Joae Rizal may have been identified with a lot of women but the only woman he loved was Leonor Rivera.
For those who requested the photos and write-ups about these loves of Rizal, consider this a a tribute to the National Hero.
LEONOR RIVERA
He wrote her several letters which did not reach Leonor Rivera because they were hidden by her mother. It was then she decided to marry her mother's choice.
Parang pelikula di ba?
Segunda Katigbak
All of us go through the pupply love phase (except for Senador, the teener who dried his puppy in a clothesline). Segunda Katigbak was that woman who was described as the puppy love of Jose Rizal. She was the first mentioned his biography. But poor Jose, Segunda Katigbak was engaged to be married to Manuel Luz.
The ancestral home of Segunda Katigbak was turned into a museum by her great great grandchildren.
Leonor Valenzuela
Leonor Valenzuela, a tall lady with regal bearing was a neighbor of Jose Rizal's landlady , Dona Concha Leyva in Intramuros. He was a sophomore at the University of Sto. Tomas when he met this lady who was a daughter of Juan and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela from Pagsanjan, Laguna.
Rizal, a medical student from Calamba, was welcomed in the Valenzuela home. He courted Leonora whose nickname was Orang by sending love notes written in invisible ink. He even taught the lady how to read the invisible ink. Jose Rizal may not be ready for commitment yet so he did not propose marriage to Leonor.
O Sei San
If Rizal had succumbed to the love of a Japanese girl named O Sei San, we will not have a national hero. But he loved Leonor Rivera very much so that he turned down the job offered to him in Japan and settled with O Sei San a daughter of a Japanese Samurai. She felt madly in love with Jose Rizal that she taught him the Japanese language and the art of painting.
Gertrude Beckett
In fairness to Joe Rizal, he did not take advantage of the women who felt in love with him.
In a boarding house where he he lived owned by the Becketts while he was annotating the Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, there were three Beckett daughters. One of them was a blue eyed and buxom girl named Gertrude known as Tottie. She was in love with him that she taught him painting and sculpture.
The feeling was not mutual though so to avoid being misinterpreted, Rizal left London for Paris. He gave her a carving as a gift and remembrance.
Suzanne Jacoby
He did not stay long in Paris. He moved to Brussels where he lived in a boarding house owned by the Jacoby family.
One of the daughters, Suzanne felt deeply in love with him. It appeared that Jose Rizal had a love affair with her until he left for Madrid.
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.
Love triangle heh?
Nellie Boustead
It was only when he received the news of the marriage of Leonor Rivera to an Englishman, that Jose Rizal decided to court other ladies.
In the studio of Juan Luna he met one of the Boustead sisters who was deeply infatuated with him. She invited him to their residence in the resort city of Biarritz.
It could be his being a gentleman or he must have developed feelings towards Nellie that Jose Rizal challenged Antonio Luna for a duel when the latter uttered unsavory remarks against the woman. Luna apologized when he sobered up.
He did not marry Nelly, however. Her parents would like him to convert to Protestantinism. Aside from the religion issue, the mother thought that lowly of him even if he were a doctor without clientele.
Kontrabida rin.
Josephine Bracken
Jose Rizal met Josephine Bracken in Dapitan in 1895. She was an eighteen year old Irish girl with blue eyes and brown hair.She came from Hongkong together with her foster father, George Taufer and a 40-year old lady from Macau (Francesca Spencer). The 63-year old blind American widower and machinist from New York City sought the help of Rizal for his eye problem.
Due to his boredom and loneliness in Dapita, Rizal must have fallen in love with the foreigner.
Rizal asked Josephine to marry him. Josephine did not decide yet not until George Taufer left for Hongkong since his eye problem was untreatable. Josephine came back from Hong Kong and stayed with Rizal's family.
Upon her return to Dapitan, Rizal tried to get the permission of the Church thru Father Antonio Obach to marry her.
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.
Dr. Rizal's sister named the baby, Francisco in honor of their father. Josephine, on the other hand, preferred the name Peter for her son. The baby was buried somewhere in the Gazebo (Glorieta), the favorite working place of Dr. Rizal, which was part of the improvements he made in Dapitan.
Josephine and Rizal were with Fr. Victor Balaguer, S.J. as the officiating priest. This was at 5:30 a.m. on December 30, 1896, about two hours before he was shot at Bagumbayan (now Rizal Park).
After the execution of Rizal, Josephine joined Paciano and Trinidad Rizal (her brother- and sister-in-law, the latter a Katipunera and a Mason)to join the Katipuneros.
She was billeted at the Tejeros estate house which she converted into a field hospital for the revolutionists. Together with the women of San Francisco de Malabon, Josephine took care of the sick and wounded Filipino soldiers from the battlefields.
She acted as the morale booster of the soldiers while making day and night rounds of the sick at the hospital. Josephine Bracken was an actual witness to the Tejeros convention of March 22, 1897.
On December 15, 1898, Josephine Bracken remarried, this time to another Filipino, Vicente Abad, a businessman whom she met in Hong Kong. They came back to the Philippines where Josephine taught English in a school where the future president of the Philippines, Sergio Osmena was one of her famous students.
In her second marriage, Josephine had a child named Dolores (nicknamed Pichay). Some of the Abads, all mestizos, claimed that Pichay was not a daughter of Vicente but of Dr. Rizal.
Pinaysaamerika
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