José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda

Relative(s): Francisco Rizal Mercado (father), Teodora Alonso Realonda (mother), Saturnina Hidalgo (sister), Paciano Rizal (brother), Trinidad Rizal (sister), others

Affiliate(s):

La Solidaridad
La Liga Filipina
El Ilustrado

Likes: Fencing, drawing, math, his family, independence from Spain (future succeed by Andres Bonifacio), Luna brothers, Josephine, Nelly Boustead, Leonora (briefly), animals, plants, adventure

Dislikes: Hesitation, greed, war, violence, torture, divorce, never converted to Protestantism, dismay

Inspiration: himself

Conservation Status: Deceased

Jose Rizal was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is tagged as the national hero (pambansang bayani) of the Filipino people until was reconquered by Americans.

Etymology

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Physical Appearance

Jose Rizal is a Chinese-Spanish-Filipino mestizo (including mixed with Japanese) from high class, pale brown skin, short pointed nose, dark brown eyes, pale brown nails, and black hair like many Filipinos.

Abilities

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Personality

Background

Like many families in the Philippines, the Rizals were of mixed origin. José's patrilineal lineage could be traced back to Fujian in China through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese merchant who immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th century. Lam-Co traveled to Manila from Xiamen, China, possibly to avoid the famine or plague in his home district, and more probably to escape the Manchu invasion during the Transition from Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty. He finally decided to stay in the islands as a farmer.

In 1697, to escape the bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the Philippines, he converted to Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo Mercado and married the daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co. On his mother's side, Rizal's ancestry included Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog blood. His mother's lineage can be traced to the affluent Florentina family of Chinese mestizo families originating in (Baliwag) Baliuag, Bulacan. He also had Spanish ancestry. Regina Ochoa, a grandmother of his mother, Teodora, had mixed Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog blood. His grandfather was a half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.

This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly known as Gomburza) who had been accused and executed for treason. At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal completed in 1887 his eye specialization under the renowned professor, Otto Becker.

There he used the newly invented ophthalmoscope (invented by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his own mother's eye. From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: "I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends." He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhelmsfeld, where he wrote the last few chapters of Noli Me Tángere.

Shortly after he graduated from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University), Rizal (who was then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano Katigbak, came to visit Rizal's maternal grandmother in Tondo, Manila. Mariano brought along his sister, Segunda Katigbak, a 14-year-old Batangueña from Lipa, Batangas. It was the first time they met and Rizal described Segunda as "rather short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at times and languid at others, rosy–cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that revealed very beautiful teeth, and the air of a sylph; her entire self diffused a mysterious charm."

His grandmother's guests were mostly college students and they knew that Rizal had skills in painting. They suggested that Rizal should make a portrait of Segunda. He complied reluctantly and made a pencil sketch of her. Unfortunately for Rizal who had referred to her as his first love in his memoir Memorias de un Estudiante de Manila, Katigbak was already engaged to Manuel Luz. From December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with his family in Number 2 of Rednaxela Terrace, Mid-levels, Hong Kong Island.

Rizal used 5 D'Aguilar Street, Central district, Hong Kong Island, as his ophthalmologist clinic from 2 pm to 6 pm. This period of his life included his recorded affections of which nine were identified. They were Gertrude Beckett of Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, Camden, London, wealthy and high-minded Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Seiko Usui (affectionately called O-Sei-san), his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, and eight-year romantic relationship with a distant cousin, Leonor Rivera.

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong Kong, when she accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eyes checked by Rizal. After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love with each other. They applied to marry but, because of Rizal's reputation from his writings and political stance, the local priest Father Obach would only hold the ceremony if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu. He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism. Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken lived as husband and wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a son who lived only for a few hours; Rizal named him after his father Francisco.

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