LETTERS FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

José Rizal got this girl so pregnant in 1895 (when the photograph at left is said to have been taken) that he wanted to marry her...We know this because History preserves many letters from the
19th Century, to and from José Rizál, (who was born on this date, June 19, 1861 -- in case you only know about December 30, 1896, when the Catholic Taliban and the Philippine Republic
murders him annually with a gleeful "Fuego!" and "Lupang Hinirang!").

But Rizal's vast audience of the future is lucky because as an habitual letter-writer, diarist, journalist, novelist, communicator, and poet, he generated a tremendous amount of written
correspondence with family and friends, with scientific and business associates, with government officials and famous personalities, and ordinary persons of his era. Moreover, José Rizál
meticulously recorded his every experience, acquaintance, observation -- all of which were rich and varied because of his travels and connections to so many people. That material is still a
primary historical source on his life and times. And loves...as this small collection I've chosen perhaps gives us a glimpse of.

Here he is, after three long years of exile in dark and dreary Dapitan, introducing his intended to his stern and disapproving Mother...

14 March 1895
Mrs. Teodora Alonso
Manila

My Very Dear Mother,

The bearer of this letter is Miss Josephine Leopoldine Tauffer whom I was on the point of marrying, counting on your consent, of course. Our relations were broken on her suggestion on account
of the numerous difficulties on the way. She is almost alone in the world; she has only very distant relatives.

As I am interested in her and it is very possible that she may later decide to join me and as she may be left all alone and abandoned, I beg you to give her hospitality there, treating her as a
daughter, until she shall have an opportunity or occasion to come here.

I have decided to write the General to find out about my case.

Treat Miss Josephine as a a person whom I esteem and value much and whom I would not like to be unprotected and abandoned. Your most affectionate son who loves you,

JOSÉ RIZÁL
About a month or so later, he writes to his sister about Josephine, and thanks her for some pickled eggs...Pickled eggs!
Mrs. Narcisa Rizal
My Dear Sister,

I read your letter yesterday and Miss B.[racken] and I thank you very much for your kindness. She above all is grateful to you and Tonino for the hospitality you offer her but for the present we
have decided that she should stay here. She cannot send you anything for she has no moment of rest now and although she likes this, she cannot however dry fish or make pickles. The jar of
pickled fish eggs is very good and we enjoyed eating it. Miss J.[ospehine] sends you very affectionate regards.

With nothing more, many regards to all from your brother who loves you dearly.

J. Rizal
Historically, the scandal has never died, of the 35-year old Doctor Rizal taking up with "an Irish girl of sweet eighteen, slender, a chestnut blond, with blue eyes, dressed with elegant simplicity,
with an atmosphere of light gaiety,"

Rizal's descendant, Asuncion Lopez Rizal Bantug, in her recent biography, Indio Bravo, (Tahanan Books, Manila, 1997) gives some valuable background on the intended Mrs. Josephine
Bracken Rizal ...
Josephine Bracken...arrived in Dapitan in February 1895 with her foster father, George Taufer, and a certain Manuela Orlac, the mistress of a friar at the Manila Cathedral. It was Orlac's friar
connection that led some of Rizal's sisters to sustpet that Josephine had come to spy on their brother. Taufer and Josephine had met Rizal in Hongkong, when Taufer sought help for his failing
eyesight. At the time of their visit to Dapitan Josephine was 17 years old, a petite Eurasian orphan with Irish blood, who had lived a hard life with her foster father and his various wives. She
must have been attractive enough for Rizal to fall instantly in love with her, and she returned his love like many other women before her.
Despite coming in his fourth year of exile, the months that follow are among the happiest and most productive of Rizal's entire life. If one reads the compendium of One Hundred Letters of Rizal
in this period of 1895, one finds him happy, busy and ambitious. He and Josephine were living happily as man and wife on his idyllic and isolated Talisay property beside the sea on the Northern
Mindanao coast in what is now Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte. But, he also conducts a lively correspondence and active commerce in specimens and scientific instruments and books with
various colleagues in Europe and America. He sees many patients, attracted by his knowledge, skill and humanity. He has orchards with thousands of trees, cuttings, plantings of coffee,
cashews, cocoa, macopa, siniguelas, mangoes. He collects forest honey and scientific specimens, even discovering unknown plant and animal species, which today bear his name. He is running a
small school for boys and plans several ambitious projects for Mindanao, including an "agricultural colony" in Sindangan Bay, and a shipbuilding facility near what is now Butuan City. He is full
of optimism and is evidently planning to raise a family and make a life there. A great life there!

CARLOS QUIRINO, in The Great Malayan (Philippine Commonwealth era prize winning biography, Tahanan Books, 1997) on Rizal's happiest Christmas:
Christmas that year was the happiest he had ever spent in Dapitan, mainly because of Josephine's presence. She was now big with child--his child, and he experienced a thrill of joy at being a
prospective father. Would it be a boy or a girl? Whom would it look like? They killed a suckling pig, roasting it over live coals to a succulent brown, and made chicken broth out of a fat hen. Jose
invited the neighborss to a Christmas party, and they all danced and made merry until dawn. On New Year's Eve, they repeated the celebration, enjoyoing themselves thoroughly.
LEON MA. GUERRERO writes in his 1961 biography of Rizal, The First Filipino ("Awarded First Prize in the Rizal Biography Contest held under the auspices ofthe Jose Rizal National
Centennial Commission in 1961" Published in Manila, 1963), "They ould not be married; as we shall see, the Church demanded his recantation and submission before she would consent to their
participation in the Sacrament of Matrimony. It was not something that Josephine, a pious believer, ould take lightly. But she had never been demanding, and she swallowed her pride and her
scruples, although when they were more than she could bear she always said she would go away. "The person who lives in my house" was Rizal's authentically Tagalog and anot ungallant
description of her to his mother in January 1896...
15 January 1896
Mrs. Teodora Alonso
My Very Dear Mother,

...She is good, obedient and submissive. We lack nothing except that we are not married, but, as you yourself say, better to a Love in God's grace than be married in mortal sin. We have still to
have our first quarrel, and when I give her advice she does not answer back. I fyou caome and get to know her I have every hope that you will get along with her. Besides, she has nobody in this
world except myself. I am her whole family...J. Rizal
Then, in this letter to his mother, he gives her some sad news, in a rather terse and mysterious manner (to me)...
12 March 1896
Mrs. Teodora Alonso
My Very Dear Mother,

Miss B. thanks you very much for your gifts and does not know how to reciprocate. She cannot go there just now because there is nobody here to look after the nephews. She bathes them, and
washes and mends their clothes, so that, poor girl, she is never at rest, but she does it willingly for she has a great love for the boys, and they love her mor than they love me! ... I am afraid she
has had a miscarriage; she was very seriously ill the day before yesterday.
Historian Gregorio F. Zaide describes this alleged event as follows in his biography Life, Works and Writings of a Genius (All Nation's Publishing, 1994 ed.)
In the early part of 1896 Rizal was extremely unhappy because Josephine was expecting a baby. Unfortunately, he played a prank on her, frightening her so that she prematurely gave birth to an
eight month baby boy, who lived only for three hours . This lost son of Rizal was named "Franisco" in honor of Don Francisco (the hero's father) and was buried in Dapitan.
Leon Ma. Guerrero is the most sympathetic:
"Poor Josephine! Born in a barracks, farmed out as a baby, nursing two Mrs. Taufers, tormented by the third, running away and going back, saddled with a sick, blind, jealous old man, falling in
love and running away (she always seemed to be running away and going back), wanting to wait and wanting to marry, gossiped about, slandered, wounded int he depths of her Irish Catholic
heart by the sneers and shrugs of her lover's sisters, so eager to please with her little gifts of music books and muslim collars, so desperate to be accepted with her rice cakes and noodles and
dried fish! She was not afraid to work; she had been working all her life, a corporal's daughter brought up by stepmothers, to whom cooking and washing and minding the children and feeding
the chickens was the very purspose of a girl's life. She was not bored by Dapitan, whatever Rizal might think: here she had at last made some sort of home for herself, outside the pale of the law,
in the shadow of the Church's reprobation, but still a home, a family, which she had never had in crowded exciting Hong Kong and Tokyo. I would be a real home and "a whole family" when the
baby came, and now she had lost him.
Actually, many apocryphal and conflicting stories and histories exist about this episode regarding Rizal's son, Francisco, who "lived for only three hours." Some have it that Rizal buried it
"somewhere in the gazebo" area on his Talisay property. Then, on the day he and Josephine left Dapitan, in July, 1896, he burned everything down, with a Dapitan Orchestra playing Chopin's
Funeral March! Other stories even have it, that he went and buried the child "somewhere in the forest" above his Talisay home, and never told anyone where.

Yet...Jose Rizal was a man who knew where every postage stamp he bought was, where every button, cuff and collar that was lovingly sent to him was, a man who dutifully and accurately
recorded the minutest details of his entire life experience...but in the case of his son, --his son!--he leaves no record of where he buried it?? Just like that, with less thought than he accorded his
laundry, he disposes of his "stillborn" eight-month old baby boy?? I don't believe it for one second and have other theories about what really happened...It is simply out of
character for Rizal to have done so. Perhaps there never was a miscarriage and it was all to save a boy from a life as the Son of Jose Rizal--the bastard son of Jose Rizal, heretic, apostate,
excommunicant, exile!

Later, much later, Josephine would write to Jose Rizal...(her 'typos' and grammar are preserved...)
17 August 1896, Manila
Dr. J. Rizal
My Darling Love

I received your most kind and welcomed letter dated the 10th Wednesday. I am very much surprised not hearing anything about if you have received the three Tyrines of Foie gras: well! perhaps
you have not received any other letters that I have written to you. I went to the Governor General today but unfortunately he is laid up with a severe cold, but his adecam told me to go back in
three days to receive an answer from him.

Dear I would like very much to go with your dear famaily, but; you know what I have written to you, I would like to go alone, so I can speak to you better for in your famaily's presence we can
[not] be very free to each other.

I know my dear it breakes my heart to go and bid you good bye! but! dear what can I do; than to suffer until the Good God brings you back to me again. Your sister Choling came to visit me
yesterday and she wants to give me her daughter Maria Luisa to me she says she had great confidence in me, well I told her for my part I am quite willing and satisfied but I have to comunicate
with your first if you are willing, I have so many pupils about fifteen three dollars each and I am also studying Piano 4 $ a month in Dna. Maria's house one of my pupil, Dear I have to do
something like that because I am always sorry thinking of your. Oh! dear how I miss you. I will always be good and faithful to you, and also do good to my companions so that the good God will
bring youback to me. I will try all my best to be good to your family especially to your dear old Parents "the hands that we cannot cut lift it up and kiss it or adore the hand that gives the blow."
How it made the tears flew in my eyes when I read those few lines of you. Say darling say it makes me think of our dear old hut in Dapitan and the many sweet [h]ours we have passed there.

Love I will love you ever, love I will leave thee never, ever to me precious to thee never to part heart bound to heart or never to say good bye.

So my darling receive many warm Affection and love.

From You ever faithfull and true till death,

JOSEPHINE BRACKEN

P.S. The boys are very well I am giving my home pupils their lesson every night from 7 until 9 o'clock.
Jose Rizal's final farewell to her--did it come before or after the above?
Adiós, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría,
Adiós, queridos seres, morir es descansar.
I think it must be taken as something of great significance that Jose Rizal's last written words on earth are to this "sweet stranger, his friend, his joy." Just as the first words that Christ utters to
Mary Magdalene after Resurrection was: "Noli Me Tangere!"

Then there's this... El Filibusterismo: Sic Itur Ad Astra (MP3)

MANUEL L. QUEZON III writes about a different purported son of Rizal: ADOLF RIZAL!

Adrian Cristobal of the Manila Bulletin tackles the same topic today, but MLQ3 produces the more interesting read.

EMAIL COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE TO:

rizalist@gmail.com

REMBRANDT's famous painting portrays the moment Jesus Christ utters that famous phrase in the Gospel of John 20:17 and
is the very moment of Christianity's birth, for it is His first appearance in the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)--after the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is the first human
being to see Him alive after the Crucifixion. Here it is from the Latin Vulgate Bible:
15. dicit ei Iesus mulier quid ploras quem quaeris illa existimans quia hortulanus esset dicit ei domine si tu sustulisti eum dicito mihi ubi posuisti eum et ego eum tollam
16. dicit ei Iesus Maria conversa illa dicit ei rabboni quod dicitur magister
17. dicit ei Iesus noli me tangere nondum enim ascendi ad Patrem meum vade autem ad fratres meos et dic eis ascendo ad Patrem meum et Patrem vestrum et Deum meum et Deum vestrum
18. venit Maria Magdalene adnuntians discipulis quia vidi Dominum et haec dixit mihi
The King James Version (1611) has it in English:
15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
him, and I will take him away.
16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your
God.
18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

Now of course, it is always a surprise, especially for incredulous Catolicos cerrados to discover that the original Gospels
were written in Greek but that circumstance and its implications would be tangential to my purpose today, which is actually to give some background for some younger relatives of mine, on the
Noli Me Tangere of José Rizál, which they are studying this year in high school.

Why did Rizál choose this title, which was quite famous in his day in the 19th century and even before that? Wikipedia traces the phrase in many other historical and rhetorical contexts. But in
his Dedication of the novel, Rizal gives a clue regarding his own usage of it. Here is and English Translation of the Dedication of the Noli Me Tangere, from the 1956 Unexpurgated Noli Me
Tangere by Jorge Cleofas Bocobo:
To My Country
The story of human sufferings records a cancer of such malignant character that the slightest contact irritates it and stirs up therein the most acute pains. Now then; whenever in the midst of
modern civilizations I wished to evoke thee, either to cherish the remembrances or to compare thee with other countries, thy beloved image appeared before me with a similar social cancer.

Wishing thy health which is ours, and in search of the best treatment, I shall do for thee which the ancients did for their sick: they exposed them on the steps of the temple, in order that every
person who had just invoked the Divinity might propose a remedy for them.

And for this purpose, I shall try faithfully to reproduce thy condition without fear or favor; I shall raise a part of the veil that covers the malady, sacrificing all for the sake of truth, even personal
pride, for, being the son, I also suffer from thy defects and weaknesses.

The Author, Europe, 1886

It has been suggested that the title dovetails quite well with the sentiments expressed above and stated methodology of the novel, which is to expose the malady so that every person with a
conscience might propose some remedy.

Aside from the above interpretation, often seen in Rizal Day essays in December, just before we execute and murder the author for the Nth time, I suppose Rizál also had a flare for the
psychological in titling his novel, for who can resist a package that says "DO NOT OPEN!"I guess that would be my translation of "Noli Me Tangere!"

But the Greek, sounds more defiant to me: "Meta mon apton!" which somehow sounds to me more like "Touch me and I'll kick you in the ass!"

FIFTY YEARS OF THE RIZAL LAW: Paradoxically, the Roman Catholic Church, which did indeed get its frailocratic theocracy's comeuppance from Rizal, BANNED his novels for over half
a century. I am not completely sure in fact, whether they've actually been removed officially from the Index Prohibitorum Librorum of the Catholic Church. I still remember the admonition
of my sainted mother to me as a young boy that it was a mortal sin to read the Noli and the Fili, followed with the delicious intimation that she and her sisters, my Catolico cerrado aunts, had
secretly read them anyway, despite similar warnings of "Verboten" from the St. Scholastica nuns. Actually it's too bad they made it mandatory in 1956 for Filipinos to read the novel, a legal
curricular requirement that was probably the end of much interest in them by the young! The Rizal Law is now in its 50th year:
Republic Act No. 1425 THE RIZAL LAW
June 12, 1956

An Act to Include in the Curricula of All Public and Private Schools, Colleges and Universities courses on the Life Works and Writings of JOSE RIZAL, particularly his novels NOLI ME
TANGERE and EL FILIBUSTERISMO, Authorizing the Printing and Distribution Thereof, and for Other Purposes.

Whereas, today, more than other period of our history, there is a need for a re-dedication to the ideals of freedom and nationalism for which our heroes lived and died.

Whereas, it is meet that in honoring them, particularly the national hero and patriot, Jose Rizal, we remember with special fondness and devotion their lives and works that have shaped the
national character;

Whereas, the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, are a constant and inspiring source of patriotism with which the minds of the
youth, especially during their formative and decisive years in school, should be suffused.

Whereas, all educational institutions are under the supervision of, and subject to regulation by the State, and all schools are enjoined to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic
conscience, and to teach the duties of citizenship; Now therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled

SEC.1
Courses on the life, works and writings of Jose Rizal, particularly his novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, shall be included in the curricula of all schools, colleges and universities,
public or private; Provided, That in the collegiate courses, the original or unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their English translations shall be used as basic
texts.

The Board of National Education is hereby authorized and directed to adopt forthwith measures to implement and carry out the provisions of this Section, including the writing and printing of
appropriate primers, readers and textbooks. The Board shall, within sixty (60) days from the effectivity of this Act promulgate rules and regulations, including those of a disciplinary nature, to
carry out and enforce the regulations of this Act. The Board shall promulgate rules and regulations providing for the exemption of students for reason of religious belief stated in a sworn written
statement, from the requirement of the provision contained in the second part of the first paragraph of this section; but not from taking the course provided for in the first part of said paragraph.
Said rules and regulations shall take effect thirty (30) days after their publication in the Official Gazette.

SEC.2
It shall be obligatory on all schools, colleges and universities to keep in their libraries an adequate number of copies of the original and unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, as well as Rizal’s other works and biography. The said unexpurgated editions of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo or their translations in English as well as other
writings of Rizal shall be included in the list of approved books for required reading in all public or private schools, colleges and universities.

The Board of National Education shall determine the adequacy of the number of books, depending upon the enrollment of the school, college or university.

SEC.3
The Board of National education shall cause the translation of the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, as well as other writings of Jose Rizal into English, Tagalog and the principal
Philippine dialects; cause them to be printed in cheap, popular editions; and cause them to be distributed, free of charge, to persons desiring to read them, through the Purok organizations and
the Barrio Councils throughout the country.

SEC.4
Nothing in this Act shall be construed as amending or repealing section nine hundred twenty-seven of the Administrative Code, prohibiting the discussion of religious doctrines by public school
teachers and other persons engaged in any public school.

SEC.5
The sum of three hundred thousand pesos is hereby authorized to be appropriated out of any fund not otherwise appropriated in the National Treasury to carry out the purposes of this Act.

SEC.6
This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
I think the Rizal Law should be repealed when Glorial Macapagal Arroyo finally declares Martial Law. Let it be again FORBIDDEN to think, to expose, to propose remedies. Let us return to
theocracy and cant, to Talibanism and authoritarianism. Let us descend once more into Oblivion! But...

META MON APTON!

Maybe that's the message Jesus wanted to send the Sanhedrin and the Romans too. Touch me not or I'll destabilize you and take over your Empire.

UPDATES:

Why Do Loan Sharks Love The Teachers? In this Inquirer news story, the Deped is warning some of its own employees against acting as loan collection agents for money lending agencies.
Well, It's no secret really, that the nearly half million government employees of the Department of Education are among the most debt-ridden sectors of society. But that is not necessarily
because they aren't paid enough. Although no one is going get rich being a public school teacher, their soaring levels of indebtedness are at least partly due to the overly generous and
accomodating ways of the folks lending them money. And why is that? Well take a look again at how the DepEd budget is divvied up. Notice that 100-Billion Peso Chunk of Change called
"Salaries"? That is 100 Billion Pesos in cold hard cash that gets doled out as Blue Chip Government Checks every week, year in and year out since Mahoma lived and died and probably till he
comes back! As a loan shark, you've gotta respect such a cash flow.
By the way, I cannot overemphasize a perhaps obscure connection. But how that 100 billion pesos in Salaries is actually spent is determined principally by the Curriculum which has Five
Subjects: Math, Science, English, Pilipino and Classrooms-for-the-Students -- err --- Makabayan (Values Education).

What I'm really trying to say here is that there is PLENTY OF MONEY for school buildings, computers and textbooks, except we are currently spending it on a congested curriculum with too
many unnecessary subjects and too many teachers in them, teaching an unconstitutional curriculum full of religious mumbo jumbo and post-modern psychobabble. I say, the facilities and
instructional materials that the 20 million basic education sector needs are tied up in the government employee salaries that also end up as indentured servants of the corrupt electoral system.,