José Rizal was born in 1861 to Francisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonso Realonda

y Quintos in the town of Calamba in Laguna province. He had nine sisters and one brother. His
parents were leaseholders of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Both
their families had adopted the additional surnames of Rizal and Realonda in 1849, after Governor
General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames among
the Filipinos for census purposes (though they already had Spanish names).
Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizals were of mixed origin. José's patrilineal lineage could
be traced back to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese merchant who
immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th century.[11][12][note 1][13] Lam-Co traveled to Manila
from Amoy, China, possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his home district, and more probably to
escape the Manchu invasion. He finally decided to stay in the islands as a farmer. In 1697, to
escape the bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the Philippines, he converted to Catholicism,
changed his name to Domingo Mercado and married the daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-
co. On his mother's side, Rizal's ancestry included Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog blood. His
mother's lineage can be traced to the affluent Florentina family of Chinese mestizo families
originating in Baliuag, Bulacan.[14] José Rizal also had Spanish ancestry. His grandfather was a half
Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.[15]
From an early age, José showed a precocious intellect. He learned the alphabet from his mother at
3, and could read and write at age 5.[12] Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he
dropped the last three names that made up his full name, on the advice of his brother, Paciano and
the Mercado family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, he later wrote: "My
family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving
me the appearance of an illegitimate child!"[16] This was to enable him to travel freely and
disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino
priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly known as Gomburza) who had
been accused and executed for treason.

Rizal's house in Calamba, Laguna.

Despite the name change, José, as "Rizal" soon distinguished himself in poetry writing contests,
impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in
writing essays that were critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine
societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his El Filibusterismo, this second surname had
become so well known that, as he writes to another friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal
instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and
be worthy of this family name..."[16]