The loves

of Rizal
Segunda
Katigbak
 Pepe experienced his first sweet poison of love in
the personality of Segunda Katigbak. He first met Segunda
in Manila, she was with her fiancée and cousin Manuel
Luz. Segunda came from the richest family in Lipa, she
was destained to marry her cousin Manuel who was also
part of the wealthiest family of Lipa. In her first meeting
Pepe noticed the charming personality of Segunda and to
justify the feelings of Rizal towards Segunda inspite of his
knowledge that she was already engaged, he said that
Segunda showed to him her provocative smile.
For a year Pepe visited Segunda in her dormitory and she would
make flower roses for Pepe. Jose couldn’t express his true feeling
for Segunda because of her engagement.
when the parent of Segunda found out about the constant
visit of Pepe to their daughter they asked Segunda to go back to
Lipa. And until the last moment Pepe did not admit to Segunda
his true feelings. Even after the wedding of Segunda and Manuel,
Pepe would go to Lipa and waited until Segunda would go o the
window and he would stay there just to see even the glimpse of
Segunda. According to Rizal’s diary, he bore the heartache that
Segunda brought him for two years. The feelings that he had no
courage to admit.
 Leonor
Valenzuela
Leonor Valenzuela – who came from
Pagsanjan. Rizal would send her love
letters written with invisible ink, which
could only be read by way of lamp or
candle light. Unfortunately, he had to
say goodbye to her on the night before
he left for Spain.
Leonor
Rivera
 Leonor Rivera was Rizal’s love for 11 years and she was
the reason he tried not to fall in love with other women
during his travels. But, due to Rizal’s being a Propagandist
and owing to the fact that he was the cause of many
political problems in Calamba, Leonor’s mother
disapproved of the relationship. It is known that Rizal sent
many letters and notes to Leonor, all of which her mother
hid and never gave to her. This caused Leonor to believe
that Rizal no longer had any feelings for her and she
decided to agree to marrying a man of her mother’s
choosing – the Englishman Henry Kipping.
 Consuelo
Ortiga Y Perez
 During his stay in Madrid, Rizal and some fellow
Filipino’s would visit the home of Don Pablo Ortiga.
They went there to visit the Don’s daughters, but
more specifically, Rizal went there to visit Consuela,
who was considered to be the prettiest among Don
Pablo’s daughters. Consuela fell in love with Rizal and
he even wrote a poem for her called A LA SENORITA
C.O. y R. which became one of his best poems.
Yet, keeping in mind that he was loyal to Leonor
Rivera, he backed out before the relationship
could get any more serious. Also, he knew that
his friend – Eduardo de Lete – was in love with
Consuela and he did not wish to destroy their
friendship over a girl.
O Sei San
 During his stay in Japan, Rizal fell in love with
his guide, interpreter, and teacher in the Japanese
language. It is said that if Rizal did not have a
personal mission to accomplish, he would have
married O-Sei San and lived in Japan for good.
Gertrude
Beckett
 In London, while Rizal was working on his
annotation of Morga’s work, he stayed in the Beckett
family house which was walking distance from the
British Museum where Morga’s work was displayed.
The eldest of the Beckett sisters, Gertrude or “Gettie”
as Rizal used to call her, fell in love with Rizal. He
suddenly left for Paris though, in order to avoid the
growing feelings between himself and Gettie. Before
he left, he left Gettie a sculpture of the Beckett sisters.
 Nellie
Boustead
 After learning of Leonor Rivera’s marriage to
Henry Kipping, Rizal was able to go back to courting
the other ladies. During his stay in Biarritz, Rizal
stayed with the Boustead family, where he became
friends with Eduardo Boustead’s two pretty daughters.
He would practice fencing with them at Juan Luna’s
studio. Antonio Luna, another frequent visitor to the
Boustead residence, was trying to court Nelly but she
was already infatuated with Rizal. This resulted in an
ugly scene where Antonio said some bad words about
Nelly while he was drunk at a Filipino hosted party in
Madrid.
 Rizal then challenged him to a duel, but Antonio –
after sobering up – realized his mistakes and
apologized to Rizal and thus preventing rift among the
unified Filipinos in Madrid. Unfortunately, Rizal and
Nelly did not end up getting married because Rizal did
not want to be converted to Protestant and Nelly’s
mother didn’t want a poor man for their daughter. The
good thing is, they remained friends and parted as
friends when Rizal left Europe.
Suzanne
Jacoby
 Due to the high cost of living in Paris during the
1890’s, Rizal moved to Brussels where he stayed in a
boarding house owned by the Jacoby sisters. As time
passed by, they fell in love but it was for nothing since
Rizal ended up leaving Brussels, though she did write
him while he was in Madrid.
Josephine
Bracken
 While in Dapitan, late Feb 1895, Rizal met an 18
year old Irish girl. Josephine Bracken had blue eyes,
brown hair and was a happy character. She was the
adopted daughter of George Taufer, a man from Hong
Kong seeking medical help from Rizal. It is said that
Rizal was attracted to her physically, and that his
loneliness had taken over and that it was better than
to be in love again. Surprisingly, the Rizal sisters
thought that Josephine was a spy for the friars and
considered her a “threat to Rizal’s security.”
 In time, Rizal proposed to Josephine but she
wasn’t prepared to make such a big choice, since she
still had to look after her blind father. Unfortunately,
George Taufer’s illness could not be treated so he
went back to Hong Kong while Josephine stayed with
Rizal’s family in Manila. When she returned to
Dapitan, Rizal tried to arrange for their marriage with
Father Antonio Obach. the priest, however, wanted a
retraction as a precondition to marrying them.
 Thus, Rizal took Josephine as his wife even
without the Church’s blessing, at the urging of his
family and with her consent. She later gave birth to a
stillborn, believed to be the result of some incidence,
and this could have traumatized her.
thank you!