THE LOVERS OF RIZAL

By: Bautista, Juan Paolo A.

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RIZAL AND ROMANCE

Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, great propagandist, novelist, was also known to very good in courting women, he met quite a lot of women in his years. Known to be a smooth talker, Rizal charmed these women with his intelligence, charisma and wit.

Some label him a womanizer, in my opinion though, he had respect with all the women that he had relationships with and he never had a relationship with two women at the same time. Below is a list and a short background of the women he encountered in his short but eventful life.

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SEGUNDA KATIGBAK

She would be Rizal’s first infatuation, unfortunately she was already engaged to another man. They first met in a party in Rizal’s grandmother’s house and to Rizal, it was love at first sight. Rizal, however, knew from the very beginning that their story would not have a happy ending for she was already engaged to someone.

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LEONOR VALENZUELA

After Segunda Katigbak, Rizal’s next object of affection was a woman named Leonor Valenzuela, a tall girl of regal bearing. She was Rizal’s neighbor, regularly visiting her house during social gatherings. Rizal courted her with love notes written with invisible ink, which could only be read by heating the note over a candle.

After Rizal left for Europe however, their romance ended and she accepted suitors and attended social parties.

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LEONOR RIVERA

Being Rizal’s sweetheart for 11 years, Leonor Rivera was considered a reason as to why Rizal was prevented from falling in love with other women in his travels. She was also known to be the inspiration for one of Noli Me Tangere’s characters, Maria Clara.

Leonor’s Mother was against their relationship, often hiding the letters that Rizal sends to her. Their exchange of letters lasted 6 years, being “lovers by correspondence.

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LEONOR RIVERA

After some time, she stopped receiving letters from Rizal. She was not aware that her mother bribed two post office clerks to give her all the letters and gifts from Rizal. Leonor was forced by her mother to marry Henry Kipping, a young English engineer. He was responsible for the completion of the railroad from Bayambang to the Ferrocarril de Manila (railroad from Manila-Dagupan).

Rizal's letters to Rivera were burned and the ashes were kept inside a box covered with her dress with the letters “J” and “L” embroidered on it. It was said that Rizal couldn’t keep a serious relationship with other women as he couldn’t let go of Leonor

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CONSUELO ORTIGA

Consuelo Ortiga y Rey, the prettier of Don Pablo Ortiga’s daughters, fell in love with him. He dedicated to her A la Senorita C.O. y R., which became one of his best poems. The Ortiga's residence in Madrid was frequented by Rizal and his compatriots. He probably fell in love with her and Consuelo apparently asked him for romantic verses. He suddenly backed out before the relationship turned into a serious romance, because he wanted to remain loyal to Leonor Rivera and he did not want to destroy hid friendship with Eduardo de Lete who was madly in love with Consuelo.

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O SEI SAN/SEIKO USUI

She was the daughter of a Japanese samurai. Rizal met her when she was 23 years old, serving as his interpreter during his stay in Japan. She taught him Japanese culture, language and art.

Charmed by her beauty, elegance and intelligence, Rizal was almost tempted to stay in Japan, the Spanish Legation even offered him a lucrative job, but alas his mission was of utmost importance to him.

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O SEI SAN/SEIKO USUI

When Rizal left for the

United States, he told her in

a note that he had spent a

happy golden month with

her and that he do not know

if he can have another.

She married a British man a

year after Rizal’s execution.

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GERTRUDE BECKETT

An English girl, she was the daughter of Rizal’s landlord, Charles Beckett. After his brief stays in Japan and the United Sates, Rizal chose to live in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The eldest of three sisters, she was described as a curvy lady with cheerful blue eyes, brown hair, rosy cheeks and thin lips.

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GERTRUDE BECKETT

Her affection for Rizal was clear, she spent more time assisting him than their other boarders and showered him with all her attention. Ultimately though, Rizal backed out from the romance and decided to leave London to be away from Gertrude so that she may forget him. He did however leave a carving of the Beckett sisters and gave it to Gertrude as a gift.

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NELLI BOUSTEAD

Nellie Boustead was the daughter of the wealthy Anglo-Filipino businessman Eduardo Boustead. The Boustead family welcomed Rizal in his stay in France.

After learning of Leonor Rivera’s marriage to Henry Kipping, Rizal entertained the thoughts of courting another woman. The center of this idea would be the highly educated, cheerful, athletic, beautiful and morally upright Nellie. He even wrote to his friends his idea of proposing to her.

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NELLI BOUSTEAD

One of the more memorable things about their romance was when Antonio Luna, who made rather distasteful comments about her, and Rizal almost had a duel to the death, only being stopped when Luna apologized for his comments, conceding Nellie to Rizal in a most chivalrous way.

Unfortunately, their relationship did not end in marriage as Rizal did not want to convert to Protestantism as Nellie demanded, and when the time that Rizal had to leave had come, they parted as friends with no hard feelings.

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SUZANNE JACOBY

A Belgian lady, Rizal met her when he stayed in Brussels as the cost of living in Paris was too expensive, he stayed in a boarding house managed by two Jacoby sisters, Suzanne and Marie.

Rizal stayed in Belgium for 6 months; Suzanne was absolutely smitten with him. Rizal however did not seem to reciprocate the feelings as intensely as her. Rizal did not even mention her in his letters to his friends. When the time that Rizal had to (once again) leave, she wept, Rizal only leaving her with a box of chocolates.

Two months later, she wrote him a letter, saying “after your departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long writing us because I wear out the soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back…”

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SUZANNE JACOBY

In another one of her letters, it was clear that the affection has already become one-sided.

Rizal returned to Brussels one more time in April 1891 but not specifically for her, as he just busied himself with revising and finalizing his manuscript of El Filibusterismo.

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JOSEPHINE BRACKEN

In the last days of February 1895, while still in Dapitan, Rizal met an 18-year old petite Irish girl, with bold blue eyes, brown hair and a happy disposition. She was Josephine Bracken, the adopted daughter of George Taufer from Hong Kong, who came to Dapitan to seek Rizal for eye treatment.

Rizal was physically attracted to her. His loneliness and boredom must have taken the measure of him and what could be a better diversion that to fall in love again. But the Rizal sisters suspected Josephine as an agent of the friars and they considered her as a threat to Rizal’s security.

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Rizal asked Josephine to marry him, but she was not yet ready to make a decision due to her responsibility to the blind Taufer. Since Taufer’s blindness was untreatable, he left for Hon Kong on March 1895. Josephine stayed with Rizal’s family in Manila. Upon her return to Dapitan, Rizal tried to arrange with Father Antonio Obach for their marriage. However, the priest wanted a retraction as a precondition before marrying them. Rizal upon the advice of his family and friends and with Josephine’s consent took her as his wife even without the Church blessings. Josephine later give birth prematurely to a stillborn baby, a result of some incidence, which might have shocked or frightened her.

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During Rizal's exile in 1896, Bracken had affirmed her willingness to help Rizal's cause by joining the 'Katipunan' in Imus, Cavite. Rizal, foreseeing his death, asked Fr. Vicente Balaguer, S.J., a Jesuit priest who later detailed Rizal's last days and served as Bracken's messenger, to marry them. Some historians believe that Balaguer had married the two on 5:30 a.m. of 30 December 1896, an hour before Rizal's death at 'Bagumbayan', where she also revealed to Rizal's closest friends and family members that she was married to him.

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REFERENCES

http://www.joserizal.ph/l

v01.html

http://en.wikipilipinas.or

g/index.php/Top_10_Lov

ers_of_Jose_Rizal

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