Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Family of Andres Bonifacio

Andres Bonifacio, was the eldest son of Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro.He was born November 30,1863.

Early biographers of Bonifacio erred in naming his brothers and sisters.

Efifanio de los Santos writing in 1917 wrote:" He (Bonifacio) had two brothers Procopio and Ciriaco and a sister who became the wife of Teodoro Plata .(" de los Santos 197:85)

Manuel Artigas y Cuerva in his "Galerias de Filipino Ilustres" ( 1918 :Vol.II. p.36 )enumerated Andres' siblings as "Procopio,Ciriaco ..and Nonay".

Further research made by Jose P.Santos in 1935 revealed that"Andres was the eldest followed by Ciriaco,the Procopio,the third was Procopio, the fourth was Esperidiona ,fifth was Troadio and the youngest was Maxima."(page 1) .Nonay was the nickname of Esperidiona. By the way Jose P.Santos was the eldest son of Efifanio de los Santos.( May.1997:34; for short biographies of de los Santos,Artigas and Santos,see pp.25-35 of same book)

What happened to his brothers and sisters?

Esperidiona(Nonay) was married Teodoro Plata ,one of the members of the First Triangle of the Katipunan,( during its early year the Katipunan used the triangle method in recruiting members) and he became the Minister of War in the Bonifacio goverment (The" Republika ng Katagalugan ") * formed in Caloocan on August 1896,the outbreak of the Revolution.
When E.de los Santos published his Bonifacio biography in 1955 Nonay is still living and in 1954 she was interviewed by Jose A. Quirino .( Jose Quirino."Bonifacio's Sister Talks".Philippine Free Press.(magazine) November 27,1954 issue.)

If someone can locate,publish the above Quirino article in internet or provide me a copy ,I will greatly appreciate it.

About Troadio, Jose P.Santos in 1935 "was not sure if he is still living, the last news he(Santos--D) recieved was he(Troadio---D) lives in Macao and does not wan to return here (in the Philippines---D) he can not bear not to avenge the death of his three brothers ,the two( Andres and Procopio) murdered in Mount Buntis and the other one,Ciriaco,who was killed in Limbon (by while resisting the the soldiers (of Emilio Aguinaldo--D) who tried to arrest them. Troadio "was a former sailor of the spanish ship "Reina Maria Christina" that was sunk by American battleships
(during the Battle of Manila Bay, May 1,1898---D)."

(Source:.Santos1935 ; 1. I am indebted to Prof. Abraham J.Manalo my former co- teacher in the New Era University for providing me a xerox copy of this rare book from the University of the Philippines Library.)

About Maxima,the youngest, no information was recorded by early Bonifacio biographers de los Santos and Artigas as well as in the classic biography of Bonifacio,Teodoro Agoncilllo's "The Revolt of the Masses" (1956).Did she died during the revolution or before 1917 and 1918 when de los Santos or Artigas wrote their Bonifacio biographies? Did she change her identity /surname to avoid persecution by the Aguinaldo followers(as some Bonifacio relatives did when his arch enemy Aguinaldo was in power) ?

Further research must be done to determine the birth of Andres'siblings ( in the archives of the Tondo Church or in the Archdiocese of Manila Archives ) and what the fate of Maxima .

2 comments:

  1. any update of Bonifacoi's siblings as of today?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I met people in Sto. Domingo, Albay claimeing that they are descendants of one of the brothers of Andres Bonifacio who fled and hid in Bicol when Aguinaldo forces were looking for them

    ReplyDelete