STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO.

2
The Life and Works of Rizal

MODULE OVERVIEW

A. Rizal’s Life: Childhood and Early Education

B. Women’s in Rizal’s Life

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the rigid analysis and comprehension of this module, learners are expected to:

a. analyze Rizal’s family, childhood, and early education;

b. evaluate the people and events and their influence on Rizal's early life;

LEARNING CONTENTS (Rizal’s Life: Childhood and Early Education)

INTRODUCTION:
Dr. Jose P. Rizal is a genius of his kind who was molded by his parents and his teachers. Endowed by God
with versatile gifts, he truly ranked with the world's geniuses, and became the greatest hero a nation.

BIRTH OF RIZAL
 On the moonlit night of June 19, 1861, in the lakeshore town of Calamba, Laguna, Jose Protacio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born. In his autobiography, which he wrote when he was 17 years old,
Rizal recounted that his mother almost died during the delivery because of his big head.”
 It would have cost my mother her life had she not vowed to the virgin of Antipolo to take me her sanctuary
by way of pilgrimage.”
 Three days after his birth, Rizal was baptized in the Catholic church of Calamba on June 22, 1861 by Fr.
Rufino Collantes, a Filipino priest from Batangas.
 His godfather was Pedro Casañas, a native of Calamba and friend of Rizal’ family.
 He was named Jose in honor of St. Joseph, the patron saint of laborers and soldiers.
 He was given a second first name, Protacio, after a 4th century saint who was a bishop of Milan.

THE RIZAL HOME

 The house of the Rizal family, where he was born, was one of the distinguished stone houses in Calamba
during the Spanish times.
 It was a two-storey building, rectangular in shape, built of adobe stones and hard-woods and roofed with
red tiles.
 Behind the house were the poultry yard full of turkeys and chickens and a big garden of tropical fruit
trees- atis, balimbing, chico, macopa, papaya, santol, etc.
 It was a happy home where parental affection and children’s laughter reigned.
 By day it hummed with the noises of children at play and the songs of the birds in the garden.
 By night, it echoed with the soft notes of family prayers.
 Such a wholesome home, naturally, reared a wholesome family, and such a family was the Rizal family.

CHILDHOOD YEARS IN CALAMBA

 Calamba was named after a big native jar.
 A hacienda town which belonged to the Dominican Order, which also owned all the lands around it.
 It is a beautiful town covered with irrigated rice fields and sugar lands.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
 The first memory of Rizal, was his happy days in the family garden when he was three years old.
 Because he was a frail, sickly and undersized child, he was given the most loving care by his parents.
 Another childhood memory was the daily Angelus prayer, by nightfall, his mother gathered all the
children at the house to pray the Angelus.
 Rizal also remembered the night- time walk in the town, especially during moonlit nights.
 The Rizal children were bound together by ties of love and companionship.
 They were well-bred, for their parents taught them to love and help one another.
 Of his sisters, Rizal loved most Concepcion (the little Concha).
 He was a year older than her, he played with her and from her he learned sisterly love.
 Unfortunately, Concha died of sickness in 1865.
 The death of little Concha brought Rizal his first sorrow.
  At the age of three, Rizal began to take part in the family prayers.
 When Rizal was five years old, he was able to read haltingly the Spanish family bible.
 One of the memorable anecdotes between the young Jose was when his mother was reading to him a
Spanish reader entitled El Amigo de los Niños (The Children’s Friend).
 She noticed him not paying attention to her as she was reading the contents of the book in Spanish.
 Jose instead was attracted to a pair of moths circling the flame of the oil lamp.
 The smaller moth got so attracted to the flame that if flew too close, its wings got burned and fell into the
oil and died.
 The Story of the Moth- made the profoundest impression on Rizal “died a martyr to its illusions”
 At the age of five, Rizal began to make sketches with his pencil and to mold in clay and wax objects
which attracted his fancy.
 Sa Aking Mga Kabata (To My Fellow Children) - Rizal’s first poem in native language at the age of
eight.
 This poem reveals Rizal’s earliest nationalist sentiment.
 At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first dramatic work which was a Tagalog comedy.

INFLUENCES ON RIZAL’S BOYHOOD

 In the lives of all men there are influences which cause some to be great and others not.
 In the case of Rizal, he had all the favorable influences, few other children in his time enjoyed.
 Aside from his immediate family, Rizal’s three uncles added to Rizal’s inspiration.
 Tio Jose Alberto- studied for eleven years in British school in Calcutta, India and had traveled in Europe.
 He inspired Rizal to develop his artistic ability.
 Tio Manuel- a husky and athletic man, encouraged Rizal to develop his frail body by means of physical
exercises.
 Tio Gregorio- a book lover, intensified Rizal’s voracious reading of good book.
 Father Leoncio Lopez- the old and learned parish priest of Calamba, fostered Rizal’s love for scholarship
and intellectual honesty.

EARLY EDUCATION IN CALAMBA AND BIÑAN

 At the age of three, Rizal was first taught by his mother, who was remarkable woman of good character and
fine culture.
 He learned from her the alphabet and the prayers.
 At this stage he demonstrated superior intelligence which induced his parents to hire tutors for him.
 Maestro Celestino- Rizal’s first private tutor and Maestro Lucas Padua- Rizal’s second tutor.
 Later, Leon Monroy- a former classmate of Rizal’s father became Rizal’s tutor that instructed Jose in
Spanish and Latin.
 Unfortunately, he died five months later.
 On June, 1869- Rizal left Calamba for Binan accompanied by Paciano.
 Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz was Rizal’s teacher in a private school in Binan.
 Jose was 9 years old at that time.
 The school was also the house of his teacher.
 Rizal described him as a tall, thin, long-necked man with a body slightly bent forward.
 As a teacher he was quick to discipline his students for any infractions with a short thin stick, especially if
the wrong answer is given.
 This was the old system of education at that time.
 The infliction of pain was made to ensure that the student remembers the lesson.
 Jose became an outstanding student surpassing his classmates in Spanish, Latin, and other subjects.
 He was also very popular, that some of his classmates spread rumors to discredit him.
 Many times he was punished for his alleged wrongdoings.
 The day was unusual when Rizal was not laid out on a bench and given five or six blows because of
fighting.
 Rizal’s daily life in Biñan were as follows:
 Heard the four o’ clock mass then at ten o’ clock went home at once and went at school at two and
came out at five.
 At the end of his schooling, Maestro Justiniano recommended that Jose should be sent to Manila.
 In December 17, 1870, Rizal left Binan after one year and a half of schooling.
 He bade farewell to this school and his teacher.
 He also collected pebbles from the river as souvenirs, knowing that he will never return to
Biñan.
 After the Christmas of that year Don Francisco decided to send Jose to Manila to continue his
studies.

MARTYRDOM OF GOM-BUR-ZA
 Night of January 20, 1872- about 200 Filipino soldiers and workmen of the Cavite arsenal under the
leadership of Lamadrid, Filipino sergeant, rose in violent mutiny because of the abolition of their usual
 privileges, including exemption from tribute and polo (forced labor) by the reactionary Governor Rafael
de Izquierdo.
 The Spanish authorities, in order to liquidate Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto
Zamora leaders of the secular movement to Filipinize the Philippine parishes, and their supporters
magnified the failed mutiny “into” a “revolt” for Philippine independence.
 Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora were executed at sunrise of February
17,1872, by order of Governor General Izquierdo.
 The martyrdom of Gom-Bur- Za in 1872 truly inspired Rizal to fight the evils of Spanish tyranny and
redeem his oppressed people.
 Rizal dedicated his second novel, El Filibusterismo, to Gom-Bur-Za.

INJUSTICE TO RIZAL’S MOTHER

 Before June of 1872, tragedy struck the Rizal family.
 Dona Teodora was suddenly arrested on a malicious charge that she and her brother, Jose Alberto, tried
to poison the latter’s deceitful wife.
 She was forced to walk from Calamba to Santa Cruz (capital of Laguna province), a distance of 50
kilometers.
 Dona Teodora was incarcerated at the provincial prison, where she languished for two years and a half.
 Recounting this incidence of his mother’s imprisonment, Rizal said in his student memoirs: “Our mother
was unjustly snatched away from us and by whom? By some men who had been our friends and whom
we treated as honored guests.”

AT THE ATENEO MUNICIPAL (1872-1877)

 The Ateneo Municipal is a college under the supervision of the Spanish Jesuits.
 It was formerly Escuela Pia (Charity School), a school for poor boys in Manila which was established by
the city government in 1817.
 On June 10, 1872, Rizal accompanied by Paciano went to Manila.
 Father Magin Ferrando who was the college registrar, refused to admit Rizal in Ateneo for two reasons:
 he was late for registration
 he was sickly and undersized for his age.
 Through the intercession of Manuel Xerez Burgos, Rizal was reluctantly admitted at the Ateneo.
 Jose was the first of his family to adopt the surname “Rizal”.
 He registered under this name at Ateneo because their family name “Mercado” had come under the
suspicion of the Spanish authorities.
 At the time Jose studied in the Ateneo, this college was located in Intramuros 25 minutes’ walk from the
college.

JESUIT SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

 The system of education given by the Jesuits in the Ateneo was more advanced than that of other colleges
in that period.
 It trained the character of the student by rigid discipline and religious instruction.
 It promoted physical culture, humanities, and scientific studies.
 Aside from academic courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, it offered vocational courses in
agriculture, commerce, mechanics and surveying.
 The students heard Mass in the morning before the beginning of the daily class.
 Classes in every subject were opened and closed with prayers.
 Students were divided into two groups:
 Roman Empire- consisting of internos (boarders)
 Carthaginian Empire- composed of the externos (non-boarders).
 The empires had ranks:
 Emperor- the best student in each “empire
 Tribune- the second best
 Decurion- the third best
 Centurion-the fourth best
 Stand-bearer- the fifth best.
 Between empires they fought for intellectual supremacy.
 Within in the “empire” the students fought for these positions by challenging the ones holding the
ranks to answer questions based on the day’s lesson.

FIRST YEAR IN ATENEO (1872-1873)

 Father Jose Bech was Rizal’s first professor in Ateneo.
 To improve his Spanish, Rizal took private lessons in Santa Isabel College during the noon recesses when
other students were playing or gossiping.
 He paid three pesos for those extra Spanish lessons.
 Being a newcomer and knowing little Spanish, Rizal was placed at the bottom of the class.
  He was an externo, hence he was assigned to the Carthaginians, occupying the end of the line.
 After the first week, the frail Calamba boy progressed rapidly.
 At the end of the month, he became “emperor”.
 He was the brightest pupil in the whole class, and he was awarded a prize, a religious picture.
 He was proud of it because it was the first prize he ever won at the Ateneo.
 In the second half of his year in the Ateneo, he did not try enough to retain his academic supremacy which
he held during the first half of the term because he resented some remarks of his professor.
 He placed second at the end of the year, although all his grades were still marked “Excellent”.
 At the end of the school year in March, 1873, Rizal returned to Calamba for summer vacation.
 He did not enjoy his vacation because his mother was in prison.
 Without telling his father, he went to Santa Cruz and visited his mother in prison.
 He told her of his brilliant grades at the Ateneo.
 She gladly embraced her favorite son.
 When the summer vacation ended, Rizal returned to Manila for his second-year term in Ateneo.

SECOND YEAR IN ATENEO (1872-1873)

 Nothing unusual happened to Rizal during his second term in the Ateneo, except that he repented having
neglected his studies the previous year.
 To regain his lost class leadership, he studied harder.
 Once more he became “emperor”.
 At the end of the school year, Rizal received excellent grades in all subjects and a gold medal.
 With such scholastic honors, he triumphantly returned to Calamba in March, 1874 for the summer vacation.

PROPHECY OF MOTHER’S RELEASE

 Rizal lost no time in going to Santa Cruz in order to visit his mother in the provincial jail.
 He cheered up Doña Teodora’s lonely hearth with news of his scholastic triumphs in Ateneo and with
funny tales about his professors and fellow students.
 His mother was very happy to know that her favorite child was making such splendid progress in college.
 In the course of their conversation, Doña Teodora told her son of her dream the previous night.
 Rizal, interpreting the dream told her that she would be released from prison in three months’ time.
 Barely three months passed, and suddenly Doña Teodora was set free.
 By that time, Rizal was already in Manila attending his classes at the Ateneo.

TEENAGE INTEREST IN READING

 It was during the summer vacation in 1874 in Calamba when Rizal began to take interest in reading
romantic novels.
 As a normal teenager, he became interested in love stories and romantic tales.
 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas- the first favorite novel of Rizal which made a deep
impression on him.
 As a voracious reader, he read not only fiction, but also non-fiction.
 The Universal History by Cesar Cantu- Rizal persuaded his father to buy him this costly set of historical
work that was a great aid in his studies and enabled him to win more prizes in Ateneo.
 Later Rizal read the book of Dr. Feodor Jagor- He wrote Travels in the Philippines.
 Rizal was impressed in this book because of:
 Jagor’s keen observations of the defects of Spanish colonization
 his prophecy that someday Spain would lose the Philippines
 and that America would come to succeed her as colonizer.

THIRD YEAR IN ATENEO (1874-1875)

 When Rizal returned for his third year, his mother was released from prison.
 He was able to concentrate more on his studies.
 However, at the end of the year, he remained dissatisfied even as his grades remained excellent.
 He won only a single medal in Latin as his Spanish classmate beat him in speaking Spanish.
 At the end of the school year (March 1875), Rizal returned to Calamba for the summer vacation.

FOURTH YEAR IN ATENEO (1875-1876)

 After a refreshing and happy summer vacation, Rizal went back to Manila for his fourth year course.
 On June 16, 1875, he became an interno in the Ateneo.
 One of his professors this time was Fr. Francisco de Paula Sanchez- a great educator and scholar, one of
Rizal’s professors who inspired him to study harder and to write poetry.
 Rizal was highest in all subjects and won five medals at the end of the school term.
 He was the most brilliant Atenean, he was truly “the pride of the Jesuits”.
 On March 23, 1877- Commencement Day, Rizal, who was 16 years old, received the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, with highest honors.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
 Rizal, unsurpassed in academic triumphs, was not a mere bookworm.
 He was active in extra-curricular activities.
 An “emperor” inside the classroom, he was a campus leader outside.
 He was an active member later secretary, of a religious society, the Marian Congregation.
 He was accepted as member of this solidarity not only because of his academic brilliance but also because
of his devotion to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the college patroness.
 Rizal was also a member of the Academy of Spanish Literature and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
 These “academies” were exclusive societies in the Ateneo, to which only Ateneans who were gifted in
literature and sciences could qualify for membership.

POEMS
 It was Dona Teodora who was first discovered the poetic genius of her son, and it was also she who first
encouraged him to write poems.
 However, it was Father Sanchez who inspired Rizal to make full use of his God-given gift in poetry.
 Some examples of his writings when he was at Ateneo:
 1874- Mi Primera Inspiracion (My First Inspiration), the first poem Rizal probably wrote during
his days in Ateneo which was dedicated to his mother on her birthday; Rizal wrote it before he was
14 years old.
 1876, Rizal wrote poems on various topics-religion, education, childhood memories and war.
Below are some of his outstanding poems:
 Un Recuerdo a Mi Pueblo (In Memory of My Town)- a tender poem in honor of Calamba,
the hero’s natal town, Rizal was 15 yrs old when he wrote this poem;
 Alianza Intima Entre la Religion y la Buena Educacion (Intimate Alliance Between
Religion and Good Education)- Rizal showed the importance of religion in education;
 San Eustacio, Martir (St. Eustace, the Martyr)- a drama based on the prose story of St.
Eustace which he wrote in poetic verses during the summer vacation of 1876 and finished
it on June 2, 1876.

PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURAL WORKS

 Aside from writing poetry, he devoted his spare time to fine arts.
 He studied painting under the famous Spanish painter Agustin Saez, and sculpture under Romualdo de
Jesus, noted Filipino sculptor.
 Both art masters honored him with their affection, for he was a talented pupil.

WOMENS IN RIZAL’S LIFE

 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 for in front of the house of your “crush”? You
don’t call it real love, do you?

 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.

 Third Love: Leonor Rivera

 Long-Distance Idealized But Doomed Love
 She is 15 years old
 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 .

 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.
 Fifth Love: O Sei-San
 The Samurai’s Daughter
 She is 22 years old
 This relationship is 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.
 Rizal’s journal for O Sei-San
 “O Sei San, sayonara, sayonara! …. No woman like you has ever loved me. … Like the flower of the
chodji that falls from the stem whole and fresh without stripping leaves or withering... you have not lost
your purity nor have the delicate petals of your innocence faded--sayonara, sayonara.”

 Sixth Love: Gertrude Beckett

\

 A Contemporary Pastime
 She is 19 years old
 The flirtation Rizal indulged in while staying in house number 37 Chalcot Crescent, London, was an
innocent pastime, not real love.
 Rizal, age 27, had been thrown among his landlord’s daughters– Gertrude (Tottie) and Sissie.
 When Tottie showed signs of ardor, and when Rizal felt being slowly drawn to her, he left her high and dry
without notice and without answering her yearning letters. You don’t really do that to a “loved” one. No.
Zero points earned here.

 Seventh Love: Suzanne Thill

 Clean Fun Re: The “Naughty Boy” Of Brussels
 She is 18 years old
 In Brussels, Rizal lived in the house of the Jacoby sisters: Marie and Suzanne.
 Marie was 48 and Suzanne, 45. Both were besotted with Rizal’s gallant and charming manners.
 Their 18-year-old niece named Suzanne Jacoby Thill lived with the sisters during Rizal's time.
 Our historians say Aunt Suzanne Jacoby became Rizal’s girlfriend.
 Why would Rizal, age 27, go for a 45- year-old?
 There’s a letter signed by a Suzanne J. Thill saying, in effect: “I wear out the soles of my shoes going to the
mailbox waiting for a letter from you. Why don't you write, you naughty boy? ”
 In a recent talk at the San Francisco Public Library, historian Ambeth Ocampo explain what “naughty
boy” really meant--something lustful or “naughty doings,” while other historians make it appear like
forbidden love between the two.
 The local name for that beloved cutie is Naughty Boy.
 Rizal, age 28, was then waiting for his novel El Filibusterismo in the printing press in nearby Ghent.
 Suzanne and Rizal could easily have had a healthy boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.

 Eighth Love: Nellie Boustead

 The Rich Heiress. She Antedated The Modern Pre-Nuptial Agreement
 She is 19 years old
 In Paris, Rizal fell in love with Nellie Boustead, a Filipina whose father (Filipino-Anglo French) Edward
Boustead owned a villa in Biarritz.
 Rizal was on the rebound at the time, because he received news that Leonor Rivera, his arranged fiancé,
had married Charles Kipping, a British engineer working on the Dagupan railway.
 Rizal (now free from a romantic engagement) did propose marriage to Nellie.
 He was anxious to start his own family at age 30.
 Nellie was a good candidate.
 Her mother was from the Genato family in Manila.
 She was well-educated, good at fencing, very intelligent and good-looking.
 It was Rizal’s great romance, because from the very start the courtship encountered many complications.
 First, Antonio Luna thought Nelly was favoring him.
 Luna and Rizal almost came to a sword duel, but Luna withdrew and gave up the suit.
 In the end, Nellie, who was a Protestant, gave some marriage conditions that Rizal could not accept--to
renounce his Catholic faith and become a Protestant.

 Ninth Love: Josephine Bracken

 The Dulce Extranjera
 She is 18 years old
 Rizal was already 34 when he met Josephine.
 She accompanied her stepfather, George Tauffer of Hong Kong, who sought Rizal’s expertise as an eye
doctor in Dapitan.
 This European woman brought back memories of his European sojourn.
 At first, Rizal pitied the young Irish girl, but their proximity sparked their love.
 Remember, Rizal was an exile, deprived of many liberties and conveniences.
 His future was uncertain.
 Josephine was there. She was kind, loving and served Rizal hand and foot.
 Rizal wrote in his journal that she had fulfilled his needs more than any Filipina girl could ever give him.
 They pledged themselves to each other, but not canonically as husband and wife.
 They planned to marry within the church, but couldn’t.
 The Archbishop of Cebu demanded that Rizal sign a retraction letter prepared by the diocese. Rizal
refused.
 The couple conceived a (boy) who, in its last trimester, was lost in a miscarriage. The infant was named
Francisco, and Rizal buried him in Dapitan.
 In Rizal’s letters to Josephine Bracken, whom he loved dearly, of whom he made a sculpted face, left
sketches and dedicated a book before he was executed.
 She served as his dulce amor.