In his letter to the young women of Malolos,

Jose Rizal gave us a lecture about what it means

to respect and empower the Filipino woman.

Did he practice
 what he
preached?
LESSON
11:
Romantic
Relationships
of Jose Rizal
Ako babaero,
no way!
SEGUNDA KATIGBAK, “Ms.
K” She was 14 and he 16.
 In his diary Rizal wrote:

“a young girl, perhaps about fourteen years old,

virginal, attractive, engaging, who received my
companion with such familiarity… she was rather
short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at
times, and languid at others, rosy-cheeked, with
and enchanting and provocative smile that
revealed very beautiful teeth, and the air of a
sylph; her entire life diffused a mysterious charm.
She was not the most beautiful woman I had ever
seen but I have not met another more alluring
and beguiling.”
“Segunda, her sister, and some schoolmates were in
the second carriage. She greeted me, smiling and
waving her handkerchief. All I did was to take off my
hat. I said nothing. My heart beat violently and I must
have turned pale. This has happened to me at the
most trying moments of my life. My tongue, so glib at
other times, falls silent when my heart overflows with
feeling. The carriage passed by swift as a shadow…
at the critical moment of my life I have always acted
against my heart’s desire, obeying contradictory
purposes and powerful doubts. I spurred my horse
and went another way without having chosen it…
ended my confident young love! Ended at an early
hour, my first love!
 Bb. L, “Ms. L.”
He was only 18.
In his diary, Rizal wrote:

I spent two nights… in visiting 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 thought followed K. through the
night to her town. If the filthiest corpse had told
me she too was thinking of me, I would have
kissed it out of gratitude.
In his diary, Rizal wrote:

I spent the last days of December in that

monotonous melancholy so much more
implacable as I could not find any other object
to distract my thought. My father, who learned
about our visits, prohibited us from continuing
them, perhaps because the name of the
oriental made did not figure in his calculations.
I did not visit her again.

LEONOR VALENZUELA,
Orang She was 14 and he 18.
In his diary Rizal wrote:

“A tall girl with a regal bearing”

LEO

NORA RIVERA, “Taimis”

 She was 14 and he 18.
In his diary, Rizal wrote:

“A slender girl, almost thin, with a high

forehead, great black eyes and a small
pursed mouth, stiff, straitlaced, but
candid…”
Once Leonor wrote to Rizal:

“Your letters have remained unanswered,

not because I had grown tired of writing to
you, for I wrote two replies, but because
nobody visited me in school when I wrote
them, so I tore them up… you do not know
the joy I feel when receive one of your dear
letter, but you did well to use another name
just in case, as you said, it fell into other
hands.”
Once Leonor wrote to Rizal:

“I shall be glad if this finds you well and happy. I

was most puzzled when I saw that you had a letter
for Papa but none for me; when they first told me, I
would not believe it because I did not expect
someone like you to do such a thing, but
afterwards I was convinced that you are like a
newly opened rose, so pink and perfumed at first,
but afterwards withering. Before, although I did not
write to you, you wrote to me, but not any longer…
(I) must tell you that I am very angry because of
what you have done and because of something
else which I shall tell you when you come.”
Goodbye to Leonor by Jose Rizal
(This was supposed to have been penned by Rizal
before his departure for Europe in 1882)

The fatal instant now has come,

My bad luck's dismal destiny;
That moment and day at last are here,
When I am going to part from thee.

Goodbye, Leonor, goodbye, for I'll leave,

I leave to thee, my loving heart;
Goodbye, Leonor, now from here I go,
Oh, absence sad, ah, how it does hurt!
 LEONOR RIVERA
She was 14 and he 18.
 CON

SUELO ORTIGA y REY He

was already 22 yrs old.
Consuelo wrote in her diary on 18 January 1883:

Rizal talked with me for a long time, almost the

whole night. He told me that I was very talented,
that I was very diplomatic, and that he was going to
see if he could extract some truth from me within
two weeks; that I was mysterious and that I had a
veil over my ideas. He asked me who my favorite
author was; I don’t know what I answered him
because I was no longer feeling well. Lete told him
that neither had he understood me and I said that it
was easy and I was sure that Rizal would
understand me forthwith. Now I’m sorry for having
said this. Have I not given him hope with it?
Consuelo wrote in her diary on 18 January 1883:

Rizal told me that he detested amiable women

because when they smiled, men imagined that they
did so for something else. As he had told me the
night before that I was very amiable, I understood
that he meant it and I left him so that he would not
make a mistake. A man should first study the
ground and if he sees that the smile is for
everybody he ought not to pay attention to her
smiles because in distributing them so freely they
lose all their meaning.
To Miss Consuelo Ortiga y Rey
(1883) (A la Señorita C. O. y R.)

Why ask for those unintellectual verses

that once, insane with grief, I sang aghast?
Or are you may be throwing in my face my
rank ingratitude, my bitter past?
Why resurrect unhappy memories
now when the heart awaits from love a
sign or call the night when day begins to
smile not knowing if another day will
shine?
You wish to learn the cause of this dejection
Delirium of despair that anguish wove? You wish
to know the wherefore of such sorrows, and why,
a young soul, I sing not of love?
Friendship with Pardo de Tavera Family
PAZ PARDO DE TAVERA
He was already 24 yrs old.
This alcohol burner was a present from Paz
Pardo because Rizal made the illustration in
some children's storybook that Paz
translated from German to English.
Rizal to Trinidad:

“Look inside. There

is something inside .
Naiintindihan mo
ako Ate?”
 (in Gallery III)
According to lore, this painting
is Juna Luna's portrait of his
wife Paz. The expression in the
lady's eyes has been a subject
of urban legend stories as it
seems to express a cry for
Portrai justice. To previous owners,
this painting is considered a
t of a Lady by Juan Luna bad luck.
 The woman is not Paz
Pardo but Angela
Duche, a French
woman who served
as Luna’s model.
PAZ PARDO DE TAVERA
 He was already 24 yrs old.
After finishing university in 1885…
From the
sales of his
first novel,
Rizal and
Viola travelled around
Europe before Rizal finally
decide
to return to the Philippine on
July 1887.
Dresden and Berlin
 Leitmeritz and
Vienna
Prague
Geneva

Rome

February 1888, Rizal had

to leave the Philippines again.

London

New York
California
HongKong
and Macau
Manila
 S

EIKO USUI, “O-Sei-San”

She was 23 and he 27.
Rizal wrote O-Sei-San:

“To you I shall dedicate the final chapter of

these memoirs of my youth. No woman like
you has ever loved me. No woman has
made such sacrifices as you have. Like the
flower of chodji that falls from the stem
whole and fresh, without bruising its petals
or withering- thus you fell. You have not lost
your purity not have the delicate petals of
your innocence faded – sayonara, good
bye!
Continued…

“You shall never know that I still think of you,

and that your image lives on in my memory;
but I shall always remember you: your name
lives in my sighs and your image accompanies
and sweetens my thoughts. When shall I
return to spend another divine afternoon like
that in the temple of Meguro? When will the
sweet hours I spent with you come back?
Where will I find them sweeter, more tranquil,
more delightful?
Continued…

“You had the color of the camellia, its

freshness, its elegance… ah, last
descendant of a noble family, faithful to an
unfortunate revenge, you are like…
everything is at an end! Sayonara, goodbye!
 GERT

RUDE BECKETT, “Gettie” She

was 24 and he 27.
Rizal told his friends:
It was Gettie, who naturally take care of me,
bringing me breakfast on tray in the mornings,
making me high English tea ready when I got
back in the evenings from the British Museum.
She also helped me prepare the clay and even
modeling for the statuettes I molded and
carved in my leisure time.
 NUDE LADY LYING DOWN (1890)
Gertrude Beckett wrote:
“You are a funny little thing. Now suppose if I
had come with you, we should have had a
dear little room and not apt [to be] fidgeting
about so… oh, I was so miserable then [when
you left]; I could not help writing to you,
nobody knew anything about it though.
Rizal wrote to a friend:

I am leaving the Beckett’s soon, perhaps

even London. I cannot deceive her. I cannot
marry her because I have other ties, but I
am not going to commit the indignity of
placing passion over the pure and virginal
love she might offer me..
 SUZA

NNE JACOBY, “Petite” He

was 29 yrs old.
Suzanne Jacoby wrote Rizal:
“Where are you now? Do you think of me once in
while? I am reminded of our tender conversations,
reading your letter, although it is cold and
indifferent. Here in your letter I have something
which makes up for your absence. How pleased I
would be to follow you, to travel with you who are
always in my thoughts.

You wish me all kinds of luck, that forget that

in the absence of a beloved one a tender heart
cannot feel happy.
Continued…

A thousand things serve to distract your

mind, my friend; but in my case I am sad lonely,
always alone in my thoughts- nothing, absolutely
nothing relieves my sorrow. Are you coming back?
That’s what I want and desire most ardently- you
cannot refuse me.

I do not despair and I limit myself to

murmuring against time which runs so fast when it
carries us toward a separation, but goes so slowly
when it’s bringing us together again.
Continued…

I feel very unhappy thinking that perhaps I might

never see you again. There will never be
another house where you will be loved as much
as in Brussels, so you, naughty man, hurry back.
 Good bye! You know with one word you can
make me very happy. Aren’t you going to write
me?

NELLIE BOUSTEAD
She was 22 and he 30.
A friend advised Rizal:

“In your letter, you repeatedly talked

of Miss Boustead… who is highly
commendable for her thorough education,
her beautiful moral and physical qualities,
and in addition for being a Filipino…

If Mademoiselle Boustead suits you,

court her, and marry her, and we are here
to applaud such a good act.”