Andres bonifacio story tagalog

ANDRES BONIFACIO Biographical notes Part I: 1863-1891 Birth and baptism 30 Nov 1863 Andres Bonifacio was born in Tondo in a “commodious” house with a nipa thatched roof and wooden board walls.1 It was located, according to Hermenegildo Cruz, “na nasa sa harap ng himpilan ngayón ng pero-karil sa daang Azcárraga”.2 Historians generally accept this location to be correct, but they differ in the way they interpret the phrase “na nasa sa harap”. Agoncillo uses the words “opposite the present site of the Tutuban Railroad Station,” and Zaide uses the word “across” from the station site, both implying a location on the southern side of Azcarraga (now Recto).3 Other historians, however, have taken “na nasa sa harap” to mean “in front of,” and today this commemorative statue stands on the northern side of the street, by Tutuban Mall.4 2 Dec 1863 Bonifacio’s parents named their son Andres because he was born on the feast day of San Andres, the patron saint of Manila. The Tondo parish register records his baptism as follows: “On December 2, 1863, on my authority as Parish Priest, Padre Don Saturnino Buntan, presbyter cleric, baptized according to the rites of our Holy Mother Church, and applied the Holy Oils to, Andres Bonifacio, indio three days born, legitimate son of Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro, of the barangay of Don Patricio Infante, with Vicente Molina as sponsor at the font.... [Signed] Fr. Gregorio Prieto.”5 Parents The marriage of Andres’s parents was recorded in the parish register as follows: "On the 24th of January 1863... Saturnino Buntan, parish priest of Tondo, authorized the marriage contracted in Tondo between [Santiago Bonifacio], the son of Vicente 1 Bonifacio and Alejandra Rosales... and Catalina de Castro, single, mestiza española, a native of the province of Zambales and resident in this pueblo of Tondo... daughter of Martin de Castro and Antonia Gregorio... in the presence of Don Severino Ampil and Doña Patricia Trinidad as witnesses and sponsors...."6 Prior to their wedding, Santiago Bonifacio was a resident of Barangay No.74 in Tondo, whose head (cabeza) was Don Patricio Infante, and Catalina de Castro was a resident of Barangay No.43 in Tondo, whose head was Don Lazaro Ortega. The wedding sponsors, Severino Ampil and Patricia Trinidad, owned a business renting out horse-drawn carriages.7 Santiago Bonifacio (c.1841-1885)8 was originally from Taguig, a river and lakeshore municipality about seven miles to southeast of Manila.9 He is said to have worked in his younger days as a boatman (banquero), ferrying passengers back and forth to the city along the Pasig River. It was on one of these trips that he met Catalina de Castro, and he subsequently moved to Manila to marry her and start a family. Binondo waterfront, c.1890s Landing place at Taguig, 1840s Santiago Bonifacio then earned living as a longshoreman (cargador), unloading sacks of muscovado sugar, bales of abaca, and bundles of rattan from the ships and river barges (cascos) moored at the Binondo quays.10 After contracting tuberculosis, however, he became too weak for heavy labor and became a tailor, a trade he had learned from his father. He also started a handicrafts business making hats, walking canes, feather dusters (plomeros) and fans at home, helped by the rest of the family.11 Some accounts say he served for a time as the deputy mayor (teniente mayor) of Tondo, but this has not been confirmed by primary documents.12 Nick Joaquin writes that Santiago Bonifacio “had fame as a duplista. In those days, a wake and the nine-day prayers that followed were usually enlivened by a duplo, or dialogue between poet-orators. These were the duplistas. A ‘king’ presided over the gathering; one orator would rise to ask the king’s permission to, say, kiss the hand of a girl present; another orator would spring up to demand that the request be denied. The duplistas would then launch into an argument and the king would decide who had won.”13 2 Catalina de Castro (c. 1844-1884), according to descendants of her sister Francisca, was the daughter of Spaniard surnamed Lejarde who owned a silversmiths (platería) in Santa Cruz. He had a family in Spain, but whilst living in the Philippines he had five children with a Chinese mestiza from Castillejos in Zambales. Catalina, it is said, was herself born in Zambales, in barrio Dirita in Iba. She and her siblings took their mother’s name, de Castro, rather than that of their Spanish father, Lejarde. By this account, it would seem the detail in the Tondo church register about Catalina being from Zambales was accurate, but the recorded names of her parents (Andres Bonifacio’s maternal grandparents) were expedient fictions.14 After her marriage, Catalina worked as a table supervisor (cabecilla), and later as a section supervisor (maestra), in a tobacco factory in Meisic, probably the Fabrica de Puros de Meisic.15 The Fabrica de Puros de Meisic Tabaqueras (early 20th century) In the 1870s the Meisic factory had 220 tables in one building and 180 in another, with about 10 women on each table. A maestra could earn as much as P16 a month, a good wage by the standards of the time.16 Education 1860s1870s Andres Bonifacio had a good basic education. It is said he went to a private elementary school in Meisic run by a lawyer from Carcar, Cebu, Don Guillermo Osmeña, and also attended the Escuela Municipal de Niños on Calle Ilaya in Tondo, where the maestro de instrucción primaria was Don Epifanio L. del Castillo.17 His early studies were supplemented in the home, it is said, by “a learned and patriotic” aunt, Remigia Castro de Sanchez.18 According to Pio Valenzuela, he then continued his education at “one of the private schools of Manila,” and reached the third year of secondary education, called Latinidad in those days.19 Brothers and sisters Bonifacio had three brothers and two sisters, who by order of birth were as follows:Ciriaco (c.1865–1897), who became a train conductor on the Manila-Dagupan Railroad.20 3 Procopio (c.1869-1897), who also worked for the railroad company, for a while as a track inspector (vigilante de anden)21 and at another time as a baggage master (factor) at Tutuban Station.22 Espiridiona (“Nonay”) (1876-1956), who was the only sibling who later spoke to journalists and historians seeking information about Bonifacio’s early life. Unfortunately, none of them wrote up her recollections at length, and the details they gleaned from their conversations with her sometimes conflict. In 1893 Espiridiona married Teodoro Plata, a clerk (oficial de mesa) in the Binondo court (juzgado), who the previous year had joined Bonifacio in founding the Katipunan. She had initially resisted his suit because she was only 17, and he was in his late twenties or early thirties. She saw him as “an ugly, dark, and bearded old man.” Bonifacio persuaded her, however, “to accept the man for the cause they were espousing”. One of their wedding sponsors was the wife of Estanislao Legaspi, the branch president of the Liga Filipina in Binondo.23 Photo c.1935 In 1894 Plata was appointed as the senior clerk (escribano) in the court of first instance in Mindoro, and he lived there until summoned back to Manila by Bonifacio just before the revolution. He was then named secretary of war in the Katipunan “Council of State,” but when the Katipuneros assembled at Balintawak in August 1896 he argued the revolution was premature and doomed to fail. Soon thereafter he returned to Mindoro and attempted to go into hiding, but was tracked down by Spanish agents, brought back to Manila and shot at Bagumbayan on February 6, 1897. He left an infant son, who did not survive. Espiridiona subsequently married Emiliano Distrito, and had a number of children and grandchildren.24 Troadio (c.1877-?), who joined the Spanish navy, and reportedly served for a time aboard the cruiser Reina Cristina. In 1896, however, whilst stationed in Hong Kong, he left the service after getting word from Andres that the revolution was imminent and that he might be at risk of arrest. Thereafter he reportedly adopted a different name. After winning a lottery prize, it is said, he went to Macau, where he lived for a time “under the protection of Doña Ana Pereyra, the Marchioness of Lerma.”25 Some years after the Revolution, Espiridiona heard that Troadio was living in France, 4 and had decided never to return to the Philippines because of the fate that had befallen his three brothers. By 1930, his sister no longer knew whether he was still alive.26 Maxima (c.1881-?), whose sister Espiridiona told interviewers had died at the age of 15.27 Some say, however, that Maxima in fact survived well into the twentieth century. Like her brother Troadio, it is said, Maxima felt it prudent to use a different name. Espiridiona and her other relatives kept her true identity secret in order to protect her from unwanted attention.28 1870s1880s Tio Hermogenes: At some point, Santiago Bonifacio’s elder brother (or possibly halfbrother) Hermogenes came to live with the family, and when he later got married his wife moved in as well. Hermogenes helped in the family handicrafts business, and his wife worked as a market vendor, selling chicken, fish and sitsaron. Not long after Hermogenes got married, however, the Guardia Civil Veterana came to the house and arrested him for evading military service and the polo (forced labor on road building and other public works). The arrest was brutal. Hermogenes was kicked, punched and hit with rifle butts. He was then sent to the penal colony at Puerto Princesa, Palawan, but his wife and the rest of the family were not told what had happened to him, and they only found out much later.29 1880 Earthquake: In July 1880 the Bonifacio family’s house was destroyed when a massive earthquake struck Manila, wreaking damage all over the city. “We lost our house and all our belongings,” Espiridiona recalled. Not a house was left standing all along Azcarraga from Tutuban up to Calle de Cervantes (now Rizal Avenue). “Our parents worked hard so that we might build another nipa house”.30 Bonifacio’s parents owned the house and lot where they lived31, and after the 1880 earthquake they must have built their new house on the same site, or at least very close by. 1884-5 Death of parents: The Tondo vecindario (official list of residents) for 1884, which has come to light only recently, shows that both his mother and father were still alive in 1884.32 This disproves the story, told in most history books, that Bonifacio was orphaned at the age of 14 (i.e. around 1878) and had to leave school and start work in order to support his five younger siblings.33 Catalina and Santiago Bonifacio are both said to have succumbed to tuberculosis.34 Espiridiona Bonifacio was not consistent in the answers she gave to historians who asked when her parents died, but on one occasion she was very precise. Her mother Catalina, she said, died on June 29, 1883, and her father Santiago 5 died on March 5, 1885. Espiridiona also said, however, that both her parents had been buried in La Loma Cemetery, which did not open until 1884. Together with the evidence of the 1884 vecindario, this suggests Espiridiona was mistaken about the year of her mother’s death, but perhaps not the day and month.35 It therefore seems Andres Bonifacio was about 21 when he was orphaned. Ciriaco, the next eldest, was perhaps 19, and Procopio about 16, but his other brother and his two sisters were under 9. The youngest, Maxima, was not yet 5. Fortunately, the wife of Hermogenes Bonifacio was still living in the house at this time, and was able to care for the younger children. Later, though, she left to join her exiled husband in Palawan. 36 1886-7 Residences: In 1886 or 1887, having inherited the Tutuban property, Bonifacio and his siblings sold the house to Manila Railroad Company of London (which laid the cornerstone of Tutuban Station in July 1887) and the lot to the British-owned company J. M. Fleming & Co., one of the contractors that supplied materials for the construction of the Manila-Dagupan line.37 Tutuban Station (Estacion Central del Ferrocarril); Tondo parish church; Calle Aceiteros; Calle Sagunto. After selling the house, the Bonifacios are said to have moved to a rented nipa house in the neighboring district of Trozo, but after a matter of only weeks or months this house was destroyed by fire. They then moved back to Tondo, and lived for a short while near the parish church in the house of Briccio Pantas, who was the secretary of the court (juzgado) of Quiapo, and who served for a time as secretary of the KKK Supreme Council. They subsequently lived for some years in Calle Aceiteros (now M. de Santos, Divisoria), before moving around 1892 to a more spacious accesoria at 11E Calle Sagunto (now Santo Cristo).38 It is not known, though, whether Andres Bonifacio lived with his brothers and sisters throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, or whether he moved out to set up a home of his own when he married his first wife. 6 Family business After their parents died, Espiridiona related, Andres Bonifacio took the lead in continuing the family business, teaching his brothers “how to make paper fans and canes. They worked together in a row with Andres as the teacher. My brothers sold the fans and canes in the streets and in the plazas. During the town fiesta they sold them in the churchyard.”39 When recalling her childhood, Espiridiona accepted that the family had been “poor, and we all had to help to earn money.” But, she insisted, “we were not as poor as rats as pictured by some writers. Just because we made fans and canes does not mean we were destitute. In fact, the family business was doing fairly well, and some of our best canes sold from P50 to P100 each.”40 In those days P100 was a huge sum – a middle-ranking clerk would have to work for four months to earn that amount – so perhaps the prices she recalled were in pesetas (a fifth of a peso), or perhaps her indignation at the family being depicted “as poor as rats” led her to exaggerate. But it is certainly true that the family was not destitute. Whether or not this was due, as Espiridiona suggested, to the handicrafts business doing “fairly well” may be open to debate. All her four brothers, it is clear, sought and obtained other work in order to supplement whatever profit the fans and canes were making. Andres also did other work inside the home. Aside from the fans and canes, it is said he wove and sold dozens of bamboo hats,41 and having a gift for calligraphy he produced attractive advertising posters for companies such as clothes dealers.42 Agent and bodeguero 1880s J.M. Fleming: Andres Bonifacio’s first employment outside the home, so far as is known, was with J. M. Fleming, a British-owned company whose office was located on Calle Barraca near the Estero de Binondo.43 J.M. Fleming, as noted above, was the company that purchased the lot owned by the Bonifacios near Tutuban, perhaps to use as a storage yard. It is possible, as Manuel suggests, that the company’s managers first got to know Andres Bonifacio when negotiating the purchase of the property, and hired him specifically to work on the railroad project, acting as their agent in buying tar and timber ties for the tracks.44 Other sources, though, say Bonifacio first worked for the company as a mandatario (messenger, errand boy), and was only promoted later to the position of corredor (sales agent), selling tar, rattan, sahing (pili resin) and other products.45 According to Espiridiona, his salary at this time was less than P10 per month, but this modest sum was still “better than most workers in Manila, who received only 15 centavos a day.”46 1890s C. Fressel & Co.: Presumably in order to earn a higher wage, Bonifacio subsequently 7 moved to a German-owned trading company, C. Fressel & Co., which had premises on Calle Nueva in Binondo.47 Initially, says Espiridiona48, he then earned P12 a month, but over the years his wages rose substantially, up to P20 a month according to his friend Guillermo Masangkay49 and to P25 a month according to another source.50 Contemporary sources describe his position simply as bodeguero (warehouseman), but his salary, at least double that of a laborer at the time, suggests that his duties included office or sales work as well as manual work.51 Whatever his exact responsibilities, employment in the capital’s foreign-owned businesses offered good opportunities for advancement, and was much sought after. “The fathers of many who at this day figure as men of position and standing,” commented a British observer of Manileño society, “commenced their careers as messengers, warehouse-keepers, clerks etc. of the foreign houses.”52 Nick Joaquin relates that Bonifacio once worked “as a bodeguero for a mosaic tile factory in Santa Mesa, owned by the Preysler family. The Spanish patrona, Doña Elvira Preysler, is said to have recalled later that the young Bonifacio was a voracious reader; she noticed that he had a book propped open in front of him even while he was eating lunch.”53 It seems this factory was acquired by Fressel, and came to be known during the America era as the Santa Mesa Cement, Tile and Pipe Factory. 1880s Dress and style: Bonifacio’s only surviving photograph (at the top of these notes) shows him wearing a dark jacket and collared shirt, with a white bow tie. He is smartly dressed, it is sometimes said, because the picture was taken on his wedding day, but other sources say the picture dates from two years later, 1896. In any event, it seems he always liked to look stylish and urbane when out and about. Masangkay remembered his friend as “a cultured man. He always wore an open coat, with black necktie and black hat. He always carried an umbrella.”54 When he went courting, says another source, he wore a gray, American-style open coat and white trousers.55 Not Bonifacio, but maybe his style 1880s Marriage(s): Documentary evidence on Bonifacio’s marital status in his twenties is non8 existent. Contemporaries recalled that his first wife (whether “official” or “common law”) was a beautiful girl called Monica who lived in a nipa house in Palomar, a district of Tondo situated on an estero-ringed island just to the east of Tutuban. When he was courting, it was said, Bonifacio used to go to Monica’s house together with his friend Antonio Vasquez, who was courting her sister.56 Bonifacio and Monica eloped, and had three children, but then Monica contracted leprosy and died. Some sources say that all the children also died (possibly in the cholera epidemic of 1888-89), but according to José P. Santos, who interviewed Espiridiona in the 1930s, it was not known whether any were still living or not.57 According to one of his cousins, Bonifacio later lived with a certain “Teang,”58 named by some sources as Dorotea Tayson. She too died at an early age and left him a widower for a second time.59 Guillermo Masangkay, however, disputed this story, and maintained that Monica was Bonifacio’s only wife (“official” or “common law”) prior to his marriage to Gregoria de Jesus.60 1880s1890s Music and drama: Espiridiona related that Bonifacio enjoyed singing. After coming home from work in the afternoon, she said, “he would call me to sing the songs he had taught me.” Two of them, she remembered, were the Trovador (perhaps a song from Verdi’s Il Trovatore) and La Constancia (perhaps the romantic ballad of that name from which Cervantes quotes a couple of lines in Don Quixote).61 His friend Guillermo Masangkay recalled that Bonifacio belonged to an amateur dramatic society in the district of Palomar which staged moro-moros, plays about the wars and chivalric romances of Christians and Moors in medieval Europe. Some of these plays, performed in a (possibly makeshift) theater called the Teatro Porvenir, would probably have been dramatized versions of awit (verse stories in dodecalsyllabic quatrains) such as Los Doce Pares de Francia, Principe Baldovino, and Don Juan Tenorio. Masangkay remembered that Bonifacio especially liked Bernardo Carpio, the legend (in its Tagalog variant) of a superhuman hero who gets imprisoned in a cave, but who will one day set himself free and liberate all the oppressed. Bonifacio, said Masangkay, changed the Spanish names of places, scenes and mountains in the Bernardo Carpio text to Tagalog names.62 1880s1890s Reading: Bonifacio’s classmates said he was a voracious reader even as a boy63, and it was a habit he retained. As an adult, according to Pio Valenzuela, he went without sleep in order to read64, and over the years he accumulated a wide range of books on social, political and religious topics as well as popular novels of the day.65 Valenzuela recalled some of the titles that were in Bonifacio’s collection in 1896, and to his often-cited list can be added a handful from other sources.66 The publication details included below are just speculative, except of course where only a single edition had yet been printed, as was the case with Rizal’s novels. Tagalog metrical romances – the Historia Famosa ni Bernaldo Carpio [e.g. (Manila: , n.d.)]; and the classic allegorical poem by Francisco Balagtas, Pinagdaanang buhay ni Florante at ni Laura, sa cahariang Albania [e.g. (Binondo: Imprenta de M. Perez, 1875)]. 9 Literature of the propaganda movement - José Rizal, Noli me tangere: novela tagala (Berlin: Berliner Buchdruckerei-Actien-Gesellschast, 1887); José Rizal, El filibusterismo: novela filipina (Gent: F. Meyer- van Loo Press, 1891); and the journal edited by Marcelo del Pilar in Spain, La Solidaridad [fortnightly, Barcelona; Madrid, 1889-95], bound in 3 volumes. Novels - Spanish translations of French “social novels” such as Eugène Sue, El judío errante [e.g. (Barcelona: Librería Iberica, 1868-9)]; and Victor Hugo, Los miserables [e.g. (Madrid: Urbano Manini, c.1880)]; and the famous historical adventure stories of Alexandre Dumas [père], perhaps including El conde de Monte Cristo (e.g. Madrid: Est. Tip. de R. Labajos, 1878]; Los tres mosqueteros (Paris: A. Bouret é fils, 1877); and El vizconde de Bragelonne [e.g. (Barcelona: Fasso, 1859)]; and of Alejandro Dumas [fils], perhaps including La dama de las camellias, [e.g.(Madrid: s.n., 1888)]. History - Historia de la Revolución Francesa, 2 vols. [possibly Mignet, Historia de la Revolución Francesa, 2 vols. (Madrid: Murcia y Marti, 1864)]; Vidas de los Presidentes de los Estados Unidos. [possibly Vidas y retratos de los Presidentes de los Estados Unidos, desde Washington hasta Grant. Las biografías por Eyert A. Düyckinck, y los retratos por Alonzo Chappel (New York: Johnson, Wilson & Co., 1867; or Historia biográfica de los presidentes de los Estados Unidos; escrita por Enrique Leopoldo de Verneuill con presencia de las obras de Irving, Spencer, Greeley, etc. (Barcelona: Montaner y Simon, 1885)]; Las memorias de un soldado. [possibly Manuel Blanco, El capitán Armando: memorias de un soldado de la Reforma (Mexico: Valle Hermanos, 1872)]; Cesar Cantú, Historia Universal [possibly (Madrid: Imprenta de Gaspar y Roig, 1870)]; Constantin-François de Volney, Las ruinas de Palmira, o meditación sobre las revoluciones de los imperios [possibly (Barcelona: Jose Codina, 1869)]. 10 Religion – The Holy Bible, in 5 volumes [possibly La Sagrada Biblia, nuevamente traducida por Don Felix Torres Amat, 5 vols. (Madrid: Imprenta de D. Miguel de Burgos, 1832)]; and Rogelio H. de Ibarreta’s anticlerical La religión al alcance de todos, 2 vols. (Madrid: Imprenta de M. Romero, 1884). The Bible was then rarely found in Filipino homes – it is said there were only a thousand or so copies in the whole country. The Catholic Church did not encourage the laity to possess or read the scriptures without supervision through fear that “false interpretations” and “freethinking” would proliferate. Which books were Bonifacio’s favourites, or made the greatest impression on him? Valenzuela noticed that alongside “serious” histories and biographies, Bonifacio liked to read verse dramas (comedia) and folktales about legendary giants and monsters.67 His sister Espiridiona said he learned many parts of Florante at Laura by heart, as well as several shorter awit and corrido.68 Pio Valenzuela recounted that Bonifacio also committed to memory much of what he read on the French, American and Latin American revolutions: “His knowledge… was amazing. He had seen nearly all the revolutions between the covers of his books and there is no doubt that they contributed largely to his becoming an arch-revolutionist. He could cite to you dates, name names of revolutionary leaders and recount events of revolutionary importance anywhere in the world with the dispatch of a census-taker.” “Danton,” recalled Valenzuela, “was his patron saint, his chosen model.”69 Artigas y Cuerva likewise notes Bonifacio’s fascination with the French revolutionaries of 1789 and their “Declaration of the Rights of Man.” 70 The Declaration had been translated into Tagalog by Rizal as “Ang mga Karampatan ng Tao” and circulated in Manila as a flysheet (pictured).71 ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ Responsibility for errors in these notes is not entirely mine. Many of the errors are embedded in the sources, which indubitably contain lapses of memory both innocent and deliberate. On some issues the evidence is conflicting. As always, comments and corrections are welcome, either beneath this post or to kasaysayan@ Many of the illustrations have been taken from the web, where many images get posted without proper attribution. If credit is given below to “secondary sources” rather than the rightful owners I apologize, and can either amend the acknowledgment or delete the image from the post. Jim Richardson Revised January 2021 11 PICTURE CREDITS Andres Bonifacio – Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla Bonifacio statue at Tutuban – Traveler on Foot Landing place at Taguig, c.1840s – George Eastman House Binondo waterfront - Unknown Fabrica de Puros de Meisic – Biblioteca Nacional de España Tabaqueras (early 20th century) – Filipinas Heritage Library Tutuban station – Unknown Procopio Bonifacio – Isagani R. Medina Espiridiona Bonifacio – José P. Santos Tondo vecindario, 1884 – Historic San Mateo Map section – Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, Austin, Texas Fleming, J. M., directory entry – Daily Press, Hong Kong Fressel & Co., directory entry – Daily Press, Hong Kong Fressel & Co., stamp – C. Fressel & Co./ Portland Cement Fabrik – El Comercio C. Fressel & Co., Santa Mesa Cement, Tile and Pipe Factory – Rosenstock’s “Not Bonifacio” - Unknown Historia Famosa ni Bernaldo Carpio – Biblioteca Nacional de España Noli me Tangere – National Historical Institute El Filibusterismo - Unknown La Solidaridad – The Manila Review Historia de la Revolución Francesa – Unknown Ruinas de Palmira – (web) Sagrada Biblia – Libreria Virtual - El Viejo Libro “Ang mga Karampatan ng Tao” – National Commission for Culture and the Arts NOTES E. Arsenio Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio: Manila’s Foremost Hero,” Paper read at the First Andres Bonifacio and Parian Lectures, November 28, 1989, 6. 2 Hermenegildo Cruz, Kartilyang Makabayan: mga tanong at sagot ukol kay Andrés Bonifacio at sa KKK (Manila: , 1922), 3, 50, 65. Another biography published the same year as Cruz’s gives the same location – Aguedo Cagingin, The Life of Andres Bonifacio ([Manila]: , 1922). 3Teodoro A. Agoncillo, The Revolt of the Masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1956), 65; Gregorio F. Zaide, Great Filipinos in History (Manila: Verde Book Store, 1970), 105. 4 Ambeth R. Ocampo, Bones of Contention: The Bonifacio Lectures (Manila: Anvil, 2001), 81. Luis C. Dery and Pio C. Andrade dissent from the Tutuban consensus, and argue that Bonifacio’s birthplace was some 300 meters to the east, in a house on Calle Alvarado in barrio Meisic, just south of Azcarraga (now Recto). They cite as their source the historian Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, who said Bonifacio was born on Calle Alvarado in his article “El fundador del Katipunan,” Renacimiento Filipino, December 7, 1910. Artigas y Cuerva, however, does not mention Calle Alvarado in his subsequent biography of Bonifacio, which he published in 1911 and republished in a revised format in 1917, and he may therefore have decided the Alvarado location was uncertain. Luis Camara Dery, Bantayog ni Inang Bayan (Quezon City: New Day, 2012), 89; Pio Andrade Jr, “Andres Bonifacio: a monument of lies,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 30, 2014. 5 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio y El ‘Katipunan’ (Manila: Libreria ‘Filatelica’, 1911), 8. Isagani R. Medina cites the entry in the parish register as “Tondo: Bautismos, XX, 69”- see his annotations to Carlos Ronquillo, Ilang talata tungkol sa paghihimagsik nang 1896-1897 [1898] (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996), 724. The English translation is from Quijano de Manila, “The Man Who Didn’t Finish It,” Philippines Free Press, November 30, 1963. Bonifacio’s godfather, Vicente Molina, later joined the Katipunan and was treasurer of the Supreme Council from 1893 to 1896. At that time, he worked as a concierge at the Intendencia, the government treasury. He was executed at Bagumbayan on February 6, 1897. “Relación nominal de los asquerosos chatos Katipuneros que han sido pasados por las armas en esta capital desde el 20 de agosto 1896 fecha de la rebelión” (Archivo General Militar de Madrid, Caja 5393, leg.92). 1 12 Ocampo, Bones of Contention, 91. The entry in the Tondo parish registers (“Casamientos, IX, 29”) seems to have first been unearthed by Austin Craig and reported in the Sunday Tribune Magazine, November 23, 1929 – see Medina in Ronquillo, Ilang talata, 724. 7 Medina in Ronquillo, Ilang talata, 724. 8 The approximate birth dates of Bonifacio’s parents, his brothers Ciriaco and Procopio, and his sister Espiridiona have been calculated on the basis of the information contained in the Tondo vecindario (list of residents) for 1884. Provincia de Manila, Pueblo de Tondo, “Año de 1884, Gremio de Naturales, Cabeceria num.31” [Microfilmed by Family Search; credit to Richard Rivera of “Historic San Mateo” for locating the Bonifacio household in the microfilmed records.] The 1884 vecindario lists Santiago Bonifacio as being 43, his wife as 39, Andres as 21, Ciriaco as 19, Procopio as 15 and Espiridiona as 8. The couple’s two youngest children, Troadio and Maxima, are not listed – perhaps because they were living with relatives at that time. 9 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 5-6. The source of this information was almost certainly Bonifacio’s sister Espiridiona, whom Manuel interviewed. More recently, research by Jomar Gelvoleo Encila in the Taguig parish registers seems to confirm that Andres Bonifacio’s paternal grandparents, Vicente Bonifacio and Alejandra Rosales, also came from Taguig. Personal communication from Jomar Gelvoleo Encila, January 2, 2021. 10 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 5-6; Isagani R. Medina, Andres Bonifacio (Manila: Tahanan Books, 1992). 11 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, Medina in Ronquillo, Ilang talata; 724. 12 Esteban A. de Ocampo, “The life and achievements of Bonifacio”, Historical Bulletin, 10 (December 1966), 23-39, cited in Renato Constantino, A History of the Philippines: from the Spanish Colonization to the Second World War (New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1975), 162. 13 De Manila, “The Man Who Didn’t Finish It,” as cited. 14 Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, July and August 2013. In the 1920s the American historian Austin Craig found out that Bonifacio had a Spanish grandfather, but the source of his information is not known. “Not long ago,” he writes, “on a challenge, I found and proved a Spanish ancestor for Andres Bonifacio, the maternal grandfather, though that fact seemed to have been completely forgotten.” Austin Craig, “Rizal’s Parentage Typically Filipino,” Philippine Education Magazine, XXV:1 (June 1928), 11. 15 Sylvia Mendez Ventura, Supremo: The Story of Andres Bonifacio (Makati: Tahanan Books, 2001), 16; Medina, Andres Bonifacio. 16 Medina, Andres Bonifacio; Ma. Luisa T. Camagay, “The Cigarreras of Manila,” Philippine Studies, 34:4 (1986), 510. 17 E. Arsenio Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, vol.1 (Quezon City: Filipiniana Publications, 1955), 253 18 Gregorio F. Zaide, History of the Katipunan (Manila: Loyal Press, 1939), 12. 19 Epifanio de los Santos, “Andres Bonifacio” [English version], Philippine Review (Revista Filipina), III: 1–2 (JanuaryFebruary 1918), 36. 20 José P. Santos, Si Bonifacio at ang himagsikan (Manila: , 1935), 3-4. 21 El Comercio, December 21, 1896, quoted in Umberto G. Lammoglia (compiler), Forgotten Warriors of the Katipunan (Manila: National Historical Commission of the Philippines, 2013), 201. 22 Santos, Si Bonifacio at ang himagsikan, 3-4. 23 “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” Philippines Free Press, February 1, 1930. 24 Manuel, Dictionary of Philippine Biography, I, 351-3. 25 Gregorio F. Zaide, “Andres Bonifacio’s Sister Talks of her Experiences during the Revolution,” Graphic, November 29, 1934. Espiridiona had given the same details when interviewed in 1930 - “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” Philippine Free Press, February 1, 1930. This version of events, however, cannot be verified. Another account says that Troadio had wanted to be a priest as a young man, and that after the revolution broke out a family friend or relative who was a priest, Father Buntan, took him safely away from the Philippines (under a different name) to assist with missionary work in Macau. Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, as cited. 26 “Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” as cited; Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3-4; Diosdado G. Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio: His Life, Character and Teachings (Quezon City, Manlapaz Publishing Co., 1967), 5. 27 Una viuda y hermana de héroes,” as cited; Capino, Stories, 5. 28 Personal communications from Jojie Camacho, as cited. 29 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14-5. 30 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 11-12. 31 Milagros C. Guerrero, “The Katipunan Revolution,” in Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, vol. 5 (Hong Kong: Asia Publishing Co, 1998), 153. 32 Provincia de Manila, Pueblo de Tondo, “Año de 1884, Gremio de Naturales, Cabeceria num.31,” as cited. 33 This story can be traced back at least as far as 1911, when it was told in the very first biography of Bonifacio Artigas y Cuerva’s Andrés Bonifacio y el ‘Katipunan’, 8. 6 13 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, as cited. Diosdado Capino, who interviewed Espiridiona, simply says that Catalina died after a period of illness. E. Arsenio Manuel, however, who also interviewed Espiridiona, says Bonifacio’s mother died giving birth to Maxima. Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 12; Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14. 35 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 12. 36 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 14. 37 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,” 15. For details on the construction of the railroad, see Arturo G. Corpuz, The Colonial Iron Horse: Railroads and regional development in the Philippines, 1875-1935 (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1999), 29. 38 Ocampo, Bones of Contention, 81. 39 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 9. 40 José A. Quirino, “Bonifacio’s Sister Talks,” Philippines Free Press, November 27, 1954. 41 Medina, Andres Bonifacio, as cited. 42 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 2. 43 The Chronicle and Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines etc. for the Year 1885 (Hong Kong: “Daily Press”, c.1885), 540. 44 Manuel, “New Data on Andres Bonifacio,”15. 45 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, Galeria de Filipinos Ilustres (Manila: Imp. Casa Editora “Renacimiento”, 1917), 365; Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 2. 46 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 15. 47The Chronicle and Directory for China, Corea, Japan, the Philippines etc. for the Year 1895 (Hong Kong: “Daily Press”, c.1895), 434. 48 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 16. 49 Guillermo Masangkay, “Días que precedieron a la fundación del Katipunan,” La Vanguardia, November 30, 1931. 50 Jesus V. Merritt, “Books in the Loves of our Great Men,” Philippines Free Press, November 25, 1939. 51 Olegario Diaz, Commander of the Manila detachment of the Guardia Civil Veterana, Report on the Insurrection Against Spain, dated October 28, 1896 in Wenceslao E. Retana (ed.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, vol. III (Madrid: Imprenta de la viuda de M. Minuesa de los Rios, 1897), 214; “Relación de todos los individuos que figuran en el legajo de documentos del Katipunan, perteneciente a Andres Bonifacio con los nombres propios, simbólicos y en clave.” [Archivo General Militar de Madrid: Caja 5393, leg.9.10]. 52 John Foreman, The Philippine Islands, Third edition (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906), 258. 53 Nick Joaquin, A Question of Heroes (Makati: Ayala Museum, 1977), 102-3. 54 “An Old Katipunero Speaks,” Sunday Tribune Magazine, August 21, 1932. 55 Ambeth R. Ocampo, Looking Back (Pasig: Anvil Publishing Co., 1990), 215. 56 Ibid., citing “Ang Buhay sa Pag-ibig ni Andres Bonifacio,” an article from the American-era magazine Lipang Kalabaw. Might this Antonio Vasquez be the “A. Vasquez” who is listed in the entries for J. M. Fleming, the company where Bonifacio first worked, in the commercial directories of the time? 57 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3. 58 Ocampo, Looking Back, 215. 59 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 3. 60 Agoncillo, Revolt of the Masses, 328. Agoncillo and Ocampo both emphatically dismiss as a fable the story found in some sources that Bonifacio had an affair, and a daughter, with a woman in Albay in 1894-5. 61 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17. 62 Agoncillo, Revolt of the Masses, 67. 63 Santos, Si Andres Bonifacio, 2. 64 Pio Valenzuela, Declaration dated October 21, 1896 in Retana (comp.), Archivo del bibliófilo filipino, , 387. 65 Epifanio de los Santos, “Andres Bonifacio” [Spanish version], Philippine Review (Revista Filipina), II:11 (November 1917), 61. 66 Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio, 365; Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17; José N. Sevilla at Tolentino, Sa langit ng bayang pilipinas: mga dakilang pilipino o ang kaibigan ng mga nagaaral (Maynila: Limbagan nina Sevilla at mga Kapatid at Kn., 1922), 103. 67 Jesus V. Merritt, “Books in the Lives of our Great Men,” Philippines Free Press, November 25, 1939. 68 Capino, Stories of Andres Bonifacio, 17. 69 Merritt, “Books in the Lives of our Great Men,” as cited. 70 Artigas y Cuerva, Andres Bonifacio, 365. 71 “Ang mga Karampatan ng Tao,” flysheet c.1892 [Cuerpo de Vigilancia records, Manuscrito A-1-(1), Legajo No.1, #9 (National Commission for Culture and the Arts)]. 34 14