The Loves of Rizal
A Library Research Presented to Dr. Rosalinda Virgula
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Finals in SSCI 003
Submitted By: Baggao, Shidel V. Paa, Kim Genevie B.
September 28, 2012
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Acknowledgment
The researchers would like to extend their deepest gratitude to all those who have helped them in completing this research. To the University librarian who had given them the access to use all the materials available in the library. To their Professor, Dr. Rosalinda Virgula who guided them in doing a research work. To their parents and friends who served as their inspirations as well as for the moral and financial support needed in completing the research. Above all, to their Creator, who showered them the strength, wisdom and knowledge in undergoing this endeavor.
The Researchers: Baggao, Shidel V. Paa, Kim Genevie B.
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Introduction
The research is about in recalling Rizal’s affairs of the heart, his popular image as the demigod that stripped and revealed to be human after all. I. Background of the study The political odyssey of Dr. Jose Rizal to lead his inert and grieving people toward nationhood was a lifelong mission that ended 103 years ago in a hail of bullets. In the maelstrom that it spawned, there were interludes when his exhausting journey was soothed with the balm of affection and romance. The full course of Rizal’s life and career would likewise flow with two other currents of love: his deep filial attachment to his mother, Do ña Teodora Alonso y’ Realonda, and his consuming love for his country.
II. Objectives 1. To know who the girls were who caught Rizal’s eye. 2. To seek out Rizal’s traits pertaining to love. 3. To provide information about Rizal’s affairs. 4. To know the reason for the failure of his love life. III. Statement of the Problem 1. Why people at present, especially students are curious about the loves of Rizal? 2. Who were the ladies came at varying crossroads in Rizal’s life? 3. What were the personalities of Rizal that made every lady fell in love with him? 4. What were the reasons for the failure of Rizal’s love life? IV. Significance of the Study This study is significant because it can help us to know more about Rizal’s affairs to every lady that he met in his journey or travel in every country he visited. It can give us additional knowledge that we can apply in our daily lives. We can discover things that Rizal did during his time in his love life. We can also gain lessons in handling relationships like how he handled it. Definition of Terms:
Demigod- offspring of a god and a mortal; hero Maelstrom- violent whirlpool off Norwegian coast; irresistible (destructive) force Amorous- loving; inclined to make love Excursion- a pleasure trip; a short tour
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Presentation
People at present, most especially the youth or the students are very curious about the loves of Rizal because they thought that Rizal had many affairs with different ladies that he met during his travels and visits in different countries. They always asked questions in their minds that who really Rizal is when it is all about love. But one thing is for sure, Rizal is also like us, a person who have a right to loved and be loved by people. There were Julia, Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera, O-Sei-San, Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, Gertrude Beckett, Suzanne Jacoby, Nelly Boustead and Josephine Bracken. They came at varying crossroads in Rizal’s life. And with varying passion and devotion, he would remember each in his heart and works. The first girl who caught the young Rizal’s e ye was Julia or Minang as she was called in the hero’s account of the incident. He met her by accident at a Los Baños stream a few days after Easter, 1877. First hearing her sweet song, he discovered her as she was taking a bath in red tapis, her long hair cascading down her shoulders. She was about 14 and Rizal 15, two teenagers who were just awakening to the tender murmurs of the heart. Months later, Rizal would meet Segunda Katigbak, a charming girl of 14 from Lipa, Batangas and the sister of his college friend Mariano. He had heard that she was already betrothed, yet he found himself drawn to her provocative smile and alluring presence. Rizal was invited by Segunda’s father to accompany them to Lipa but Segunda’s betrothed, her townmate Manuel Luz, was with the entourage and Rizal declined. Segunda passed from his life like the carromatas that sped to Lipa. Seized with melancholy and regrets, Rizal picked his way back home. During his sophomore year at the University of Santo Tomas, Rizal boarded at the Intramuros house of Doña Concha Leyva whose neighbors were Capitan Juan and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela. The Valenzuelas had three daughters, one of whom was Leonor or Orang as she was fondly called. Rizal began to pay special attention to Orang, escorting her and writing her notes in invisible ink, a mixture of common table salt and water, which became visible only when warmed over a lamp candle. Eventually, Orang married another man, leaving Rizal to ponder more deeply about La Cuestion del Oriente, the code name. Sometime in 1880, while Rizal was in his third year of medical studies, he boarded at the Casa Tomasina in Intramuros which was managed by relatives Antonio and Silvestra Rivera whom he called, respectively, Tio Antonio and Tia Betang. The couple had a daughter, Leonor Rivera, whom Rizal had long known, aacording to Asuncion Lopez Bantug, as a childhood playmate. She was only 15 when Rizal left for Europe and they correspond for another six years. But Leonor and Rizal were fated never to meet again. Leonor sent a last letter to Rizal telling him that she would marry Kipping upon her mother’s supplications.
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In Europe, Rizal’s innermost thoughts continued to return to Leonor. The hero, however, human as he was, did not bar himself from associating with other women. In Madrid, his attention was drawn to Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, daughter of Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey, mayor of Manila during Philippine governorship of Carlos Maria de la Torre. Rizal, Eduardo de Lete and the Paterno brothers, all friends, vied for Consuelo’s affection. Rizal gave her gifts of native cloths, Paris music sheets, and the first flower from a houseplant, and a poem the hero composed for her. Consuelo’s heart, however, was divided between Rizal and Lete who was deeply in love with Consuelo. Lete won the heart of Consuelo. On his second journey to Europe, Rizal passed through Japan and the United States. In Japan, Rizal began to relax, his frustrations giving way to the tingle of spring and the scent of romance. He met 23-year-old Usui Seiko, or O-Sei_san as he called her, and together they spent hours and divine afternoons amidst breathtaking cherry blossoms. The affection of the Rost family was not the only attachment that warmed the heart of Rizal. His landlord had four daughters and two sons, the eldest daughter being Gertrude Beckett. Being close together brought Gertrude and Rizal toward more romantic sentiments for each other. Gettie was giving him much attention and he was responding. As the spring 1889 approached, however, Rizal got worried because Gettie was falling in love with him and their romance might cross the threshold of regret. Rizal leave Gettie hurriedly and for two years, Gettie wrote to Rizal but he did not respond as often to her letters. In the Paris, the expatriate Filipinos often visited the home of the affluent Eduardo Boustead family at 3 Rue de Bassins, in the same manner that the residence of Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey was frequented by the paisanos in Madrid. The Bousteads had two daughters, Adelina & Nelly. The latter was an intellectual, sure of herself, vivacious, good with the foil, attractive, and serious with her religious beliefs. Rizal denied he was inlove with Nelly and he encouraged Antonio to continue courting her because Antonio fell madly in love with Nelly. Rizal, however, would not stay long in Paris, not because he and Nelly were getting too close for comfort as in the case of Gertrude Beckett in London, but for more mundane reasons. Brussels was cheap and the Belgian capital was beautiful and architecturally impressive. He boarded with the Jacoby sisters, Marie and Suzanne, whose household included a niece, also named Suzanne. To distinguish the two Suzannes, the aunt was called Tante Suzanne while the niece was nicknamed Petite Suzanne. The finger of historical rumor, according to Leon Ma. Guerrero, points at Tante Suzanne. She seemed to be liking Rizal much more than as a boarder and was probably falling in love with him. As before, however, Rizal did not wish to be drawn into temporary attachments. Besides, he was still engaged to Leonor. Into this world of enclosing darkness, 18-year-old Josephine Bracken unexpectedly stepped in. In Feb. 1895, she brought to Dapitan her adoptive father, George Taufer, to seek a cure for his blindness from Rizal who had acquired a reputation as an ophthalmologist.
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Rizal and Josephine soon fell in love with each other and later applied for marriage, but because of his bad reputation from his own writings and political stance, the local priest Father Obach, only agreed to hold the ceremony if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu. He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism. His mother suggested a civil marriage who believed it as a lesser sacrament, and would be less sinful to Rizal’s conscience than making any sort of political retraction in order to gain permission from the Bishop. He, nonetheless, considered Josephine to be his wife and the couple lived together in Barangay Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a child who was born prematurely, Francisco Rizal y Bracken who died after only few hours. Rizal was a very loving and a gentleman person that’s why every lady fell in love with him. He’s such a handsome and an ideal guy having his intelligent. Everything is in him that every woman can find. But Rizal had many failures in his love life before he met totally his wife Josephine Bracken. He has always a rival in every girl he liked. There are also hindrances especially when he left his first love Leonor Rivera and at the same time his cousin. He did not have any attachments in every girl he met because he knew to himself that he is still engaged. To recall Rizal’s attachment with women, therefore, is to open another window into his soul and allow us to glimpse the man who, like everyone else, struggled to overcome human frailty. For Rizal was not a born hero. To focus solely on his heroic deeds is to miss a great lesson of his life- that of surmounting weaknesses and temptations that life, invariably and inevitably, sends everyone’s way.
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Reference/s
The Loves of Rizal and Other Essays on Philippine History, Art and Public Policy by Pablo S. Trillana III and New Day Publishers. Published by New Day Publishers- 11 Lands Street, VASRA/ P.O Box 1167, 1100 Quezon City
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Summary/Conclusion
Rizal gave them all a measure of his love and affection. And all, in return, gave him their own measure of the same. From these relationships, fleeting or intense, would emerge some of the most enduring fragments of Rizal’s colorful life. He gave and received affection, and, like everyone else, felt the joy, anguish or regret of Cupid’s arrow. Amorous excursions, experience tells us, can sometimes render the lover a diminished person. Not Rizal. In his case, love’s powerful emotions made for a sharper character, a heightened strength and definition, allowing us to view his entire life as both heroic and human. “Chased” rather that “Chaste” seems to be a more appropriate description of the national hero’s amorous encounters, considering how women here and abroad were irresistibly drawn to him like moths to the lights. His many encounters ranged from the teenager Julia to a string of flirtatious and serious relationships that included his great love, Leonor Rivera. Yet chaste he did remain or claims up until he met Josephine Bracken who became what we call a “live-in” partner. Always underlining Rizal’s romances was his intense devotion to his mother and country. In the final analysis, Rizal never married any of his loves because he had already married his native land.
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Table of Contents
Title Page------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i Acknowledgment--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii Table of Contents--------------------------------------------------------------------------- iii Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Background of the Study Objectives Statement of the Problem Significance of the Study Definition of Terms Presentation---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Conclusion/Summary----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Reference/s----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
