The Women in Jose Rizals Life

(Rizals heterosexual orientation)

The women characters of Rizal were not created from thin air. Rizal had a lot
of experience with women. He grew up in a household that was predominantly
female. Aside from his mother, Doa Teodora, were his nine sisters. There were also
the servants. Outside the home were aunts, not to mention women of various ages,
sizes and nationalities that entered his life at one point or other. From his mother, a
devout Catholic, Rizal learned only too well how the institution indoctrinates so
effectively. From his sisters, Rizal got a good briefing regarding the problems of
women that are peculiar to their sex as well as the helplessness of children who
come into the world unprotected from the hazards of childbirth, diseases and a
hostile colonial society. From his sisters, Rizal learned that because women have
wombs, they are subjected to many vicissitudes. Not only did they have to contend
with a harsh colonial regime, they also had to face equally harsh of their biology.
Pregnancy was a great risk to their lives. The frequency of pregnancies and too
many children gave them no time for themselves so they could engage in
intellectual pursuits or get involved in community work.
Rizal was a keen observer of women. His diary is full of accounts of women. In
Madrid, he took note of prostitutes; in Germany he extolled the virtues of the
German women and felt so sad and apprehensive when he read advertisements of
males in America calling for domestic helpers for overseas employment and for
mail-order brides posted in the newspapers; in the Basque region he noted womens
industry; in France he observed the child-rearing practices of mother.
Considering Rizals intelligence and his exposure to the predicament of
women as a sex separate from men, his interest in them was not the usual male
interest in the female species. He saw them not as sex objects but as creatures in
need of liberation.

His first love Segunda Katigbak

He experienced the first pangs of love at sixteen after his graduation from
Ateneo with a fourteen-year old lass from Lipa, Batangas by the name Segunda
Katigbak. It was during one of his visits to his maternal grandmother, who lived in
Trozo, Manila, that he saw her. She was a sister of his friend, Mariano, who
incidentally was his companion in that visit.
Rizal described her as:
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
very beautiful teeth and the air of a sylph; her entire self-diffused a mysterious
charm.
He oftentimes visited her at La Concordia College, where his sister Olympia
was also studying. Although it was evident that they were in love with each other,
and theirs was a case of love at first sight, their love was doomed from the start,
since Segunda was engaged to marry her townmate, 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 by saying:
My virgin heart will always mourn the reckless step it took on the flower-
decked abyss. My illusions will return, yes, but with different, uncertain, ready for
the first betrayal on the path of love.

Jacinta Ibardo Laza (Miss L)

Miss L was a lady from Pakil, Laguna and believed to be Rizals tutor. She was
living at the house of Nicolas Regalado who happened to be a friend of Jose Rizal.
He described Miss L as a woman with fair and seductive eyes. After visiting her
several times, Rizal had a change of heart and gave two reasons for this namely a.
he still could not forget the sweet memories of Segunda Katigbak and b. her father
objected their relationship.

Leonor Orang Valenzuela

When Jose Rizal was a sophomore in his medical studies in University of
Santo Tomas, he boarded at the Intramuros house of Dona Concha Leyva, they lived
near Capitan Juan Valenzuela and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela, whom have three
daughters and one of them being Leonor Valenzuela. The Valenzuela household was
often visited by the students around the area who would gather to commune with
each other, and Jose Rizal was a frequent visitor at the Valenzuela house and would
often entertain his friends with card tricks. Using his knowledge in Chemistry, he
courted Leonor, sent love notes in invisible ink which could only be read when
heated over a candle lamp.

Leonor Rivera
Leonor Rivera was born in Camiling, Tarlac on April 11, 1867 to Antonio Rivera
and Silvestra Bauzon. Her father Antonio was Francisco Mercado's cousin, making
her Jose Rizal's second cousin. She studied in Colegio de la Concordia. She was
considered a beauty who also sang, and played the piano remarkably well. She is
immortalized in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere as Maria Clara. On April 1880, Paciano Rizal
accompanied the 18-year-old Rizal to their uncle Antonio Rivera's boarding house in
Intramuros where he met Leonor Rivera, who was 13 at that time. In their letters,
Rizal referred to Leonor as Taimis. And in his letters with his friends, they called her
La Cuestion del Oriente. They came up with these codes to avoid the prying eyes of
Leonor's parents and friends from discovering the romance between them. Before
Rizal's second departure in May 3, 1882, he expressed his wish to marry Leonor.
However, he was faced with the disapproval of many people from both the Rizal and
Rivera families. Don Francisco did not support Rizal, and even Paciano told him it
would be selfish to leave his Leonor behind if ever she did become his wife. Rivera's
family was concerned about Rizal's growing reputation as a Filibustero and did not
want Leonor to have anything to do with him. Rizal kept his departure a secret from
Leonor who was devastated by the news when it reached her. Rizal's friend Jose
"Chenggoy" M. Cecilio writes to Rizal about Leonor on August 3, 1882:
"There is a person who has felt deeply your absence and says that had she been
here when you left you would not have succeeded in getting away. She deserves
pity. You must have already received a letter from her by now as I write this. That
she loves you there is no doubt now."
Silvestra Rivera, Leonor's mother, intercepted letters and gifts from Rizal. It
was even rumored that she went as far as bribing postmen to prevent Leonor and
Rizal from corresponding with each other. This led to the two lovers' doubts about
each other's faithfulness. In the autumn of 1890 at Madrid, Leonor wrote to Rizal
about her engagement to British engineer Henry Kipping which was pushed forward
by her mother despite her protests. Feeling betrayed, Rizal pours his heart out to
Blumentritt who tells him, in a letter:
"My wife cannot understand how a woman whom Rizal has honored with his love
would be able to abandon him; she is disgusted with that girl. I myself feel it deeply,
but only on your account, for I know how your heart is pained; but you are one of
the heroes who conquer pain from a wound inflicted by a woman, because they
follow higher ends. You have a courageous heart and you are in love with a nobler
woman, the Motherland. Filipinas is like one of those enchanted princesses in the
German legends, who is captive of a horrid dragon, until she is freed by a valiant
knight."
Leonor married Kipping on June 17, 1890 in Dagupan, two days before Rizal's
birthday. In exchange for her consent to the marriage, she made her parents, most
especially her mother, swear upon three things. First, Silvestra Rivera must stand by
her side on her wedding day, as it is really her wedding and not Leonor's. Second,
she must not be asked to sing ever again. And lastly, her piano must stay locked up
as long as she lives. Leonor burned Rizal's letters upon the instruction of her mother
who told her that keeping another man's letters is considered a sin in a marriage. It
was also speculated that she had sewed some of the ashes of Rizal's letters into the
hem of her wedding dress. She never ceased to treasure these ashes until August
28, 1893 when she died giving birth to Kipping's second child. Leonor requested
that she would be buried in the saya she wore when she and Rizal have come to an
understanding about their relationship, and that the ashes of Rizal's letters would
be kept with her.
Upon receiving news of his sweetheart's death from his sister Narcisa on
August 1893 when he visited his family in Dapitan, it is said that Jose Rizal grew
pale and still. He sat alone for the rest of the day holding a lock of Leonor's hair, and
stayed silent for the next few days.
To this day, the ashes of Rizal's letters to Leonor Rivera are kept in a box
bearing the lovers' initials on the cover which is still kept by the Kipping family.
Leonor Rivera's descendants keep her legacy alive through the Maria Clara museum
in Tarlac, and, as guests of honor, by attend events in commemoration of Rizal.
Consuelo Ortega y Rey
Although Rizal's heart was still with Leonor, Rizal did not keep himself from
associating with other women, just as when he was in Madrid, during which his
attention was drawn to a young and beautiful Mestiza named Consuelo Ortega y
Perez.
Consuelo Ortega was the daughter of Don Pablo Ortega Y Rey, the mayor of
Manila during the governorship of Maria de la Torre, who became vice president of
the Council of the Philippines in the Ministry of Colonies in Madrid. He was so
supportive and open to the Filipinos that his house became the common meeting
place of Circulo Hispano Filipino members or the Filipino students in Madrid, one of
which was Rizal.
And that is how Rizal and Consuelo met. Rizal would visit her home and they
would have conversations together, finding joy and solace in each other's company
especially on the part of Rizal since he was lonely in a foreign land. Most of the
records between Rizal and Consuelo are found in Ortega's diary of in which she
wrote her feelings for Rizal and some of the events that suggest Rizal had feelings
for her as well, such as when Rizal gave her gifts of native clothes from the
Philippines, and wrote a poem solely dedicated to her titled, "A La Seorita C.O.y P."
or "To Miss C.O. y P." However, what was holding them back from getting into a deep
and serious relationship was a man named Eduardo de Lete, friend of Rizal who was
madly in love with Ortega. Consuelo had feelings for Lete, but she knew she was
attracted to Rizal as well. As for Rizal, he knew he liked Consuelo, but he did not
want to destroy his friendship with Lete over a girl. Therefore, he agreed with Lete
that he should keep away from Consuelo while Lete was pressing on his courtship of
Consuelo, and eventually Consuelo chose Lete over Rizal.
In one of the last conversations Rizal and Consuelo had before Rizal went back to
the Philippines, Rizal tells her he still doesn't know what she thinks of him. Consuelo
answers,
"As a friend. Would you want more?", which could have been an ambivalent answer
with restrained feelings. However, what is more ironic is the answer of Rizal who
Consuelo, "It's true that's enough."
Could it have been an answer of self-control? Or was it really that Rizal gave up on
Consuelo with no regrets at all because he did not harbor deep love for her because
of Leonor? Nonetheless, Consuelo eventually got engaged to Lete. However, soon
after the formalization of their engagement, Consuelo lost her humor. Their
marriage presumably did not push through because of the sudden death of
Consuelo's brother, Rafael, year after her father's death.
According to Lete's accounts, "She was left alone and abandoned in Madrid. A
romantic girl deprived of her mother at an early age, possessing an education rare
in those times, she saw all her love affairs crumble and all her illusions wither."
Seiko-Usui (O-Sei-San)
Seiko, also known as O-Sei-San was born in 1865 to a samurai. In Febuary
1888, Jose Rizal left Hong Kong to accept the invitation of Don Juan Perez Caballero,
secretary of the Spanish Legation to live with him in Azabu, Japan because he was
offered a position in the Spanish Legation. Rizal spent almost two months in
learning the language (Japanese), culture, and the way of life of the Japanese. He
admired the countrys cleanliness. He noticed that their homes (in japan) are clean
and that beggars were rare.
Rizal met O-Sei-San or Seiko one spring afternoon at the Spanish Legation. He
was captured by her charm and beauty. Rizal gathered information about her and
finally found out her name and that she took walks every afternoon at that place
from a gardener. O-Sei-San also knew how to speak in French and English so the
language barrier isnt a problem with the two. Seiko was impressed by Rizals wit,
charm, and admiration for the arts that eventually the two started meeting every
day and the two visited places in the city. O-Sei-San became Rizals tour guide. She
helped Rizal in learning the Japanese language.
Rizals life was already perfect in Japan, a high-paying job, a clean environment and
a loving significant other. However, his love for his country made him sacrifice his
love for Seiko. Rizal left Japan to go to San Francisco in April 1888. Rizal dedicated
an entry in his diary to show his love for Seiko and how he will never forget her.
Japan has pleased me. The beautiful scenery, the flowers, the trees and the
inhabitants so peaceful, so courteous, and so pleasant. O-Sei-San Sayonara!
Sayonara! I have spent a lovely golden month; I do not know if I can have another
one like that in all my life. Love, money, friendship, appreciation, honors these
have not been wanting. To you I dedicate the final chapter of these memoirs of
my youth. No woman, like you, have ever loved me. No woman, like you, has
sacrificed for me. Sayonara! Sayonara!

Gertrude Beckett
In May 1888 when Jose Rizal was 27 years old, he went to stay in London. At
37 Chalcot Crescent Primrose Hill, landlord Charles Beckett's eldest daughter,
Gertrude Beckett, caught our hero's attention. Gertrude was described as curvy,
having blue eyes, brown hair, rosy cheeks, and thin lips. During his stay, Rizal was
pampered with Gertrude's affections. He affectionately called her "Gettie," while she
called him "Pettie." She was often present by his side to assist him in painting and
sculpting. Despite the attention she was showering upon him, Rizal did not share
the kind of feelings towards her. Out of his loyalty to Leonor Rivera and his
"mission" to the motherland, Rizal ended their relationship before it grew into
something more serious. Rizal has been quoted to saying, "I am not going to
commit the indignity of placing passion over pure and virginal love, such as she
might offer." He finished The Triumph of Death over Life, The Triumph of Science
Over Death, Prometheus, and composite carvings of the heads of the Beckett sisters
before he left London on March 19, 1889. He left the composite carvings to Gettie as
a gift. Marcelo del Pilar says that he left London to avoid Gertrude.

Petite Suzanne Jacoby

After leaving Paris on January 28, 1890 because he was short of cash and
Paris was expensive, Rizal settled in Brussels, Belgium where it was cheap and the
architecturally impressive. He boarded with the Jacoby sisters, Marie Catherine (55)
and Suzanne (44) and their niece Suzanne (17) but whose last name was Thill. To
distinguish the two Suzannes, the aunt was called Tante Suzanne while the niece
was called Petite Suzanne. There are ongoing debates as to really was the love
interest of Rizal between the two Suzannes. Some say it was the aunt, and some
say it definitely cannot be the aunt since Rizal was 29 years old and the aunt was
44, which was around the age of his mother. Besides, all of Rizals love interests
were young women, and Rizal has even mentioned it himself that it was specifically
the young women who brightened up the days of his life.
Nevertheless, the Jacobys were delighted with Rizal's company and would
often provide him with a tranquil and congenial atmosphere, even letting Rizal try
his skills in the kitchen from where Rizal would surprise them with his arroz
valenciana. And in such a peaceful environment Rizal began to develop
affectionate sentiments toward Suzanne Jacoby; however, the relationship
presumably was not very serious since Rizal did not mention anything about it in his
letters to his intimate friends, to Blumentritt in particular. Besides, he was busy with
writing El Filibusterismo and more importantly, he was still engaged to Leonor.
However, the letters Suzanne wrote to Rizal after he departed for Madrid by
around the end of July 1890 suggest different on the part of Suzanne. She could
have harbored deep feelings of affection for Rizal, since she writes, "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/naughty boy (le petit diable) hurry up and come back."
There are a lot of theories as to why she called Rizal "le petit diable" (naughty
boy) but most of them give off sexual overtones. However, there is one unusual and
interesting theory by Flores (2013), and this theory is based on the fact that the
boarding house where Rizal stayed was just a few blocks away from Mannekin Pis, a
world famous statue built in Brussels in 1618 depicting a little boy urinating into the
fountain basin. And the name by which the locals call this statue is "le petit diable."
This leaves us imagining Rizal and Suzanne walking down the streets of where a
naughty boy is shamelessly urinating in public and making funny antics together.
This means that such contentious pet name could have been a private joke only the
two could understand. Nevertheless, Rizal left Brussels after 6 months, leaving
Suzanne brokenhearted. He never wrote back to her nor came back to her ever
again.
Nelly Boustead
Nelly Boustead is one of the two daughters of Eduardo Boustead whose
family claims Philippine citizenship since Eduardos married to a Genato family in
Manila. Nelly, has been described as an intellectual, sure of herself, vivacious, good
with foil, attractive, and serious with her religious beliefs.
Rizal had met Nelly in his frequent visits to the Boustead home along with his
friends; Graciano Lopez-Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce and Antonio
Luna. Despite Rizals affection for Nelly, he denied it when Antonio Luna, who has
been very inlove with her as well, ask him if he did like her. Antonio, therefore, tried
to believe Rizal despite the attention Nelly was giving more to him. Continuing his
pharmaceutical studies, Antonio left for Madrid and sent Rizal a letter soon
afterwards asking him for updates regarding the unresponsive Nelly. It was never
mentioned whether Rizal wrote back or not.

Josephine Bracken
Josephine Bracken came into Rizals life at the right moment and at the right
time. After a hard days work in Dapitan, he was lonely and felt that there was
something missing in his life. Boredom had always crept in and he longed for
something that he could not understand. He recalled his happy sojourn in the
various places of the world, his happy childhood in Laguna, but more poignantly the
death of Leonor Rivera.
And one day, Josephine Bracken, an Irish girl of eighteen, described as a
slender, a chestnut blond, with blue eyes, dressed with elegant simplicity, with an
atmosphere of light gayety came into his life. She was born in Hong Kong on
October 3, 1876, fifteen years younger than Rizal. Her parents were Irish, her father
a corporal in the British garrison, and mother Elizabeth Jane Macbride, who died
when she was born. She was later adopted by Mr. George Taufer, who later became
blind.
There was no ophthalmic surgeon in Hong Kong, but they had heard of the
famous one in the Philippines, so that they came to Dapitan, to seek for the services
of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. They were accompanied by a Filipina named Manuela Orlac and
presented a card of introduction by Julio Llorente, a friend and a schoolmate.
As fate would have it, Rizal and Josephine fell in love and after a whirlwind
romance, they decided to get married, but Father Obach of Dapitan refused to
marry them without the consent of the Bishop of Cebu. This reached the ears of Mr.
Taufer, who got mad and even attempted to commit suicide. To prevent further
embarrassment and untoward incidents, Josephine went with Mr. Taufer to Manila by
the first available steamer. Mr. Taufer returned to Hong Kong uncured, because his
blindness was venereal in nature and incurable, while Josephine stayed with Rizal.
Since there was no priest who would marry them, they married themselves by
holding their hands and making their vows before God. After that, they lived as
husband and wife, much to the irritation of Father Obach.
 The couple were happy and lived an idyllic life in Dapitan. To Rizal, he
found his complete. As he was used to do, he likewise wrote a poem to Josephine
which is as follows:
Josephine Josephine
Who to these shores have come
Looking for a nest, a home
Like a wandering swallow;
If your fate is taking you
To Japan, China or Shanghai
Dont forget on these shores
A heart for you beats high

Dapitan will always hold a part of Rizal, for in this territory, their premature
eight-month old baby boy who lived for only three hours was buried. Rizal was
extremely happy at the expectations of having a child, and one night played a prank
on Josephine who was frightened and gave birth prematurely.

RIZALS HOMOSEXUAL ORIENTATION

Rizal is a symbol that is heavily proliferated in our everyday life, from the
names of streets to our textbooks, from the money we use to the monuments we
see. But in all his glorious ubiquity, could we be forgetting just how much we dont
know about our national hero? Much have been said about the women in Rizals life,
but there were some issues circulating about Rizal being a homosexual. Although
there were no substantiating evidences to prove that Rizal was gay, some Filipino
scholars provided scenarios and situations in Rizals life which can indicate of his
homosexual tendencies.
Sometime during the Centennial of Rizals martyrdom, Isagani R. Cruz, local
pop-culture provocateur and professor of literature and Philippine studies at the De
La Salle University, wrote a column for the now-defunct Filmag: Filipino Magazien,
shockingly titled "Bakla ba si Rizal?". The answer to this question, if Cruz is to be
believed, is a resounding and categorical Yes! And he offers what he calls
biographical evidence in order to arrive at this questions confidently affirmative
answer.
First, Rizal was a homosexual because he was afraid of committing himself to
the revolutionary cause. Second, Rizals homosexuality made itself apparent in his
periodic failings in his relationships with the women to whom he was supposed to
have been romantically linked. We all know Rizal had a lot of women in his life
where most of them fell truly, deeply and madly in love with him. Rizal has had
several girlfriends (or lovers) in his life but none of them ended up on the altar with
him. We were all wondering what was wrong with all these beautiful women; or
what was wrong with our hero? Rizal also had a lover named Nelly Boustead whose
parents loved him for their daughter. It came to a point that Rizal would come over
to Nelly's house and stay in her room and her parents were comfortable with it. The
only thing that was missing in their relationship was marriage. Nelly wanted to
marry Rizal but Rizal refused because she was a Protestant and he was a Catholic.
But we all know that Rizal was anti-clerical so this excuse raised our eyebrows. We
could tell Rizal was anti-clerical because of his two novels, the "Noli Me Tangere"
and the "El Filibusterismo." In these two novels you could see how angry Rizal was
at the Spanish friars and basically the Roman Catholic Church for making the
Filipino's lives miserable. But that is not the only thing you would notice about the
novels. In the novels, a love story would always be present and there is the love
story of Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara. Go through their story and you wouldn't
find sex in it. There was not a discussion, not even a hint about sex in their love
story. Maybe Rizal is just really conservative but why is that he still managed to
write about a girl being raped by a friar?
Third, Rizal might not have even been the father of Josephines benighted
baby boy, sinceparaphrasing noted Rizalist historian Ambeth Ocampos feelings
on the matter of Rizals disputable paternityJosephine would seem to have been
routinely sexually abused and consequently impregnated by her stepfather. Fourth,
Rizal, unlike his compatriots, didnt go consorting in the brothels of Barcelona and
Madrid (at least, not very often). Fifth, He would write to Paciano, his brother, about
his everyday life and adventures while he was away. He would tell Paciano every
little thing down to the last detail. He was known to have never kept any secret from
Paciano so a lot of us were wondering, with all that he told Paciano, how come he
never talked about sex? We all thought about Rizal being conservative but he is still
a man, Paciano is also a man, it would be normal for them to talk about girls,
drinking and sex. But again, Rizal never did mention anything about his sexual life,
or if he even had a sexual life.
Lastly, Rizal also wrote to Blumentritt, a good friend of his, about his daily
life. Whenever he would write letters to Paciano, he would address to him as
"Paciano" and ends the letter with "Pepe"and with almost all of the peopke he wrote
to, as simple as that. But with Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, a good friend of his,
it was always different. He would address to him as "To my beloved Blumentritt." Is
it not a bit intriguing?
References:
Acibo, L.A. and Adanza, E. (1995). "Jose P. Rizal: His Life, Works and Role in the
Philippine Revolution". Rex Book Store, Manila.
Cruz, I. R. (1996, November,25). Bakla ba si Rizal?. Kritika, Filmag: Filipino
Magazine, 4(192), 19.
Fernandez, A.P. (1990). Rizal on women and children in the struggle for nationhood.
Review of Womens Studies, 2(2), 10-33. Retrieved from
journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/rws/article/viewFile/3228/3028
Ocampo, A.R. (1990). Rizal without the overcoat. Anvil Publishing, Manila.