Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
miles from the sea, in the province of Fokien, the rocky coast of which
has been described as resembling Scotland, and its sturdy inhabitants
seem to have borne some resemblance to the Scotch in their love of
liberty. The district now is better known by its present port of Amoy.
Altogether, in wealth, culture and comfort, Lam-co's home city far
surpassed the Manila of that day, which was, however, patterned after
it. The walls of Manila, its paved streets, stone bridges, and large
houses with spacious courts are admitted by Spanish writers to be due
to the industry and skill of Chinese workmen. They were but slightly
changed from their Chinese models, differing mainly in ornamentation,
so that to a Chinese the city by the Pasig, to which he gave the name
of "the city of horses," did not seem strange, but reminded him rather
of his own country.
Famine in his native district, or the plague which followed it,
may have been the cause of Lam-co's leaving home, but it was more
probably political troubles which transferred to the Philippines
that intelligent and industrious stock whose descendants have proved
such loyal and creditable sons of their adopted country. Chinese had
come to the Islands centuries before the Spaniards arrived and they
are still coming, but no other period has brought such a remarkable
contribution to the strong race which the mixture of many peoples
has built up in the Philippines. Few are the Filipinos notable in
recent history who cannot trace descent from a Chinese baptized in
San Gabriel church during the century following 1642; until recently
many have felt ashamed of these really creditable ancestors.
Soon after Lam-co came to Manila he made the acquaintance of two
well-known Dominicans and thus made friendships that changed his career
and materially affected the fortunes of his descendants. These powerful
friends were the learned Friar Francisco Marquez, author of a Chinese
grammar, and Friar Juan Caballero, a former missionary in China,
who, because of his own work and because his brother held high office
there, was influential in the business affairs of the Order. Through
them Lam-co settled in Binan, on the Dominican estate named after
"St. Isidore the Laborer." There, near where the Pasig river flows
out of the Laguna de Bay, Lam-co's descendants were to be tenants
until another government, not yet born, and a system unknown in his
day, should end a long series of inevitable and vexatious disputes by
buying the estate and selling it again, on terms practicable for them,
to those who worked the land.
The Filipinos were at law over boundaries and were claiming the
property that had been early and cheaply acquired by the Order as
endowment for its university and other charities. The Friars of
the Parian quarter thought to take those of their parishioners in
whom they had most confidence out of harm's way, and by the same act
secure more satisfactory tenants, for prejudice was then threatening
another indiscriminate massacre. So they settled many industrious
Chinese converts upon these farms, and flattered themselves that
their tenant troubles were ended, for these foreigners could have no
possible claim to the land. The Chinese were equally pleased to have
safer homes and an occupation which in China placed them in a social
position superior to that of a tradesman.
Domingo Lam-co was influential in building up Tubigan barrio, one
of the richest parts of the great estate. In name and appearance
it recalled the fertile plains that surrounded his native Chinchew,
"the city of springs." His neighbors were mainly Chinchew men, and
what is of more importance to this narrative, the wife whom he married
just before removing to the farm was of a good Chinchew family. She
was Inez de la Rosa and but half Domingo's age; they were married
in the Parian church by the same priest who over thirty years before
had baptized her husband.
Her father was Agustin Chinco, also of Chinchew, a rice merchant,
who had been baptized five years earlier than Lam-co. His baptismal
record suggests that he was an educated man, as already indicated,
for the name of his town proved a puzzle till a present-day Dominican
missionary from Amoy explained that it appeared to be the combined
names for Chinchew in both the common and literary Chinese, in each
case with the syllable denoting the town left off. Apparently when
questioned from what town he came, Chinco was careful not to repeat
the word town, but gave its name only in the literary language,
and when that was not understood, he would repeat it in the local
dialect. The priest, not understanding the significance of either in
that form, wrote down the two together as a single word. Knowledge
of the literary Chinese, or Mandarin, as it is generally called,
marked the educated man, and, as we have already pointed out,
education in China meant social position. To such minute deductions
is it necessary to resort when records are scarce, and to be of value
the explanation must be in harmony with the conditions of the period;
subsequent research has verified the foregoing conclusions.
Agustin Chinco had also a Chinese godfather and his parents were
Chin-co and Zun-nio. He was married to Jacinta Rafaela, a Chinese
mestiza of the Parian, as soon after his baptism as the banns could
be published. She apparently was the daughter of a Christian Chinese
and a Chinese mestiza; there were too many of the name Jacinta in that
day to identify which of the several Jacintas she was and so enable us
to determine the names of her parents. The Rafaela part of her name
was probably added after she was grown up, in honor of the patron of
the Parian settlement, San Rafael, just as Domingo, at his marriage,
added Antonio in honor of the Chinese. How difficult guides names
then were may be seen from this list of the six children of Agustin
Chinco and Jacinta Rafaela: Magdalena Vergara, Josepha, Cristoval de
la Trinidad, Juan Batista, Francisco Hong-Sun and Inez de la Rosa.
The father-in-law and the son-in-law, Agustin and Domingo, seem to
have been old friends, and apparently of the same class. Lam-co must
have seen his future wife, the youngest in Chinco's numerous family,
grow up from babyhood, and probably was attracted by the idea that
she would make a good housekeeper like her thrifty mother, rather
than by any romantic feelings, for sentiment entered very little into
matrimony in those days when the parents made the matches. Possibly,
however, their married life was just as happy, for divorces then were
not even thought of, and as this couple prospered they apparently
worked well together in a financial way.
The next recorded event in the life of Domingo Lam-co and his wife
occurred in 1741 when, after years of apparently happy existence in
Binan, came a great grief in the loss of their baby daughter, Josepha
Didnio, probably named for her aunt. She had lived only five days,
but payments to the priest for a funeral such as was not given to
many grown persons who died that year in Binan show how keenly the
parents felt the loss of their little girl. They had at the time but
one other child, a boy of ten, Francisco Mercado, whose Christian
name was given partly because he had an uncle of the same name,
and partly as a tribute of gratitude to the friendly Friar scholar
in Manila. His new surname suggests that the family possessed the
commendable trait of taking pride in its ancestry.
Among the Chinese the significance of a name counts for much and it
is always safe to seek a reason for the choice of a name. The Lam-co
family were not given to the practice of taking the names of their
god-parents. Mercado recalls both an honest Spanish encomendero
of the region, also named Francisco, and a worthy mestizo Friar,
now remembered for his botanical studies, but it is not likely that
these influenced Domingo Lam-co in choosing this name for his son. He
gave his boy a name which in the careless Castilian of the country was
but a Spanish translation of the Chinese name by which his ancestors
had been called. Sangley, Mercado and Merchant mean much the same;
Francisco therefore set out in life with a surname that would free
him from the prejudice that followed those with Chinese names,
and yet would remind him of his Chinese ancestry. This was wisdom,
for seldom are men who are ashamed of their ancestry any credit to it.
The family history has to be gleaned from partially preserved parochial
registers of births, marriages and deaths, incomplete court records,
the scanty papers of the estates, a few land transfers, and some stray
writings that accidentally have been preserved with the latter. The
next event in Domingo's life which is revealed by them is a visit
to Manila where in the old Parian church he acted as sponsor,
or godfather, at the baptism of a countryman, and a new convert,
Siong-co, whose granddaughter was, we shall see, to marry a grandson
of Lam-co's, the couple becoming Rizal's grandparents.
Francisco was a grown man when his mother died and was buried with
the elaborate ceremonies which her husband's wealth permitted. There
was a coffin, a niche in which to put it, chanting of the service and
special prayers. All these involved extra cost, and the items noted in
the margin of her funeral record make a total which in those days was
a considerable sum. Domingo outlived Mrs. Lam-co by but a few years,
and he also had, for the time, an expensive funeral.
CHAPTER III
Liberalizing Hereditary Influences
The hope of the Binan landlords that by changing from Filipino to
Chinese tenantry they could avoid further litigation seems to have
been disappointed. A family tradition of Francisco Mercado tells of
a tedious and costly lawsuit with the Order. Its details and merits
are no longer remembered, and they are not important.
History has recorded enough agrarian trouble, in all ages and in all
countries, to prove the economic mistake of large holdings of land by
those who do not cultivate it. Human nature is alike the world over,
it does not change with the centuries, and just as the Filipinos
had done, the Chinese at last obiected to paying increased rent for
improvements which they made themselves.
A Spanish iudge required the landlords to produce their deeds, and,
after measuring the land, he decided that they were then taking rent
for considerably more than they had originally bought or had been
given. But the tenants lost on the appeal, and, as they thought it
was because they were weak and their opponents powerful, a grievance
grew up which was still remembered in Rizal's day and was well known
and understood by him.
Another cause of discontent, which was a liberalizing influence,
was making itself felt in the Philippines about the time of Domingo's
death. A number of Spaniards had been claiming for their own countrymen
such safeguards of personal liberty as were enjoyed by Englishmen,
for no other government in Europe then paid any attention to the rights
of the individual. Learned men had devoted much study to the laws and
rights of nations, but these Spanish Liberals insisted that it was the
guarantees given to the citizens, and not the political independence
of the State, that made a country really free. Unfortunately, just
as their proposals began to gain followers, Spain became involved in
war with England, because the Spanish King, then as now a Bourbon
and so related to a number of other reactionary rulers, had united
in the family compact by which the royal relatives were to stamp out
liberal ideas in their own dominions, and as allies to crush England,
the source of the dissatisfaction which threatened their thrones.
Many progressive Spaniards had become Freemasons, when that ancient