Rizal life: Family,
childhood and
early education
2
The Mercado - Rizal Family
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 halfbreed 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Early childhood
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In Calamba, Laguna
19 June 1861 JOSE RIZAL, the seventh child of
Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos,
was born in Calamba, Laguna.
22 June 1861 He was baptized JOSE RIZAL MERCADO
at the Catholic of Calamba by the parish priest Rev.
Rufino Collantes with Rev. Pedro Casañas as the
sponsor.
28 September 1862 The parochial church of Calamba
and the canonical books, including the book in which
Rizal’s baptismal records were entered, were burned.
1864 Barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet
from his mother.
8
1865 When he was four years old, his sister Conception,
the eight child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three.
It was on this occasion that Rizal remembered having shed
real tears for the first time.
1865 – 1867 During this time his mother taught him how to
read and write. His father hired a classmate by the name
of Leon Monroy who, for five months until his (Monroy)
death, taught Rizal the rudiments of Latin. At about this
time two of his mother’s cousin frequented Calamba. Uncle
Manuel Alberto, seeing Rizal frail in body, concerned
himself with the physical development of his young
nephew and taught the latter love for the open air and
developed in him a great admiration for the beauty of
nature, while Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, instilled into the
mind of the boy love for education.
9
He advised Rizal: "Work hard and perform every task very
carefully; learn to be swift as well as thorough; be independent in
thinking and make visual pictures of everything.“
6 June 1868 With his father, Rizal made a pilgrimage to Antipolo
to fulfill the vow made by his mother to take the child to the
Shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo should she and her child survive
the ordeal of delivery which nearly caused his mother’s life.
From there they proceeded to Manila and visited his sister
Saturnina who was at the time studying in the La Concordia
College in Sta. Ana.
1869 At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem entitled "Sa
Aking Mga Kabata." The poem was written in tagalog and had
for its theme "Love of One’s Language."
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Early education
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Early Education in Calamba and Biñan
Rizal had his early education in Calamba and
Biñan. It was a typical schooling that a son of an
ilustrado family received during his time,
characterized by the four R’s- reading, writing,
arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and
strict. Knowledge was forced into the minds of the
pupils by means of the tedious memory method
aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the defects of
the Spanish system of elementary education, Rizal
was able to acquire the necessary instruction
preparatory for college work in Manila. It may be
said that Rizal, who was born a physical weakling,
rose to become an intellectual giant not because of,
but rather in spite of, the outmoded and backward
system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines
during the last decades of Spanish regime.
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The Hero’s First Teacher The first teacher of Rizal was his
mother, who was a remarkable woman of good character and
fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the
alphabet and the prayers. "My mother," wrote Rizal in his
student memoirs, "taught me how to read and to say haltingly
the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God.“
As tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and
understanding. It was she who first discovered that her son
had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to
write poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the
ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s imagination, she related
many stories.
As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give
him lessons at home. The first was Maestro Celestino and the
second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man named Leon
Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the
boy’s tutor.
13
This old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed
Jose in Spanish and Latin. Unfortunately, he did not lived long. He
died five months later. After a Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents
decided to send their gifted son to a private school in Biñan. Jose
Goes to Biñan One Sunday afternoon in June , 1869, Jose, after
kissing the hands of his parents and a tearful parting from his
sister, left Calamba for Biñan. He was accompanied by Paciano ,
who acted as his second father. The two brothers rode in a
carromata, reaching their destination after one and one-half
hours’ drive. They proceeded to their aunt’s house, where Jose was
to lodge. It was almost night when they arrived, and the moon was
about to rise. That same night, Jose, with his cousin named
Leandro, went sightseeing in the town. Instead of enjoying the
sights, Jose became depressed because of homesickness. "In the
moonlight," he recounted, "I remembered my home town, my
idolized mother, and my solicitous sisters.
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Ah, how sweet to me was Calamba, my own town, in spite of the
fact that was not as wealthy as Biñan."First Day in Biñan School
The next morning (Monday) Paciano brought his younger brother
to the school of Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz. The school was
in the house of the teacher, which was a small nipa hut about 30
meters from the home of Jose’s aunt. Paciano knew the teacher
quite well because he had been a pupil under him before. He
introduced Jose to the teacher, after which he departed to return
to Calamba. Immediately, Jose was assigned his seat in the
class. The teacher asked him:“ Do you know Spanish?"“ A little,
sir," replied the Calamba lad.“ Do you know Latin?""A little, sir.“
The boys in the class, especially Pedro, the teacher’s son
laughed at Jose’s answers. The teacher sharply stopped all
noises and begun the lessons of the day. Jose described his
teacher in Biñan as follows: "He was tall, thin, long-necked, with
sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward, and he used to wear
a sinamay shirt, woven by the skilled hands of the women of
Batangas. He knew by the heart the grammars by Nebrija and
Gainza.
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Add to this severity that in my judgement was exaggerated and
you have a picture, perhaps vague, that I have made of him, but I
remember only this."First School BrawlIn the afternoon of his first
day in school, when the teacher was having his siesta, Jose met
the bully, Pedro. He was angry at this bully for making fun of him
during his conversation with the teacher in the morning.Jose
challenged Pedro to a fight. The latter readily accepted, thinking
that he could easily beat the Calamba boy who was smaller and
younger.The two boys wrestled furiously in the classroom, much
to the glee of their classmates. Jose, having learned the art of
wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel, defeated the bigger boy.
For this feat, he became popular among his classmates.After the
class in the afternoon, a classmate named Andres Salandanan
challenged him to an arm-wrestling match. They went to a
sidewalk of a house and wrestled with their arms. Jose, having
the weaker arm, lost and nearly cracked his head on the
sidewalk.In succeeding days he had other fights with the boys of
Biñan.
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He was not quarrelsome by nature, but he never ran
away from a fight. Best Student in School In academic studies,
Jose beat all Biñan boys. He surpassed them all in Spanish,
Latin, and other subjects. Some of his older classmates were
jealous of his intellectual superiority. They wickedly squealed to
the teacher whenever Jose had a fight outside the school, and
even told lies to discredit him before the teacher’s eyes.
Consequently the teacher had to punish Jose. Early Schooling in
Biñan Jose had a very vivid imagination and a very keen sense of
observation. At the age of seven he traveled with his father for
the first time to Manila and thence to Antipolo to fulfill the promise
of a pilgrimage made by his mother at the time of his birth. They
embarked in a casco, a very ponderous vessel commonly used in
the Philippines. It was the first trip on the lake that Jose could
recollect. As darkness fell he spent the hours by the katig,
admiring the grandeur of the water and the stillness of the night,
although he was seized with a superstitious fear when he saw a
water snake entwine itself around the bamboo beams of the
katig.
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With what joy did he see the sun at the daybreak
as its luminous rays shone upon the glistening surface of
the wide lake, producing a brilliant effect! With what joy did
he talk to his father, for he had not uttered a word during
the night! When they proceeded to Antipolo, he
experienced the sweetest emotions upon seeing the gay
banks of the Pasig and the towns of Cainta and Taytay. In
Antipolo he prayed, kneeling before the image of the Virgin
of Peace and Good Voyage, of whom he would later sing
in elegant verses. Then he saw Manila, the great
metropolis , with its Chinese sores and European bazaars.
And visited his elder sister, Saturnina, in Santa Ana, who
was a boarding student in the Concordia College. When he
was nine years old, his father sent him to Biñan to continue
studying Latin, because his first teacher had died.
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His brother Paciano took him to Biñan one Sunday,
and Jose bade his parents and sisters good-bye with tears
in his eyes. Oh, how it saddened him to leave for the first
time and live far from his home and his family! But he felt
ashamed to cry and had to conceal his tears and
sentiments. "O Shame," he explained, "how many beautiful
and pathetic scenes the world would witness without
thee!"They arrived at Biñan in the evening. His brother
took him to the house of his aunt where he was to stay,
and left him after introducing him to the teacher. At night,
in company with his aunt’s grandson named Leandro, Jose
took a walk around the town in the light of the moon. To
him the town looked extensive and rich but sad and ugly.
19
His teacher in Biñan was a severe disciplinarian. His name was
Justiniano Aquino Cruz. "He was a tall man, lean and longnecked, with a sharp nose and a body slightly bent forward. He
used to wear a sinamay shirt woven by the deft hands of
Batangas women. He knew by memory the grammars of Nebrija
and Gainza. To this add a severity which, in my judgement I have
made of him, which is all I remember."The boy Jose
distinguished himself in class, and succeeded in surpassing
many of his older classmates. Some of these were so wicked
that, even without reason, they accused him before the teacher,
for which, in spite of his progress, he received many whippings
and strokes from the ferule. Rare was the day when he was not
stretched on the bench for a whipping or punished with five or six
blows on the open palm. Jose’s reaction to all these punishments
was one of intense resentment in order to learn and thus carry
out his father’s will.Jose spent his leisure hours with Justiniano’s
father-in-law, a master painter. From him he took his first two
sons, two nephews, and a grandson.
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His way life was methodical and well regulated. He heard
mass at four if there was one that early, or studied his lesson at
that hour and went to mass afterwards. Returning home, he
might look in the orchard for a mambolo fruit to eat, then he took
his breakfast, consisting generally of a plate of rice and two dried
sardines. After that he would go to class, from which he was
dismissed at ten, then home again. He ate with his aunt and then
began at ten, then home again. He ate with his aunt and then
began to study. At half past two he returned to class and left at
five. He might play for a short time with some cousins before
returning home. He studied his lessons, drew for a while, and
then prayed and if there was a moon, his friends would invite him
to play in the street in company with other boys. Whenever he
remembered his town, he thought with tears in his eyes of his
beloved father, his idolized mother, and his solicitous sisters.
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Ah, how sweet was his town even though not so
opulent as Biñan! He grew sad and thoughtful.While he
was studying in Biñan, he returned to his hometown now
and then. How long the road seemed to him in going and
how short in coming! When from afar he descried the roof
of his house, secret joy filled his breast. How he looked for
pretexts to remain longer at home! A day more seemed to
him a day spent in heaven, and how he wept, though
silently and secretly, when he saw the calesa that was
flower that him Biñan! Then everything looked sad; a
flower that he touched, a stone that attracted his attention
he gathered, fearful that he might not see it again upon his
return. It was a sad but delicate and quite pain that
possessed him.
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Thank you
and
Godbless you!