Lesson 5 His Family and Early Life

GE 9 – LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL FIRST SEMESTER, S.Y.

2024-2025

Chapter II
Lesson 5: His Family and Early Life

On June 19, 1861, the Mercado family from the town of Calamba in the province of Laguna,
happily greeted the birth of their newest member – a baby boy born as the seventh child to proud
parents Francisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos. They
named the bouncing baby boy Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. The year 1861 is the
Year of the Metal Rooster according to the Chinese Zodiac, and he was born in a Wednesday.
Francisco Rizal Mercado
Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro was Rizal’s father. He was born in Binan, Laguna
on May 11, 1818 to Juan Monica Mercado and Cirila Alejandro. He attended the Colegio de San Jose
in Manila, where he studied Latin and philosophy. He was described by Rafael Palma: “He was 40, of
solid shoulders, strong constitution, rather tall than short, of serious and reflective men, with prominent
forehead and large dark eyes, a pure Filipino.”
Francisco married Teodora Alonso when he was 29. The couple resided in Calamba, Laguna
and built a business in agriculture. He died on January 5, 1898 at the age of 79.
Teodora Alonso Realonda
Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos was a wealthy woman in the Spanish colonial Philippines.
She was best known as the mother of Dr. Jose Rizal. She was born in Meisik, Sta. Cruz, Manila on
November 8, 1826. She was also known for being a disciplinarian and hardworking mother. Her medical
condition inspired Rizal to take up medicine.
She came from a financially able family and studied at the Colegio de Santa Rosa in Manila and
had educational background in the subjects of mathematics and literature. Teodora married Francisco
Mercado, a native of Binan, Laguna when was 20. She was an industrious and educated woman,
managing the family’s farm and finances. Rizal honored his mother in Memoirs of a Student in Manila
writing “After God, the mother is everything to man.” Teodora Alonso died on August 16, 1911 at the
age of 84.
The Children of Francisco and Teodora
1. Saturnina Mercado Hidalgo (1850-1913)

2. Paciano Mercado (1851-1930)
3. Narcisa Mercado Lopez (1852-1939)
4. Olympia Mercado Ubaldo (1855-1887)
5. Lucia Mercado Herbosa (1857-1919)
6. Maria Mercado Cruz (1859-1945)
7. Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado (1861-1896)
8. Concepcion Mercado (1862-1865)
9. Josefa Mercado (1865-1945)
GE 9 – LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL FIRST SEMESTER, S.Y. 2024-2025
10. Trinidad Mercado (1868-1951)

11. Soledad Mercado Quintero (1870-1929)
Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizal family were of mixed origin. José's patrilineal
lineage could be traced back to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese
merchant who immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th century.
Lam-Co traveled to Manila from Xiamen, China, possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his
home district, and more probably to escape the Manchu invasion during the Transition from Ming to
Qing. He finally decided to stay in the islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the bitter anti-Chinese
prejudice that existed in the Philippines, he converted to Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo
Mercado and married the daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co. On his mother's side, Rizal's
ancestry included Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog blood. His mother's lineage can be traced to the
affluent Florentina family of Chinese mestizo families originating in Baliuag, Bulacan. He also had
Spanish ancestry. Regina Ochoa, a grandmother of his mother, Teodora, had mixed Spanish, Chinese
and Tagalog blood. His grandfather was a half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.
From an early age, José showed a precocious intellect. He learned the alphabet from his mother
at 3, and could read and write at age 5. Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he dropped
the last three names that made up his full name, on the advice of his brother, Paciano and the Mercado
family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, he later 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!" This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother,
who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose
Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly known as Gomburza) who had been accused and executed for
treason.
Despite the name change, Jose as "Rizal", soon distinguished himself in poetry writing contests,
impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing
essays that were critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine societies.
Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his El Filibusterismo, this second surname had become so well
known that, as he writes to another friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado
because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family
name..."
When Rizal was young, he already tasted the injustices of the Spanish regime in the country.
Those were the following: (1) When his mother, Dona Teodora was falsely accused of attempting to
poison her sister-in-law that resulted her to walk from their house to the capital and jailed in two years;
(2) When the three priests (Gomez, Burgos and Zamora) were executed at Bagumbayan in February
17, 1872 due to their accusation of starting the Cavite mutiny. Father Burgos was Paciano’s mentor
and a family friend of the Mercados; and (3) Racial discrimination that he suffered from the University
of Santo Tomas for the administrators and faculty there were then friars.

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GE 9 – LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL FIRST SEMESTER, S.Y.

Francisco Rizal Mercado

Teodora Alonso Realonda

The Children of Francisco and Teodora

1. Saturnina Mercado Hidalgo (1850-1913)

10. Trinidad Mercado (1868-1951)

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