Rizal's Ancestry & Historical Context

Rizal's Social Origin & Historical Context

• Topics covered:
  • Rizal's Chinese Ancestry
  • Liberalizing Hereditary Influence
  • The Chinese Mestizo
  • The Cavite Mutiny and The GOMBURZA Execution
• Learning objectives:
  • Trace Rizal's ancestry using a family tree.
  • Discuss the role of Filipino-Chinese mestizos in nation-building.
  • Understand the Cavite Mutiny and GOMBURZA Execution significance.
  • Task: Create a family tree of Rizal's ancestry.

Rizal's Chinese Ancestry

• Intramuros was home to Spanish rulers and a select few others due to Spanish fear and jealousy.
• Among those allowed in Intramuros were Filipinos who served the Spaniards' needs, but the majority were Sangleys, or Chinese, who were skilled mechanics and workmen.
• Domingo Lam-co was from the Chinchew district, where Jesuits and Dominicans had missions, giving him possible prior knowledge of Christianity.
• Siongque was an agricultural community near the city where his home was located.
• He was christened in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday in June 1697.
• Following custom, Lam-co adopted the name Domingo, the Spanish term for Sunday, to mark the occasion.
• Domingo Lam-co contributed to the construction of Tubigan barrio, one of the country's most affluent areas.
• It resembled the fertile plains surrounding his hometown of Chinchew, "the city of the springs."
• His neighbors and wife, Inez de la Rosa, were predominantly from Chinchew.
• The couple experienced the loss of their baby daughter, Josepha Didnio, in 1741, who only lived for five days.
• They had another child at that time, Francisco Mercado, ten years old, who was given his Christian name in part because he had an uncle with the same name.
• For the Chinese, the significance of a name is important.
• The Lam-co family did not follow the custom of using the names of their godparents.
• "Mercado" is reminiscent of a trustworthy Spanish "encomendero" or merchant.
• Francisco started his life with a surname that would spare him from the prejudice associated with Chinese names.

Liberalizing Hereditary Influence

• Francisco Mercado lived close enough to hear the "cajas abiertas" (exiles).
• He lived in the neighboring hacienda of St. John the Baptist of Calamba rather than a Jesuit parish.
• On May 26, 1771, he married Bernarda Monicha, a Chinese mestiza from San Pedro Tunasan's neighboring hacienda.
• Juan and Clemente were their two sons.
• In 1783, he became the town's alcalde, or chief officer, and remained in that role until 1801.
• His regular appearance as a godfather at baptisms and weddings suggests he was well-nurtured, liberal, and popular.
• Mrs. Francisco outlived her husband by several years.
• She assisted in caring for their grandson, Francisco, Jose Rizal's father, and Juan, Francisco's eldest son.
• Juan constructed a beautiful home in the heart of Binan.
• At 22, he married Cirila Alejandra of Tubigan, who was two years his senior.
• Juan Mercado served as Binan's chief officer three times.
• Young Francisco was only eight years old when his father died, but his mother and sister Potenciana took excellent care of him.
• He first went to a Binan Latin School before studying Latin and Philosophy at Manila's College of San Jose.
• Potenciana and Francisco relocated to Calamba after their mother died.
• Francisco became a tenant of the estate, despite his youth.
• Landlords quickly acknowledged the Mercados' agricultural abilities by giving them additional territory to cultivate.
• A year after Potenciana's death, Francisco wed Teodora Alonzo, a Manila native who had been living with her mother in Calamba for several years.
• It was said that her father, Lorenzo Alberto, had a Chinese appearance; he had a brother who was a priest, and a sister who was quite wealthy.
• Lorenzo was Binan's municipal captain in 1824.
• Captain Gregorio Alonzo, the grandfather, was a native of Quiotan barrio, and he served as municipal captain for two terms.
• Lorenzo was educated to be a surveyor.
• He was quite rich and had made significant investments with the American Manila shipping firms of Peele, Hubble, and Co. and Russell.
• Her mother, Maria Florentina, originated from the famed Florentina family of the Chinese mestizo from Baliwag, Bulacan.
• Captain Mariano Alejandro of Binan was her father.
• Mrs. Rizal was baptized as Teodora Morales Alonzo in Santa Cruz, Manila on November 18, 1827.
• Her talented mother gave her an outstanding basic education, which she finished at Santa Rosa College, Manila, which was led by Filipino nuns.
• Mrs. Rizal's family was more wealthy than her husband's.
• They had many lawyers and priests among them, who were old-time proofs of social standing and were influential in the country.
• There were also several relatives of Mrs. Rizal who help with understanding the family:
  • Felix Florentino, first clerk of the Nueva Segovia (Vigan) court
  • Jose Florentino who was a Philippine deputy in the Spanish cortes
  • Manuel, a lawyer
  • Fr. Leyva, the priest of Rosario, Vicar of Batangas Province
  • Fr. Alonzo, Mrs' Rizal's paternal uncle
• The Ochoa branch, the family of Rizal's maternal grandmother, was the most mysterious portion of Rizal's family tree due to the loss of records during the Cavite-centered disturbed circumstances.

The Chinese Mestizo

• Chinese mestizos had already established themselves in the region, particularly in Luzon, by the early 15th century.
• The Chinese had a large impact on the economic and social issues in the Philippines.
• Since the Sung Period there was direct contact between China and the Philippines.
• Junk commerce offered Chinese businessmen regular commercial and cultural links.
• The arrival of Spanish conquerors meant increased prospects for the Chinese in the 1560s.
• Chinese merchants engaged in a rich trade between Manila and the China coast, distributing Chinese imports throughout Central Luzon.
• The Chinese set up shop near Spanish settlements, serving the population by providing food, acting as retail traders, and working as artisans.
• By 1603, the Chinese population was estimated at 20,000 compared to the 1,000 Spaniards.
• The Spanish Government classified them into four categories:
  • Those who did not pay any tribute (Spaniards and Spanish mestizos)
  • Indios
  • Chinese
  • Chinese Mestizos
• The final three groups were regarded as tribute-paying classes, but the tribute varied.
• The indios usually paid the lowest.
• Chinese mestizos paid double the tribute.
• Spanish law ensured that these categories were maintained in an orderly manner.
• Legal status was not a choice, rather, the status of the parents, especially the father, was more important.
• The son of a Chinese father and an indio or mestiza mother was categorized as a Chinese mestizo.
• Male descendants were invariably Chinese mestizos.
• A female descendant's status was determined by her marriages.
• A mestiza marrying a Chinese or mestizo continued to be classified as mestizo as would her children.
• However, if she married an indio, she and her children were classified as such.
• As a result, women of the mestizo group could change their status, but men could not.
• Binondo was established as a Chinese town in 1594.
• A royal order was issued for the expulsion of all Chinese from the Philippines.
• Governor Dasmarinas realized that the city of Manila needed the economic services of the Chinese.
• He bought a plot of land across the river from the walled city and offered it to prominent Chinese merchants and artisans as the foundation for a new Chinese settlement.
• Dominican fathers eventually turned Binondo into an acculturation laboratory, converting it into a religious community of married Catholic Chinese.
• Non-Catholics in Binondo were proselytized, baptized, married, and joined the community of married Catholics, reaching 500 or more.
• Binondo was established on the basis of Dasmarinas' land grant to be tax-free and inalienable to non-Chinese and non-mestizos.
• The grant was accompanied by certain self-governing rights.
• Binondo was meant to be a colony for Catholic Chinese and their mestizo descendants in the 17th century.
• Indios began to settle in Binondo, resulting in isolated mestizo and Indios communities within Binondo.
• The mestizo population grew and became the dominant element in Binondo, breaking away from the Chinese and forming their own Gremio de Mestizo de Binondo in 1741.
• They were recognized as a distinct element in Philippine society, large enough to be organized and classed independently.
• Most of them lived in the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, and Pampanga, which accounted for 60% of the mestizos in the Philippines.
• The Province of Tondo alone accounted for around 30% of the mestizo population.
• Only 10% of mestizos lived in the provinces of Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, and Capiz; 90% of them resided in Luzon.
• The Chinese mestizo in the Philippine economy and society was well-established by the mid-nineteenth century, ushering in major changes in their geographic distribution.
• While they were still abundant in Central Luzon, they became more noticeable in farther Luzon -Abra, and in Nueva Ecija.
• Cebu had the greatest population of mestizos, although Antique accounted for a large number of Central Luzon.
• They were already being seen in Mindanao's eastern region and in Misamis.
• Economic strengthened.
• They were also on their way to monopolizing internal trading with only the provincial governors.
• Chinese mestizos and Chinese controlled Manila's retail sector, as well as the majority of artisan shops.
• Even Bowring, described them as the most industrious, preserving, and frugal element in the Philippines.
• Mestizos was the reason for Cebu's economy.
• In order to acquire local goods for sale to foreign merchants in Manila, mestizos dispatched their purchasing agents.
• Products included tobacco, sea slugs, mother of pearls, cacao, coconut oil, coffee and wax.
• Mestizos contributed to the Philippines being known to other parts of the world.
• Products were supplied to international markets.
• Philippine products, such as hemp and sugar, had already been exported in considerable quantities.
• European factory industry products, notably English Textiles, started to establish markets in the Philippines.
• The rise in economic importance was paralleled by a similar increase in social importance.
• Mestizo's riches and spending habits made them fashion arbiters in Manila and other towns.
• Chinese mestizos were fond of gambling and ostentation, especially in dress, despite accumulating savings.
• Aside from hosting friends and other lavish parties, mestizo families spent a lot of money on feast days.
• Hence, it became prestigious to be called a mestizo.
• A great prestige came to be attatched to the name mestizo
• Capitan Tiago is an excellent example of an indio cacique who wanted to be considered a Chinese mestizo.
• The relations between mestizos and the indios became a source of concern for Spaniards.
• Conservations in the Spanish government began pushing to divide the groups and feared an indio revolution lead by the mestizos.
• The separate gremios must be maintained and their rivalries encouraged wherever possible.
• The last half of the 19th century was the period of occupational restructure and social Filipinization.
• The Spanish policy allowed Free enterprise so the Philippines could be a profitable colony for Spain.
• The Spanish government revoked the indulto de comercio in 1844, prohibiting Spanish authorities from participating in trading, removing the mestizos' final hurdle to dominance.
• Spanish policy also loosened restrictions on Chinese immigration and residency, allowing Chinese to enter the Philippines freely.
• By the 1880s, the Chinese population had risen to almost 100,000, and Chinese could be found in every corner of the Philippines.
• Rizal could be considered a 5th generation Chinese mestizo.
• Rizal's father and he himself were considered an indio.

The Cavite Mutiny & The GOMBURZA execution

• The task is to make a short video on Cavite Mutiny and GOMBURZA Execution.
• Sore oppression led to revolt and savaged vengeance.
• 3 priests and servants of God marched on February 28, 1872, to which they were put to death.
• It marked a turning-point in the history of Filipino nationalism and started an independent movement.
• Jose Rizal looked to that date as decisive in his own development as a nationalist.
• In a letter to his fellow Filipinos in Barcelona in 1889, Rizal said that without the events of 1872, he would not fight injustice in the Philippines
• Their deaths witnessed the long struggle of the Filipino priests in the religious aspect.
• Concerns for the equality of Filipinos/Spaniards and remained at the core of nationalist aspirations.
• It had taken root in the course of the dispute over rights of priests, an intra-church dispute.
• The roots of controversy went far back to the church of the Philippines.
• There are 3 elements:
  • The structure of the patronato real
  • The visitation controversy
  • The late and erratic development of a native clergy
• With the the Spanish crown received of the control over the church.
• The clergy was considered as employees of the state.
• Religious orders in the Philippines was dependent on their political usefulness.
• The age-old visitation controversy was second element root of the movement.
• The religious try to maintain the freedom of action and unity.
• Every new attempted to exercise his authority.
• The religious wanted to preserve a "corporate structure" which resisted visitation.
• They threatened to abandon all the parishes.
• linked to the third factor, the failure of the Spanish missionaries to encourage the development of a native Filipino clergy
• Pedro Pelaez's, seconded by Fr. Mariano Gomez, lead the resistance native priests.
• Until his execution in 1872, leadership was being passed.
• The filipino clergy replied to racial discrimination with a firm and ringing assertion of their equality.
• Carlos Maria Dela Torre showed he was democratic in his symapthies.
• He was suspicious of the Filipino liberals.
• He did not intended to allow liberalization, which might endanger Spanish rule in the Philippines.
• Fr. Burgos challenged the religious sector writing articles and appeared to been the vehicle and anti-clerical newspaper.
• Fr. Joaquin de Coria published series of articles in defense of the Filipino clergy
• Fr. Burgos ruptured his friendship with the Jesuits
• Fr. Pedro Bertran said there were anti-clerical publications
• Anti-clerical led the activity
• Manuel Regidor publish the newspaper El Correo.
• newspaper devoted totally to the Philippines, El Eco Filipino, by Fr. Federico Lerena and his brother-in-law of Jose Ma. Basa.
• Replace by Gov-Gen Rafael de.
• His had no influence to liberalism
• The liberalization was quickly abolished
• There was an outbreak on January 20, 1872 in arsenal of Cavite.
• It was part of larger revolt
• Fr. Burgos, was put to death all spaniards.
• sergeant Lamadrid and Francisco Zaldua were the principal organizers which executed.

Explore Rizal's Chinese ancestry, tracing his family tree and understanding the influence of liberalizing hereditary factors. Investigate the role of Filipino-Chinese mestizos in nation-building. Understand the historical significance of the Cavite Mutiny and the GOMBURZA Execution.