including El conde de Monte Cristo (e.g. Madrid: Est. Tip.
de R. Labajos, 1878]; Los tres mosqueteros (Paris: A. Bouret é fils, 1877); and El vizconde de
Bragelonne [e.g. (Barcelona: Fasso, 1859)]; and of Alejandro Dumas [fils], perhaps
including La dama de las camellias, [e.g.(Madrid: s.n., 1888)].

History - Historia de la Revolución Francesa, 2 vols. [possibly

Mignet, Historia de la Revolución Francesa, 2 vols. (Madrid:
Murcia y Marti, 1864)]; Vidas de los Presidentes de los Estados
Unidos. [possibly Vidas y retratos de los Presidentes de los
Estados Unidos, desde Washington hasta Grant. Las biografías
por Eyert A. Düyckinck, y los retratos por Alonzo Chappel
(New York: Johnson, Wilson & Co., 1867; or Historia
biográfica de los presidentes de los Estados Unidos; escrita por
Enrique Leopoldo de Verneuill
con presencia de las obras de
Irving, Spencer, Greeley, etc.
(Barcelona: Montaner y Simon,
1885)]; Las memorias de un soldado.
[possibly Manuel Blanco, El
capitán Armando: memorias de un soldado de la Reforma (Mexico:
Valle Hermanos, 1872)]; Cesar Cantú, Historia Universal
[possibly (Madrid: Imprenta de Gaspar y Roig, 1870)];
Constantin-François de Volney, Las ruinas de Palmira, o
meditación sobre las revoluciones de los imperios [possibly
(Barcelona: Jose Codina, 1869)].

10
Religion – The Holy Bible, in 5 volumes [possibly La Sagrada Biblia,
nuevamente traducida por Don Felix Torres Amat, 5 vols. (Madrid:
Imprenta de D. Miguel de Burgos, 1832)]; and Rogelio H. de
Ibarreta’s anticlerical La religión al alcance de todos, 2 vols. (Madrid:
Imprenta de M. Romero, 1884). The Bible was then rarely found in
Filipino homes – it is said there were only a thousand or so copies
in the whole country. The Catholic Church did not encourage the
laity to possess or read the scriptures without supervision through
fear that “false interpretations” and “freethinking” would
proliferate.

Which books were Bonifacio’s favourites, or made the greatest impression on him?
Valenzuela noticed that alongside “serious” histories and biographies, Bonifacio liked to
read verse dramas (comedia) and folktales about legendary giants and monsters.67 His
sister Espiridiona said he learned many parts of Florante at Laura by heart, as well as
several shorter awit and corrido.68

Pio Valenzuela recounted that Bonifacio also committed

to memory much of what he read on the French,
American and Latin American revolutions: “His
knowledge… was amazing. He had seen nearly all the
revolutions between the covers of his books and there is
no doubt that they contributed largely to his becoming
an arch-revolutionist. He could cite to you dates, name
names of revolutionary leaders and recount events of
revolutionary importance anywhere in the world with
the dispatch of a census-taker.” “Danton,” recalled
Valenzuela, “was his patron saint, his chosen model.”69
Artigas y Cuerva likewise notes Bonifacio’s fascination
with the French revolutionaries of 1789 and their
“Declaration of the Rights of Man.” 70 The Declaration
had been translated into Tagalog by Rizal as “Ang mga
Karampatan ng Tao” and circulated in Manila as a
flysheet (pictured).71

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Responsibility for errors in these notes is not entirely mine. Many of the errors are embedded in the
sources, which indubitably contain lapses of memory both innocent and deliberate. On some issues the
evidence is conflicting. As always, comments and corrections are welcome, either beneath this post or to
[email protected]

Many of the illustrations have been taken from the web, where many images get posted without proper
attribution. If credit is given below to “secondary sources” rather than the rightful owners I apologize, and
can either amend the acknowledgment or delete the image from the post.

Jim Richardson
Revised January 2021

11
PICTURE CREDITS

Andres Bonifacio – Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla

Bonifacio statue at Tutuban – Traveler on Foot
Landing place at Taguig, c.1840s – George Eastman House
Binondo waterfront - Unknown
Fabrica de Puros de Meisic – Biblioteca Nacional de España
Tabaqueras (early 20th century) – Filipinas Heritage Library
Tutuban station – Unknown
Procopio Bonifacio – Isagani R. Medina
Espiridiona Bonifacio – José P. Santos
Tondo vecindario, 1884 – Historic San Mateo
Map section – Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Austin, Texas
Fleming, J. M., directory entry – Daily Press, Hong Kong
Fressel & Co., directory entry – Daily Press, Hong Kong
Fressel & Co., stamp – nigelgooding.co.uk
C. Fressel & Co./ Portland Cement Fabrik – El Comercio
C. Fressel & Co., Santa Mesa Cement, Tile and Pipe Factory – Rosenstock’s
“Not Bonifacio” - Unknown
Historia Famosa ni Bernaldo Carpio – Biblioteca Nacional de España
Noli me Tangere – National Historical Institute
El Filibusterismo - Unknown
La Solidaridad – The Manila Review
Historia de la Revolución Francesa – Unknown
Ruinas de Palmira – todocoleccion.net (web)
Sagrada Biblia – Libreria Virtual - El Viejo Libro
“Ang mga Karampatan ng Tao” – National Commission for Culture and the Arts

NOTES

1 E. Arsenio Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio: Manila’s Foremost Hero,” Paper read at the First Andres
Bonifacio and Parian Lectures, November 28, 1989, 6.
2 Hermenegildo Cruz, Kartilyang Makabayan: mga tanong at sagot ukol kay Andrés Bonifacio at sa KKK (Manila: n.pub.,

1922), 3, 50, 65. Another biography published the same year as Cruz’s gives the same location – Aguedo Cagingin,
The Life of Andres Bonifacio ([Manila]: n.pub., 1922).
3Teodoro A. Agoncillo, The Revolt of the Masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the

Philippines Press, 1956), 65; Gregorio F. Zaide, Great Filipinos in History (Manila: Verde Book Store, 1970), 105.
4 Ambeth R. Ocampo, Bones of Contention: The Bonifacio Lectures (Manila: Anvil, 2001), 81. Luis C. Dery and Pio C.

Andrade dissent from the Tutuban consensus, and argue that Bonifacio’s birthplace was some 300 meters to the east,
in a house on Calle Alvarado in barrio Meisic, just south of Azcarraga (now Recto). They cite as their source the
historian Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, who said Bonifacio was born on Calle Alvarado in his article “El fundador del
Katipunan,” Renacimiento Filipino, December 7, 1910. Artigas y Cuerva, however, does not mention Calle Alvarado in
his subsequent biography of Bonifacio, which he published in 1911 and republished in a revised format in 1917, and
he may therefore have decided the Alvarado location was uncertain. Luis Camara Dery, Bantayog ni Inang Bayan
(Quezon City: New Day, 2012), 89; Pio Andrade Jr, “Andres Bonifacio: a monument of lies,” Philippine Daily Inquirer,
November 30, 2014.
5 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio y El ‘Katipunan’ (Manila: Libreria ‘Filatelica’, 1911), 8. Isagani R. Medina

cites the entry in the parish register as “Tondo: Bautismos, XX, 69”- see his annotations to Carlos Ronquillo, Ilang talata
tungkol sa paghihimagsik nang 1896-1897 [1898] (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996), 724. The
English translation is from Quijano de Manila, “The Man Who Didn’t Finish It,” Philippines Free Press, November 30,
1963. Bonifacio’s godfather, Vicente Molina, later joined the Katipunan and was treasurer of the Supreme Council
from 1893 to 1896. At that time, he worked as a concierge at the Intendencia, the government treasury. He was
executed at Bagumbayan on February 6, 1897. “Relación nominal de los asquerosos chatos Katipuneros que han sido
pasados por las armas en esta capital desde el 20 de agosto 1896 fecha de la rebelión” (Archivo General Militar de
Madrid, Caja 5393, leg.92).
12
6 Ocampo, Bones of Contention, 91. The entry in the Tondo parish registers (“Casamientos, IX, 29”) seems to have first
been unearthed by Austin Craig and reported in the Sunday Tribune Magazine, November 23, 1929 – see Medina in
Ronquillo, Ilang talata, 724.
7 Medina in Ronquillo, Ilang talata, 724.
8 The approximate birth dates of Bonifacio’s parents, his brothers Ciriaco and Procopio, and his sister Espiridiona

have been calculated on the basis of the information contained in the Tondo vecindario (list of residents) for 1884.
Provincia de Manila, Pueblo de Tondo, “Año de 1884, Gremio de Naturales, Cabeceria num.31” [Microfilmed by
Family Search; credit to Richard Rivera of “Historic San Mateo” for locating the Bonifacio household in the
microfilmed records.] The 1884 vecindario lists Santiago Bonifacio as being 43, his wife as 39, Andres as 21, Ciriaco as
19, Procopio as 15 and Espiridiona as 8. The couple’s two youngest children, Troadio and Maxima, are not listed –
perhaps because they were living with relatives at that time.
9 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 5-6. The source of this information was almost certainly Bonifacio’s sister

Espiridiona, whom Manuel interviewed. More recently, research by Jomar Gelvoleo Encila in the Taguig parish
registers seems to confirm that Andres Bonifacio’s paternal grandparents, Vicente Bonifacio and Alejandra Rosales,
also came from Taguig. Personal communication from Jomar Gelvoleo Encila, January 2, 2021.
10 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 5-6; Isagani R. Medina, Andres Bonifacio (Manila: Tahanan Books, 1992).
11 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, Medina in Ronquillo, Ilang talata; 724.
12 Esteban A. de Ocampo, “The life and achievements of Bonifacio”, Historical Bulletin, 10 (December 1966), 23-39, cited

in Renato Constantino, A History of the Philippines: from the Spanish Colonization to the Second World War (New York and
London: Monthly Review Press, 1975), 162.
13 De Manila, “The Man Who Didn’t Finish It,” as cited.
14 Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, July and August 2013. In the 1920s the American historian Austin

Craig found out that Bonifacio had a Spanish grandfather, but the source of his information is not known. “Not long
ago,” he writes, “on a challenge, I found and proved a Spanish ancestor for Andres Bonifacio, the maternal
grandfather, though that fact seemed to have been completely forgotten.” Austin Craig, “Rizal’s Parentage Typically
Filipino,” Philippine Education Magazine, XXV:1 (June 1928), 11.
15 Sylvia Mendez Ventura, Supremo: The Story of Andres Bonifacio (Makati: Tahanan Books, 2001), 16; Medina, Andres

Bonifacio.
16 Medina, Andres Bonifacio; Ma. Luisa T. Camagay, “The Cigarreras of Manila,” Philippine Studies, 34:4 (1986), 510.
17 E. Arsenio Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, vol.1 (Quezon City: Filipiniana Publications, 1955), 253
18 Gregorio F. Zaide, History of the Katipunan (Manila: Loyal Press, 1939), 12.
19 Epifanio de los Santos, “Andres Bonifacio” [English version], Philippine Review (Revista Filipina), III: 1–2 (January-

February 1918), 36.

20 José P. Santos, Si Bonifacio at ang himagsikan (Manila: n.pub, 1935), 3-4.
21 El Comercio, December 21, 1896, quoted in Umberto G. Lammoglia (compiler), Forgotten Warriors of the Katipunan

(Manila: National Historical Commission of the Philippines, 2013), 201.

22 Santos, Si Bonifacio at ang himagsikan, 3-4.
23 “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” Philippines Free Press, February 1, 1930.
24 Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, I, 351-3.
25 Gregorio F. Zaide, “Andres Bonifacio’s Sister Talks of her Experiences during the Revolution,” Graphic, November

29, 1934. Espiridiona had given the same details when interviewed in 1930 - “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,”
Philippine Free Press, February 1, 1930. This version of events, however, cannot be verified. Another account says that
Troadio had wanted to be a priest as a young man, and that after the revolution broke out a family friend or relative
who was a priest, Father Buntan, took him safely away from the Philippines (under a different name) to assist with
missionary work in Macau. Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, as cited.
26 “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” as cited; Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3-4; Diosdado G. Capino, Stories of Andres

Bonifacio: His Life, Character and Teachings (Quezon City, Manlapaz Publishing Co., 1967), 5.
27 Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” as cited; Capino, Stories, 5.
28 Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, as cited.
29 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14-5.
30 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 11-12.
31 Milagros C. Guerrero, “The Katipunan Revolution,” in Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, vol. 5 (Hong Kong:

Asia Publishing Co, 1998), 153.

32 Provincia de Manila, Pueblo de Tondo, “Año de 1884, Gremio de Naturales, Cabeceria num.31,” as cited.
33 This story can be traced back at least as far as 1911, when it was told in the very first biography of Bonifacio -

Artigas y Cuerva’s Andrés Bonifacio y el ‘Katipunan’, 8.

13
34 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, as cited. Diosdado Capino, who interviewed Espiridiona, simply says that Catalina died
after a period of illness. E. Arsenio Manuel, however, who also interviewed Espiridiona, says Bonifacio’s mother died
giving birth to Maxima. Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 12; Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14.
35 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 12.
36 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14.
37 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 15. For details on the construction of the railroad, see Arturo G. Corpuz,

The Colonial Iron Horse: Railroads and regional development in the Philippines, 1875-1935 (Quezon City: University of the
Philippines Press, 1999), 29.
38 Ocampo, Bones of Contention, 81.
39 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 9.
40 José A. Quirino, “Bonifacio’s Sister Talks,” Philippines Free Press, November 27, 1954.
41 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, as cited.
42 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 2.
43 The Chronicle and Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines etc. for the Year 1885 (Hong Kong: “Daily Press”,

c.1885), 540.
44 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,”15.
45 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Galeria de Filipinos Ilustres (Manila: Imp. Casa Editora “Renacimiento”, 1917), 365; Santos,

Si Andres Bonifacio, 2.
46 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 15.
47The Chronicle and Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines etc. for the Year 1895 (Hong Kong: “Daily Press”,

c.1895), 434.
48 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 16.
49 Guillermo Masangkay, “Días que precedieron a la fundación del Katipunan,” La Vanguardia, November 30, 1931.
50 Jesus V. Merritt, “Books in the Loves of our Great Men,” Philippines Free Press, November 25, 1939.
51 Olegario Diaz, Commander of the Manila detachment of the Guardia Civil Veterana, Report on the Insurrection

Against Spain, dated October 28, 1896 in Wenceslao E. Retana (ed.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol. III (Madrid:
Imprenta de la viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897), 214; “Relación de todos los individuos que figuran en el legajo
de documentos del Katipunan, perteneciente a Andres Bonifacio con los nombres propios, simbólicos y en clave.”
[Archivo General Militar de Madrid: Caja 5393, leg.9.10].
52 John Foreman, The Philippine Islands, Third edition (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), 258.
53 Nick Joaquin, A Question of Heroes (Makati: Ayala Museum, 1977), 102-3.
54 “An Old Katipunero Speaks,” Sunday Tribune Magazine, August 21, 1932.
55 Ambeth R. Ocampo, Looking Back (Pasig: Anvil Publishing Co., 1990), 215.
56 Ibid., citing “Ang Buhay sa Pag-ibig ni Andres Bonifacio,” an article from the American-era magazine Lipang

Kalabaw. Might this Antonio Vasquez be the “A. Vasquez” who is listed in the entries for J. M. Fleming, the company
where Bonifacio first worked, in the commercial directories of the time?
57 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3.
58 Ocampo, Looking Back, 215.
59 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3.
60 Agoncillo, Revolt of the Masses, 328. Agoncillo and Ocampo both emphatically dismiss as a fable the story found in

some sources that Bonifacio had an affair, and a daughter, with a woman in Albay in 1894-5.
61 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17.
62 Agoncillo, Revolt of the Masses, 67.
63 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 2.
64 Pio Valenzuela, Declaration dated October 21, 1896 in Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol.III, 387.
65 Epifanio de los Santos, “Andres Bonifacio” [Spanish version], Philippine Review (Revista Filipina), II:11 (November

1917), 61.
66 Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio, 365; Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17; José N. Sevilla at Tolentino, Sa langit

ng bayang pilipinas: mga dakilang pilipino o ang kaibigan ng mga nagaaral (Maynila: Limbagan nina Sevilla at mga Kapatid
at Kn., 1922), 103.
67 Jesus V. Merritt, “Books in the Lives of our Great Men,” Philippines Free Press, November 25, 1939.
68 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17.
69 Merritt, “Books in the Lives of our Great Men,” as cited.
70 Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio, 365.
71 “Ang mga Karampatan ng Tao,” flysheet c.1892 [Cuerpo de Vigilancia records, Manuscrito A-1-(1), Legajo No.1, #9

(National Commission for Culture and the Arts)].

14