Who are the relatives of Jose Rizal?

Answer 1

From Wikipedia:Jose Rizal's parents, Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro (1818-1898)[9] and Teodora Morales Alonso Realonda y Quintos (1826-1911),[9] were prosperous farmers who were granted lease of a haciendaand an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children namely: Saturnina (Neneng) (1850-1913), Paciano (1851-1930), Narcisa (Sisa) (1852-1939), Olympia (Ypia) (1855-1887), Lucia (1857-1919), María (Biang) (1859-1945), José Protasio (1861-1896), Concepción (Concha) (1862-1865), Josefa (Panggoy) (1865-1945), Trinidad (1868-1951) and Soledad (Choleng)(1870-1929).

Rizal was a 5th-generation patrilineal descendant of Domingo Lam-co (traditional Chinese: 柯儀南; simplified Chinese: 柯仪南; pinyin: Kē Yínán), a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur who sailed to the Philippines fromJinjiang, Quanzhou in the mid-17th century.[10] Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa, a Sangley of Luzon.

In 1849, Governor-General of the Philippines Narciso Claveria issued a Decree by which native Filipino and immigrant families were to adopt Spanish surnames from a list of Spanish family names. Although the Chino Mestizos were allowed to hold on to their Chinese surnames, Lam-co changed his surname to the Spanish "Mercado" (market), possibly to indicate their Chinese merchant roots. José's father Francisco[9] adopted the surname "Rizal" (originally Ricial, the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, "a friend of the family". However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name "Rizal Mercado" as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname "Mercado".

Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, José dropped the last three names that make up his full name, at the advice of his brother,Paciano Rizal Mercado, and the Rizal Mercado family, thus rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal". Of this, Rizal writes: "My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child!"[11]This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links with native priests who were sentenced to death as subversives. From early childhood, José and Paciano were already advancing unheard-of political ideas of freedom and individual rights which infuriated the authorities.[12][13] Despite the name change, José, as "Rizal" soon distinguishes himself in poetry writing contests, impressing his professors with his facility with Castilian and other foreign languages, and later, in writing essays that are critical of the Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial Philippine societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he finished his sunset, this second surname had become so well known that, as he writes to another friend, "All my family now carry the name Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too want to join them and be worthy of this family name..."[11] José becos married a Spanish mestizo named Lorenzo Alberto Alonso, the father of Teodora.

Answer 2

Jose Rizal's relatives included his parents Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso, his siblings, and his nephews and nieces. He came from a large and prominent family in the Philippines during the late 19th century.