Andres Bonifacio was born in Tondo, Manila, on November 30, 1863. He grew up in the slums and knew from practical experience the actual conditions of the class struggle in his society. Bonifacio's mother, Catalina de Castro, a native of Zambales, was a mestiza born of a Spanish father and a Filipino-Chinese mother. She worked as a supervisor in a cigarette factory. His father, Santiago, was a tailor, a boatman and a local politician who served as Tondo’s teniente mayor.
He learned his alphabet in 10 years through his mother's sister and he was first enrolled in a private school of one Guillermo Osmeña where he learned Latin and mathematics though his normal schooling was cut short when he dropped out at about fourteen years old to support his siblings after both of their parents died of illnesses one year apart.
Not finishing his normal education, Bonifacio enriched his natural intelligence with self-education.
Absorbing the teachings of classic rationalism from the works of José Rizal, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Eugène Sue's The Wandering Jew, books on the French Revolution, and the lives of the presidents of the United States, Bonifacio acquired an understanding of the dynamics of the sociohistorical process. This led him to join the Liga Filipina, which Rizal organized in 1892 for the purpose of uniting and intensifying the nationalist movement for reforms.
When the Liga was dissolved upon the arrest and banishment of Rizal, Bonifacio formed the Katipunan in 1892 and thus provided the rallying point for the people's agitation for freedom, independence, and equality. The Katipunan patterned its initiation rites after the Masonry, but its ideological principles derived from the French Revolution and can be judged radical in its materialistic-historical orientation. The Katipunan exalted work as the source of all value. It directed attention to the unjust class structure of the colonial system, the increased exploitation of the indigenous population, and consequently the need to affirm the collective strength of the working masses in order to destroy the iniquitous system.
When the society was discovered on August 19, 1896, it had about 10, 000 members. On August 23 Bonifacio and his followers assembled at Balintawak and agreed to begin the armed struggle. Two days later the first skirmish took place and a reign of terror by the Spaniards soon followed.
Conflict split the rebels into the two groups of Magdiwang and Magdalo in Cavite, on Luzon. Bonifacio was invited to mediate, only to be rebuffed by the clannish middle class of Cavite. Judging Bonifacio's plans as divisive and harmful to unity, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, the elected president of the provisional revolutionary government, ordered the arrest, trial, and execution for "treason and sedition" of Bonifacio and his brothers.
On May 10, 1897, Bonifacio was executed. Contrary to the popular view, the cause of Bonifacio's tragic death at the hands of other Filipino rebels cannot be solely attributed to his own personal pride. Rather, the correlation of class forces and the adventurist tendency of Bonifacio's group led to his isolation and subsequently to Aguinaldo's compromises with the American military invaders.
Andres Bonifacio was a Filipino revolutionary hero, founded the Katipunan, a secret society which spearheaded the uprising against the Spanish and laid the groundwork for the first Philippine Republic.
Despite popular recognition of Rizal as "the Philippine national hero", the title itself has no explicit legal definition in present Philippine law. Rizal and Bonifacio, however, are given the implied recognition of being national heroes because they are commemorated annually nationwide – Rizal Day on December 30 and Bonifacio Day on November 30.
In 1892 Bonifacio was one of the founding members of José Rizal's La Liga Filipina, an organization which called for political reforms in Spain's 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 organizing local chapters in Manila. He would become the chief propagandist of the revived Liga.
La Liga Filipina contributed moral and financial support to the Propaganda Movement of Filipino reformists in Spain.
On the night of July 7, 1892, the day after Rizal's deportation was announced, Bonifacio and others officially "founded" the Katipunan, or in full, Kataastaasang Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan ("Highest and Most Respected Society of the Country's Children"; Bayan can also denote community, people, and nation). The secret society sought independence from Spain through armed revolt.
Andrés Bonifacio was a member of Freemasonry with the lodge Taliba headed by Jose Dizon; and his pseudonym was Sinukuan, possibly taken from a Philippine mythological character Maria Sinukuan.
Bonifacio was blessed with good hands in craftsmanship and visual arts that he made canes and paper fans, which he and his young siblings sold, and he made posters for business firms. This became their thriving family business that continued on when the men of the family, Andres, Ciriaco, Procopio and Troadio, became employed with private and government companies which provided them decent living condition.
Andres Bonifacio was married twice: first to a certain Monica of Palomar. She was Bonifacio's neighbor in Tondo. Monica died of leprosy and they had no recorded children.
In 1892 Bonifacio, a 29-year-old widower, met the 18-year-old Gregoria de Jesús, through his friend Teodoro Plata who was her cousin. Gregoria, also called Oriang, was the daughter of a prominent citizen and landowner from Caloocan. Gregoria's parents did not agree at first to their relationship as Andrés was a freemason and freemasons were then considered enemies of the Catholic church. Her parents eventually gave in and Andrés and Gregoria were married through a Catholic ceremony in Binondo Church in March 1893 or 1894. The couple also were married through Katipunan rites in a friend's house in Sta. Cruz, Manila on the same day of their church wedding.
They had one son, born in early 1896, who died of smallpox in infancy.
He was a tailor, a boatman and a local politician who served as Tondo’s teniente mayor.
She was a native of Zambales, was a mestiza born of a Spanish father and a Filipino-Chinese mother. She worked as a supervisor in a cigarette factory.
(born on early 1896, died in infancy)
(9 May 1875 – 15 March 1943)
(c. 1880–1890, her death)
