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Loves of Rizal

The document details the romantic life of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, highlighting his relationships with various women throughout his life. Key figures include Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Rivera, and Josephine Bracken, each representing different stages and influences in Rizal's life. Despite his numerous infatuations, Rizal often faced obstacles that prevented lasting relationships, including societal expectations and personal commitments.

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31 views20 pages

Loves of Rizal

The document details the romantic life of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, highlighting his relationships with various women throughout his life. Key figures include Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Rivera, and Josephine Bracken, each representing different stages and influences in Rizal's life. Despite his numerous infatuations, Rizal often faced obstacles that prevented lasting relationships, including societal expectations and personal commitments.

Uploaded by

ralphjoshuachua10
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LOVES OF JOSE

RIZAL
Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of
the Philippines, great propagandist,
novelist, was also known to very
good in courting women, known to
be a smooth talker, Rizal charmed
these women with his intelligence,
charisma and wit. Jose Rizal had
marvelous love life during his 35
years of existence. He is a
revolutionary person and an
ilustrado. Therefore, he used to
travel different countries and nations.
Hence, he met many gorgeous
women with different races.
SEGUNDA KATIGBAK
Jose Rizal was only a young boy of sixteen when he
first fell in love, and it was with Segunda Katigbak,
a girl from Lipa, Batangas and two years his junior.

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.

According to Rizal, "She was rather short, with eyes that were
eloquent and ardent at times and languid at others, rosy-
cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that
revealed beautiful teeth, and the air of sylph; her entire self
diffused a mysterious charm.“
LEONOR “ORANG” VALENZUELA
After Segunda Katigbak, Rizal's next object of
affection was a woman named Leonor
Valenzuela. When Rizal was a sophomore at the
University of Santo Tomas and was boarding in
the house of Dona Concha Leyva in Intramuros,
he met Orang, his next-door neighbor and
daughter of Capitan Juan and Capitana Sanday
Valenzuela. She was 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.
LEONOR “LUNTIAN” 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.
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 his friendship
with Eduardo de Lete who was madly in love with Consuelo.
O SEI SAN
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.

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.
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.

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.
NELLIE BOUSTED
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.

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.
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...”

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.
JOSEPHINE BRACKEN
In the last days of February 1895, while still in Dapitan,
Rizal met an 18 years 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.

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.

Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken lived together as husband


and wife in a common law marriage in Dapitan, they had a
son named Francisco Rizal y Bracken, who was born
prematurely and died within a few hours of birth.

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