Provenance: Provenance: From the Rizal Family; from thence, directly to the collections of Ramon N. Villegas and Jorge de los Santos in 1998; and from thence to a private collection shortly afterwards. One lot, consisting of twelve documents: ten rare and important letters, one very rare family recipe and one very rare and highly important legal document. The letters are addressed to José Rizal’s mother Teodora Alonso Rizal from various historical personalities. The recipe for “Bologna Sausage” has the initials “JR” at the bottom right, and a case could be made that this was one of José Rizal’s favorite recipes, having been found among his mother’s papers. Five of the letters and the court documents are all in Spanish, with the exception of the four letters from Narcisa, Rizal’s sister; her husband Antonino and her daughter Angelica, which are in Tagalog. The invitation is in English as is the recipe. Teodora Alonso was fluent in several languages, a talent she passed on to her son José. An outstanding part of this lot is the legal document, which are the court documents filed by the Guardia Civil officer Juan Domingo Vasquez versus Teodora Alonso and her brother José Maria Alberto for the alleged attempted poisoning of Alberto’s wife (Alonso’s sister-in-law.) For this, Teodora was made to walk from Biñan to Sta Cruz to appear in court and was subsequently thrown in jail for more than two years. The trumped up charges were said to be punishment for the Rizals’ indifferent treatment of various Spanish officials. The persecution of his mother and the unfairness of the fate of Filipinos, no matter how well-educated and hardworking, was a pivotal element of José Rizal’s nationalism.

ABOUT THE WORK

On Teodora Alonso (1826 - 1911) Esteban A. de Ocampo, writing in 1954, about the Rizal family, shared several insights about the parents of our national hero: “Doña Teodora Alonso, Rizal’s mother belonged to a distinguished family. Jose Maria Alberto, described as her half-brotherwas educated in Europe and spoke several languages. She was educated at Sta. Rosa College in Manila and was married to Francisco Mercado on June 28, 1848. “My mother,” wrote Dr. Rizal, “is not a woman of ordinary culture; she knows literature and speaks Spanish better than I… She is a mathematician and has read many books.” In fact, the private library of the Rizals in Calamba contained more than 1,000 volumes. Teodora Alonso was also a businesswoman of no mean ability, but this fact did not prevent her from looking after the comfort and education of her big family. Twice imprisoned by the authorities for flimsy reasons, she heroically endured the persecutions heaped upon her and her family. Some years before her death, she politely refused a life pension offered her by the government, saying: “My family has never been patriotic for the sake of money.” De Ocampo stated that, “To Don Francisco Mercado Rizal and Dona Teodora Alonso, parents of the Great Malayan, were born eleven children (two boys and nine girls) : Saturnina (1850), Paciano (1851), Narcisa (1852), Olympia (1855), Lucia (1857), Maria (1859), Jose (1861), Concepcion (1862), Josefa (1865), Trinidad (1868), and Soledad (1870.)” -Lisa Guerrero Nakpil 1: Two sheets, three pages. Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from José Rizal’s uncle, Pedro Leyba, dated 27 October 1866. The oldest letter believed to be in the collection of the Rizal Family was previously dated 1874. This and the succeeding letter are dated several years earlier. 2: Two sheets, three pages. Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from José Rizal’s uncle, Pedro Leyba, dated 28 July 1868. 3: Two sheets, three pages, both embossed with the initials ‘PPL.’ Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from José Rizal’s uncle, Pedro Leyba, dated 9 January 1892. 4: One sheet, one page. Ink on thick board-like paper. A letter with its envelope addressed to Snra D. Teodora A. Rizal from Sixto Castelo Lopez; and a calling card engraved with the name “Sixto C. Lopez.” Sixto Castelo Lopez was descended from, some say, the wealthiest family of the ancient town of Balayan, Batangas. (His enormous mansion still stands there to this day.) Lopez was a classmate of José Rizal and spent huge sums of money to make sure that his novels would be circulated in the Philippines. The letter was written in HongKong, where Lopez went into exile to escape arrest as a result of his being accused of being “Rizal’s foremost agent.” 5: One sheet, one page. Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from her niece Angelica Lopez, dated 11 August 1892, from Oroquieta, Manila. It talks about “Tio Paciano”, Rizal’s brother, and his visit to (Calle) Jolo. Angelica Lopez was Narcisa’s daughter and would become a member of the women’s section of the Katipunan (KKK) alongside her aunts Josefa and Trinidad Rizal. Angelica would also travel to Dapitan to visit her uncle José in 1893. The Lopezes lived on Calle Jojo in Manila, not to be mistaken for Jolo in Mindanao. 6: One sheets, folded in two, four pages. Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from Narcisa, Rizal’s sister, and her husband Antonino Lopez, dated 11 August 1892, from Trozo. José Rizal was exiled to Dapitan on 17 July 1892 7: Two sheets, four pages. Ink on linen paper, embossed with the word “Amistad” (Friendship) above two clasped hands. A letter to Teodora Alonso, addressing her as “Mi Respetable Nanay”, from Antonino Lopez, Narcisa Rizal’s husband, dated 13 September 1892. 8: Two sheets, three pages. Ink on linen paper. A letter to Teodora Alonso from Narcisa, Rizal’s sister, dated 15 November 1892. This letter appears to be a report from Narcisa about Rizal’s purchase of farmland in Dapitan and that it was planted with coconuts, cacao, and lansones on it. Narcisa and her daughter Angelica would be frequent visitors to Dapitan during Rizal’s exile and she would in fact accompany Rizal home to Manila at the end of it in 1896. 9: Ink on thick board. An invitation card as well as a greeting card and envelope to Teodora Alonso, dated December 1892. Addressed to her in HongKong. 10: Ink on thick board. A letter to Teodora Alonso from ‘Mr. Xavier,” dated 7 January 1893. 11: Several sheets, written back to back. Ink on linen paper. The court documents filed by Juan Domingo Vasquez against Teodora Alonso and her brother José Maria Alberto before the Superior Tribunal of Don Mateo de San Buenaventura, Criminal Case No. 2476. The suit was brought in June 1872 by Juan Domingo Vasquez, an officer of the Guardia Civil who has been described as a “close friend”, hinting that he may have even been the paramour of Teodora Alonso’s sister-in-law. Alonso had apparently served her brother’s wife a meal which she did not eat, but instead gave to her dog, who promptly died. Based on that suspicion, Alonso was arrested. Other accounts have it that the Albertos, and by affinity, the Rizals had not shown the proper subservience to the Guardia Civil and other town officials. Her imprisonment is what gave Rizal the steel to stand up to the Spanish and developed his patriotism. He was all of 11 years of age when this happened and Alonso would not be released until he was almost 14 and already a student at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. 12: One sheet, one page. Ink on linen paper. A recipe for Bologna Sausage, written in large hand, presumably for “a woman with failing eyesight” such as Teodora Alonso, who was fluent in several languages, a talent passed on to her son José Rizal. On the reverse is written the date, March 1893. Literature : Felice Prudente Sta. Maria published a photograph of the handwritten recipe in her book “The Governor-General’s Kitchen : Philippine Culinary Vignettes and Period Recipes, 1521-1935”; Pasig City; Anvil Publishing Inc.; page 250.