Vicente Lim - Early Life

Early Life

He was born in the town of Calamba, Laguna, on the 24th of February, 1888, the third of Jose Ayala Lim-Yaoco’s four children. His father was a full-blooded Chinese who braided his hair in a queue. His mother, Antonia Podico, was a Chinese mestiza. But Vicente and the other Lim children, Joaquin, Olympia and Basilisa, like many of the offsprings of Filipino-Chinese marriages, grew up identifying themselves with the Filipino rather than the Chinese community. Among the friends of Jose and Antonia was the family of Jose Rizal, later recognized as the country’s national hero.

The Lim Family, like the Rizal Family, leased land owned by the Dominican Order: rice lands in Barrios Lecheria and Real and sugarland in Barrio Barandal. In 1891, recurring disputes between the Spanish administrators of the Dominican estate and the tenants over rental rates and conditions came to a head and resulted in the eviction of many tenants from their lands. Among the victims were the families Lim and Rizal.