The Mercado - Rizal Family
She was a business-minded
The Rizals is considered one of the
biggest families during their time.
Domingo Lam-co, the family's
paternal ascendant was a full-
blooded Chinese who came to the
Philippines from Amoy, China in the
closing years of the 17th century and
married a Chinese half-breed by the
name of Ines de la Rosa.
Researchers revealed that the
Mercado-Rizal family had also traces
of Japanese, Spanish, Malay and Even
Negrito blood aside from Chinese.
Jose Rizal came from a 13-member
family consisting of his parents,
Francisco Mercado II and Teodora
Alonso Realonda, and nine sisters and
one brother.
1.) FRANCISCO MERCADO (1818-
1898)
Father of Jose Rizal who was the
youngest of 13 offsprings of Juan
and Cirila Mercado. Born in Bian,
Laguna on April 18, 1818; studied
in San Jose College, Manila; and
died in Manila.
2.) TEODORA ALONSO (1827-
1913)
Mother of Jose Rizal who was the
second child of Lorenzo Alonso
and Brijida de Quintos. She
studied at the Colegio de Santa
Rosa.
woman, courteous, religious,
hard-working and well-read. She
was born in Santa Cruz, Manila on
November 14, 1827 and died in
1913 in Manila.
3.) SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913)
Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonzo
marriage. Married Manuel
Timoteo Hidalgo of Tanauan,
Batangas.
4.) PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930)
Only brother of Jose
Rizal and the second child.
Studied at San Jose College in
Manila; became a farmer and
later a general of the Philippine
Revolution.
5.) NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)
The third child. married Antonio
Lopez at Morong, Rizal; a teacher
and musician.
6.) OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887)
The fourth child. Married Silvestre
Ubaldo; died in 1887 from
childbirth.
7.) LUCIA RIZAL (1857-1919)
The fifth child. Married
MatrianoHerbosa.
8.) MARIA RIZAL (1859-1945)
 The sixth child. Married Daniel
Faustino Cruz of Bian, Laguna.
9.) JOSE RIZAL (1861-1896)
The second son and the seventh
child. He was executed by the
Spaniards on December 30,1896.
10.) CONCEPCION RIZAL (1862-
1865)
The eight child. Died at the age of
three.
Rizal family as Principals
Social Class
The Ancestors of Jose Rizal are all
wealthy. The branch of the father
side were clan of respectful
merchants, while the mother side
were lawyers, and priests.
The fifth-generation family of Jose
Rizal belongs to the middle class,
but because of his hard working
father, they catapulted among the
wealthy ranks in Calamba, Laguna.
However, it all went down when
Don Francisco failed to give an
agent of the hacienda a turkey
because his flock had been
decimated by death. Since then the
administrators of the hacienda
doubled the rent and has raised it
for several times, but Don
11.) JOSEFA RIZAL (1865-1945)
The ninth child. An epileptic, died a
spinster.
12.) TRINIDAD RIZAL (1868-1951)
The tenth child. Died a spinster and
the last of the family to die.
13.) SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929)
The youngest child married Pantaleon
Quintero.
Francisco refused to pay the rent
and took the matter to the court.
Other tenants followed his example
and refused to pay the rent as
well.
The administrator of the hacienda
evicted them along with other
tenants. All their property was
destroyed. Because of this, the
family of Jose Rizal had to transfer
to Los Baos and start over again.
Rizal almost not admission to
Ateneo
On June 10, 1872, Jose together with his
brother went to Manila to grant his wish of
enrolling Jose in San Juan de Letran. Jose
Rizal took the entrance examination and
passed them with flying colors, then he
went back to Calamba to stay for a while
with his family and attend their town fiesta
only to find out that his fathers wish
changed instead of enrolling him to San
Juan de Letran he wished to enroll him to
Ateneo de Manila.
Thus, being an obedient child, upon his
return to Manila accompanied again by his
brother Paciano, they proceeded to Ateneo
Municipal. At first Father Magin Fernando,
who was the college registrar, denied them
of admittance for two reasons: 1.) he was
late for registration and 2.) he was sickly
and undersize for his age. Jose Rizal was
then eleven years old. However, they
sought the intercession of Manual Xerez
Burgos, nephew of Father Burgos. As a
result, he was reluctantly admitted at the
Ateneo.
Favorite Books of Rizal
Jose Rizal reputedly owned over 2,000
books. He even did his own card
catalogue, leaving behind about 351
slips of paper with bibliographic
information in his own handwriting.
Rizal read a lot of French literature and
particularly liked Dumas' ''Three
Musketeers'' and ''Count of
Montecristo,''
whose shadows we see in ''El
Filibusterismo.'' He also read Moliere,
Voltaire,
Montequieu and Zola. He was not
confined to prose though, being a poet
by
nature he read Musset's poems and
his interest in history drove him to
read
Napoleon's memoirs, written when he
was in exile in St. Helene. Surely, this
book came in handy when he himself
was exiled to far-off Dapitan from
1892-1896. Rizal read Beaumarchais'
''Barber of Seville'' and ''Marriage of
Figaro'' which we know more as
operas today than dangerous literary
works in
its time. Did Rizal read these books
before he saw the operas or vice-
versa?
These days we watch the movie
version first before sitting down to
read the
book.
Most of Rizal's books were in Spanish
translation though in later life he read
in the original languages: English,
French and German. Thus, he
translated five
of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales
from the original German into Tagalog
and illustrated these for his nephews
and nieces: ''Ang Puno ng Pino (The
Pine
Tree)''; ''Si Gahinlalaki (Thumbelina)'';
''Ang PangitnaSisiu ng Pato (Ugly
Duckling)''; ''Ang BatangBabai Mai
DalangSakafuego (Little Match Girl)''
and
I don't quite know how to translate,
''Ang Sugu.'' For his brother Paciano he
translated ''William Tell,'' using this as
an example on the reforms he wanted
on Tagalog orthography.
The list of books Rizal read is quite
varied. Aside from literature Rizal read
many pragmatic books like: can be learned in libraries, or words
guidebooks to the different places he to that effect. Fortunately, we are now
visited as a veering away from the stereotype
tourist; ''Las Maravillas de image
Electricidad''; a six-volume work of Bonifacio as an illiterate bodeguero
''Studies of from Tondo. Well, that bodega
Birds''; Nasau Lee's ''Tea Cultivation, contained: ''Lives of the Presidents of
Cotton and other Agricultural the United States'' (a book Rizal also
Experiments in India''; Baltet's ''The Art read), a two-volume ''History of the
of Grafting and Budding''; Buenet's French Revolution'' (that inspired our
''Drawings and Ornaments of own) ''La Solidaridad,'' Rizal's ''Noli Me
Architecture'' and Money's ''Java or Tangere,'' ''El Filibusterismo,''
How to Manage and the Rizal edition of Morga's
a Colony.'' ''Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas'' (when
mere
Rizal, however, is often dismissed by possession of these was considered a
radicals as a useless man of ideas. crime), ''Les Misrables'' by Victor
Andres Bonifacio, another voracious Hugo,
reader, if we are to believe Pio and the ''Wandering Jew'' by Eugene
Valenzuela, is supposed to have Sue (Rizal also read this thick book).
translated ideas into action. When Valenzuela says, ''Bonifacio went
Bonifacio without sleep at night in order to
heard that Rizal was against the read...and
planned outbreak of the revolution, he used to talk about the French
is Revolution."
quoted to have said that not all things