José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda

Born in Calamba, Laguna on the 19th of June in 1861 and died, December 30,
1896. Son of Don Fransisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandra whom he considered to be
“Model of fathers” and Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos who he affectionately
described….” My mother is not a woman of ordinary culture” . The 7th child among the
11 children in their family; 1. Saturnina, 2. Paciano, 3. Narcisa, 4. Olimpia, 5. Lucia, 6.
Maria, 7. JOSE, 8. Concepcion, 9. Josefa, 10. Trinidad, 11. Soledad. He’s relationship
with his only brother Paciano wasn’t just an ordinary sibling. Paciano was a second
father to him, throughout his life he respected him and gave value to his advices. Also
He immortalized him in his first novel Noli Me Tangere as the wise pilosopo Tasio.
Regarded as the “most noble Filipino” by Rizal he also said that “Though an indio, more
generous and nobel than all the Spaniards put together”. His sister’s death,
Concepcion, in the age of 3 was terrible for him, and was his first sorrow in life.

Rizal was a product of the mixture of races. In his veins flowed the blood of both
east and west – Negrito, Indonesian, Malay, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. His
great-great grandfather on his father’s side was Domingo Lameo a chinese immigrant,
married to a well-to-do Chinese Christian manila girl of named Ines de la Rosa and
assumed in 1731 the surname Mercado because it was appropriate for him because he
was a merchant. The Spanish term “mercado” means “market” in English. They had a
son; Francisco Mercado who had also a son; Juan Mercado who was Rizal’s
grandfather married to Cirila Alejandro a Chinese-Filipino mestiza and had 13 children ,
the youngest being Francisco Mercado, Rizal’s father.

It is said that Donya Teodora’s family descended from Lakandula, the last native
king of Tondo. Her great grandfather (Rizal’s great-great grandather) was Eugenio
Ursua (of Japanese Ancestry) who married a Filipina Benigna, their daughter married a
Filipino-chinese from pangasinan, Manuel de Quintos. One of the daughters of Atty.
Quintos and Regina was Brigida who married Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, a prominent
Spanish-Filipino mestizo of Binan and had 5 children and Teodora Rizal’s mother was
one of them.

Rizal’s family acquired a second surname – Rizal – which was given by a

Spanish alcalde mayor of Laguna who was a family friend. But his family and relatives
preffered Mercado. But there were many mercados in the Philippines who are not
related to them, so then the alcalde mayor suggested to add Rizal to their surname. But
his family did not pay attention to this. He used Rizal anyway which in Spanish means
“a field where wheat, cut while still green, sprouts again” and considered himself as an
illegitimate son
 The Rizal family belonged to the principalia, a town aristocracy in Spanish
Philippines. It is one of the distinguished families in calamba. By dint of honest and hard
work and frugal living, Rizal’s parents were able to live well. From the farms which are
rented from the Dominican order, they harvested rice, corn and sugarcane. They raised
pig, chickens and turkeys in their backyard. In addition to farming and stock raising,
Dona Teodora managed a general good store and operated a small flour-mill and a
homemade ham-pressed. As evidence of their affluence, Rizal’s parents were able to
build a large stone house which was situated near the town church and to buy another
one. They owned a carriage, which was a status symbol of the ilustrados in Spanish
Philippines and a private library which is the largest in calamba that consisted of more
than 1,000 voulumes.

Rizal’s first teacher is her mom and as he grow 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 his tutor. Unfortunately he did not live long. He died
five months later. After his death, his parents decided to send him to a private school in
Binan. He also attended school in Calamba. And in 1872 he studied at Ateneo
Municipal de manila and graduates with top honors, Studied Philosophy and letters at
the University of Sto. Tomas. And enrolled Medicine at the University of Sto. Tomas.

Rizal wrote mostly in Spanish, the lingua franca of the Spanish Philippines, though
some of his letters (for example Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos) were written in
Tagalog. His works have since been translated into a number of languages including
Tagalog and English.

Novels and essays:

Noli Me Tángere, novel, 1887 (literally Spanish for 'touch me not', from John 20:17)

El Filibusterismo, (novel, 1891), sequel to Noli Me Tángere

Alin Mang Lahi" ("Whate'er the Race"), a Kundiman attributed to Dr. José Rizal

The Friars and the Filipinos (Unfinished)

Toast to Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo (Speech, 1884), given at Restaurante Ingles,
Madrid

The Diaries of José Rizal

Rizal's Letters is a compendium of Dr. Jose Rizal's letters to his family members,
Blumentritt, Fr. Pablo Pastells and other reformers
"Come se gobiernan las Filipinas" (Governing the Philippine islands)

Filipinas dentro de cien años essay, 1889–90 (The Philippines a Century Hence)

La Indolencia de los Filipinos, essay, 1890 (The indolence of Filipinos)

Makamisa unfinished novel

Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos, essay, 1889, To the Young Women of Malolos

Annotations to Antonio de Moragas, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (essay, 1889,

Events in the Philippine Islands)
Poetry

A La Juventud Filipina

El Canto Del Viajero

Briayle Crismarl

Canto Del Viajero

Canto de María Clara

Dalit sa Paggawa

Felicitación

Kundiman (Tagalog)

Me Piden Versos

Mi primera inspiracion

Mi Retiro

Mi Ultimo Adiós

Por La Educación (Recibe Lustre La Patria)

Sa Sanggol na si Jesus

To My Muse (A Mi Musa)

Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo
 A Man in Dapitan
Plays

El Consejo de los Dioses (The council of Gods)

Junto Al Pasig (Along the Pasig)

San Euistaquio, Mártyr (Saint Eustache, the martyr)

Other works

Rizal also tried his hand at painting and sculpture. His most famous sculptural work
was "The Triumph of Science over Death", a clay sculpture of a naked young woman
with overflowing hair, standing on a skull while bearing a torch held high. The woman
symbolized the ignorance of humankind during the Dark Ages, while the torch she bore
symbolized the enlightenment science brings over the whole world. He sent the
sculpture as a gift to his dear friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, together with another one
named "The Triumph of Death over Life".

The woman is shown trampling the skull, a symbol of death, to signify the victory the
humankind achieved by conquering the bane of death through their scientific
advancements. The original sculpture is now displayed at the Rizal Shrine Museum at
Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. A large replica, made of concrete, stands in front of
Fernando Calderón Hall, the building which houses the College of Medicine of the
University of the Philippines Manila along Pedro Gil Street in Ermita, Manila.

Leonor Rivera is thought to be the inspiration for the character of Maria Clara
in Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo. Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when
Rivera was only 14 years old. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was
16 years of age. Their correspondence began when Rizal left a poem for Rivera saying
farewell. The correspondence between Rivera and Rizal kept Rizal focused on his
studies in Europe. They employed codes in their letters because Rivera's mother did not
favor Rizal. A letter from Mariano Katigbak dated June 27, 1884, referred to Rivera as
Rizal's "betrothed". Katigbak described Rivera as having been greatly affected by
Rizal's departure, frequently sick because of insomnia.

When Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera and her family
had moved back to Dagupan, Pangasinan. Rizal was forbidden by his father Francisco
Mercado to see Rivera in order to avoid putting the Rivera family in danger because at
the time Rizal was already labeled by the criollo elite as
a filibustero or subversive[25] because of his novel Noli Me Tángere. Rizal wanted to
marry Rivera while he was still in the Philippines because of Rivera's uncomplaining
fidelity. Rizal asked permission from his father one more time before his second
departure from the Philippines. The meeting never happened. In 1888, Rizal stopped
receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although Rizal kept sending letters to Rivera.
The reason for Rivera's year of silence was the connivance between Rivera's mother
and the Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway engineer who fell in love with
Rivera and was favored by Rivera's mother. The news of Leonor Rivera's marriage to
Kipping devastated Rizal.

His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings
on pieces of paper. In the home of a Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, he left an
impression that was to be remembered by his daughter, Consuelo. In her diary, she
wrote of a day Rizal spent there and regaled them with his wit, social graces, and
sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Antonio de Morga's writings, he
became a regular guest in the home of Dr. Reinhold Rost of the British Museum who
referred to him as "a gem of a man." The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld,
and the Blumentritts saved even buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes.
They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of
memorabilia.

Relationship with Josephine Bracken

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong
Kong, when she accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his
eyes checked by Rizal.[27] After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love with each
other. They applied to marry but, because of Rizal's reputation from his writings and
political stance, the local priest Father Obach would only hold the ceremony if Rizal
could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu. He was unable to obtain an
ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism.

After accompanying her father to Manila on her return to Hong Kong, and before
heading back to Dapitan to live with Rizal, Josephine introduced herself to members of
Rizal's family in Manila. His mother suggested a civil marriage, which she believed to be
a lesser sacrament but less sinful to Rizal's conscience than making any sort of political
retraction in order to gain permission from the Bishop. Rizal and Josephine lived as man
and wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a son who
lived only for a few hours after Josephine suffered a miscarriage; Rizal named him after
his father Francisco.