1877. First Love: Segunda Katigbak–Teen-Age Puppy Love–Doesn’t Really Count Rizal’s supposed first love, Segunda Katigbak, was but a harmless flirtation between a 14-year-old convent-bred girl and a teen-aged Rizal. Segunda was already betrothed to a Manuel Luz of Lipa, Batangas, when they met. Rizal, then 17 years old, had a teen-age infatuation, albeit the beginning awareness of the other gender. In fact, this was the first time Rizal had a tete-a-tete alone with a girl other than his sisters. Remember when you were 17 and you kept walking to and fro in front of the house of your “crush”? You don’t call it real love, do you? 1878. Second Love: Leonor Valenzuela–Imagined Love–A Chenggoy Concoction Rizal’s supposed affection for Leonor Valenzuela, age 14, was a love story made up by his gossipy friend, Jose Cecilio (Chenggoy), who derived pleasure from titillating Rizal. He told Rizal (then studying in Madrid) that there was a rivalry for his affection between Leonor Valenzuela (Orang) and Leonor Rivera (the landlady--she was the daughter of Rizal’s former Ateneo landlord and uncle, Antonio Rivera). Rizal was 18 years old. He had no real love for Orang, just the wandering eye of a Bagong Tao na nag-bi-binata (a young man barely out of adolescence). Thus, count Orang out. 1878-1890. Third Love: Leonor Rivera, Age 15, Long-Distance Idealized But Doomed Love. Jose Rizal was never the preferred choice of Leonor Rivera’s mother, who confiscated all the correspondences between Leonor and Rizal till it frittered down to zero. Rizal was 18 going on 21 and was devoted to Leonor. But he was just then opening his eyes to Europe’s Enlightenment, where the women were pleasing and the men were gallant. Rizal really was in love with Leonor Rivera. He even invented a coded alphabet so that they could write sweet nothings to each other. But soon, Leonor faded in memory. Why? Because in Europe, Rizal conveniently romanced other girls and forgot he was engaged to her. Eventually the Leonor Rivera-Rizal engagement did not survive the long-distance romance. In the end, it turned into an idealized one (reflected as Maria Clara in Rizal’s novel, Noli me Tangere), a painful love match doomed to fail from the very start. Yes, count this one as real love. As an engaged couple, they showed real affection for each other while it lasted. 1884. Fourth Love: Consuelo Ortiga Y Reyes, The Madrid Flirt In Madrid, Rizal courted Consuelo Ortiga, age 18, the daughter of Señor Pablo Ortiga y Rey, who was once mayor of Manila and who owned the apartment where the Circulo Hispano Filipino met regularly. Rizal, age 23, was then acquiring and developing his charming ways with women. He treated them with special consideration and with gallant courteousness. All the young Filipino expatriates courted Consuelo, and she in turn encouraged every one including José Rizal, Eduardo Lete, the Paterno brothers (Pedro, Antonino, Maximiano), Julio Llorente, Evangelista, Evaristo Esguerra, Fernando Canon and others. Rizal gave Consuelo gifts: sinamay cloth, embroidered piña handkerchiefs, chinelas (slippers) -- all ordered through his sisters in Calamba (see his letters). Consuelo accepted all the swains’ regalos but played Eduardo Lete against Rizal. She finally rejected Rizal’s attention in favor of Eduardo’s, a Filipino Spanish mestizo from Leyte who, a year later, dumped her. Two-timing Consuelo didn't really catch Rizal's true fancy except that he impulsively joined the crowd. No, sorry about that. 1888. Fifth Love: O Sei-San, Age 22, The Samurai’s Daughter This relationship is what I would call Rizal’s Great Love, in bold letters. Rizal, age 27, an author and a doctor had returned to the Philippines in 1887, but because of his Noli Me Tangere, he incurred the wrath of the Spanish authorities. He had to leave in 1888 via Japan to the U. S. and then Europe. In Japan, he met a Samurai’s daughter. They went to excursions and places together. She taught him Japanese and her culture. Remember, Rizal had been exposed in Germany to ethnographers (Fedor Jagor, who studied the Igorots) scientists (Dr. Rudolf Virchow, linguist, who studied the “Mangianes” or Mangyans) and anthropologists/historians (Ferdinand Blumentritt). Rizal, now a self-confident, mature gentleman-scientist, was attracted to the Japanese culture and immersed himself in its ancient tradition.