Love Interests of Jose Rizal | Lecture notes Advanced Education

“RIZAL AS A LOVER: THE WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF JOSE RIZAL”

1. Segunda Katigbak y Solis: Miss K

• Linked to Rizal in 1877

• After Rizal’s graduation in Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he went to a party in his

grandmother’s house in Trozo, Manila where he first met Segunda, a Batangueña.

• Miss K was his puppy love.

• Rizal vividly portrayed her as “…short, with expressive eyes, ardent at times, and drooping

at other times, pinkish, a smile so bewitching and provocative that revealed some very

beautiful teeth”

• “… not the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I have not met another more alluring

and beguiling…”

• Their brief encounters tell that there was already an understanding of their feelings for each

other. This could be portrayed in Rizal’s words.

• “It is true that during the conversations our eyes met, and the most intense glances full of a

loving melancholy expression came to enslave my soul forever… And truth to tell we loved

each other without having declared it clearly except that we understood each other through

our glances”

WHAT WENT WRONG:

The unspoken love between them ended when Rizal heard the news that Miss K was already

engaged to Don Manuel Luz y Metra.

“I spend the night… without being able to fall sleep, distracted by my thoughts. My rebellious

heart… refused to express itself and thus to submit, fearful perhaps of confiding its happiness to

hands so frail”

“My virgin heart will always mourn reckless step it took… my illusions will return, yes, but

indifferent, uncertain, ready for the betrayal on the path of love… I realized that she was the woman

who satisfied completely the yearnings of my heart, and I told myself that I lost her”

2. Miss L

• Some biographers of Rizal would say that Miss L might be Doña Concepcion Leyva, the

daughter of his landlady when he boarded as a sophomore medical student in UST.

• Others say she might also be Vicenta Ybardo Laza, a pretty college girl from Pakil, Laguna

whom he met when he went for a pilgrimage in 1881 (four years after he parted ways with

Miss K)

• The name Miss L appeared in his diary:

“I spent the two nights that followed this day in visiting, together with L., a young woman who

lived toward the east in a little house at the right. She was a bachelor girl older than we were. She

was fair, with seductive and attractive eyes. She, or we, talked about love but my heart and my

thought followed K. through the night to her room”

Partial preview of the text

Download Love Interests of Jose Rizal and more Lecture notes Advanced Education in PDF only on Docsity!

“ RIZAL AS A LOVER: THE WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF JOSE RIZAL ”

1. Segunda Katigbak y Solis: Miss K - Linked to Rizal in 1877 - After Rizal’s graduation in Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he went to a party in his grandmother’s house in Trozo, Manila where he first met Segunda, a Batangueña. - Miss K was his puppy love. - Rizal vividly portrayed her as “…short, with expressive eyes, ardent at times, and drooping at other times, pinkish, a smile so bewitching and provocative that revealed some very beautiful teeth” - “… not the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I have not met another more alluring and beguiling…” - Their brief encounters tell that there was already an understanding of their feelings for each other. This could be portrayed in Rizal’s words. - “It is true that during the conversations our eyes met, and the most intense glances full of a loving melancholy expression came to enslave my soul forever… And truth to tell we loved each other without having declared it clearly except that we understood each other through our glances” WHAT WENT WRONG : The unspoken love between them ended when Rizal heard the news that Miss K was already engaged to Don Manuel Luz y Metra. “I spend the night… without being able to fall sleep, distracted by my thoughts. My rebellious heart… refused to express itself and thus to submit, fearful perhaps of confiding its happiness to hands so frail” “My virgin heart will always mourn reckless step it took… my illusions will return, yes, but indifferent, uncertain, ready for the betrayal on the path of love… I realized that she was the woman who satisfied completely the yearnings of my heart, and I told myself that I lost her” 2. Miss L - Some biographers of Rizal would say that Miss L might be Doña Concepcion Leyva, the daughter of his landlady when he boarded as a sophomore medical student in UST. - Others say she might also be Vicenta Ybardo Laza, a pretty college girl from Pakil, Laguna whom he met when he went for a pilgrimage in 1881 (four years after he parted ways with Miss K) - The name Miss L appeared in his diary: “I spent the two nights that followed this day in visiting, together with L., a young woman who lived toward the east in a little house at the right. She was a bachelor girl older than we were. She was fair, with seductive and attractive eyes. She, or we, talked about love but my heart and my thought followed K. through the night to her room”

3. Leonor Valenzuela: Winsome Orang - Linked to Jose Rizal in 1878 - Next door neighbour of Rizal when he boarded un the house of Doña Concha Leyva in Intramuros, Manila back when he was a sophomore medicine student. - Leonor Valenzuela, described by Rizal as “a tall girl with a regal bearing” was from Pagsanjan. Rizal send her love notes written in invisible ink, that could only be deciphered over the warmth of the lamp or candle. He visited her on the eve of his departure to Spain and bade her a last goodbye. The continuity of their affair became possible through his friend, Jose Cecilio. WHAT WENT WRONG: Rizal seemed not to have loved Orang so much because he found another Leonor in his life- Leonor Rivera. In 1884, Ceferino de Leon, a classmate of Jose Rizal wanted to court Leonor Rivera but knowing that she was Rizal’s fiancée, he abstained from declaring his love. When he fancied Orang, he also heard that she, too, was Rizal’s fiancée. This made him conclude that Rizal is a man of doble Leonor.

Leonor Rivera: Taimis
- Linked to Rizal in 1878 to 1890
- Leonor Rivera, his sweetheart for 11 years played the greatest influence in keeping him from falling in love with other women during his travel.
- She was 13 and was studying at Colegio de la Immaculada Concepcion de la Concordia (same school with Segunda Katigbak) when she met Rizal when he boarded in Casa Tomasina, a student boarding house in Intramuros during junior year as a medical student in UST.
- She was the daughter of Rizal’s uncle Antonio Rivera
- Rizal described her as a “frail, beautiful girl, tender as a budding flower with kindly beautiful eyes”
- Rizal’s stay in the Casa gave him the chance to know more about Leonor that later blossomed into a meaningful relationship.
- When Rizal decided to study in Spain, he left without saying goodbye.
- Their separation cause Leonor great sadness to the point that she was always sickly WHAT WENT WRONG: Unfortunately, Leonor’s mother disapproved of her daughter’s relationship with Rizal, who was then a known Filibustero. She hid from Leonor all letters sent to her sweetheart. Leonor believing that Rizal had already forgotten her, sadly consented her to marry the Englishman Henry Kipping, her mother’s choice. During her wedding, Taimis even sewed some of the ashes of the letters of Rizal, which she burned and kept in a silver box, into the hem of her wedding dress. Leonor bore a son named Carlos and died giving birth to a daughter after being married to Kipping for two years.

Rizal suddenly left London for Paris to avoid Gertrude, who was seriously in love with him. Before leaving London, he was able to finish the group carving of the Beckett sisters. He gave the group carving to Gertrude as a sign of their brief relationship. But more than this, Rizal admitted another reason for leaving the place in his letter to Antonio Ma. Regidor: “I cannot deceive her. I cannot marry her because I have other ties which remind me of our country and do not permit me to marry her. I am not going to commit the indignity of placing passion over a pure and virginal love such as she might offer me.”

8. Suzanne Jacoby Thill: Petite - Linked to Rizal in 1889 - In 1890, Rizal moved to Brussels because of the high cost of living in Paris. In Brussels, he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby sisters- Caterina and Suzanna. They had a niece also named Suzanna who is often referred to as “little Suzanne” who became his love interest. In time, they fell deeply in love with each other. Suzanne cried when Rizal left Brussels and wrote him when he was in Madrid. WHAT WENT WRONG : His stay in Brussels was short lived because of the sad news about the case of his father. He went back to Madrid and upon his arrival, he received a letter from Leonor Rivera in which he learned that his girlfriend of 11 years was about to marry an English engineer. Suzzane wrote to Rizal: “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 that in Brussels, so my little bad boy, hurry and come back” 9. Nellie Boustead - Linked to Rizal in 1891 - Rizal having lost Leonor Rivera, entertained the thought of courting other ladies. While a guest of the Boustead family at their residence in the resort city of Biarritz, he had befriended the two pretty daughters of his host, Eduardo Boustead. Rizal used to fence with the sisters at the studio of Juan Luna. Antonio Luna, Juan’s brother and also a frequent visitor of the Bousteads, courted Nellie but she was deeply infatuated with Rizal. In a party held by Filipinos in Madrid, a drunken Antonio Luna uttered unsavory remarks against Nellie Boustead. This prompted Rizal to challenge Luna into a duel. Fortunately, Luna apologized to Rizal, thus averting tragedy for the compatriots. WHAT WENT WRONG : Their love affair unfortunately did not end in marriage. It failed because Rizal refused to be converted to the Protestant faith, as Nellie demanded and Nellie’s mother did not like a physician without enough paying clientele to be a son-in-law. The lovers, however, parted as good friends when Rizal left Europe.

10. Ma. Josephine Bracken y Leopoldine: Miss B - Linked to Rizal in 1895 - 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. - 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 Hong 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.

Love Interests of Jose Rizal, Lecture notes of Advanced Education

Related documents

Partial preview of the text

Download Love Interests of Jose Rizal and more Lecture notes Advanced Education in PDF only on Docsity!

“ RIZAL AS A LOVER: THE WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF JOSE RIZAL ”