LESSON 2 JOSE RIZAL’S GENEALOGY AND EARLY EDUCATION

Introduction/Overview

This lesson is about the biography of Jose Rizal. The discussion focuses on the family
background of Jose Rizal and his life and experiences as a young boy and as a student. The
personal background of Jose Rizal reflects the social, educational and cultural milieu of his time.
In order to humanize him, it is significant to have a glimpse of his life and experiences at home
and at school which had shaped his development as person as well as his ideals and principles in
life. This lesson will be guided different activities that the students need to accomplish at the end
of the lesson.

Intended Learning Outcome

1. Determine the influences in Rizal’s young life that shapes his aspirations and values.

2. Relate Jose Rizal’s family, childhood, and experiences to the present social issues and
problems.

3. Evaluate the people and events and their influence on Rizal's early life.

A PRELIMINARY
ACTIVITY

POST-IT-PARADE: This could also be done online in a discussion forum, where each student
can post ideas. Complete this activity before the start of the lesson.

Size: Individual, pairs, or small groups

Time: 10-15 minutes

The goal behind post-it parade is to generate ideas from all your students. Activity

1. Students are provided with a question or prompt for which they need to generate ideas,
solutions, etc.

2. Give each student a few post-its, and have them write out 1 idea per post-it.

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 3. Students then post the post-its on the chalkboard or wall. Depending on the question or
prompt, it may be useful to have them place the post-its in areas to group them by topic,
question, chronologically, etc.

Pointers:

 This activity is a way for the instructor to get a general sense of what sort of questions,
concerns or ideas the students may have.

 It’s also a great way to generate a take-away (the list of questions, ideas, or concerns
posted by the students).

Guide Question:

1. What experiences to the present social issues and problems they encountered.

2. How this experiences influences on their early life?

B WHAT’S
NEW/LECTURE

The Ancestry Clan

The Martyr-national hero of the Philippines, Jose Protacio Realonda Alonso Mercado
Rizal,” known to a child of a good family” was born on June 19, 1861 between eleven o’clock
and twelve o’clock at night, a few days before the full moon in Clamba, on the southwest shore
of the picturesque Laguna de Bay some forty miles south of Manila.

The Rizal family was a large one. Austin Craig accounted that Rizal’s father’s family began
in the Philippines with a Chinaman. Domingo Lam-Co; the family’s paternal ascendant was
full-blooded Chinese who migrated to the Philippines from Amoy, China in the late 17th Century.
There were also traces of Japanese, Spanish, Malay and some Negro ancestry in the grandmother,
Domingo Lam-Co’s wife, Ines de la Rosa.

There was the son of prosperous landowner, sugar and rice planter, of Chinese-Filipino
descent –Francisco Mercado Y Chinco, who apparently owed his surname to the Chinese custom
of looking for the appropriate meaning. Sangley, the name throughout all the Philippines for
Chinamen, signifies “traveling traders.” Mercado was used for trader. Francisco Mercado was

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born in Biňan and lived to be eighty years old, the youngest in the family of thirteen siblings:
seven men and six women, alternating in the following order: Petrona, Gabino, Potenciana,
Leoncio, Tomasa, Casimiro, Basilisa, Gabriel, Fausta, Julian, Cornelio, Gregorio, and Francisco.

The parents of these thirteen siblings were Captain Juan Mercado, who had been the
Gobernadorcillo or Mayor of Biňan, and Cirala Alejandra, daughter of Maria Guiňo. Juan
Mercado was the order of the two brothers- Juan and Clemente- sons of Francisco Mercado and
Bernarda Monicha. The hero’s father was named Francisco in memory of his grandfather.

Jose Rizal’s father was a well educated farmer with studies in Latin and philosophy at the
Colegio de San Jose in Manila. Early in his adult life he moved to Calamba and becamea tenant
farmer. He attained a degree of wealth, established a fine library and cultivated friends among
the friars and Spanish government officials.

The name Francisco was a name held in high honor in Laguna for it had belonged to a
famous sea captain who had been given the ENCONMIENDA OF BAY for his services and had
won the regard of those who paid tribute to him because of his fairness and interest in their
welfare.

Mrs. Teodora Alonso, mother of Jose Rizal, was a second among the children ( Narcisa,
Teodora, Gregorio, Manuel and Jose) of Mrs. Brigida de Quintos, daughter of Mr. Manuel De
Quintos of a well known family in Pangasinan and Regina Ursua of the Ursua family.

The siblings of Brigida De Quintos were Joaquina, Jose Soler, and Maria Victoria. Regina
Ursua was the daughter of Mr. Eugenio Ursua and Benigna. Her brothers were Father Alejandro,
Jose Ursua and Benito Ursua. and Pio Ursua.

Teodora Alonso was one of the highly educated women in the Philippines at that time. She
was born on November 9, 1827, and died on August 16, 1911 at the advanced age of 84. As a
student of Colegio de Santa Rosa, she had a business and literary sense far ahead of her time. She
was a gifted woman with insights into literature, art, music, and other forms of Filipino culture.
She was also a poet and wrote in the Tagalog language. She urged her son to read and write in
Tagalog and impressed upon him the importance of Philippine culture and history. Jose’s earliest
poems were written with the help of his mother and his career as a novelist was due to her

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literary influences. Teodora had one of the most masterful commands of Spanish in the
Philippines.

Source: Pasigui, Ronnie E. and Danilo H. Cabalu (2006). The man and the hero (An
Anthology of Legacies and Controversies). C & E Publishing, Inc.

The Name

Jose Protacio Realonda Alonso Rizal Mercado,

Jose- was chosen by his mother who was devotee of the Christian saint San Jose (St.Joseph)

Protacio- was taken from St. Protacio, who were very properly was a martyr. That a Filipino
priest baptized him and a secular Archbishop confirmed him seem fitting.

Rizal- the name was adapted in 1850 by authority of the Royal Decree of 1849, upon the order of
Governor Narciso Claveria. Rizal was a shortened form of Spanish word for “second crop,”
seemed suited to a family of farmers who were making a second start in a new home.

Alonzo-old surname of his mother·

Y-and-Realonda- it was used by Doña Teodora from the surname of her godmother based on the
culture by that time

Mercado- adopted in 1731 by Domigo Lamco (the paternal great-great grandfather of Jose Rizal)
which the Spanish term mercado means ‘market’ in English

https://www.coursehero.com/file/10498205/Rizal/

The Siblings

Jose was the seventh of eleven children; the younger of two boys.

FRANCISCO MERCADO (1818-1898)

Father of Jose Rizal who was the youngest of 13 offsprings of Juan and Cirila Mercado. Born in
Biñan, Laguna on April 18, 1818; studied in San Jose College, Manila; and died in Manila.

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TEODORA ALONSO (1827-1913)
Mother of Jose Rizal who was the second child of Lorenzo Alonso and Brijida de Quintos. She
studied at the Colegio de Santa Rosa. She was a business-minded woman, courteous, religious,
hard-working and well-read. She was born in Santa Cruz, Manila on November 14, 1827 and
died in 1913 in Manila.

SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913) Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonzo marriage. Married Manuel
Timoteo Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas.

PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930) Only brother of Jose Rizal and the second child. Studied at San
Jose College in Manila; became a farmer and later a general of the Philippine Revolution.

NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939) The third child. married Antonio Lopez at Morong, Rizal; a
teacher and musician.

OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887) The fourth child. Married Silvestre Ubaldo; died in 1887 from
childbirth.

LUCIA RIZAL (1857-1919) The fifth child. Married Matriano Herbosa.

MARIA RIZAL (1859-1945) The sixth child. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of Biñan, Laguna.
JOSE RIZAL (1861-1896) The second son and the seventh child. He was executed by the
Spaniards on December 30,1896.
CONCEPCION RIZAL (1862-1865) The eight child. Died at the age of three.

JOSEFA RIZAL (1865-1945) The ninth child. An epileptic, died a spinster.

TRINIDAD RIZAL (1868-1951) The tenth child. Died a spinster and the last of the family to
die.
SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929) The youngest child married Pantaleon Quintero

http://www.joserizal.ph/fm01.html

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Early Education

Rizal had his early education in Calamba and Biñan. It was a typical schooling that a son
of an ilustrado family received during his time, characterized by the four R’s- reading, writing,
arithmetic, and religion. Instruction was rigid and strict. Knowledge was forced into the minds of
the pupils by means of the tedious memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. Despite the
defects of the Spanish system of elementary education, Rizal was able to acquire the necessary
instruction preparatory for college work in Manila. It may be said that Rizal, who was born a
physical weakling, rose to become an intellectual giant not because of, but rather in spite of, the
outmoded and backward system of instruction obtaining in the Philippines during the last
decades of Spanish regime.

The Hero’s First Teacher

The first teacher of Rizal was his mother, who was a remarkable woman of good
character and fine culture. On her lap, he learned at the age of three the alphabet and the prayers.
"My mother," wrote Rizal in his student memoirs, "taught me how to read and to say haltingly
the humble prayers which I raised fervently to God."

As tutor, Doña Teodora was patient, conscientious, and understanding. It was she who
first discovered that her son had a talent for poetry. Accordingly, she encouraged him to write
poems. To lighten the monotony of memorizing the ABC’s and to stimulate her son’s
imagination, she related many stories

 As Jose grew older, his parents employed private tutors to give him lessons at home.

 The first was Maestro Celestino and the second, Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man
named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the boy’s tutor. This
old teacher lived at the Rizal home and instructed Jose in Spanish and Latin.
Unfortunately, he did not lived long. He died five months later.

 After a Monroy’s death, the hero’s parents decided to send their gifted son to a private
school in Biñan.

The Early Religious Formation

 Young Rizal was a religious boy. A scion of a Catholic clan, born and bred in a
wholesome atmosphere of Catholicism, and possessed of an inborn spirit, Rizal grew up a
good Catholic

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