THE WOMEN OF RIZALCHAPTER 18

SEGUNDA KATIGBAK

Segunda Katigbak, a short woman who hailed from Lipa, Batangas was considered the puppy love of Jose Rizal. However, this puppy love of Rizal was already betrothed to her towns mate, Manuel Luz. Rizal also, due to his shyness, failed to propose to her but he kept a record of his feelings and the end of his dream.

It was during one of his visits to his maternal grandmother, who lived in Trozo, Manila, hat he saw her. She was a sister of his friend, Mariano, who incidentally was his companion in the visit.

LEONOR VALENZUELA

Rizal’s admiration with Segunda Katigbak was followed by his affair with Leonor Valenzuela who was a tall lass from Pagsanjan, Laguna. Rizal used an invisible ink in writing love notes sent to Leonor. The love notes can be read only through the heat emitted by a lamp or candle. His last encounter with Leonor was when he bade her goodbye before leaving for Spain

LEONOR RIVERA

Leonor Rivera was Rizal's love for 11 years and she was the reason he tried not to fall in love with other women during his travels. But, due to Rizal's being a Propagandist and owing to the fact that he was the cause of many political problems in Calamba, Leonor's mother disapproved of the relationship. It is known that Rizal sent many letters and notes to Leonor, all of which her mother hid and never gave to her. This caused Leonor to believe that Rizal no longer had any feelings for her and she decided to agree to marrying a man of her mother's choosing - the Englishman Henry Kipping.    

Consuelo Ortega

During his stay in Madrid, Rizal and some fellow Filipino's would visit the home of Don Pablo Ortiga. They went there to visit the Don's daughters, but more specifically, Rizal went there to visit Consuela, who was considered to be the prettiest among Don Pablo's daughters. Consuela fell in love with Rizal and he even wrote a poem for her called A LA SENORITA C.O. y R. which became one of his best poems. Yet, keeping in mind that he was loyal to Leonor Rivera, he backed out before the relationship could get any more serious. Also, he knew that his friend - Eduardo de Lete – was in love with Consuela and he did not wish to destroy their friendship over a girl.    

O Sei San

O Sei San, a daughter of a Japanese samurai, taught Rizal the Japanese art of painting known as su-mie. She also taught Rizal to learn the Japanese language.

During his stay in Japan, Rizal fell in love with his guide, interpreter, and teacher in the Japanese language. It is said that if Rizal did not have a personal mission to accomplish, he would have married O-Sei San and lived in Japan for good.  

 

Gertrude Beckett

Gertrude Beckett also fell in love with Rizal but Rizal hastily left London for Paris to avoid Gertrude who was then seriously falling in love with him.

In London, while Rizal was working on his annotation of Morga's work, he stayed in the Beckette family house which was walking distance from the British Museum where Morga's work was displayed. The eldest of the Beckette sisters, Gertrude or "Gettie" as Rizal used to call her, fell in love with Rizal. He suddenly left for Paris though, in order to avoid the growing feelings between himself and Gettie. Before he left, he left Gettie a sculpture of the Beckette sisters.  

Nellie Boustead

After learning of Leonor Rivera's marriage to Henry Kipping, Rizal was able to go back to courting the other ladies. During his stay in Biarritz, Rizal stayed with the Boustead family, where he became friends with Eduardo Boustead's two pretty daughters. He would practice fencing with them at Juan Luna's studio. Antonio Luna, another frequent visitor to the Boustead residence, was trying to court Nelly but she was already infatuated with Rizal. This resulted in an ugly scene where Antonio said some bad words about Nelly while he was drunk at a Filipino hosted party in Madrid. Rizal then challenged him to a duel, but Antonio - after sobering up - realized his mistakes and apologized to Rizal and thus preventing rift among the unified Filipinos in Madrid. Unfortunately, Rizal and Nelly did not end up getting married because Rizal did not want to be converted to Protestant and Nelly's mother didn't want a poor man for ther daughter. The good thing is, they remained friends and parted as friends when Rizal left Europe.  

Suzanne Jacoby

Rizal met Suzanne Jacoby in Brussels and they were deeply in love with each other.

Due to the high cost of living in Paris during the 1890's, Rizal moved to Brussels where he stayed in a boarding house owned by the Jacoby sisters. As time passed by, they fell in love but it was for nothing since Rizal ended up leaving Brussels, though she did write him while he was in Madrid.  

Josephine Bracken

While in Dapitan, late Feb 1895, Rizal met an 18 year old Irish girl. Josephine Bracken had blue eyes, brown hair and was a happy character. She was the adopted daughter of George Taufer, a man from Hong Kong seeking medical help from Rizal. It is said that Rizal was attracted to her physically, and that his loneliness had taken over and that it was better than to be in love again. Surprisingly, the Rizal sisters thought that Josephine was a spy for the friars and considered her a "threat to Rizal's security." In time, Rizal proposed to Josephine but she wasn't prepared to make such a big choice, since she still had to look after her blind father. Unfortunately, George Taufer's illness could not be treated so he went back to Hong Kong while Josephine stayed with Rizal's family in Manila. When she returned to Dapitan, Rizal tried to arrange for their marriage with Father Antonio Obach. the priest, however, wanted a retraction as a precondition to marrying them. Thus, Rizal took Josephine as his wife even without the Church's blessing, at the urging of his family and with her consent. She later gave birth to a stillborn, believed to be the result of some incidence, and this could have traumatized her.

What is it’s implication to the national identity?

For me, the women of Rizal brings an implication to the national identity. With his mission, they served as an inspiration and motivation for him to pursue his decisions and plans to fight for the country. And it is just a normal phenomenon to an individual to be repeatedly fall in love with different woman. And this is a part of Rizal’s colorful stories with his women to make his life complete.

THANK YOU!!!!

PREPARED BY: RACHEL S. REFORSADO

BSN-III