In defense of Josephine Bracken

This is in defense of Josephine Bracken, Dr Jose Rizal's 'dulce extranjera.'

In a lecture given by Ambeth Ocampo two years ago in Canada, the historian casts doubt on Rizal's true intention with the Irish-American lady Josephine Bracken and even cast aspersions on her character as a woman of ill-refute. He even went as far as to suggest that Rizal was actually gay (more of that later). I think he already crossed the line - not that I'm a rabid Rizal fan.

It's true that Rizal and Josephine lived together as husband and wife in Dapitan without the blessing of a formal marriage. Rizal was aware of the social repercussions of their situation as reflected on his frequent communication with his mother and siblings. But the reason the exiled Rizal could not easily get married to Josephine was the condition imposed by the Church that he first retract his criticisms against the church and renounce his membership to the Freemasons. Doing so will be a betrayal to his cause, which at this point, after writing "El Filibusterismo", he believed can only be achieved through a revolution although he felt at the time that the Filipinos were not yet prepared to engage in it. Remember also that there was no civil marriage back then.

Whether Rizal ultimately capitulated to the enemy and signed a retraction hours before his execution so that he could give a last-minute honor to his true love by having a Catholic wedding or not is subject to a lot of conjectures by many historians. If he did not, it's because he was a man of principle and would not easily capitulate and betray his people for their cause. Either way, the couple were betrayed by the Church when it refused to issue Josephine a marriage certificate but at the same time proudly holding on a document that supposedly proves Rizal retracted his criticisms against the Church. Logic tells you it can't be both. The absence of a marriage certificate became a point of contention between her and the Rizal family, further damaging the already strained relationship.

In his last hours, Rizal gave Josephine his last gift, a copy of "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis, one of my all-time favorite books. On it, he lovingly wrote in English "To my dear and unhappy wife Josephine." Take note, he wrote "wife", not "sweetheart." But the ultimate endearing words of affection by our national hero to his beloved are found in his last and greatest poem, "Mi ultimo adios." In the last two lines, he wrote "Adiós, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría, Adiós, queridos seres, morir es descansar." Andres Bonifacio, a great fan of Rizal, translated the words in Tagalog thus: "paalam estrañgerang kasuyo ko't aliw. paalam sa inyo m̃ga ginigiliw: ¡mamatay ay siyang pagkagupiling!" In English, "Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way; Farewell to all I love; to die is to rest." She was thus immortalized by him in "Mi ultimo adios."

The many letters between them when Josephine was in Manila and Rizal in Dapitan showed a rather lovey-dovey couple. It's true that most of Rizal's siblings and his mother were against their relationship, some were suspecting that Josephine was a spy of the friars. But the romantic love between these two unequal lovers - one was an accomplished man of many talents from an elite family and the other an adopted daughter of Irish decent from a rather modest background - is beyond doubt. She even fought for sometime as a Katipunera a few months after Rizal died. Two years later, Josephine met and married another Filipino in Hong Kong - Vicente Abad of Cebu. They settled in Cebu where they put up the first bike store in the island. They had a daughter. She went back to Hong Kong after a few years when she got sick and died of miliary TB. She was only 25.

For Ambeth Ocampo to suggest that Rizal was not sincere in his intention with Josephine Bracken and add that Rizal was gay is absurd. I have nothing against gays but there was no evidence to support that he was. Ocampo himself said in his lecture that Rizal had a total of 13 women linked to him romantically -  1. SEGUNDA KATIGBAK, 2 .MARGARITA ALMEDA GOMEZ, 3. LEONOR RIVERA, 4. LEONOR VALENZUELA, 5. JACINTA YBARDALOZA, 6. CONSUELO ORTIGA Y REY, 7. ADELINA BAUSTEAD, 8. NELLIE BAUSTEAD, 9. O-SEI SAN KIYO, 10. GERTRUDE BECKETT, 11. SUZZANE JACOBY, 12.PASTORA NECESARIO, and, lastly, 13. JOSEPHINE LEOPOLDINE BRACKEN and none of them men . What Ambeth Ocampo said is pure speculation. Interestingly, in an informal survey among his students and former students at Ateneo de Manila, where he taught history, the vast majority believe Ambeth is gay. Is he projecting his own feelings? wink emoticon

Josephine Bracken deserves to be honored as an honorary Filipina  and be respected for it.