Andres Bonifacio was born on November 30, 1863 in Tondo, Manila,[8] and was the first of six

children of Catalina de Castro, a Spanish Mestiza, and Santiago Bonifacio,[9] a Teniente Mayor[10] of
Tondo.[4][11] He learned the alphabet through his mother's sister. He was later enrolled in Guillermo
Osmeña's private school,[12][13] and learned English while employed as a clerk-messenger by a British
firm.[14] Some sources assert that he was orphaned at an early age,[15][16] but, considering the
existence of an 1881 record that has Bonifacio's parents listed as living in Tondo, it is disputed by
others.[17]
Bonifacio was blessed with good hands in craftsmanship and visual arts that he made canes and
paper fans, which he and his young siblings sold.[18] He also made posters for business firms. This
became their thriving family business that continued on when the men of the family, namely Andres,
Ciriaco, Procopio, and Troadio, were employed with private and government companies, which
provided them with decent living conditions.[19]
In his late teens, he worked as a mandatario (agent) for the British trading firm Fleming and
Company,[20] where he rose to become a corredor (broker) of tar, rattan and other goods. He later
transferred to Fressell and Company, a German trading firm, where he worked as
a bodeguero (storehouse keeper) responsible for warehouse inventory. He was also a theater
actor and often played the role of Bernardo Carpio, a fictional character in Tagalog folklore.[21]
Not finishing his normal education, Bonifacio enriched his natural intelligence with self-education. He
read books about the French Revolution, biographies of the Presidents of the United States, books
about contemporary Philippine penal and civil codes, and novels such as Victor Hugo's Les
Misérables, Eugène Sue's Le Juif errant and José Rizal's Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo.
Aside from Tagalog and Spanish, he could speak and understand English, which he learned while
working at J.M. Fleming and Co.[22]

Marriages[edit]
Andres Bonifacio was married twice: first to a certain Monica in Palomar, Tondo.[23] She was
Bonifacio's neighbor in Tondo. Monica died of leprosy[24] and they had no recorded children.
In 1892 Bonifacio, a 29-year-old widower, met the 18-year-old Gregoria de Jesús,[25] through his
friend Teodoro Plata who was her cousin. Gregoria, also called Oriang, was the daughter of a
prominent citizen and landowner from Caloocan.[26] Gregoria's parents did not agree at first to their
relationship as Andrés was a freemason and freemasons were then considered enemies of
the Catholic church.[27] Her parents eventually gave in and Andrés and Gregoria were married
through a Catholic ceremony in Binondo Church in March 1893 or 1894. The couple also were
married through Katipunan rites in a friend's house in Santa Cruz, Manila on the same day of their
church wedding.[28]
They had one son, born in early 1896,[29] who died of smallpox in infancy.[24][30]

Early political activism[edit]

Main article: La Liga Filipina
In 1892 Bonifacio was one of the founding members[31] of José Rizal's La Liga Filipina,[32] an
organization which called for political reforms in Spain's colonial government of
the Philippines.[33] However, La Liga disbanded[34] after only one meeting as Rizal was arrested and
deported to Dapitan in Mindanao.[35][36] Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini and others revived La Liga[37] in
Rizal's absence and Bonifacio was active at organizing local chapters in Manila. He would become
the chief propagandist of the revived Liga.[36]
La Liga Filipina contributed moral and financial support to the Propaganda Movement of
Filipino reformists in Spain.[38]
Katipunan