Ibe, Shyal Forciah L.

IV- BEEN
Life and Works of Rizal
Dr. Wilfredo Dalida

The Love Life of Jose Rizal

Jose Rizal is well known for being a national hero in the Philippines. He is well known for

fighting for the independence of the country during the Spanish colonization and served as role model

for the Filipinos. Almost all people know all about Rizal, how he fought for the rights of the Filipinos,

how famous he was for writing novels such as Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo and how his

life ended at the hands of the Spaniards. However, not all people know about the story behind his

intriguing love story.

Rizal can be called as a philanderer, which means that he had illicit affairs with many women

at the same time. Being a young bachelor at the age of twenty, it was natural for him to have romances

with women. Many people would ask who his first love would be. The answer to that question would

be Segunda Katigbak, a fourteen-year-old student studying in Sta. Ana, Manila. Being infatuated with

the young woman, he was completely mesmerized by her lovely smile together with her beautiful teeth.

Rizal was described to fall in love with Segunda at his first glance. Having his hopes up with getting

the young lady, he then found out that she was already engaged with another man named Manuel Luz.

Even after getting his heart broken at the thought that Segunda would end up marrying a

different man, he still was able to meet a lot of women after her. Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera,

Consuelo Ortiga, O-Sei-San, Gertrude Beckett, Suzanne Jacoby and Nelly Bousted are some of the

names of the women that Rizal had an affair with. It is not that questionable why a lot of women fell

in love with him was because he was a physician. He was also a writer and at the same time a scholar.
He had all the traits of a true gentleman. He wore elegant clothes, he had polite manners, sense of

humor was found in him and also having a high level of education were some of the reasons why

women were easily attracted to the young man.

If you would conduct a brief research about the story of Rizal, especially with the women he

had made oaths to be engaged with, you would encounter the names Leonor Valenzuela and Leonor

Rivera but you would find out later on that he ended up marrying a woman named Josephine Bracken.

Josephine and Jose met way back February of 1895 during his exile in Dapitan.

Rizal may seem to look to noble for many, him being the face of the revolution, a scholar and

a physician, he is still a normal human who falls in love like any other person. We cannot also blame

him for having so many affairs. During his time, many would agree that he is an ideal man. He is the

kind of man women would want to have. Today, Rizal’s qualities are what women are still looking for.

Most of the girls would want someone intelligent, a gentleman, dresses elegantly, and has a high sense

of humor. If ever that he is still alive today, girls would fall in line head over heels on Rizal. Even the

noblest man cannot get away with falling in love.