HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF RIZAL’S SIBLINGS

1. SATURNINA – MARRIED TO MANUEL TIMOTEO HIDALGO OF TANAUAN,

BATANGAS
2. PACIANO – BECAME A FARMER AND LATER A GENERAL IN THE PHILIPPINE
REVOLUTION
3. NARCISA – MARRIED TO ANTONIO LOPEZ OF MORONG, RIZAL
4. OLYMPIA – MARRIED TO SILVESTRE UBALDO
5. LUCIA – MARRIED TO MATRIANO HERBOSA
6. MARIA – MARRIED TO DANIEL FAUSTINO CRUZ OF BINAN LAGUNA
7. RIZAL
8. CONCEPCION – DIED AT 3 Y/0
9. JOSEFA – EPILEPTIC, DIED A SPINSTER
10. TRINIDAD – DIED A SPINSTER, LAST TO DIE
11. SOLDEDAD – MARRIED TO PANTALEON QUINTERO

Saturnina Rizal (1850-1913)

 Saturnina, also known as “Neneng” was the eldest of the offsprings of Francisco
Mercado and Teodora Alonso Realonda. She married Manuel Hidalgo who hailed from
Tanauan, Batangas. She and her mother provided the little Jose with good basic
education that by the age of three, Pepe already knew his alphabet. The first time Jose
experienced to ride a casco (a flat-bottomed boat with a roof) was when he and his
father visited Saturnina at the La Concordia College in Manila.

Paciano Rizal (1851-1930)

The only brother of Jose Rizal was Paciano Rizal and was the second child.
Paciano studied at the San Jose College in Manila and worked as a farmer and later as
a general of the Philippine Revolution. Paciano Rizal helped their parents choose the
young Jose’s tutors and later acted as Jose’s guardian in school. With an uncle,
Paciano helped Rizal go to Europe in 1882 and was the one who told their parents
about Jose’s departure. For five years, he sent his brother a monthly pension of 50
pesos, later 35 pesos. He also constantly updated his brother about what was going on
with their family and in the country through letters. Paciano collected financial
contributions to help sustain the propaganda movement. He also supported the
Katipunan by recruiting members in Laguna. In 1896, he was arrested and tortured
because he refused to sign documents that could incriminate his brother and connect
him to the revolution. After Rizal was executed, Paciano became a general of the
Revolutionary Army. He was also appointed as a military commander of the
revolutionary forces in Laguna, where the American forces captured him in 1900.

aciano Rizal successfully served as Jose’s guardian and hero. He was the
second of eleven children in the family of Don Francisco Mercado and Doña Teodora
Alonso, of which Jose was the youngest. Born on March 7, 1851 in Calamba, Laguna,
Señor Paciano studied at the College of San Jose in Manila and grew up to become a
farmer and a general of the Philippine Revolution.

Señor Paciano worked closely with his teacher, Dr. Jose Burgos, a dignified
Filipino priest, and with other Filipino priests such as Mariano Gomez and Jacinto
Zamora. Growing up, he was exposed to the abuses of the Spanish friars and
authorities. Together, they fought for the rights of Filipino farmers and priests, only to
have the three priests, dubbed the Gomburza, accused of stirring up the Cavite mutiny.
They met their fate in Bagumbayan on February 17, 1872 by means of garrote, a form
of mechanical strangulation. Because of his strong connection with them and his
denunciation of the abuses and injustice against the Filipinos, Paciano was prevented
from taking his final examinations. He then encouraged Jose to go by the surname
Rizal for his own safety.

The two brothers shared a passionate bond. Paciano was the one who took Jose
to Biñan under the tutelage of Justiniano Aquino Cruz, who was once his teacher. He
also accompanied him to his exam at the College of San Juan de Letran in 1872 and
later at the Ateneo Municipal. In picking a course during Jose’s tertiary year at the
University of Santo Tomas (UST), Paciano discouraged him from pursuing law since he
considered being a lawyer problematic.

n 1882, Filipino students at UST faced discrimination by the Dominican

professors. Thus, the two made a secret pact to send Jose to Spain while Paciano
looked after their parents. From time to time, Paciano would send his brother letters
and financial support. In 1885, Jose received a letter from him, convincing him not to
return to the Philippines yet since it would be dangerous. When Jose returned home
two years after, Paciano never left him a few days after his arrival. Their last moments
together were in 1891, when Paciano escaped persecution and joined Jose in Hong
Kong. When Jose was prosecuted, he chose to sacrifice himself and be tortured.
 After Jose’s execution, Paciano joined the Katipunan, a society originally formed
by Andres Bonifacio and later led by General Emilio Aguinaldo. He was appointed as
general of the revolutionary forces and was said to have also served as the secretary of
finance in the Department Government of Central Luzon. During his assignment as a
revolutionary commander in Laguna, it was said that he decreed the order to have
fireworks used to make the Spaniards believe the Katipuneros were heavily armed; this
resulted in their surrender.

Narcisa Rizal (1852-1939)

Narcisa Rizal (1852-1939) or simply ‘Sisa’ was the third child in the family. Like
Saturnina, Narcisa helped in financing Rizal’s studies in Europe, even pawning her
jewelry and peddling her clothes if needed. It is said she could recite from memory
almost all of the poems of the national hero. Narcisa was perhaps the most hospitable
among the siblings. When Don Francisco and Doña Teodora were driven out of their
house in Calamba, Narcisa took them in her house. It was with Narcisa also that
Josephine Bracken once stayed, when the rest of Rizal's family were suspicious that
Rizal’s girlfriend was a spy for the Spanish friars. In August 1896, while being kept
under arrest aboard the cruiser Castilla anhored off Cavite, Rizal thanked Narcisa, in a
letter, for her hospitality in letting Josephine stay in her home. It was also Narcisa who
painstakingly searched for the place where the authorities secretly buried the dead
Rizal. She found freshly turned earth at the Paco cemetery where a body had been
buried without a box of any kind and with no identification on the grave. She wittingly
made a gift to the caretaker to mark the site ‘RPJ’, Rizal’s initials in reverse.Years later,
Narcisa and her other siblings dug up the hero’s remains at the spot.

Olympia Rizal (1855-1887)

Olympia is the fourth child in the Rizal family. Jose loved to tease her,sometimes
good-humoredly describing her as his stout sister. In January 1883, Ubaldo and
Olympia wrote Jose about the ten Baliwag silk handkerchiefs they sent for hisbirthday
and the unpleasant reactions of friars to Rizal's article in the Diariong Tagalog.

Lucia Rizal (1857-1919)

 Lucia is the fifth child in the Rizal family. She married Mariano Herbosa of
Calamba, Laguna. Charged of inciting the Calamba townsfolk not to pay land rent and
causing unrest, the couple was once ordered to be deported along with some Rizal
family members. In December 1891, the then widowed Lucia was among Rizal’s
siblings who were present in their so-called ‘family reunion’ in Hong Kong. She also
accompanied Jose when he returned to Manila in June the following year. From July 6
to 15, 1892, Jose however was regrettably imprisoned in Fort Santiago and later
deported to Dapitan on a made-up charge that anti-friar pamphlets were found in
Lucia’s luggage on board Don Juan.

Maria Rizal (1859-1945)

Maria The sixth child. Her nickname was Biang. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of
Biñan, Laguna. It was to her whom Jose talked about wanting to marry Josephine
Bracken when the majority of the Rizal family was apparently not amenable to the idea.
In his letter dated December 12, 1891, Jose had also brought up to Maria his plan of
establishing a Filipino colony in North British Borneo.

Concepcion Rizal (1862 – 1865)

Concepcion, also known as “Concha,” was the eight child of the Rizals, who died
at the age of three. Of his sisters, it is said that Pepe loved most the little Concha who
was a year younger than him. Jose played games and shared children stories with her,
and from her he felt the beautyof sisterly love.When Concha died of sickness in 1865,
Jose mournfully wept at losing her. He later wrote in his memoir, “When I was four years
old, I lost my little sister Concha, and then for the firsttime I shed tears caused by love
and grief.”

Josefa Rizal (1865-1945)

Josefa’s nickname is Panggoy. She is the ninth child in the family who died a
spinster. After Jose’s martyrdom, the epileptic Josefa joined the Katipunan and is even
supposed to have been elected the president of its women section. She was one of the
original 29 women admitted to the Katipunan along with Gregoria de Jesus, wife of
Andres Bonifacio. They safeguarded the secret papers and documents of the society
and danced and sang during sessions so that civil guards would think that the meetings
were just harmless social gatherings.
Trinidad Rizal (1868-1951)

Trinidad Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, commonly known as Trinidad Rizal, was
born in Calamba, Laguna. She was the tenth child of Francisco Rizal Mercado and
Teodora Alonso Realonda, the younger sister of the national hero, physician and writer,
Dr. Jose Rizal. Trinidad helped found the first Masonic lodge for women in the
Philippines. She was also a member of Walana, a Filipino masonry society, formed in
Manila on July 18, 1893, closely allied with the masonic temples of the ilustrados. In
1905, Trinidad co-founded the first Filipina feminist organization, the Asociacion
Feminista Filipina (AFF), along with Concepcion Felix, Librada Avelino, Maria Paz
Guanzon, and Luisa de Silyar, among others. In addition to encouraging women to
participate in politics and public service, the organization promoted women's health.
Trinidad participated in a subproject of AFF, Gota de Leche (also called La Proteccion
de la Infancia), which focused on improving reproductive and maternal, infant, and child
health.

Soledad Rizal (1870-1929)

Also called “Choleng,” Soledad was the youngest child of the Rizal family. Being a
teacher, she was arguably the best educated among Rizal’s sisters. In his long and
meaty letter to Choleng dated June 6, 1890, Jose told her sister that he was proud of
her for becoming a teacher. He thus counseled her to be a model of virtues and good
qualities “for the one who should teach should be better than the persons who need her
learning.”

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REFERENCES

https://www.academia.edu/31898505/
HISTORICAL_BACKGROUND_OF_RIZALS_FAMILY

https://ourhappyschool.com/history/saturnina-rizal-heros-second-mother

https://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/articles/paciano-a-rizal-1851-1930/

http://www.knightsofrizal.be/rizal_family.php

https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/2745/today-in-philippine-history-june-6-1868-
trinidad-rizal-younger-sister-of-jose-rizal-was-born-in-calamba-laguna