Bro. Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (November 30, 1863 – May 10, 1897) was a Filipino nationalist, revolutionary leader and a Freemason.
Bro. Andres was born to Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro in Tondo, Manila and was the eldest of six children. His father was a tailor who served as a teniente mayor (municipal official) of Tondo while his mother (a mestiza of Spanish descent) worked in a cigarette factory. He was orphaned in his late teens - his mother died of tuberculosis in 1881 and his father followed a year after. Bro. Andres was forced to drop out of school and work to support his family. He worked as a mandatorio (clerk/messenger) for the English trading firm Fleming and Company, where he rose to become a corredor (agent) of tar and other goods. He later transferred to Fressell and Company, a German trading firm, where he worked as a bodeguero (warehouseman/agent). He also set up a family business of selling canes and paper fans. Bro. Andres was married twice. His first wife was a certain Monica who died of leprosy. His second wife was Gregoria de Jesús of Caloocan, whom he married in 1893. who would later be deeply involved in the activities of the Katipunan and would even-tually carve a name for herself in the annals of the Revolution.They had one son who died in infancy. Despite not finishing formal education, Bro. Andres was self-educated. He read books about the French Revolution, biographies of the Presidents of the United States, the colonial penal and civil codes, and novels such as Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Eugène Sue's Le Juif errant and José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
