Rizal’s Life:

Family, Childhood and

Early Education

s
Lecel H. Lungat

C l a s
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this Chapter, the students should be able to:
• Examine the life, family, childhood, and early education of
Dr. Jose P. Rizal
• Identify the people and events that influenced Rizal’s early
life
• Describe the characteristics that would later define Dr. Jose
P. Rizal’s character from his experiences.
 1
Birth d
Life an Rizal
Works
of
Birth
● Rizal was born on June 19, 1861 at the lakeside town
of Calamba, Laguna.
● He was the 7th child of Don Francisco Mercado and
Dona Teodora Alonso.
● Fr. Rufino Collantes baptized the baby who was named
Jose Protacio in honor of Saint Joseph and Saint
Protacio, three days later.
Birth
● Dona Teodora was a devout follower of Saint Joseph,
and it was their custom to commemorate him on the
19th of each month. Saint Protacio, on the other hand,
is the patron saint of June 19, and was martyred in
Milan, Italy.
● His family reffered to him as Pepe.
Birth
● Rizal wrote in his dairy, “Memoirs of a Student in
Manila,” that his mother had a difficult time giving
birth to him. It is said that Dona Teodora made a pact
with Antipolo’s Patroness, Our Lady of Peace and
Good Voyage, that she would send the child she was
carrying on a pilgrimage to her shrine once she had
passed through the difficult birthing process.
 of
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Rizal

Family
2
Family
● Despite their large family, Don Francisco and Dona
Teodora were able to find joy and happiness. They
have a harmonious relationship in which affections are
shared among family members.
● Their parents loved and cared for their children in the
same way that any other family would. Despite this,
they do not spoil their children. In fact, they are
present to discipline their children whenever they
commit wrongdoing or engage in harmful activities.
Family
● As Catholics, they instilled in them the importance of
being courteous to others, particularly the elderly.
Their love of God became the foundation for them to
value and respect other’s rights.
● Everyday especially on Sundays, they heard mass.
● They were accustomed to kissing their parents’ hands
after the prayer recital.
 s
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3
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of Riza

Parents
Parents
● Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro II
was born as the youngest of 13 children to Cirilan
Alejandro and Juan Mercado on May 11, 1818, in
Biñan Laguna. He was the 4th generation of a Chinese
immigrant named Domingo Lamco who arrived in the
late 1600.
● During his early education in his hometown, he studied
Latin, and later went on to study philosophy and Latin
at the Colegio de San Jose in Manila.
Parents
● Jose Rizal considered his father to be a “model of
fathers,” and as a result, had provided them with
education. He believed that his father was a strong-
willed, educated and independent-minded indivisual,
traits that he inherited.
● He died in Manila on January 5, 1898 at the age of 80.
Parents
● Doña Teodora Morales Alonso Realonda y Quintos
On November 9, 1827, she was born in Manila as the
second child of Lorenzo Alonso and Brigida de
Quintos.
● She attended the College of Santa Rosa.
● She died on August 16, 1911, in Manila, at the age of
85, in her home at San Fernando Street in Binondo.
 4
Siblings
Siblings

Dr, Jose Rizal’s parents, Francisco Mercado and Teodora

Alonso, married on June 28, 1848. They had 11 children,
with 2 boys and 9 girls.

● Saturnina (1850-1913) was the eldest of the siblings

and was commonly reffered to as Neneng. Manuel
Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas was her husband. She
passed away in 1913, at the age of 63.
Siblings
● Paciano (1851-1930) was our national hero’s elder and
only brother. Many people thought he was the Pilosopong
Tasio mentioned in Noli Me Tangere. He marries his
common-law wife, Severina Decena, and they had two
children.

● Narcisa (1852-1939) was the 2nd daughter and 3rd child of

Francisco and Teodora. She was called Sisa by her siblings.
It was believed that she also supported her brother Jose’s
studied abroad and perhaps the only amongst the siblings
that could narrate the poems of Jose.
Siblings
● Olimpia (1855-1887) was called as Ypia. She was married to
Silvestre Ubaldo, a telegraph operator from Manila. Jose’s
first love, Segunda Katigbak, was Olimpia’s schoolmate at
the La Concordia College.

● Lucia (1857-1919) she married Mariano Herbosa and they

have 5 children.

● Maria (1859-1945) she married Daniel Faustino Cruz of

Biñan, Laguna, and they have 5 children. One of Maria’s
children, Mauricio Cruz, became a student of Jose in Dapitan
and was known to be one of his uncle’s favorites.
Siblings
● Conception (1862-1865) was called as Concha. She died at
the age of 3. Her death became Rizal’s first sorrow of life.

● Josefa (1865-1945) she was unmarried and lived with sister

Trinidad until death. She was said to have suffered from
epilepsy.

● Trinidad (1868-1951) she was also unmarried. She was the

one received from Jose an alcohol lamp in which he secretly
hid the “Last Farewell”, also known as “Mi Ultimo Adios”, a
poem Rizal wrote on the eve of his death.
Siblings
● Soledad (1870-1951) was the youngest of the Rizal siblings.
She married Pantaleon Quintero and they had 5 children.

Rizal was close to all of his siblings. His relationship with his
only brother, Paciano, was, however, more than of an older
brother. Paciano took on the role of Rizal’s second father. Rizal
admired him and valued all of his advice.
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5 Childhood
You can enter a subtitle here if you need it
Childhood
● Jose Rizal’s childhood was filled with happy memories.
They lived on the Laguna Lake’s shore and at the foot of Mt.
Makiling. He enjoyed seeing the magnificent beauty of
Laguna de Bay.
● He was an amiable, thoughtful and loving son, brother and
sibling.
● Because he was frail and sickly, his parents lavished him
with tender loving care.
● Despite his physique, he can do things like any other young
man. He was well guided, particularly by his mother , who
served as his first teacher.
Childhood
● His mother noticed that he could write poems at a young age
and encourage him to keep writing.
● He was able to write a poem about his hometown. “In
Memory of My Town,” when he was a young boy.
● His father built him a small nipa hut that served as both a
sanctuary for him to play with his siblings and a resting
place for him.
● He was also attended by an Aya (nurse maid) hired by his
father to look after his needs.
Childhood
● Jose also owned a pony, which he used to ride around his
hometown’s beautiful scenery.
● Jose’s happiest memory from his childhood was a trip with
his father to Antipolo to fulfil his mother’s vow to perform
pilgrimage to the Virgin of Antipolo.
● His first trip excite him because he saw the vastness of the
river and different scenery that he hasn’t seen in his
hometown.
 Early
Education
 First Teacher: His Mother
Teodora
Rizal was first educated at home by his mother, Doña
Teodora, who was a remarkable and educated woman
in her own right. She was Rizal’s first teacher.

As a loving mother and tutor, she would sit the 3 year

old Pepe on her lap and devotedly taught him the
alphabet and the prayers.
 First Teacher: His Mother
Teodora
She also taught Pepe to read the Holy Bible. In their
moments together, Doña Teodora would tell him many
stories which later fuelled his strong interest in poetry.
But all the stories that his mother told him, the Story of
the Moth touched him so deeply that he recorded it in
his diary.
 Private Tutors
• Jose’s parents hired private tutors to teach him at
home as he grew older.
• Maestro Celestino was the first, and Maestro Lucas
Padua was the second.
• Later, the boy was tutored by an elderly man named
Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father.
Jose was taught Spanish and Latin by this old
teacher who lived at the Rizal house. Unfortunately,
he did not have a long life.
• 5 months later, he passed away.
 Rizal’s First Formal School in Biñan
• Jose left Calamba for Biñan on a Sunday afternoon in June 1869, kissing
his parents hands and saying goodbye to his sister with tears in his eyes.
• Paciano who acted as his 2nd father, accompanied him.
• His brother drove him to his aunt’s house, where he was to stay, and
dropped him off after introducing him to the teacher Maestro Justiniano
Aquino Cruz’s school the next morning.
• The school was in the teacher’s house, which was a small nipa hut about
30 meters from Jose’s aunt’s house.
 Rizal’s First Formal School in Biñan
• His teacher was a strict disciplinarian. Justiniano Aquino Cruz was his
name.
• Jose met the bully, Pedro, in the afternoon of his first day in school,
while the teacher was taking a siesta.
• He was enraged at the bully for making fun of him during the morning
conversation with the teacher. Pedro accepted Jose’s challenge to a fight.
• Jose, who had learned the art of wrestling from his athletic Tio Manuel,
triumph over the larger boy.
 Rizal’s First Formal School in Biñan
• Jose outperformed all the Binan boys in academics. He outperformed
everyone in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects.
• Some of his older classmates were envious of his intelligence.
• They squealed at the teacher whenever Jose got into a fight outside the
school they even told lies to discredit him in front of the teacher’s eyes.

• During Rizal’s early education, two disheartening events drew his

attention and disturbed him: the execution of the priests (Gomez,
Burgos, and Zamora) and the imprisonment of his mother.
 The Imprisonment of Teodora
• Jose Rizal was only 11 years old when he witnessed his mother’s
extraordinary bravery: the Spaniards arrested his mother and forced her
to walk 50 kilometres around Laguna.
• Upon arriving at Santa Cruz after more than a day of walking under the
sun, the exhausted Dona Teodora was charged and imprisoned 2years
without trial for falsehoods levelled against her, particularly that she
attempted to poison her sister-in-law.
• She was around 45 years old at that time.
 The Martyrdom of GOMBURZA
• On January 20, 1872, about 200 Filipino soldiers and workmen of the
Cavite arsenal under the leadership of Lamadrid, Filipino sergeant, rose
in violent mutiny because of the abolition of their usual privileges,
including exemption from tribute and polo (forced labor) by the
reactionary Governor Rafael de Izquierdo.

• Despite the fact that the mutiny lasted only two days due to the colonial
administration’s quick response, massive arrest were made, including
those who had no connection to the mutiny.
 The Martyrdom of GOMBURZA
• Accordingly, GOMBURZA, despite the archbishop’s plea for clemency
because of their innocence, were executed on February 17, 1872, by
order of Governor General Izquierdo.

• Their martyrdom was deeply mourned by the Rizal family and many
other patriotic families in the Philippines.

• Paciano, enraged by the execution of Burgos, his beloved friend, and

teacher, quit his studies at the College of San Jose and retured to
Calamba, where he told the heroic story of Burgos to his younger brother
Jose, who was then nearly11 years old.
 The Martyrdom of GOMBURZA
• The martyrdom of GOMBURZA in 1872 truly inspired Rizal to fight the
evils of Spanish tyranny.
• Rizal saw how this event terrified his parents and their neighbors and
affected the life of his brother, Paciano.
• Jose Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo, was dedicated to the 3
tragic figures.
THANK YOU!