A family visit with Siony, Naty and Carmen, the grand nieces of José Rizal
Carlos Arnaldo
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“Magandang umaga po, maaari po ba kaming umakyat?”
“Tuloy po kayo. . . Ako po si Mrs Anna Maria Belen Lopez Rizal Bantug, these ladies are my mother, Mrs
Asuncion Lopez Rizal Bantug, and her sisters, Mrs Natividad Lopez Rizal and Mrs Carmen Lopez Rizal
Consunji. All are the grand nieces of José Rizal, grand daughters of his elder sister, Narcisa.”
I felt honored to be welcomed into the home of these three elegant ladies, the last vestige of a long gone era
of heroism and national ardor. When they heard I was coming to visit, they even proposed to wear their old
Filipina gowns with the large balintawak shoulders. But this was not possible, everything was burned in the
family home last November 2009.
Over late morning coffee, we started talking about whether Rizal was a mason or not, and whether he
recanted as it is still hotly debated today. Even our tempered discussion fell into a quiet hush amidst puzzled
faces. It must be recalled that in the actual days of Rizal, fealty to the church and the friars was expressed in
outward devotions, like mass, sacraments, baptisms, generous contributions. To be a free mason or
propound any of their beliefs would immediately be taken as an act of disloyalty with the risk of all the
punishments and stigma attached. To admit even a hint of masonry at that time, could be perilous. Silence
today was a gesture of loyalty to their Lolo José.
In her book, Lolo José: an illustrated portrait of José Rizal (Quezon City: Vibal Foundation, Inc. and the
Intramuros Administration, 2008), author Asuncion Lopez Rizal Bantug is less silent. She discusses both
sides of the question, “One faction insists that he did [retract], having been won back by two Jesuits who
visited him on his last night, bringing with him an old school medallion of his and a statue of the Sacred
Heart he had carved as a boy. According to this claim, he wrote down his retraction, confessed, heard Mass
in the morning and received communion, and was then married to Josephine Bracken.”
And yet this explanation does not fit in well with other historical events following the execution, like the
‘disappearance’ of his body and its being found unidentified in a burial place in Santa Ana. If he retracted, he
should have been buried with discrete honor in a Catholic cemetery and the friars should have been
celebrating the triumph of his defeat.
And so “Another faction ,” writes Siony, “argues that it’s not only what we know of Rizal’s character that
militates against this claim of retraction, but also what we know of his activities on his last night, which
leaves no room for the various religious functions he is said to have joined. Or so avers this group—which
therefore brands as a forgery the document of retraction allegedly found in the church archives in 1935.”
I would tend to believe, with Siony and her daughter, Mrs Belen Lopez Rizal Bantug, that through his Jesuit
education, Rizal had reached a higher level of intelligence that could assimilate seemingly contrary beliefs
and philosophies which when seen at a lower, more fundamental level, seem irresolvable; but when looked
at through a higher logic and more profound understanding, can be reconciled.
Also recall at that time that Rizal’s antagonist was not the credo of the Catholic church, but the lavish lifestyle
of the friars and their frivolous, contemptuous treatment of the peasants. And hence, Rizal could have
expressed his stance for social justice in terms of the socialistic philosophies of the time without at all
putting into question any Catholic doctrine. But such declarations of social justice, however inherent in
catholic dogma itself, would have a direct accusatory bearing on the life style of the friars and the guardia
civil who supported them, and who in effect ignored the basics of Catholic dogma and hardly ever lived it. In
effect, Rizal was not so much a threat to Christianity or to Spain, as a threat to the religio-political connivance
of friars and the local governor lords.
And so “A third is that there was no retraction, because Rizal never apostatized and thus didn’t consider
himself outside the Church. He refused to retract ‘religious errors’ because he did not feel he had
committed any.”
In this way, Siony in her book fills in the many gaps of other works on Rizal, she fills them in from the
memory of the stories her father, Dr Leoncio Lopez Rizal, had told her. She started this book, by noting down
his stories, and over the years comparing these with other sources she read. These then became a pile of
anecdotes that she meticulously reorganized into coherent chapters, thus filling in, through the memory of
her father, the many gaps, that are found in the other accounts of the national hero. The first edition was
published in 1988 through the support of Dr Jaime Laya, then the Action Officer of the Intramuros
Administration. The second edition was published in 2008 with a preface by Nick Joaquin who aptly writes
that Siony is writing not research from documents and archives, but “reportage: the words of witnesses, the
testimony of primary sources, the gospel of disciples. But even more exciting is the unfamiliar material, the
private details known only to and lovingly cherished by the family.” The book is also rich with images and
illustrations of the period.
I was therefore most pleased when Siony took the pen and signed my copy of her book!
“You are leaving already,” asked Naty with a tone of sadness. “We are enjoying your company, you must stay
this afternoon and dance with us.” And Carmen began waving her hands to the beat of a cotillon. Several
times a week, the three ladies dress up in dancing gowns and have an hour of dance class. “We all dance
very well,” she said invitingly.
And on that happy note, we left, passing by their burnt house, symbolic of the real threat to paper-based
history, documentation and archives. If it weren’t for the equally fragile living memory of Siony and her
sisters, and how they transmit this to their children, and their children’s children, how could we ever know all
we know of Lolo José today?
Carmen concluded this intimate and rich family visit with a smile full of a lifetime of memories: “Ako, apo ni
Rizal, I’m proud to be the apo ni José Rizal.”
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Author Carlos Arnaldo with the Three Grand Nieces
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