A brief power point presentation of Jose Rizal's past lovers -Ms. Leonor Valenzuela and Leonor Rivera

1. Leonor Valenzuela
(Jose Rizal’s love in his
2nd year at UST)
Leonor Rivera
(Jose Rizal’s love for 11 years)

2. Leonor Valenzuela
Rizal’s another experience
of love happened when he
was a sophomore in his
medical studies in the
University of Santo Tomas.

3. 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

4. Capitan Juan and
Capitana Sanday
Valenzuela
had a charming daughter
named Leonor “Orang”.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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...

15. ...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.”