Rizal was part-Pangasinense
It was not only Leonor Rivera after who had an attachment to Pangasinan. Philippine National hero Dr. Jose Rizal was part-Pangasinense.
This new note in the province’s history was revealed during the Rizal Day celebration at the Dagupan City Plaza when City Administrator Alvin Fernandez made public the results of his own research.
Fernandez, who was guest of honor and speaker during the 111th Rizal Day celebration, said that Rizal’s mother Teodora Alonzo y Quintos was a Pangasinense.
He said the father of Dona Teodora was Manuel Quintos a lawyer. And some historical notes indicate that it was after him whom the Quintos Bridge in Dagupan was named.
But Fernandez conceded that the first one to determine this was local historian Restituto Basa in his book, Vignettes of Pangasinan History”. In Basa’s book, Don Manuel was the described as the presidente municipal of a Filipino native colony in Lingayen.
Basa also affirmed that the Quintos bridge was named after Don Manuel.
The Quintoses of Lingayen, said Fernandez, were of Chinese lineage, which was confirmed in Basa’s book. There was also a Chinese colony of Lingayen called “parian” headed by a Chinese, wrote Basa.
Fernandez said when Dona Teodora Alonzo was still unmarried, she used to visit her cousin Victoria Quintos de Zarate, whose family owned the old Victoria Hotel and several other establishments in Dagupan City.
Rizal himself used to visit Dagupan to serenade Leonor Rivera, a beauteous lass whose mother hailed from Lingayen.
Basa, in fact, wrote that Rivera was Rizal’s cousin.
The father of Rivera was an engineer from Camiling who helped construct and manage the Caloocan-Dagupan Railroad.
The Rizal Day celebration, organized by the Department of Education, was attended by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.
Special guest during the commemorative program was Professor Manfred Ollik, a German national living in Dagupan and a Knight Commander of Rizal in Germany. #
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