Life and Works of Jose Rizal

Chapter 4: Rizal’s Social Origin and Historical Context

Abiera, Sean Levi

Francisco, Christian

Joval, Rhesa
Rizal’s Social Origin

A native from the Chinchew district named Domingo Lam-co was known to have a great
knowledge about Christianity. He was baptized in the Parian Church and by customs, took the
name Domingo (in honor of the day). He is married to Inez de la Rosa and had two children but
their daughter Josepha died at an early age, leaving the couple and their son Francisco Mercado.

Liberalizing Hereditary Influence

As years passed, Francisco Mercado left the Chinese tradition by taking the name
“Mercado” and lived in a nearby hacienda. He married a Chinese mestiza, Bernarda Monicha and
had a family of two boys; Clemente and Juan. He was considered a great alcalde. After some time,
Francisco had a grandchildren from the newly wed Juan Mercado and Cirila Alejandra. Francisco’s
grandchildren were Potenciana Mercado and Francisco Mercado (Jose Rizal’s father).

After Juan Mercado’s death, Francisco went to study at BiNan Latin School and later
studied at College of San Jose in Manila. Their mother’s death gave way for Francisco and his
sister to go to Calamba.

Mercados were known to have a great skill set in the agricultural sector. Therefore,
Francisco became an attention-catcher for the landlords. After his sister’s death, Francisco was
married to Teodora Alonzo and had eleven children. Teodora was well educated and was baptized
in Santa Cruz Manila, taking the name Teodora Morales Alonzo. Her father, Lorenzo Alonzo, was
a wealthy and well-known municipal captain of BiNan in 1824. Captain Lorenzo’s mother, Maria
Florentina was a part of the Chinese mestizo, Florentina family and her father was Captain Mariano
Alejandro. The Ochoa Family was alien because most of its records were lost. Manuel de Quintos,
the husband of Regina Ochoa, was a Chinese mestizo attorney. The Quintos family originated in
San Pedro Macati where the American revolt was also at place.

Compared to Francisco Mercado’s genealogy, the family tree of Teodora Alonzo was
considered the wealthier one. Each family member has a big name and profession in different
places. There are numerous Chinese mestizos in the family tree of Rizal. Passed on to generations,
Jose Rizal was considered to be a 5th generation Chinese mestizo.
The Chinese Mestizo

The partnership between Filipinos and Chinese has never been greater on the 15th century.
Trading markets were sky-rocketing and the economic industry were increasing, until the
Spaniards came. By 1603, the comparison between the population of the Chinese and Spaniards
was 20:1. Because of the growing population, the Spaniards divided the system into four
categories; Spaniards (and Spaniard mestizos) are the non-paying sector, the Indios, Chinese and
Chinses mestizos are the paying sectors. The categories were provided for legislation, in order to
know the status of every person but regardless, it falls to the status of the father whether if that
person is one of those categories.

After the invasion of the Spaniards, the Chinese merchant strategically made themselves
the connecting variables for trade goods in different parts of Luzon and established their
settlements near the Spanish colonizers to provide those services and trade goods.

Binondo was founded as a Chinese town in 1594 in Central Luzon. During that time, a
royal order was passed for the expulsion of all Chinese from the Philippines. However, Governor
Dasmarinas realized that the city of Manila having the most number of Spanish settlements could
have a small group of Chinese for its economic services. With that, the governor bought a land for
a group of Artisans and prominent Chinese merchants as basis of their new settlement.

Non Catholics in areas within Binondo were baptized, named and added to the Catholic
community. indios started to settle in Binondo which resulted to the separation of communities.
Later on, the population of Mestizos grew which outnumbered other groups of people and broke
away from the Chinese which formed their own Gremio de Mestizo de Binondo in 1741. By 1741,
Chinese mestizos were on three different provinces in Luzon compromising half of the mestizos
in the Philippines. 90% of Chinese mestizos lived in Luzon while 10% were on the other islands
of the Philippines. During the years, 1750-1850 a lot of geographic distribution of the Chinese
Mestizos occure since numerous transferred to Visayas and other parts of the island.

Chinese mestizos were stronger than ever for they were also intrigued in monopolizing
internal trading with the provincial governors as their rival. Manila’s retail commerce were
handled by Chinese mestizos along with wholesaling and other businesses. They were able to
utilize the different resources in some parts of the Philippines.

Agrarian Relations and the Friar Lands

Monastic haciendas were the most dominant form of land tenure up to the 20th century.
Nearly half of the surface area of the four Tagalog-speaking provinces (Bulacan, Tondo, Cavite,
Laguna de Bay) were occupied by ecclesiastical properties. Some of these estates served as the
source of revolt, as some American officials noted. According to some documents, on the night
before the 1896 revolution, four religious orders owned at least 21 haciendas surrounding Manila.
7 years passed and the American Colonial Government bought 17 of these properties, due to the
fear of further outbreaks of agrarian unrest brought about by friar land ownership. After more than
30 years, the Church eventually sold the remaining four properties to the Philippine Government.

Of the 21 estates, 10 of these were owned by the Dominicans, thus, they were labeled as
the largest landlords of the region. Augustinians were next to them, owning 7 of these properties,
followed by the Order of St. John, owning the large Hacienda Buenavista, and the Recollects,
owning two well-maintained estates in Cavite. The remaining estate in Bataan, Hacienda
Dinalupihan, was owned by the Archdiocese of Manila.

Hacienda towns during the 19th century were “arranged”. There exists a municipal center
or municipio, with a central plaza where a church, government building, and oftentimes, jails,
would be found. Only the casa hacienda, where friar administrators reside, and granaries, were
the visible evidences of the presence of a friar property. The municipio is also the home of citizens
who are on the higher strata of the society with regards to social status, education, and income –
traders, artisans, tenants, etc. Outside the municipio, referred to as barrios, peasants lived as tillers
of the lands, cultivators, sharecroppers, and agricultural laborers.

Origin of the Estates

During the late 16th and 17th centuries, atleast 120 Spaniards were able to receive grants
within a 100-km radius of Manila. The grant consists of a large unit of land also known as sitio
gagado mayor and on the other hand, the small units were called cabellerias. Spanish hacienderos
were not willing to exploit their lands. Some of them sold their lands to Spaniards who donated
their estates to some religious orders. Their acquired land were form donations and Spaniards
seeking spiritual benefit. There were Filipino donors and sellers who helped in growing the
formation of religious estates. Filipinos chief and headmen were known as principales by the
Spaniards.

Early Period of Spanish Colonization

The transition from 16th to 17th century became the period of experimentation on the
estates. As Spaniards arrived, they brought with them their ideas of landownership and their
experiences from the New world from meeting people with different background, cultural
orientation, economic, and ecological conditions. Estates were widely used for cattle ranching,
followed by rice, sugar, and tropical fruits. The Jesuits, being economically sophisticated, used
their lands to make way for the sugar industry.
The transfer of estates from unfortunate Spanish landowners to the monastic orders was relatively
easy. The religious orders invested a lot to further improve their estates, installing dams and
irrigations to attract possible tenants and laborers.
The estates grew and prospered, and became Dominican’s most profitable properties.
Unfortunately, there was a backlash. Forced labor became a major problem for the Filipinos living
outside the estates. Thus, the 17th and 18th century were filled with complaints from Filipinos
outside the estate. This resulted to the agrarian revolt of 1745. The basic issues of the revolt
concerns land unsurpation by the haciendas and its closure for the common use for pasturage and
forage.
The highlight of the rebellion was a fight between Hacienda of Biñan and the neighboring
town of Silang, Cavite. A fraudulent survey was conducted and was hastily ratified by the Royal
Audencia, failing to evaluate the facts and overlooked the incorrect units of areal measure by the
surveyors. This led to the people of Silang believing that money had overpowered justice. With
this, the Dominicans claimed the land in 1745, drove the people of Silang away, and replaced them
with tenants from Biñan. The same thing happened to San Mateo in Tondo and Imus, Cavite. The
1745 revolt became the turning point in the socio-economic history of friar estates
The Cavity Munity and the Gomburza Execution

The number of rumors of having a revolt brought the attention of the Spanish colonizers.
A set-up was made in order to crush the hope of the Filipino people by executing three Filipino
priests, the GOMBURZA, by garrote. Instead of disheartening the Filipinos, it served as a beacon
that shows the true power of nationalism within. In addition, Jose Rizal himself wrote the book El
Filibustersimo in honor of the three priests.
The death of GOMBURZA served as a catalyst for Filipino clergies to have conflict within
the church. But it was not a singular event, even before GOMBURZA, three controversies in the
church were already been publicized; the patronato real in which because of the numerous
expansion of the church, it became like a government institution that merely follows religious
missions; the visitation controversy in which archbishops were abusive of their power inside the
church and lastly the slow movement of recruitment for native clergy in which it took until the
17th century before Filipino clergies were official.
It was discouraged by Fr. Gomez that Filipinos would become clergies. Some Filipino
clergies were already aware of the intentions of the Spanish government, particularly the church
and Governor-General Carlos Maria Dela Torre was already skeptical about them. He took
precautionary measures to the Filipino people to attain order.
In the meantime, Fr. Burgos wrote a discussion about the church in the Madrid newspaper,
La Discusion. Because of this, he cut his ties between the Jesuits. La Discusion was countered by
Fr. Joaquin de Coria, where he publicized articles about the difference between power of friars to
the lowly Filipino clergies. La Discusion was embraced by the Filipino liberals in Madrid.
After Dela Torre’s reign, he was replaced by Governor-General Rafael de Izquerdo where in his
reign, the Cavite mutiny happened. However, the revolt that took place was just a part of a much
larger revolt where its objective was to make ourselves free from the shackles of the colonizers.