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Rizal's full name was Jose Rizal Protasio Mercado y Alonso Realonda, though he went by the surname "Rizal" rather than his father's surname "Mercado." This was likely because Mercado was a common Filipino surname targeted by Spaniards during that time, so using his middle name Rizal provided some protection. Additionally, there was a Spanish law allowing the changing of Filipino surnames, and Mercado was very common, so Rizal opted to use his middle name instead to distinguish himself.

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Helna Cachila
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969 views3 pages

1

Rizal's full name was Jose Rizal Protasio Mercado y Alonso Realonda, though he went by the surname "Rizal" rather than his father's surname "Mercado." This was likely because Mercado was a common Filipino surname targeted by Spaniards during that time, so using his middle name Rizal provided some protection. Additionally, there was a Spanish law allowing the changing of Filipino surnames, and Mercado was very common, so Rizal opted to use his middle name instead to distinguish himself.

Uploaded by

Helna Cachila
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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His real name

His complete name was Dr. José Rizal Protasio Mercado y Alonso
Realonda. Many wonder why he used “Rizal” while his father was
Francisco Mercado. He should have been Jose Mercado right? So why did
Rizal’s surname become Rizal instead of Mercado?
Some of the explanations with this are:

1. Jose’s real last name, Mercado, during those times was a hot name,
targeted by the Spaniards. He changed his surname to protect his
identity. So he just used his middle name, Rizal, instead, which was
considered as illustrado during the Spanish time and entails the
benefits a Spaniard can get.
2. Second, there was Spanish law to change the last name of Filipinos
those times. Mercado sounded a common name and there were lots
of people having that surname already who were not really relatives
of Rizal. And so, why why ?A big why.

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