IF INTERNET’S SOCIAL MEDIA were already existing during the Philippine-American War, and somebody
had posted the famous picture of the aged Doña Teodora Alonso next to the excavated skull of the
national hero, there might have been an online pandemonium which could have surpassed the
Gangnam Style’s record. Some consider the picture morbid, but others regard it as an indubitable
manifestation of the mother’s intense love for her son.
The Rizal Home
Doña Teodora Alonzo y Quintos is the homemaker of the first massive stone house, or ‘bahay na bato’,
in Calamba,which is the very birthplace of the national hero. It was a rectangular two-storey building,
built of adobe stones and solid woods, with sliding capiz windows. Its ground floor was made of lime and
stone, the second floor of hard woods, except for the roof, which was of red tiles. There was an azotea
and a water reservoir at the back. The courtyard contained tropical fruit trees, poultry yard, a carriage
house, and a stable for the ponies. Its architectural style and proximity to the church implied the
owners’ wealth and political influence.
The author's free e-book on Jose Rizal's Family
Rizal’s ancestral house was destroyed during World War II. Juan Nakpil supervised its reconstruction and
restoration as ordered by President Quirino. With funds mainly contributed by Filipino school children,
this Jose Rizal Shrine was inaugurated in 1950.
It is said that the only surviving feature of Rizal’s original house is the deep well that has become a
‘wishing well’ for many tourists. Even the house’s familiar white color was not preserved for it was
repainted a pale shade of green. Nonetheless, many Rizal ‘relics’, including the supposed black coat
worn by Rizal during his execution, can be found in the shrine.
Teodora Alonso
Unknown to many, Doña Teodora—together with her husband—is buried near the narra tree about 20
meters away from the shrine’s ‘wishing well.’ For long, this historic Calamba house was tended and
managed by Jose’s mother also known as ‘Lolay’.
Common biographies state that Doña Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda was born on November 8, 1826
in Santa Cruz, Manila and baptized in Santa Cruz Church. Strangely however, the volume in the church
books that supposedly contains Teodora’s baptismal records is the only one missing in the otherwise
complete records down to the eighteenth century (Ocampo, p. 39). Asuncion Rizal-Lopez Bantug, the
granddaughter of Jose’s sister Narcisa, distinctively claims that Lola Lolay and her all siblings were born
in Calamba, but (just) lived in Manila (Bantug, p. 18).
Doña Lolay was educated at the College of Santa Rosa, an esteemed school for girls in Manila. She was
usually described asa diligent business-minded woman, very graceful but courageous, well-mannered,
religious, and well-read. Very dignified, she disliked gossip and vulgar conversation. Possessing refined
culture and literary talents,she influenced her children to love the arts, literature, and music. Herself an
educated woman, Lolay sent her children to colleges in Manila. To help in the economy of the family,
she ran sugar and flourmills and a small store in their home, selling home-made ham, sausages, jams,
jellies, and others. Looking back, her business in a way predated the meat processing commerce of the
Pampangueños today and the ube jam production of some nuns in Baguio.
Doña Teodora‘s ancestry
It is believed that Doña Teodora’s family descended from Lakandula, the last native king of Tondo. (For
young generations, Lakandula has to be distinguished from the unofficial ‘Hari ng Tondo’, Asiong
Salonga, the Manila kingpin who was immortalized in the movie incidentally by Laguna’s own governor E.
R. Ejercito.)
Lolay’s great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua (of Japanese descent) who married a Filipina named
Benigna. Regina, their daughter, married a Filipino-Chinese lawyer of Pangasinan, Manuel de Quintos.
Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a well-off Spanish-Filipino mestizo of Biñan, took as his ‘significant other’
Brigida Quintos, daughter of Manuel and Regina Quintos. The Lorenzo-Brigida union produced five
children, the second of them was Jose Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso Quintos.
Through the Claveria degree of 1849 which changed the Filipino native surnames, the Alonsos adopted
the surname Realonda. Rizal’s mother thus became Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda.
Lolay and the young Rizal
Doña Teodora played an important role in the life of the national hero. She was said to have suffered
the greatest pain during the delivery of her seventh child, the younger of her two sons, Jose. Her
daughter Narcisa recalled: “I was nine years of age when my mother gave birth to Jose. I recall it vividly
because my mother suffered great pain. She labored for a long time. Her pain was later attributed to the
fact that Jose’s head was bigger than normal” (Bantug and Ventura). But this would not be the only pain
that she would suffer on account of this son.
Lolay was the first teacher of the hero—teaching him Spanish, correcting his composed poems, and
coaching him in rhetoric. On her lap, Jose learned the alphabet and Catholic prayers at the age of three,
and had learned to read and write at age 5. At an early age, Rizal thus learned to read the Spanish family
Bible, which he would refer to later in his writings. Rizal himself remarked that perhaps the education he
received since his earliest infancy was what has shaped his habits.
The mother also induced Jose to love the arts, literature, and the classics. Before he was eight years old,
he had written a drama which was performed at a local festival and for which the municipal captain
rewarded him with two pesos.
The story of the moth
To impart essential lessons in life, Lolay held regular storytelling sessions with the young Rizal. Doña
Teodora loved to read to Pepe stories from the book ‘Amigo de los Niños’ (The Children’s Friend). One
day, she scolded his son for making drawings on the pages of the story book. To teach the value of
obedience to one’s parents, she afterward read him a story in it.
Lolay chose the story about a daughter moth who was warned by her mother against going too near a
lamp flame. Though the young moth promised to comply, she later succumbed to the pull of the light’s
mysterious charm, believing that nothing bad would happen if she would approach it with caution. The
moth then flew close to the flame. Feeling comforting warmth at first, she drew closer and closer, bit by
bit, until she flew too close enough to the flame and perished.
Incidentally, Pepe was watching a similar incident while he was listening to the storytelling. Like a live
enactment, a moth was fluttering too near to the flame of the oil lamp on their table. Not merely acting
out, it did fall dead as a consequence. Both moths in the two tales paid the price of getting near to the
fatal light.
Many years later, Rizal himself felt that the moths’ tale could serve as an allegory of his own destiny.
About himself, he wrote:
“Years have passed since then. The child has become a man… Steamships have taken him across seas
and oceans … He has received from experience bitter lessons, much more bitter than the sweet lessons
that his mother gave him. Nevertheless, he has preserved the heart of a child. He still thinks that light is
the most beautiful thing in creation, and that it is worthwhile for a man to sacrifice his life for it.”
Against Rizal’s further education
Doña Teodora was remarkably against the idea of sending Jose to Manila to study, arguing that he
already knew enough and that “if he learns more, he will only end up on the scaffold” (Bantug, p. 37).
This stand she reiterated when Rizal had to go to the University of Santo Tomas for higher studies.
Aware that Spanish officials frowned at learned Filipino, shetold her husband: “Don’t send him to Manila
again; he knows enough. If he gets to know more, the Spaniards will cut off his head” (as quoted in Zaide,
p. 46).
Doña Teodora never ceased to worry about his bright son. In 1884, after Rizal gave a toasting speech in
Spain at the banquet for the winning Filipino painters (Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo), his
assail to the unworthy Spaniards in the Philippines received a great deal of reactions. The general
sentiment was that it would not be good for him to return to the Philippines. This caused Doña Teodora
much worries that she turned ill. Upon recovering, she begged his son through a letter not to meddle in
things that bring her sorrow, and to comply instead with the duties of a good Christian.
Rizal’s Tio Jose Alberto
Among Teodora’s siblings—Narcisa, Teodora, Gregorio, Manuel, and Jose—it was the youngest, Jose
Alberto, who became the most historically significant to the Rizal family. Jose Alberto, the illustrious
engineer of Biñan, studied in a British school in Calcutta, India. It is said that he exerted a good influence
on the young Rizal, particularly inspiring him to cultivate his artistic talents.
Jose Alberto is diversely referred to as brother, cousin, half-brother, or stepbrother of Teodora Alonso,
depending on the biographer you are reading. This is now clarified by the unearthed information that
even before Lorenzo Alberto Alonso (Teodora and Jose Alberto’s father) took Brigida as his better half,
he “had married a 12-year old Ilocana named Paula Florentino in 1814” (Ocampo, 2013, p. 38). Those
who declare that Jose Alberto is Teodora’s half-brother thus seem to imply that Jose Alberto was from
the Florentino lineage and therefore the only legal son of Lorenzo Alberto.
However, a document written by Rizal himself, now being kept at the Rizal Library in Ateneo de Manila
University, plainly reveals that Jose Alberto and Teodora Alonzo are of the same parents. Moreover,
Lorenzo Alberto Alonso’s marriage to the 12-year old girl from Vigan—which was by a fixed marriage—
did not produce any child.
Dr. Bimbo Sta. Maria, an officer of Biñan-based organization, United Artists for Cultural Conservation
and Development (UACCD) believes that the half-brother issue was part of the family’s plan to keep its
ties with the Spanish government (“Mga Lihim ng Pamilya ni Rizal”). Researching about Rizal’s family for
many years, Sta. Maria had known that Lorenzo Alberto was conferred the title “Knight of the Order of
Queen Isabella the Catholic” for supporting the Dominicans in their missions in Indo-China. The title was
transferable to one of his legal children after his death. However, all his children by Brigida Quintos
(including Teodora Alonzo and Jose Alberto) were all illegitimate in papers. To receive the influential
title, Jose Alberto, with the approval of his siblings, thus declared himself the legitimate son of Lorenzo
Alberto and Paula Florentino, in effect disowning his real mother.
If Sta. Maria’s theory is correct, then the controversial 200-year old mansion in Biñan should at least be
considered by the government as a historical landmark for being the ancestral house of Teodora
Alonso’s family. As of this writing, the mansion is being demolished for plans of making the place
commercial.
Doña Teodora’s imprisonments
When Rizal was just about to go to Manila to continue his education at the Ateneo, an ordeal occurred
to his family—his mother was thrown into prison.
Jose Alberto, Lolay’s ‘favorite’ brother, had returned from Europe and found that her wife, Teodora
Formoso,left their home and children for another man. He planned to divorce her, but Doña Teodora
persuaded the couple to reconcile so as to avoid family scandal. Alberto’s wife however sued her
husband for allegedly trying to poison her and incriminated Dona Teodora as his co-conspirator.
Alberto’s wife was aided by the Spanish lieutenant of the Guardia Civil. Remarkably, the Calamba’s
gobernadorcillo, Antonio Vivencio del Rosario, was hasty to believe the charge. The two officials were
frequent guests at the Rizal home but both had been nursing grudges against the Rizals. At one occasion,
Rizal’s father could not accommodate to give fodder for the lieutenant’s horse. The gobernadorcillo, on
the other hand, is said to have felt insulted that he had not been shown any greater respect than the
Filipino guests in his visits to Rizal home.
Barbara Cruz-Gonzalez, great granddaughter of Rizal’s sister, Maria, shared one detailed version of the
‘poisoning’ accusation based on the tales that circulate in the involved clans (“Mga Lihim ng Pamilya Ni
Rizal”). She narrated that Jose Alberto, upon discovering his wife’s infidelity, locked Teodora Formoso in
a room in the historically controversial mansion in Biñan, and asked her sister Teodora to watch over his
wife. One day, Teodora Alonso brought some food to Formoso which the latter refused to eat. Formoso
instead fed it to her dog. Allegedly, the dog eventually died after eating the food. Hence, with the help
of a leader of the Guardia Civil, who was purportedly Formoso’s lover, Jose Alberto’s wife had sent
Teodora Alonso to prison.
Rizal’s mother was imprisoned in Santa Cruz, the capital of Laguna. It is said that the Rizals appealed to
the Supreme Court, which ordered her immediate discharge. But she was rearrested by the order of the
insulted judge, stating that Rizals’ appeal to the Supreme Court was contempt of his court. The Supreme
Court irrationally upheld this contention. Some other fabricated charges were filed against her, hence
she languished behind bars for about two and a half years in the 1870s.
Teodora Alonsowas imprisoned for the second time in the 1880s on the nonsense charge that she did
not call herself a ‘Realonda de Rizal’ but simply ‘Teodora Alonso’. Concerning this, Rizal bitterly recorded:
“From Manila they sent her to Sta. Cruz, Laguna Province, through mountains from town to town …
Imagine an old woman of 64 traveling through mountains and highways with her daughter under the
custody of the civil guard. When my mother and sister, after four days of traveling, arrived at Sta. Cruz,
the governor, deeply touched, released them.” (Epistolario Rizalino, Vol. V, Part II, p. 621.)
Teodora’s long walks
In both imprisonments, Rizal’s mother was forced to walk rough roads before being locked up in the
prison cell in Santa Cruz, Laguna. When she was incarcerated for the first time, some histories claim that
she did a gruesome 50-kilometer walk, while others state ‘16 kilometers’. So why is there a discrepancy?
Which figure is plausible?
Online distance calculators today indicate that Calamba is 43-kilometer away from Santa Cruz,
suggesting that the ‘50 kilometers’ claim is more plausible. But that is if the walk was really from
Calamba to Santa Cruz. Because a relative of Teodora Alonso,Jacoba Faustina-Cruz, narrated that the
forced walk was only from Biñan to Calamba (as quoted by Ocampo, 2010, Philippine Daily Inquirer).
Thus, if Cruz’s statement is true, then the ’16 kilometers’ claim is more reasonable. Biñan and Calamba
are 15.2465035627 kilometers away from each other, according to a modern mobile phone’s application.
Concerning the second time Teodora was imprisoned, Rizal’s descendants claim that the then half-blind
Teodora Alonso was ordered to walk ‘85 kilometers’ from Manila to Santa Cruz (Bantug, p. 100). Modern
distance calculators suggest that 91.5 kilometers is the distance between the two locations, though it’s
only 58.9813974616 kilometers if one could just fly like a bird in a staight line. The Zaides’ however
claimed that the walk was only from Calamba to Santa Cruz (Zaide & Zaide p. 205)—which if true, then
the walk was just about a half shorter.
Either way, the miserable experience of Doña Teodora had predated the sufferings of the victims in the
infamous WW II Death March (about 151 kms.).
Jose’s love for his mother
One known thing about Rizal is that he loved his mother very much. At the end of his first year at the
Ateneo, Rizal visited her mother in Santa Cruz prison without telling his father. Doña Teodorajoyfully
embraced her son who told her of his outstanding school grades.
The next summer vacation, Rizal did not forget to see again and brighten up her mother with news of his
academic successes. On her part, Doña Teodora had mentioned of her dream the previous night. Rizal
interpreted the dream as portending that she would be released from prison in three month’s time.
Rizal’s ‘prophecy’ proved true as Teodora was set free barely three months after her son’s visit.
The most known poem written by Rizal in Ateneo, ‘Mi Primera Inspiracion’ (My First Inspiration) was
dedicated to his mother on her birthday. It is believed to have been written in the year 1874, upon the
release from prison of his mother.
Upon learning that Doña Teodorawas going blind, Rizal decided to take medicineat the University of
Santo Tomas. He nonetheless transferred to the Universidad Central de Madrid where he obtained the
degree of Licentiate in Medicine. And because he really wanted to cure his mother's advancing blindness,
Rizal went to the University of Paris and then the University of Heidelberg to complete further study in
ophthalmology.
After earning the fury of the Spaniards in the Philippines for writing the Noli, Rizal decided to return to
Calamba in 1887 despite his loved ones’ strong warnings. His major reason for standing by his decision is
to perform an operation on Doña Teodora’s eyes.
Mother and son in Dapitan
Newly released from prison in 1891, Doña Teodorajoined Rizal in Hong Kong where the Rizal family had
a happy Yuletide celebration together. And when Rizal was exiled in Dapitan, Doña Teodora did not
hesitate to leave the peaceful life in Hong Kong in August 1893 just to keep house for her son.
The son operated on his mother’s cataract in Dapitan. The whole ophthalmic treatment was successful
despite her being a difficult patient, removing at least once the bandages from her eyes against her
son’s prescription.
In 1895, Doña Teodora left Dapitan for Manila to be with Don Francisco who was getting weaker.
Attesting to his mother’s being a loving wife, Rizal wrote in his letter to Blumentritt: “My father is well
again and my old mother does not want to separate from him – like two friends in the last hours of
farewell, knowing that they are going to separate, they do not like to be far from each other.” In
October 1895, Rizal sent her mother his now widely acclaimed poem ‘Mi Retiro’ which he wrote upon
her request.
After Doña Lolay left Dapitan, Josephine Bracken came to Rizal’s life. The son wrote her mother about
Josephine. Aware that the priests refused to marry the couple, Doña Teodora told her excommunicated
son that loving each other in God’s grace was better than being married in mortal sin (Bantug, p. 120).
In 1896, when the revolution broke out while Rizal was on his way to Cuba, he wrote to his mother
these meaningful sentences: “Don’t worry about anything; we are all in the hands of the Divine
Providence. Not all who go to Cuba die, and when finally one has to die, at least one may die doing some
good” (as quoted in Bantug, p. 136).
Doña Teodora’s share of martyrdom
When Rizal was sentenced to death after a mock trial, the aged Doña Teodora fervently plead to the
governor general for her son’s life, but to no avail. In Rizal’s last hours, his sorrowful mother came to see
her sentenced son. Teodora Alonso was not permitted a last embrace by the guard though her beloved
son, in quiet grief, managed to press a kiss on her hand. Captain Rafael Dominguez, the special Judge
Advocate appointed to institute the court’s action against Rizal, was said to have been moved with
compassion at the sight of Rizal’s kneeling before his mother and asking pardon.
What greater grief could dwell in a mother’s heart than to see the day come when her dearly loved son
would be executed just for wishing the best for his family and country. On December 30, 1896, Doña
Teodora indeed tragically lost her much-loved son. More than ten years after, the Philippine
government offered her a lifetime pension as a sign of gratefulness. With sincere dignity, she refused
the offer, courteously explaining that her family had never been patriotic for money. She suggested that
if the government had plenty of funds, it better reduce the citizens’ taxes.
At the age of 80, our Lola Lolay died in Manila on August 16, 1911. Appropriate honors were accorded to
her funeral. Her memories teach us to love our respective mothers and grandmas while they are still
alive.