Rizal Ain't My Great-grandfather



'JOSE Rizal sired Hitler' came to me as gospel truth when I first heard the story from an elder when I was in third grade, I think -- but at the back of my mind I suspected it was a myth. It was a sort of urban legend that somehow stuck with me all these years in spite of the many Rizal bios that I've read. It was like wishing the myth was true!

A read of historian-columnist Ambeth Ocampo altogether debunked and dismantled the 'gospel' in its truth, and fortified the truth about its nature: that the story was just a rumor any third-grader who've heard of Rizal and Hitler would easily gobble up.

So, Hitler ain't Rizal's child, eh. And no matter how rumor-mongers would insist on the seeming similarity in genius, height, hair wave, moustache (or, lack of it) the two might have possessed and shared, the story remains just that: a rumor turned urban legend.

Since it's Rizal Day today, we might as well ask: Who sired Rizal? (of course, it's Francisco Mercado!). Better yet, who sired Rizal's father's father's father...?  Ngek! Ok. Not to go down too far, who was Rizal's great-grandfather?

Uhm... dang! Who the eff knows? And, do I myself know who my great-grandfather was? Nah!

In a few years I’d probably be a grandfather myself. It was just ironic that until a few months back, I had no idea who my grandfathers were on either side of my parents. But in this IT age and FB rage, vital info do come in an instant; and if you’re lucky, information comes with a bonus photo!



Lolo Vicente with parents and siblings

 

Cousin Susie dug up the pic (right) with Vicente Calderon, my maternal grandfather, in it. Faded photograph it is not -- it’s just not clear who of the two young men was Lolo Vicente, but my gut feel is that, as cousin indicated, Vicente must be the kid at the extreme right, and standing behind him was  my great-grandfather whatever-his-name.



If this photo was taken, say, in the first decade of the 1900's when Lolo Vicente was obviously still in his adolescence and the Calderon family in their Sunday’s best, the pic gives you a clue as to the Calderons' socio-economic status back then.

It's justified to think that they were most likely, at the very least, of lower middle class -- in those years when cameras and photographers were as rare as diamonds and cutters, and private photo-shoot sessions could have cost a fortune. It seems the Calderons were a small lower middle-class ‘landowner’ family in Lingayen, Pangasinan where Susie traced the family's roots?

Ok, great-grandpa what’s-his-name looks more like an illustrado in this pic, or perhaps a small merchant, a trader maybe (hope not of illegal drugs and contrabands, wink!). It’s hard to fit a peasant persona to the image my great-grandfather in the photo presents. But I wish he was, provided he stood in the line of fire in the Katipunan, or whatever revolutionary group was there in Pangasinan, screaming, "Sugod mga kapatid!"

Or, I might be completely wrong. Who knows? Now, going back to Hitler, este, Rizal....