A Tribute to Andres Bonifacio

Andres Bonifacio

(This creative commons article was copied on January 15, 2013 from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Bonifacio and edited from January 15 to January 19, 2013, resulting in grammar modifications of some texts, deletion of a sub-topic under "Historical Controversies," changes in format presentation and the removal of reference numbers. See original 2013 text and references on Wikipedia. The link provided takes the reader to the source. The author of "Hearts Philippines & Then Some" is not responsible for any changes on the original 2013 document on Wikipedia. Take note, too, that a new presentation format is adopted for the 2013 version of the article on July 10, 2020.)

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (30 November 1863 – 10 May 1897) was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. He is often called “the great plebeian,” “father of the Philippine Revolution,” and “father of the Katipunan.” He was a founder and later Supremo (“supreme leader”) of the Katipunan, a secret revolutionary organization which sought the independence of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule and started the Philippine Revolution. He is considered a de facto national hero of the Philippines and he is also considered by some Filipino historians to be the first President, but he is not officially recognized as such.

Early Life and Family Background

Bonifacio was the son of Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro of Tondo, Manila, and he was the eldest of five children. His father was a tailor who served as a tenyente mayor of Tondo, Manila, while his mother was a mestiza born of a Spanish father and a Filipino-Chinese mother who worked at a cigarette factory. As was custom, upon baptism he was named for the saint on whose feast he was born, Andrew the Apostle.

Bonifacio's normal schooling was cut short when he dropped out to support his siblings after both their parents died of illness. He sold canes and paper fans he made himself and made posters for business firms. In his late teens, he worked for the British trading firm Fleming and Company, where he rose to become a corregidor of tar, rattan and other goods. He later transferred to Fressell and Company, a German trading firm, where he worked as a “bodeguero” (storehouse worker). Bonifacio was also a part-time actor who performed in moro-moro plays.

The youthful Andres was unable to complete his formal education but he was a self-educated individual. He read books about the French Revolution, biographies of the Presidents of the United States, books about contemporary Philippine penal and civil codes, and novels such as Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Aside from Tagalog and Spanish, he could speak a little English, which he while working for J.M. Fleming and Co.

Bonifacio got married twice, first to a certain Monica who died of leprosy and then to Gregoria de Jesús of Caloocan in 1893. They had one son named Andrés who died of smallpox (chickenpox) at infancy.

In 1892, he joined Rizal's La Liga Filipina, an organisation which called for political reform in the colonial government of the Philippines. However, La Liga disbanded after only one meeting as Rizal was arrested and deported to Dapitan in Mindanao. Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini and others revived La Liga in Rizal's absence and Bonifacio was active at organising local chapters in Manila. La Liga Filipina contributed moral and financial support to the “propaganda movement” of Filipino reformists in Spain….