Paciano Rizal

Paciano Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (March 9, 1851 – April 13, 1930) was a Filipino general and revolutionary, and the older brother of José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Early life Paciano Rizal was born to Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro (1818–1897) and Teodora Morales Alonso y Quintos (1827–1911; whose family later changed their surname to "Realonda"), as the second of eleven children born to a wealthy family in the town of Calamba, Laguna. In 1870, he accompanied his younger brother, Jose, to Biñan, Laguna in order to assist him in enrolling in the school of Sr. Justiniano Aquino Cruz. He also accompanied him, two years later, in Manila since Jose would already start his secondary education at Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He grew up witnessing the abuses of the clergy and the Spanish colonial government. As a young student, together with Felipe Buencamino and Gregorio Sancianco, Paciano was a founding member of La Juventud Liberal, a reformist student organization that worked under the direction of the Comite de Reformadores, among whose leaders was Padre José Burgos. Among their tasks was to secretly distribute copies of the reformist paper, El Eco Filipino, while pretending to be purveyors of horse fodder (zacateros).