i n t h e

o m e n
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Th e of Ri z a l
L i f Gr o u p 3
Jose Rizal standing at 4 feet and 11 inches was
only a short man but like most women, the
women in Jose Rizal’s life may have been
mesmerized by his intelligence, wit and charm.
Because of his extensive travels around the
world, he met all sorts of people, ranging from
scientists, authors, artists, and even fellow
revolutionists. In his childhood and in his travels,
he met and fell in love with numerous women,
who would become the inspiration for his
 Segunda Katigbak
In Rizal’s own words: “She was
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.”
A charming girl 14 from Lipa, Batangas and the sister of his college
friend Mariano. Rizal first saw her in his grandmother’s suburban
house in Trozo, which he used to visit on school holidays in the
company of friends. He had heard that she was already engaged, yet
he found himself drawn to her provocative smile and alluring
presence.
On Thursdays and Sundays, Rizal would visit the Colegio De
Concordia, where Segunda ang his sister Olympia boarded. He would
as to see his sister although he really wanted to see Segunda, little by
little, Rizal began to drink “the sweetest poison of love”.
Her engagement to Manuel Luz, led Rizal to relinquish his feelings
and felt constraint to speak of love.
Rizal sought the company of a local belle, the mysterious “Ms. L” in
order to forget the “Rose of Lipa” (Segunda Katigbak)
Miss L (Jacinta Ibardo
Laza)
Rizal describe her as “fair with seductive and attractive
eyes”
Young woman in Calamba. She was believed to be his teacher.
After visiting her in house several times, Rizal suddenly
stopped his wooing, and the romance died a natural death.
Rizal gave two reasons for his change of heart namely:
1. The sweet memory of Segunda is still fresh in heart
2. His father did not like the family of Miss L
 Leonor Valenzuela
A tall, pretty girl from Pagsanjan, Laguna.
During his sophomore year at the University of Santo Tomas,
Rizal boarded at the house of Dona Concha Leyva whose neighbor
were Capitan Juan and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela who had three
daughters, one of whom was Leonor “Orang” as she fondly called.
Rizal was frequent visitor in the Valenzuela house which was often
a boisterous place where students gathered to play and banter,
would entertain friends with card tricks. He 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 warm over a lamp or candle.
Orang let on that she wanted to marry a person who was a
doctor, philosopher and a surveyor all rolled on one. The Rizal
left to Europe, Jose (Chenggoy) Cecilio, tattletale-friend and
self-anointed apoderado engergico (energetic proxy) of the
hero, would carry news between the two..
Rizal would rather consider Orang as a good friend rather
than a life partner. And eventually Orang married another
man, leaving Rizal on ponder more deeply about La Cuestion
del Oriente, the code name of chenngoy and Rizal used in
their letter to another to identify Leonor Rivera and conceal
their references to her from prying eyes.
She was a frail, pretty girl “tender as a budding flower with kindly, wistful eyes.”

Leonor Rivera
 Almost simultaneous, Rizal was meeting another Leonor. The girl,
Leonor Rivera, would be his girlfriend to the next 11 years. The two
were distant cousins.
Rivera was to his ideal woman, his model Maria Clara, one of the main
characters in his first novel, “Noli Me Tangere.”
He was ready to marry her. Unfortunately, Rivera’s mother disliked
Rizal who was the earning the reputation being a dissident. The last saw
each other before Rizal left Spain in May 1882.
The Mother hid from Rivera all the letters of Rizal was sending from
Spain. After a passage of many years, thinking that Rizal was
abandoned her, Rivera sadly consented to marry Henry Kipping, an
Englishman who was her mother’s choice. Rizal was said to have cried
shamelessly when news of the wedding reached him.
Consuelo Ortiga y Pere
(Madrid, Spain)
It was Consuelo who awakened
the sparks of love in Rizal’s
heart.
Rizal used to visit the home of Don Pablo Ortiga y Rey every
Saturday evening. He and other Filipino Student played parlor games
with his two daughter, Pilar and Consuelo.
Consuelo loved Rizal. She wrote in her diary that she knew Rizal
loved her, though he did not say it. Rizal gave her flowers which she
affectionately cherished.
With great real power, Rizal did not allow the romance to go on for
two reasons:
1. He was still engaged to Leonor Rivera and he would not want
to be unfaithful to her.
2. Eduardo de Lete, his friend deeply in love with Consuelo, and
he did not want to break their friendship just for a wisp of a
girl. Thus in the summer 1833, he made a quick trip to Paris
in order to forget Consuelo.
Seiko Usui (Japan)
O-Sei-San was more that a hero’s
sweetheart.
On his second journey to Europe, Rizal passed through Japan and
United States. In Japan, Rizal began to relax , his frustration giving
away to the tingle of spring and the scent of romance. He met 23-year-
old Usui or O-Sei-San as he called her, together they spent sweet hours
and divine afternoon amidst the breathtaking cherry blossoms.
O-Sei-San was a descendant of the Japanese samurai class and their
love affair that flared for “glided month”.
Being an artist and linguist, she taught Rizal the art of Japanese
painting and improved his knowledge of Japanese language and
literature. O-Sei-San beauty and affection almost tempted Rizal to
settle down in Japan. At the same time , he was offered a good job. If
he were a man of less heroic mould, of less power, he would have
lived permanently in Japan – and happily at that with O-Sei-San; but
the then the world, in general, and the Philippines, in particular, would
 Gertrude Beckett
(Liverpool, England)
Gettie, as she was called by her family, was a buxom
English girl “with brown hair, blue eyes and pink cheeks.”
Rizal had a romantic interlude with the oldest of the Beckette
sisters- Gertrude. Rizal affectionately called her “Gettie”, in
reciprocation; she fondly called him “Pettie”.
She was attracted to the talented brown-skinned physician
boarder, and there was no doubt that she was in love with him.
Rizal being a normal man, found great delight in Gertrude’s
companionship. He was in the verge of love, himself; but, out of
loyalty to Leonor Rivera, he could not reciprocate the English
girl’s affection. He realized their friendship was drifting to a
more serious affair. It was this romantic affair which drove Rizal
to Paris in 1889, leaving London because he could not marry
Gertrude.
 Pretty niece of his landladies.
Suzanne Jacoby
(Brussels, Belgium)
In 1890, Rizal moved to Brussels because of the high cost of living in
Paris. In Brussels, he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby
sisters, Marie and Suzanne, who household included a petit niece, also
named Suzanne.
Rizal was so charming and dignified a gentleman that Suzanne, the
petit of his landladies, was attracted to him. He was lonely in a strange
country- and Leonor Rivera was so far away; naturally being a normal
young man, he found certain bliss in the company of a pretty Belgian
girl. He might have flirted with Suzanne, he could not stoop low to
deceptive amorous relationship.
Like other women- Segunda Katigbak, Orang Valenzuela, Leonor
Rivera, O-Sei-San, Gertrude Beckette, Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, and
Nellie Boustead – Suzanne fell in love with Rizal. She cried when he
left toward the end of July, 1890 for Madrid, stopping for a few days in
Nellie Boustead (Paris,
France)
The prettier and younger daughter of Eduardo Boustead.
Rizal having lost Leonor Rivera entertained the thought of courting
other ladies. While a gust of the Boustead family at their residence in
the resort city of Biarritz, he had befriended the two pretty daughters of
his host, Eduardo Boustead.
Rizal used to fence with the sisters at the studio of Juan Luna. Antonio
Luna, Juan’s Brother ad also a frequent visitors of Boustead's, courted
Nellie but she was deeply infatuated with Rizal. In a party held by
Filipinos in Madrid, a drunken Antonio Luna uttered unsavoury
remarks against Nellie. This prompted Rizal to challenge Luna into a
duel. Fortunately, Luna apologized to Rizal, thus averting tragedy for
the compatriots.
Their love affair unfortunately did not end in marriage. It failed
because Rizal refused to be converted to the Protestant faith, as Nellie
demanded and Nellie’s mother did not like a physician without enough
 Josephine
Leopoldine
Bracken
(Ireland)
Rizal’s wife and beloved whom he
called “dulce extranjera”.
While still in Dapitan, Rizal met an 18-year old petite Irish girl,
with bold blue eyes, brown hair and a happy disposition.
Bracken was the adopted daughter of George Taufer from Hong
Kong, who came to Dapitan to seek Rizal for eye treatment.
Rizal was physically attracted to her. His loneliness and boredom
must have taken the measure of him and what could be a better
diversion that to fall in love again.
The Rizal sisters suspected Josephine as an agent of the friars
and they considered her as a threat to Rizal’s security.
Rizal asked Josephine to marry him, but she was not yet
ready to make a decision due to her responsibility to the blind
Taufer. Josephine stayed with Rizal’s family in Manila. Upon
her return to Dapitan, Rizal tried to arrange with Father
Antonio Obach for their marriage. However, the priest
wanted a retraction as a precondition before marrying her.
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 gave birth prematurely to a stillborn baby, a
result of some incidence, which might have shocked or
frightened her.