Jose Rizal's Chinese Lineage

Genealogy and History

Published in Cebu Daily News on 30 December 2002

When I visited the Bahay Chinoy at Intramuros two summers ago, the first thing that caught my eye was a family tree of Jose Rizal.

The interesting thing here was that the family tree traced only the Chinese ancestors of our national hero (obviously, as I was inside a
Chinese heritage museum!).

Only a few Filipinos are aware that Jose Rizal's great-great-grandfather was a pure Chinese from the Fujian province of mainland China.
(Thanks to Gregorio F. Zaide's biography of Rizal).

As we celebrate today the martyrdom of Jose Rizal, let us also celebrate the story of the people who came before him and contributed to his
greatness. After all, what we are now is due also to the heritage which we inherited from our forebears.

In the Rizal family tree found at the Bahay Chinoy, at least four of Jose Rizal's ancestors are described as having Chinese blood in them.

His maternal great-grandmother, Regina Ochoa, is described as a Spanish-Chinese mestiza. His father's side of the family tree is dotted with
many people described as either "Chinese" or "mestizo Chinese." His most illustrious Chinese ancestor, Doming Lam-co, was born in China
in 1662 and whose original Chinese name was Cue Yi-lam. This lolo of Rizal had an even more distinguished ancestry in China.

CUA CLAN

Domingo Lam-co belonged to the Cua clan of south China. The surname Cua is considered today as the 44th most common name in China.
It is a variant of the family name CAI, which also has variant transliterations that include Tsai, Choi, Choy, Chua, Cue, and Chye. The Cuas
are considered today as one of the most prosperous families in South China and in other parts of Asia. The Cuas are a very ancient line,
which can be traced to how many generations ago back to times when unified China was still non-existent.

They are the descendants of Shu Du, the 5th son of Zhou Wu Wang, the political genius who started the Chou dynasty. Shu Du was later
made the duke of Cai (Shangcai of Henan), and was known as Cai Shu. He was an active member of the royal court and was one of the
"Three Guards" during the first years of the Chou dynasty. It was 600 years later when his descendants finally formalized the usage of the
surname Cai.

As already stated, the Cuas today continue to enjoy the same status that they did hundreds of years ago. Taiwanese billionaire Tsai Wan-Lin
of the Cathay Life Group and Chua To-Hing of Gudang Garam Group of Indonesia are two of the richest Cua descendants today, according
to Forbes magazine.

Domingo Lam-co, Rizal's great-great-grandfather, was the 19th generation descendant of the Cai Shu Du. At the age of 35, Lam-co was
baptized in June 1697, in the Parian Church of San Gabriel. He took the name Domingo since he was baptized on Sunday. Lam-co then
became Domingo Lam-co.

SETTLED IN LAGUNA

In his baptismal record, his parents were simply listed as Siong-co and Jun-nio. He settled in Bi an, Laguna on the Dominican estate called
San Isidro Labrador. Domingo married Inez de la Rosa, a girl very much younger than he was. She was the daughter of his friend, Agustin
Chinco, a rich Chinese merchant, and Jacinta Rafaela, a Chinese mestiza of Parian.

Domingo's son was Francisco, the first in the line to use Mercado as a surname. The name Mercado, a Spanish word for market, aptly
described the livelihood of Domingo's family as they were entrepreneurs. Later, Francisco's grandson and namesake, Rizal's father, changed
the family name to Rizal to suit his farming business, since Rizal is derived from the Spanish ricial, which means green fields.

Despite the persecution that the Chinese and the Chinese mestizos suffered from the Spaniards, the ancestors of Rizal were fearless people
who ensured the survival of their family and their livelihood. From this strength of character, no doubt, Rizal got his ability to remain calm and
composed even in the face of adversaries.

I decided today that, unlike most people, I would not extol on the virtues and the values of Jose P. Rizal and instead pay tribute to the men
and women who came before our national hero. Most of us are already quite familiar with Rizal's greatness anyway.

Besides, like Ambeth Ocampo, I believe that heroes must be presented as human beings and not like gods. When we see that our heroes
are just like us, we tend to get more encouraged to emulate them. After all, a hero is just an ordinary person doing extraordinary things in
extraordinary times.