Leonor Valenzuela(Jose Rizal’s love in his

2nd year at UST)

Leonor Rivera(Jose Rizal’s love for 11 years)

Leonor Valenzuela

Rizal’s another experience

of love happened when he

was a sophomore in his

medical studies in the

University of Santo Tomas.

He boarded in the house of

Doña Concha Leyva in

Intramuros,

and the next—door

neighbor was

Capitan Juan and Capitana Sanday Valenzuela.

Doña Concha Leyva

Capitan Juan and

Capitana Sanday

Valenzuela

had a charming daughter

named Leonor “Orang”.

Rizal was a frequent visitor

in the Valenzuela home

especially during special

occasions where he was

most popular because of

his clever sleigh of the hand

tricks.

Using his knowledge in

Chemistry, he courted

Leonor, sent love notes in

invisible ink which could

only be read when heated

over a candle lamp.

Strangely, their romance

ended without proposing

marriage to Orang.

Leonor Rivera

Rizal’s next romance was

with Leonor Rivera, a

cousin from Camiling

Tarlac.

She was Jose Rizal’s true

love for 11 years and

reflected as Maria Clara in

Noli Me Tangere.

During his junior year in his

medical studies in the

University of Sto. Tomas,

he boarded at no. 6 Calle

Sto. Tomas in Intramuros.

His landlord was his Uncle

Antonio Rivera who had a

pretty young daughter,

Leonor.

For Jose, the young lady

Leonor was a beauty:

light skin almost white, wavy

hair, almost blond, small and

gracious mouth, large, dark

eyes shaded by long

eyelashes, nose of correct

profile, neither too sharp nor

too flat, a smile tinged with two

glad dimples in the cheeks,

agreeable conversation, sweet

voice and harmonious

laughter.

Leonor is as “tender as

budding flower with kindly

and wistful eyes.”

Beautiful love sprang

between the two. And

eventually, they became

engaged.

To hide their relationship from

their parents and friends,

Leonor used a pen name

“Taimis” in her letters to Jose.

After his fourth year in medical

studies, Rizal decided to go to

Spain for further studies which

he made it a secret to Leonor

Rivera. Instead, he wrote a

letter for Leonor which was

delivered shortly after he had

sailed away. Leonor was

deeply hurt of this and after

four months, Jose received a

letter from his sister Pangoy

telling him that Leonor was

unhappy and was getting

thinner.

When he returned to the

Philippines in 1887, he failed

to see her, although he

wanted so much to go to

Dagupan where she was

staying. His parents told him

that Leonor’s mother did not

want him to her son-in-law.

There was a custom that

time that marriage must be

arranged by both parents of

the bride and the groom.

While Jose Rizal was in

Madrid in 1890 feeling

bitterly with so many

disappointments, he

received a letter from

Leonor Rivera telling him of

her marriage to an English

Engineer Charles Kipping

and asked for forgiveness.

He confided his agony to

his bestfriend,

Ferdinand Blumentritt

who consoled him and

said, “ Your last letter

filled us with sadness;

after all the misfortunes

that have befallen you,

now your beloved has

abandoned you...

...I am grieved with all my

heart that you have lost

the girl to whom you were

engaged; but if she was

able to renounce you, she

did not possess the

nobility of your spirit.”