Irish Katherine K.

Belotendos
GE 9 – Life and Works of Rizal
Section AC
Assignment No. 2
1. Why did Jose Rizal’s mother nearly die while giving birth to him?
Jose Rizal’s mother, Doña Teodora Alonso, nearly died during the
delivery because of Rizal’s big head. 
2. Create a family tree of Rizal’s family.

The Mercado Rizal Family

Francisco Mercado Teodora Alonso

Saturnina Mercado Narcisa Mercado Lucia Mercado Jose Mercado Josefa Mercado

Paciano Mercado Olimpia Mercado Maria Mercado Concepcion Mercado

Trinidad Mercado Soldedad Mercado

3. Explain the description of Jose Rizal to his father “a model of fathers” and to his
mother “ a woman of remarkable talents”.
Jose Rizal described his father, Don Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado, as the
“model of fathers” because his father provided all their needs just to have a good life. All of
his hard work and support enabled him to send Jose Rizal to a good quality school,
bought him good and expensive books as he also values and give importance to
education. He helped, nurtured, supported and used all his connections and knowledge to
maximize and tap the potential of our young Rizal and turned him into what he is today,
the catalyst for change and patriotism. His father possesses a strong, brave, and
leadership personality. He inherited traits of a hero from his father, such as dignity, self-
 respect, seriousness, self-possession, and a strong personality. His guidance was the main
element of Jose Rizal's distinct and outstanding characteristics in the academe. Behind
our national hero's success in fighting for Philippine independence through pen and paper
was a father who provided all for him to become who he was.
While he described his mother, Doña Teodora Alonso Realonda, “a woman of
remarkable talents because she possessed refined culture, literary talent, business ability,
and the fortitude of Spartan women. His mother is a brilliant, intelligent, caring, lovable
wife and parent to her family that derived Rizal to become temperament of poet, dreamer,
bravery for sacrifice and a genius. Rizal's mother taught him everything when he was
young, including how to read books. Rizal's mother is the reason he became a good poet
at all because she corrected his poems and gave him good advice when he was studying
rhetoric. She is a mathematician and has read many books.
4. Describe how the three uncles of Jose Rizal contributed to his boyhood influences.
His three uncles who were brothers of his mother also exerted a good influence
on the early childhood of Jose Rizal. His uncle named Jose Alberto, took care of teaching
regular lessons to Rizal and inspired him to developed his artistic activity. Uncle Manuel
who is a big, strong and husky man looked after the physical training of his sickly and
weak nephew. He encourages Rizal to learn swimming, fencing, and other sports. His
uncle Gregorio was a lover of books. He instilled into the mind of the boy the love for
education and intensified his voracious reading of good books.