Rizal’s Life: Family, Childhood and Early Education

The Rizal family was known to be well-off family in Calamba, Laguna and they were considered as one of
the biggest families in those times. They lived a life of comfort and prosperity, then considered that his
family belonged to the principalia class or the ruling elite of their town. Jose Rizal came from a 13-
member family, consisted of his father Don Francisco Mercado II and his mother Teodora Alonso
Realonda. Jose Rizal had nine sisters and one brother. Saturnina Rizal was the eldest child among the
siblings, followed by Paciano, Narcisa, Olympia, Lucia, Maria, Jose, Concepcion, Josefa and the youngest
was Soledad.

Rizal came from a mixture of races, his paternal ascendant was Domingo Lamco, a full-blooded Chinese.
He married a wealthy Chinese mestiza, Ines de la Rosa. Domingo Lamco adopted the surname Mercado,
which means “market” in keeping the gubernatorial decree of Narciso Claveria on the use of Spanish
surnames. From the Parian in Manila, the coupled moved to Biñan, Laguna and became tenants in the
Dominican hacienda.

Rizal’s father is one of the 14 children of Juan Mercado, paternal grandfather and his grandmother was
Cirila Alejandrino, a Chinese-Filipino mestiza. Juan Mercado became a gobernadorcillo of Biñan Laguna.
Rizal’s maternal great grandfather was Manuel de Quintos, a Chinese mestizo from Lingayen,
Pangasinan. Manuel married Regina Ursua, with a Japanese ancestry to whom they bore the
grandmother of Rizal, Brigida who married Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, one of their.

DON FRANCISCO RIZAL MERCADO (1818-1898)

Rizal’s father was born on May 11, 1818 and was the youngest of his 13 siblings. Mercado was a well-
respected man in their home town of Calamba in which citizens made him the their "cabeza de
barangay" (head of town.) He was of part Chinese descent, having been related to a Chinese
entrepreneur by the name of Domingo

Lamco. Mercado die shortly after Rizal in the home of his daughter, Narcisa Rizal in Binondo, Manila on
January 5, 1898.

TEODORA ALONSO (1827-1913)

Doña Teodora Alonso was born on November 14, 1827 in Santa Cruz Manila. Her parents were Lorenzo
Alonso, a municipal captain and Brijida de Quintos, an educated housewife and had four other siblings.
It is said that her great grandfather, Eugenio Ursua was of Japanese ancestry making her of Japanese
descent. When Teodora was 20 years old, she married Francisco Mercado, a native from Binan, Laguna.
Together they prospered in Calamba after involving themselves in business and agriculture. She was
known to be a hardworking, intelligent, business minded woman. She died in 1913 in Manila.

SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913)

Saturnina Mercado Rizal Hidalgo was born in 1818 and was the eldest sister of Jose Rizal. She had five
children together with husband Manuel T. Hidalgo and died the same year as her mother in 1913.

PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930)

General Paciano Mercado Rizal aka "Lolo Ciano" was the only brother of Jose Rizal. He was born in 1851
and studied in Biñan later attending school at the Colegio de San Jose in Manila. After the execution of
his brother, he joined in the Philippine Revolution where he rose up to the ranks of a General. He later
married Severina Decena of Los Banos and had two children of which one died at an early age. Paciano
passed away in 1930.

NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)

Narcisa Rizal Lopez was born in 1852 and was the one who found the unmarked grave of her brother,
Jose in the abandoned Old Paco Cemetery. Narcisa married Antonio Lopez who was a teacher and
musician from Morong, Rizal. She died in 1938.

OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887)

Olympia Rizal Ubaldo was born in 1855. She married Silvestre Ubaldo and together they had three
children. She died in 1887 from childbirth when she was only 32 years old.

SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929)

Soledad Rizal Quintero was born in 1870 making her the youngest of the Rizal siblings. She married
Pantaleon Quintero and together they had 5 children. Soledad died in 1929.
RIZAL’S CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION

Jose Rizal (Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonso Realonda) was born on June 19, 1861 at Calamba,
Laguna. According to some readings, his mother nearly died during his delivery because of his big head.
Three days after his birth, Rizal was baptized on June 22 of the said year with the name Jose Rizal
Mercado at the Catholic church of Calamba by the parish priest Rev. Rufino Collantes. He was the
seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos.

During 1865-1867, his mother taught him how to read and write. At the age of three, Rizal mastered and
learned the alphabet taught by his mother. At a very young age, he has shown great interest in reading.
He enjoyed reading books in their library at home, with his mother who acts as his reading teacher and a
critic. At this time, he also learned how to pray and even read the bible.

When Jose Rizal grew older, his parents acquired private tutors to give him lessons at home in
preparation for his formal education. One of them was Leon Monroy, a classmate of his father who
taught him the rudiments of Latin. At about this time, his mother’s cousin, Uncle Manuel Alberto, who
frequently visited the family in Calamba, was worried about his nephew’s physical development. He
then taught Rizal to develop the skills in swimming, fencing, wrestling and other sports, while Uncle Jose
taught him to love and admire the beauty of nature. On the other hand, Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, has
instilled in Rizal’s mind the love for education and its importance, the value of hard work, to think for
himself, and to observe his surroundings carefully.

When he was four years old, his sister Concepcion, the eighth child in the Rizal family, died at the age of
three. This was the first time he cried as a young boy. As sad as he was, the parish priest of Calamba,
Father Leoncio Lopez, helped Rizal understand the philosophy of life and learned the value of
scholarship and intellectual honesty.

Rizal, in his childhood, used to take long rides through all the surrounding country by riding his pony that
his father gave him. Among his pets were doves and a dog.

Owing to the continuous teaching of Doña Teodora, Rizal was persuaded to express his feelings through
verses. He was able to write his first poem when he was eight years old. The poem was entitled “Sa
Aking Mga Kababata” (To My Fellow Children), which showed that Rizal, even at a young age, already
had love for his
country. Here, he similarly incorporates the love for the native language with God’s gift of freedom. He
compared his native language or Tagalog to Latin, English and Spanish. Tagalog, like any other
languages, had its own alphabet and system writing, which according to Rizal, disappeared because they
were neglected or ignored. With this, he encourages his fellow children to love their native tongue.

Then, after Rizal’s tutor Leon Monroy died, his parents decided to transfer Rizal to a private school in
Biñan, Laguna. He was accompanied by his older brother Paciano, who acted as his second father during
his school days in Biñan. The school was then supervised by Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz.

Rizal’s first day of class in the school was not easy. The maestro asked him if he knows how to speak
Latin or Spanish, but in response, he only knew a little of the languages. As a result, one of his
classmates named Pedro, the son of the maestro, laughed at him. Pedro was always bullying him that
eventually resulted to a brawl. But knowing Rizal’s acquired knowledge and skill in the art of wrestling
from his Tio Manuel, he defeated Pedro. After the said incident, Rizal became popular in his class. Here,
Rizal was able to show his intellectual superiority.

He excelled in his class in Latin, Spanish and other subjects in the curriculum for elementary pupils.
Because of this, many of the students became jealous to him and do everything to destroy Rizal’s name
to Maestro Cruz. While Rizal’s interest in painting was nurtured early on by an old painter named
Juancho of Biñan. During this time, knowledge was taught in the minds of the students by doing tedious
memorization method. Despite some lack of the elementary education in Spanish system, Rizal was able
to have the needed instruction preparatory for college work in Manila.