Jose Rizal Family Tree: The Ancestry of the Hero
The Jose Rizal Family tree can be drawn from the respective ancestry of his father and mother, and from Jose’s son or children, if ever he had. So follow me as we enthusiastically go back in time to trace the family tree of Jose Rizal.
Jose Rizal Family tree that can be traced from his Father
Jose Rizal’s father is Don Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado, who became ‘tiniente gobernadorcillo’ (lieutenant governor) in Calamba and was thus nicknamed ‘Tiniente Kiko’.
Francisco’s great grandfather is Domingo Lam-co, a learned pro-poor or ‘maka-masa’ Chinese immigrant businessman who married a sophisticated Chinese mestiza of Manila named Ines de la Rosa. One of their two children, Francisco (also), resided in Biñan and married Bernarda Monicha.
Francisco and Bernarda’s son, Juan Mercado, became the ‘gobernadorcillo’ (town mayor) of Biñan, Laguna. He married Cirila Alejandra and they had 12 children, the youngest being Jose Rizal’s father, Francisco.
From Lamco to Rizal
For you not to be confused in drafting your Jose Rizal family tree, you must take note that Jose Rizal’s great-great grandfather, Chinese merchant Domingo Lamco, adopted the name ‘Mercado’ which means ‘market’. But Jose’s father, Francisco, who eventually became primarily a farmer, adopted the surname ‘Rizal’ (originally ‘Ricial’, which means ‘the green of young growth’ or ‘green fields’).
The name was suggested by a provincial governor who was a friend of the family. The new name, however, caused confusion in the commercial affairs of the family.
Don Francisco thus settled on the name ‘Rizal Mercado’ as a compromise, and often just used his more known surname ‘Mercado’.
So when Paciano, Jose’s brother, was a student at the College of San Jose, he used “Mercado” as his last name.
Read: The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog
But because he had gained notoriety with his links to Father Jose Burgos of the ‘Gomburza,’ he suggested that Jose use the surname ‘Rizal’ for Jose’s own safety. So Jose used the name ‘Rizal’ when he entered Ateneo.
Jose Rizal Family tree that can be traced from his Mother
Common biographies state that Doña Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda, Jose Rizal’s mother, was born on November 8, 1826 in Santa Cruz, Manila and baptized in the Santa Cruz Church.
However, Asuncion Rizal-Lopez Bantug, the granddaughter of Jose’s sister Narcisa, contrarily claims that Lola Lolay and her all siblings were born in Calamba, but (just) lived in Manila (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 18).
As regards Doña Teodora‘s ancestry, it is believed that Doña Teodora’s family descended from Lakandula, the last native king of Tondo.
For young Filipino 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 former governor E. R. Ejercito.) (More interesting facts about Rizal family can be read here: The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family)
Doña Teodora’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.
Then 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 decree of 1849 which changed the Filipino native surnames, the Alonsos adopted the surname Realonda. Rizal’s mother thus became Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda.
Jose Rizal, as many of us know, is the seventh of the eleven children of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso Quintos Realonda. His siblings are Saturnina, Paciano, Narcisa, Olympia, Lucia, Maria, Concepcion, Josefa, Trinidad, and Soledad. (Read: Jose Rizal’s Siblings: How His Brother and Sisters Affected the Life of the Filipino Hero (about ‘Jose Rizal siblings‘)
Jose Rizal Family tree that can be traced from Rizal’s son
When Jose Rizal was living as an exile in Dapitan, he took as his ‘common-law wife’ Josephine Bracken. In his letter to his mother, Rizal described Josephine as “good, obedient, and submissive … We have still to have our first quarrel, and when I reprove her she does not talk back” (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 120). (More about Rizal’s love life here: The Colorful Love Affairs of Dr. Jose Rizal)
Before the year ended in 1895, the couple had a child who was born prematurely. “Rizal’s sisters say the boy was named Peter; others say he was named Francisco, after Don Francisco Mercado” (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 121).
Unfortunately, the son died a few hours after birth. Rizal was said to have “made a pencil sketch of the dead infant on the jacket of a medical book. He then buried the baby in an unmarked grave in a secluded part of Talisay” (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 121).
Filipino historian Gregorio Zaide narrated that Rizal played a prank on Josephine which frightened her so that she untimely gave birth to an eight-month baby (G. Zaide & S. Zaide, 1984, p. 240). But doubting the veracity of this tale, some intriguingly ask questions like: Was the miscarriage due to a fall down from the stairs? Did Rizal push her during one of their quarrels? Or, did they quarrel intensely at all?
Some sources declare that the two had quarrels, “one of which, according to a 1966 article in the Free Press, was violent, leading to her [Bracken’s] miscarriage. The same article, written by L. Rebomantan, suggests that Rizal’s days of consolation with Josephine were [soon] over and that his request for assignment to Cuba was also prompted by his unhappiness with her.” (Alburo, n.d.)
Bonus: The Half-sister of Jose Rizal’s son
Two years after Rizal’s execution, Josephine Bracken married on December 15, 1898 a Philippine-born mestizo named Vicente Abad y Recio from Cebu. Some sources introduce Bracken’s second husband as the son of a Hong Kong tabacalera company owner whereas others present him as one of the employees of Tabacalera.
Some narrations state that the couple moved to the Philippines in May 1899 while others say that the family returned to Manila a year after the couple’s child was born. Josephine gave birth to their daughter, Dolores, on April 17, 1900.
Bracken died when her daughter was about to turn 2, so Dolores Bracken Abad did not have vivid memories of Josephine. When she grew up, Dolores married Antonio Mina of Ilocos. So although Dolores was not a fruit of Rizal-Josephine’s union, Antonio could legitimately boast that he married the only sibling (half-sister) of Jose Rizal’s son.
Josephine’s daughter, Dolores Abad Mina, died on December 9, 1987 and was survived by four children. Macario Ofilada, one of Dolores’ grandchildren, wrote the first full biography of Josephine Bracken, ‘Errante Golondrina’.
Read: Jose Rizal’s Collaborations with Other Heroes
If you want to know more about Rizal (e.g. Rizal girlfriends), search here:
Copyright © 2013-present by Jensen DG. Mañebog
Jensen DG. Mañebog, the contributor, is an author of textbooks and professorial lecturer emeritus in the graduate school of a state university in Metro Manila. His unique e-books on Rizal (available online) comprehensively tackle, among others, the respective life of Rizal’s parents, siblings, co-heroes, and girlfriends. (e-mail: [email protected])
Read Also:
The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog
Related: Josephine Bracken: Jose Rizal’s Dear and Unhappy Wife
Check Out: The Colorful Love Affairs of Dr. Jose Rizal by Jensen DG. MañebogRead Also:
The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog