CALUCIN, Angelique Faye V.

Buhay at mga Sinulat ni

Rizal
BSA 1-23 Prof. Manguera

The first documentary pertaining to Jose Rizal had a peculiar title, the documentary was titled

“Ang Lihim ng Pamilya ni Rizal”, and as a nosy person I am, I was immediately intrigued and

curious as to what his family had to hide for. In being honest, after watching and knowing all

about it, I could say that their story could already make it to ​primetime teleseryes​, which people

watch for the drama, and I am all up for it too.

Teodora Alonso, the mother of our national hero, Jose Rizal had five siblings, namely, Narcisa

de Quintos Alonso, Manuel de Quintos Alonzo, Gregorio de Quintos Alonzo, and Jose de

Quintos Alonzo. Thanks to the illustration of their family tree by Jose Rizal, it was known to us

that their parents are Lorenzo Alberto Alonso and Brigida de Quintos. Here is the first twist

though, based on the research of Dr. Santa Maria, it was found out that Lorenzo Alberto Alonso,

father of Teodora and her siblings, was married beforehand to a woman from Vigan, twelve

years younger than him named Paula Florentino, it happened to be a fixed marriage and they

were not able to bear a child. It was ten years later when he met Brigida, meaning to say that

Teodora and her siblings are considered to be children out of wedlock or in simple words,

illegitimate children. Furthermore, there are speculations about this matter also, in the book of

Gregorio Zaide, all five siblings’ parents are Lorenzo and Brigida but in the books of Asuncion

Lopez Bantug and Austin Craig, it was mentioned that the youngest, Jose, was only there

half-brother. Even the great-grandson of Jose claimed that he is only there half-brother. Their
father, Lorenzo has conferred the title of the Order of the Knight of the order of Queen Isabel the

Catholic and that title could be passed on to one of his children. Dr. Santa Maria theorizes that

the siblings agreed for Jose to get hold of the title but they have to claim that he is a legitimate

child of Lorenzo and Paula because one can not be a knight if one is an illegitimate child. They

agreed to pretend that Jose is only their half-brother so that they could still get in touch with the

government because of the title they inherited from their father. Dr. Santa Maria certainly

believes that they all have the same parents.

Now moving on, after Jose Alonzo got hold of his title from his father, he married a woman

named Teodoro Formosa who also came from a wealthy family, but in 1872, Jose came home

from work only to find out that his wife is not home and that she went away with another man,

enraged about it he immediately asked to hunt down his wife and bring her home. When he was

able to get a hand on his wife, he locked her up on one part of their house. Jose asked her sister

Teodora Alonso to take care and be in charge of his wife while he is away for work, Jose being

the favorite sibling of Teodora, she couldn’t refuse and chose to understand the situation of his

brother. One day Teodora, along with her eldest daughter Saturnina prepared ​meryenda f​ or

Teodora Formosa who was locked up in a room, but instead of eating the food, she chose to feed

it to their dog, surprisingly the dog died immediately after. Teodora Formosa accused Teodora

Alonso that she had intentions of poisoning her, this caused Teodora to be in jail for attempted

murder for two years. She was forced to admit it even though she knew to herself there was

nothing to admit just to be able to be with her family again. Another happening that added to the

conflict between the Alonzos and the Alberto clan was the rumored affair of Jose Alonzo and

Saturnina, the eldest daughter of Teodora, it was an affair between an uncle and his niece. It was
also said that Soledad, the known youngest sister of Jose Rizal was not really their sister, she

happened to be the daughter of Saturnina and Jose Alonzo. In order to hide their actions,

Saturnina went out on a vacation with her mother Teodora, only to come back later with a

newborn child and Teodora claimed that the child was hers.

These could the reasons as to why Jose Rizal did not live in the house of Jose Alonzo and

Teodora Fermosa when he was in Biñan, Laguna to study. These could be the reasons as to why

the Alberto clan chose not to preserve the house of their ancestors, claiming that Jose Rizal or

Teodora Alonzo had nothing to do with the house and could not be considered as a historical

treasure. These could be the reasons as to why there is animosity between the Albertos and the

Alonzos. Nevertheless, I certainly think that conflicts and problems within the family like this

are normal, they are inevitable as I may say. This only shows that there is no such thing as a

perfect family and that even a national hero can come from it, there is no need to hide the truth

because it was obvious that our national hero, Jose Rizal loved his family dearly through their

imperfections and loopholes which we should also learn from him. This also teaches us that you

don’t need to come from a perfect and problem-free family to become a hero.

The second documentary I watched by Howie Severino again was titled “Little Bad boy:

Binatang Rizal sa Europa” and it entailed the life of our national hero when he lived as a young

man in Europe to pursue more writing, studies in medicine, love, and experiences. He was 28

years old when Jose Rizal lived in Paris, France and he was one of the first people who were able

to witness the Eiffel Tower when it came to the public in 1889. It was certain that he enjoyed his
stay there for he was also a tourist, going to places like Moulin Rouge and the like but in spite of

it, we know that the true mission of him for being there never left his mind and his heart. He

wanted to see what our country truly deserves and the human rights we deserve and gave it to us.

Europe has its own ways of preserving old buildings and historical treasures that is why we can

still be able to follow his footsteps whenever we have the chance to travel in Europe. With the

efforts of Jean Paul Verstraeten, a man from Belgium, he was able to put memorial plaques on

the places Jose Rizal has been in Europe including the day and year. It just amazed me that

someone who is not even Filipino blooded genuinely honors our national hero much more than

most Filipinos, thanks to his mission, these pieces of history that happened in Europe can still be

remembered and we could easily follow his footsteps. He was able to put on memorial plaques

on the first hotel Jose Rizal stayed, the residence of Valentin Ventura, a friend of him where he

stayed, the school he trained on to become an ophthalmologist, the place where Juan Luna lived

and where they started the “Indios Bravos”, an association that consists of Filipino writers in

European countries, which is worth preserving, these little pieces of Rizal’s life are essential for

it made him reach what he was able to reach for our country. While watching, I said to myself

that if ever I had the chance to travel to Europe, I will definitely go to the places where our

national hero has been.

It is kinda sad that as time passes by, we are slowly forgetting what our national hero has been

through for our country, the honor that we had for him is slowly degrading and it is embarrassing

that a foreign person knows more about him and honors more than us who he fought for, who he

loved and hoped for. It made me realize that by knowing the life of Rizal, it would be easier to
follow his footsteps in a way that we apply the principles we got from him, we learn from the

experiences he had, and we reproduce the patriotism and nationalism he had. The documentary

taught me that Jose Rizal was an ordinary person just like us, his life was full of experiences

from love affairs, friendships, fun times, and the like and I am so glad that he was able to live his

life to the fullest even though he has killed in such an early age. He was an ordinary person with

such high regard with education, love for family and friends, and patriotism. Other people might

treat him as a God, which I think he deserved but written history just like this showed us that he

lived a normal life and that he was among us. We should never stop telling his stories and we

should never stop teaching what we learned from him, let us all contribute in this way so that his

legacy will still be remembered after so many generations.