Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
employe of the Spanish customs house. Estanislao Manuel Ochoa was his
son, with the blood of old Castile mingling with Chinese and Tagalog
in his veins. He was part owner of the Hacienda of San Francisco de
Malabon. One story says that somewhere in this family was a Mariquita
Ochoa, of such beauty that she was known in Cavite, where was her home,
as the Sampaguita (jasmine) of the Parian, or Chinese, quarter.
There was a Spanish nobleman also in Cavite in her time who had
been deported for political reasons--probably for holding liberal
opinions and for being thought to be favorable to English ideas. It
is said that this particular "caja abierta" was a Marquis de Canete,
and if so there is ground for the claim that he was of royal blood;
at least some of his far-off ancestors had been related to a former
ruling family of Spain.
Mariquita's mother knew the exile, since, according to the custom
in Filipino families, she looked after the business interests of her
husband. Curious to see the belle of whom he had heard so much, the
Marquis made an excuse of doing business with the mother, and went to
her home on an occasion when he knew that the mother was away. No one
else was there to answer his knock and Mariquita, busied in making
candy, could not in her confusion find a coconut shell to dip water
for washing her hands from the large jar, and not to keep the visitor
waiting, she answered the door as she was. Not only did her appearance
realize the expectations of the Marquis, but the girl seemed equally
attractive for her self-possessed manners and lively mind. The nobleman
was charmed. On his way home he met a cart loaded with coconut dippers
and he bought the entire lot and sent it as his first present.
After this the exile invented numerous excuses to call, till
Mariquita's mother finally agreed to his union with her daughter. His
political disability made him out of favor with the State church,
the only place in which people could be married then, but Mariquita
became what in English would be called a common-law wife. One of their
children, Jose, had a tobacco factory and a slipper factory in Meisic,
Manila, and was the especial protector of his younger sister, Regina,
who became the wife of attorney Manuel de Quintos. A sister of Regina
was Diega de Castro, who with another sister, Luseria, sold "chorizos"
(sausages) or "tiratira" (taffy candy), the first at a store and
the second in their own home, but both in Cavite, according to the
variations of one narrative.
A different account varies the time and omits the noble ancestor by
saying that Regina was married unusually young to Manuel de Quintos to
escape the attentions of the Marquis. Another authority claims that
Regina was wedded to the lawyer in second marriage, being the widow
of Facundo de Layva, the captain of the ship Hernando Magallanes,
whose pilot, by the way, was Andrew Stewart, an Englishman.
It is certain that Regina Ochoa was of Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog
ancestry, and it is recorded that she was the wife of Manuel de
Quintos. Here we stop depending on memories, for in the restored
burial register of Kalamba church in the entry of the funeral of
Brigida de Quintos she is called "the daughter of Manuel de Quintos
and Regina Ochoa."
Manuel de Quintos was an attorney of Manila, graduated from Santo Tomas
University, whose family were Chinese mestizos of Pangasinan. The
lawyer's father, of the same name, had been municipal captain of
Lingayan, and an uncle was leader of the Chinese mestizos in a
protest they had made against the arbitrariness of their provincial
governor. This petition for redress of grievances is preserved in
the Supreme Court archives with "Joaquin de Quintos" well and boldly
written at the head of the complainants' names, evidence of a culture
and a courage that were equally uncommon in those days. Complaints
under Spanish rule, no matter how well founded, meant trouble for the
complainants; we must not forget that it was a vastly different thing
from signing petitions or adhering to resolutions nowadays. Then the
signers risked certainly great annoyance, sometimes imprisonment,
and not infrequently death.
The home of Quintos had been in San Pedro Macati at the time of Captain
Novales's uprising, the so-called "American revolt" in protest against
the Peninsulars sent out to supersede the Mexican officers who had
remained loyal to Spain when the colony of their birth separated
itself from the mother country. As little San Pedro Macati is charged
with having originated the conspiracy, it is unlikely that it was
concealed from the liberal lawyer, for attorneys were scarcer and
held in higher esteem in those days.
The conservative element then, as later, did not often let drop
any opportunity of purging the community of those who thought for
themselves, by condemning them for crime unheard and undefended,
whether they had been guilty of it or not.
All the branches of Mrs. Rizal's family were much richer than the
relatives of her husband; there were numerous lawyers and priests
among them--the old-time proof of social standing--and they were
influential in the country.
There are several names of these related families that belong among
the descendants of Lakandola, as traced by Mr. Luther Parker in
his study of the Pampangan migration, and color is thereby given,
so far as Rizal is concerned, to a proud boast that an old Pampangan
lady of this descent makes for her family. She, who is exceedingly
well posted upon her ancestry, ends the tracing of her lineage from
Lakandola's time by asserting that the blood of that chief flowed
in the veins of every Filipino who had the courage to stand forward
as the champion of his people from the earliest days to the close of
the Spanish regime. Lakandola, of course, belonged to the Mohammedan
Sumatrans who emigrated to the Philippines only a few generations
before Magellan's discovery.
To recall relatives of Mrs. Rizal who were in the professions may
help to an understanding of the prominence of the family. Felix
Florentino, an uncle, was the first clerk of the Nueva Segovia
(Vigan) court. A cousin-german, Jose Florentino, was a Philippine
deputy in the Spanish Cortes, and a lawyer of note, as was also
his brother, Manuel. Another relative, less near, was Clerk Reyes,
of the Court of First Instance in Manila. The priest of Rosario,
Vicar of Batangas Province, Father Leyva, was a half-blood relation,
and another priestly relative was Mrs. Rizal's paternal uncle,
Father Alonzo. These were in the earlier days when professional
men were scarcer. Father Almeida, of Santa Cruz Church, Manila,
and Father Agustin Mendoz, his predecessor in the same church, and
one of the sufferers in the Cavite trouble of '72--a deporte--were
most distantly connected with the Rizal family. Another relative,
of the Reyes connection, was in the Internal Revenue Service and had
charge of Kalamba during the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Mrs. Rizal was baptized in Santa Cruz Church, Manila, November 18,
1827, as Teodora Morales Alonzo, her godmother being a relative by
marriage, Dona Maria Cristina. She was given an exceptionally good
fundamental education by her gifted mother, and completed her training
in Santa Rosa College, Manila, which was in the charge of Filipino
sisters. Especially did the religious influence of her schooling
manifest itself in her after life. Unfortunately there are no records
in the institution, because it is said all the members of the Order
who could read and write were needed for instruction and there was
no one competent who had time for clerical work.
Brigida de Quintos had removed to the property in Kalamba which Lorenzo
Alberto had transferred to her, and there as early as 1844 she is
first mentioned as Brigida de Quintos, then as Brigida de Alonzo,
and later as Brigida Realonda.
CHAPTER IV
Rizal's Early Childhood
JOSE PROTASIO RIZAL MERCADO Y ALONZO REALONDA, the seventh child of
Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and his wife, Teodora
Morales Alonzo Realonda y Quintos, was born in Kalamba, June 19, 1861.
He was a typical Filipino, for few persons in this land of mixed
blood could boast a greater mixture than his. Practically all
the ethnic elements, perhaps even the Negrito in the far past,
combined in his blood. All his ancestors, except the doubtful
strain of the Negrito, had been immigrants to the Philippines, early
Malays, and later Sumatrans, Chinese of prehistoric times and the
refugees from the Tartar dominion, and Spaniards of old Castile and
Valencia--representatives of all the various peoples who have blended
to make the strength of the Philippine race.
Shortly before Jose's birth his family had built a pretentious new home
in the center of Kalamba on a lot which Francisco Mercado had inherited
from his brother. The house was destroyed before its usefulness had
ceased, by the vindictiveness of those who hated the man-child that
was born there. And later on the gratitude of a free people held the
same spot sacred because there began that life consecrated to the
Philippines and finally given for it, after preparing the way for the
union of the various disunited Chinese mestizos, Spanish mestizos,
and half a hundred dialectically distinguished "Indians" into the
united people of the Philippines.
Jose was christened in the nearby church when three days old, and as
two out-of-town bands happened to be in Kalamba for a local festival,
music was a feature of the event. His godfather was Father Pedro
Casanas, a Filipino priest of a Kalamba family, and the priest who
christened him was also a Filipino, Father Rufino Collantes. Following
is a translation of the record of Rizal's birth and baptism: "I, the
undersigned parish priest of the town of Calamba, certify that from
the investigation made with proper authority, for replacing the parish
books which were burned September 28, 1862, to be found in Docket No. 1
of Baptisms, page 49, it appears by the sworn testimony of competent
witnesses that JOSE RIZAL MERCADO is the legitimate son, and of lawful
wedlock, of Don Francisco Rizal Mercado and Dona Teodora Realonda,
having been baptized in this parish on the 22d day of June in the year
1861, by the parish priest, Rev. Rufino Collantes, Rev. Pedro Casanas
being his godfather."--Witness my signature. (Signed) LEONCIO LOPEZ.
Jose Rizal's earliest training recalls the education of William
and Alexander von Humboldt, those two nineteenth century Germans
whose achievements for the prosperity of their fatherland and the
advancement of humanity have caused them to be spoken of as the most
remarkable pair of brothers that ever lived. He was not physically
a strong child, but the direction of his first studies was by an
unusually gifted mother, who succeeded, almost without the aid of
books, in laying a foundation upon which the man placed an amount
of well-mastered knowledge along many different lines that is truly
marvelous, and this was done in so short a time that its brevity
constitutes another wonder.
At three he learned his letters, having insisted upon being
taught to read and being allowed to share the lessons of an elder
sister. Immediately thereafter he was discovered with her story book,
spelling out its words by the aid of the syllabary or "caton" which
he had propped up before him and was using as one does a dictionary
in a foreign language.
The little boy spent also much of his time in the church, which was
conveniently near, but when the mother suggested that this might be
an indication of religious inclination, his prompt response was that
he liked to watch the people.
To how good purpose the small eyes and ears were used, the true-to-life