The family tree (abbreviated)

So this is where it starts or at least as far back as we can get: Lim Lieu.

No one can actually verify the correct spelling of his name or where exactly he came from but we know that he arrived in the Philippines from China and is the common denominator in my father’s family history–both my grandfather and grandmother can be traced back to him. You see, my grandparents, my father’s mom and dad, were second cousins. Sort of scandalous, but I suppose at the time this wasn’t uncommon. In fact, in some cases it was preferred. Let’s just say when it came time to check out the family history there was no mystery–no doubt the newly weds came from respectable and trusted sources and even if there were a few unmentionables, at least there were no surprises.

Mariano Alejandrino, Gen. Jose's father and my great, great grandfather

Now, I’m forgetting how the story goes but Lim Lieu became a respectable and honorable man while living in Arayat, so much so that he was celebrated by the town shortly after his migration from China. The Tagalog word for bestowing honors on someone is: magparangal. Rumor has it that on the day Lim Lieu was honored his name was confused with this word and instead of Lieu the surname recorded on the official declaration was Magdangal. Lim, for reasons I can’t really explain, ends up adopting this new surname perhaps because it is unmistakenably Filipino and maybe it seemed only fitting since this country would soon be his new homeland. I’m not sure why but eventually he changes his first name as well. So Lim Lieu became Luis Magdangal, my great, great, great grandfather.

Luis ends up marrying a woman named Brigida Mateo (we’re not sure if this is her last name) and together they have seven children, four of whom are girls: Matilde, Milagros and my two great, great grandmothers: Rosa and Julia. To me, these women are the grand matriarchs of my family and I only wish I had a picture of them. Rosa marries Mariano Alejandrino and Julia marries Herminigildo Perez.  Although I have lists and lists of spouses and children, and subsequent spouses and more children, I will mention only these two women because it is through them that I can directly trace my father’s history.

Rosa Magdangal and Mariano Alejandrino have six children, one of whom is the infamous General Jose Alejandrino, who I mentioned in my earlier post and another is my great grandfather Joaquin Alejandrino.

Meanwhile, Julia Magdangal and her husband Herminigildo Perez have five children: four girls and one boy. One of their daughters Dionisia, marries a young man from Calamba, Laguna by the name of Marciano Rivera.

The Perez sister's from L to R Marquita, Pilar, Dionisia (my great grandmother) and Socorro

I’ll pause here because this is where things get a little interesting.

Marciano Rivera’s history is obscure. The few things that seems pretty certain is that: 1.) In his old age he wore pajamas every day 2.) He added the prefix “de” to our last name and 3.) He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish Augustinian priest whose name I doubt we’ll ever be able to recover. It’s assumed that Marciano’s biological mother, Estatera gave up Marciano and his sister Leonor to a family with the last name Rivera. That means Marciano’s sister became Leonor Rivera.

Leonor Rivera

Leonor Rivera—look up the name and you’ll discover Leonor is also the name of Jose Rizal’s one and supposedly only true love. Some accounts state that Leonor was Rizal’s first cousin, others state that she was a distant cousin, it’s uncertain. Many accounts describe the eight year (in some cases I’ve read eleven year) romance as forbidden and doomed. Apparently, Leonor’s mother and her father, Antonio Rivera disapproved of the relationship because at that time Rizal had a reputation for being a dissident. To intercept their love affair, Leonor’s mother hid Rizal’s letters. It is rumored that the lovers even tried writing in invisible ink but it was to no avail. Leonor was eventually forced to marry an Englisbyh man by the name of Henry Kipping who was an engineer working on the Manila-Dagupan railway system. Two years after they wed she died and many believe the cause was a broken heart.

There is a lot more detail and the love story has layers of action packed drama but I’ll save it all for those who’ve already told it, like here and here. My question is: Is Leonor Rivera the same Leonor of my family tree, the sister of my great grandfather Marciano? The notion can’t be too far fetched considering General Alejandrino, Rizal’s trusted and good friend, was also the first cousin of Leonore’s sister-in-law, Dionisia. Clearly, I’ve got some research to do.

So to bring us up to present day, Joaquin Alejandrino marries Concepcion Dominguez and together they have five kids one of whom is my grandmother, my father’s mother, Magdalena and her brother Hermes (who I write about in my essay in the  Homelands anthology). Magdalena marries her second cousin, Jose who is the son of Dionisia and Marciano (my tita tells me Lolo Marciano named my grandfather after Rizal).

Jose and Magdalena have seven kids: my father, Eduardo, his four brothers: Jose, Raul, Ben and Antonio (said to be named after Leonore’s adoptive father) and two sisters: Desi and Leonor, aka my tita Leny. Can you guess who she’s named after?

Thanks for the history lesson tita. I hope I got it all right!

The de Rivera family: sitting in the center with his spectacles and wearing his pajamas is Marciano de Rivera, to his right is his wife Dionisia. Top row from the left: my grandmother Magdalena and my grandfather Jose de Rivera and the baby in the center with her arms wide open is their first child, Leonor-- my tita Leny.