Rizal

Aira Angeli G. Maranan The Mercado – Rizal Family The seventh of the eleven children of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonzo. José Rizal was born into a prosperous middle class Filipino family in the town of Calamba in the Province of Laguna. Dominican friars granted the family the privilege of the lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm, but contentious litigation followed; later, Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau had the buildings destroyed. Rizal is the descendant of Domingo Lam-co, a Chinese immigrant who sailed to the Philippines from Amoy, China in the mid 17th century (see Chinese Filipino). Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley native of Luzon. To free his descendants from the racist anti-Chinese policies of the Spanish authorities, Lam-co changed the family surname to the Spanish surname ” Mercado” (market) so that they would not forget their Chinese merchant roots. As José became more embroiled in controversy, his elder brother and mentor Paciano advised him to change his name to protect the Mercados from Spanish authority. José changed his surname from Mercado to his middle name, ” Rizal.” The name is derived from Spanish ” rizal” or ” ricial,” meaning ” verdant” or ” green” (as ricestalk), the main agricultural crop of their family industry. Aside from his indigenous Malay and Chinese ancestry, recent genealogical research has found that José had traces of Spanish, Japanese and Negrito ancestry. His maternal great-great-grandfather (Teodora’s great-grandfather) is Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers, who married a Filipina named Benigna (surname unknown). These two gave birth to Regina Ursua who married a Sangley mestizo from Pangasinán named Atty. Manuel de Quintos, Teodora’s grandfather. Their daughter Brígida de Quintos married a mestizo (half-caste Spaniard) named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo, the father of Teodora. | | 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. FRANCISCO MERCADO (1818-1898) Father of Jose Rizal who was the youngest of 13 offsprings of Juan and Cirila Mercado. Born in Biñan, Laguna on April 18, 1818; studied in San Jose College, Manila; and died in Manila. 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. She was a business-minded 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. SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913) Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonzo marriage. Married Manuel Timoteo Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas. 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. NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)  The third child. married Antonio Lopez at Morong, Rizal; a teacher and musician. OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887) The fourth child. Married Silvestre Ubaldo; died in 1887 from childbirth. LUCIA RIZAL (1857-1919) The fifth child. Married Matriano Herbosa. MARIA RIZAL (1859-1945) The sixth child. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Biñan, Laguna. JOSE RIZAL (1861-1896) The second son and the seventh child. He was executed by the Spaniards on December 30, 1896. CONCEPCION RIZAL (1862-1865) The eight child. Died at the age of three. JOSEFA RIZAL (1865-1945) The ninth child. An epileptic, died a spinster. TRINIDAD RIZAL (1868-1951) The tenth child. Died a spinster and the last of the family to die. SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929) The youngest child married Pantaleon Quintero. |