A National Hero’s Love Life

Nine Women in the Life of

Pepe

There were at least nine women linked with Rizal;
namely Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela,
Leonor Rivera, Consuelo Ortiga, O-Sei San,
Gertrude Beckette, Nelly Boustead, Suzanne Jacoby
and Josephine Bracken.
These women might have been beguiled by his
intelligence, charm and wit.
Segunda Katigbak

 Segunda Katigbak

 A woman who hailed from Lipa, Batangas was considered
the puppy love of Jose Rizal. However, this puppy love of
Rizal was already betrothed to her towns mate, Manuel Luz.
 Rizal also, due to his shyness, failed to propose to her but he
kept a record of his feelings and the end of his dream.
 It was during one of his visits to his maternal grandmother,
who lived in Trozo, Manila, that he saw her. She was a sister
of his friend, Mariano, who incidentally was his companion
in the visit.
Leonor Valenzuela

 Leonor Valenzuela

Rizal’s admiration with Segunda Katigbak was
followed by his affair with Leonor Valenzuela who
was a tall lass from Pagsanjan, Laguna.
Rizal used an invisible ink in writing love notes sent
to Leonor. The love notes can be read only through
the heat emitted by a lamp or candle. His last
encounter with Leonor was when he bade her
goodbye before leaving for Spain
Leonor Rivera

 Leonor Rivera

 Rizal's love for 11 years and 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

 Consuelo Ortiga

 Considered to be the prettiest among Don Pablo's daughters.
Consuelo 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 Consuelo and he did not wish to destroy
their friendship over a girl.
Seiko Usui (O Sei San)

 O Sei San

 A daughter of a Japanese samurai, taught Rizal the Japanese
art of painting known as su-mie.
 She also taught Rizal to learn the Japanese language. 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

 Gertrude Beckette

 In London, while Rizal was working on his annotation of
Morga's work, he stayed in the Beckette family house which
was walking distance from the British Museum where
Morga's work was displayed.
 The eldest of the Beckette 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 Beckette sisters.
Nelly Boustead

 Nelly Boustead

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.
 Nelly Boustead

 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

 Suzanne Jacoby

Rizal met Suzanne Jacoby in Brussels and they were
deeply in love with each other. 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

 Josephine Bracken

Rizal met Josephine, an Irish, while he was in
Dapitan.
Suspected by the Rizal sisters as a spy of the
Spanish friars and considered here to be a threat.
Was not able to marry Rizal due to issues on Rizal’s
retraction letter.
Gave birth to a still born.