The Many Loves of Pepe Rizal

By Aida Rivera Ford

AMORIOS: HERE’S ONE FOR LOVERS OF RIZAL

One of the most charming vignettes in the life of our usually dead-serious Jose Rizal is in danger of being washed into oblivion by editors or translators. This is because they impose their peculiar sense of propriety on our hero’s public, although the public is entitled to a closer view of Rizal as a human being.

Rizal did not seem too believable as a young man until I came upon Chapter X of Rafael Palma’s award-winning book on Rizal in the original Spanish entitled Biografia de Rizal. Inspite of struggling with Spanish, I read on and on and was especially delighted with Chapter X, “Amorios.” I hastened to get a copy of the English translation by Roman Ozaeta to better enjoy the amours if our hero. “The translation was retitled grandiloquently Pride of the Malay Race but I was mortified to find the whole titillating chapter omitted — perhaps because the over-editorializing translator did not consider this chapter documented by correspondence between Rizal and his ebullient friend Chengoy in keeping with his concept of the book.

In letters ranging from February 1883 to September 1885, Chengoy writes from Manila to Pepe in Madrid and reveals himself the self-appointed consoler in love of two enchanting Leonors left behind by our hero. Chengoy berates Rizal for being “un hombre de doble sistema Leonor,” with perhaps a pub intended on “honor.”

The Leonor Rivera mythified as Rizal’s one great love is playfully referred to as “la cuestion del oriente” or “La casarita,” punning on both “casar” — to marry — and little “casera,” as her mother was Rizal’s landlady in the city. She is also called Leonor of the “purple city” very aptly as Chengoy alludes to her languishing in doleful martyrdom.

Not so the other Leonor, “Orang” Valenzuela, who shows spirit and pride in instructing Chengoy to tell her “tocaya” that she is no rival in “amorios” and to tell our hero that he will not find her single when he returns.

Chengoy takes it upon himself to visit the two Leonors alternately, protesting to whichever Leonor visits that only she is the object of our hero’s affections. Chengoy notes that the two are keenly aware of each other’s existence but whereas “la cuestion del oriente” pines away with a mysterious ailment, the spirited Orang vents her energies on horseback riding and continues to put on weight. At one time, Leonor of the purple city watches closely from a balcony for a glimpse of her rival in a procession but is thwarted as Orang goes by unrecognized with her face covered by a thick white veil. To which Chengoy exclaims, “Amigo, que gulay!”

In the meantime, in Madrid, our hero does not lack for “amorios.” Soon after his arrival there, he meets a Spanish señorita, Consuelo Ortiga, to whom he later dedicates love verses: “A La Srta. C.O.y.R.”

This young lady of delicate sensibilities left some memories which slow that our youthful hero was a master at implying love through metaphor but that the señorita found it impossible to elicit direct statements from him. These candid memories which Rafael Palma claims to have been published for the first time were also imitted entirely by our translator-editor, Roman Ozaeta!

Another Rizal biographer, Manuel Zaide, does dwell on the many loves of Rizal but always apologizes for each romance in a most exasperating and repetitious way. His theme song is that Rizal found himself lonely for his Leonor 9singular) while in foreign parts. He therefore sought consolation in the company of attractive and attracted women. But Zaide could not explain away why our hero never once visited his “Maria Clara,” Leonor Rivera, in between trips to Europse.

Why can’t we be allowed to touch Rizal — a prodigious man but for all that, a human being — especially in matter of amorios? (Reprinted from the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, November 30, 1986)

INTRODUCTION

This play on the Many Loves of Pepe Rizal is based partly on Chapter 1 of Rafael Palma’s Biografia de Rizal entitled “Amorios” in the Spanish version and on Gregorio Zaide’s Jose Rizal: Life Works and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, National Hero.

The staging should be simple and flexible. For instance, in Episode IV, the narrator can take the role of Chengot and a divider can separate the two Leonors. Later, in the processional, a raised window frame can show Leonor Rivera watching for a glimpse of Leonor Valenzuela, who covers herself with a thick white veil.

In the rapid change of location and date, this can be flashed on the screen or someone change a printed sign.

At the end, the lifting of a screen can unveil the Fort Santiago cell. While Rizal declaims from his “Mi Ultimo Adios,” Doña Teodora and Josephine Bracken can pose at center stage with a gas lamp, and slowly, the other loves of Rizal appear ghostlike so that all nine loves of Rizal can be shown at the end of the play.

SYNOPSIS

Calamba 1872

The stage play The Many Loves of Pepe Rizal starts with Doña Teodora in 1872 telling her eleven-year-old son Pepe Rizal the story of the moths encircling the flame from a gas lamp, with a warning on the fate of the moth. The young Rizal is fascinated that it died a martyr to its illusions.

1872

Doña Teodora is shown being dragged to prison and made to walk fifty kilometers from Calamba to Sta. Cruz. She is arrested on false charges of attempting to poison a vindictive, adulterous wife of a friend. After two and a half years in prison, she is completely exonerated.

Manila 1877

His first love is Segunda Katigbak who, at fourteen, is already engaged to an older relative. She is a student at La Concordia and co-boarder with his sister Olympia. He was then a student at the Ateneo.

Madrid 1883 to 1885

Rizal entrust to his friend Chengoy the task of checking on his two lady loves: the spirited Leonor Valenzuela or “Orang,” and Leonor Rivera, referred to as “La Cuestion del Oriente,” who languishes in dolfful martyrdom. His engagement to Leonor Rivera makes him desist proposing to his later “loves.” Heartbreak comes in 1890 when she marries an Englishman.

Rizal finds solace and joy in the company of Consuelo Ortiga y Perez to whom he dedicates a poem “Me Piden Versos” and “A La Senorita C.O.y.P.”

Japan 1888

A romantic interlude fin Japan from February to April 1888 with a well-educated Japanese girl whom he calls O-Sei-San leaves her brokenhearted.

London 1889

Our hero finds romance with Gertude Beckett, a buxom English girl who modeled for his sculpture.

Belgium 1890

Rizal has a brief romance with the petite Suzanne Jacoby.

Biarritz 1891

While finishing the last chapter of El Filibusterismo,. Rizal falls in love with Nellie, the daughter of his host Eduardo Boustead. She would practice fencing with him in Juan Luna’s studio. Antonio Luna, who was once engaged to her, insults her; thereupon, Rizal challenges him to a dul which fortunately is averted. One hindrance to Rizal’s courtship of Neillie is that she demands that he be converted to Protestantism — which he refuses.

Dapitan 1896

In the alst year of Rizal’s four-year exile in Dapitan, eighteen-year-old Josephine Bracken comes into his life when her blind foster father, George Taufer, seeks the services of the famous ophthalmic surgeon. Upon noticing the romantic ties between his ward and Dr. Rizal, he goes into a rage and attempts to slash his wrist. He later returns alone to Hong Kong. Rizal and Josephine marry themselves before the eyes of God as no priest would amrry them. Their happiness is blighted by the premature birth of their eight-month baby boy who lives for only three hours.

Fort Santiago 1896

The ominous clouds of bloody revolution make Rizal the victim of Spanish intrigue inspite of his objection to Bonifacio’s audacious project. His trip thorugh Europe to serve as doctor in Cuba ends in the firing squad in Bagumbayan. The last scene shows Rizal in his Fort Santiafo cell reciting passages from “Mi Ultimo Adios.”

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Dr. Jose Rizal

Eleven-year-old Pepe Rizal

Dona Teodora Alonso

Guardia Civiles

Segunada Katigbak

Chengoy

Leonor Rivera

Leonor “Orang” Valezuela

Consuelo Ortiga y Perez

O-Sei-San

Gertude Beckett

Suzanne Jacoby

Nellie Boustead

Juan Luna

Maria Mercado

Josephine Bracken

George Taufer

Narrator

THE PLAY BEGINS

MUSIC: “Ave Maria” by Francisco Santiago

NARATOR:

Jose Rizal is unmistakably our National Hero and “the greatest man the Malayan race has produced.” We would not be what we are today if it were not for his ideals that he defended in beautiful poetry and prose, ’til his serene martyrdom at Bagumbayan on December 30, 1896 at the age of 35.

We celebrate today, not just his genius, but his humanity. His childhood, under an unusually strong-hearted mother Doña Teodora, who almost died giving birth to Jose because of his big head, and his many loves — an international array- is the subject. We present Rizal at age eleven with his mother Dona Teodora, circa 1872.

THE STORY OF THE MOTH

CALAMBA 1872

EPISODE I

Doña Teodora and eleven-year-old Pepe one evening with a gas lamp on the table.

DOÑA TEODORA:

Pepe, ben aqui-hijo mio. Vamos a leer una estorya sobre las mariposas nocturnas-como estas que encirclen al fuego. Pepe, I want you to listen to the story of the moths-like these moths…

Watch how they are fascinated by the flame-the brilliant flame that keaps from the darkness. The old moth gives a warning to the young-”Stay away…stay away from the flame for it will burn you.” But the young moth keeps on flying nearer and nearer the flame. Finally, it is consumed by the flame. Pepe, you are not paying attention! See that you do not behave like the young moth. Don’t be disobedient, or you may get burnt as it did.

PEPE:

As my mother read the story of the moths, I looked toward the light and fixed my gaze on the moths which circled around. The story could not have been better timed. My mother repeated the warning of the old moth. She dealt upon it and directed it to me. I heard her, but it is a curious thing that the light seemed to me each time more beautiful, the flame more attractive. I really envied the fortune of the insects. They frolicked so joyously in its enchanting splendor that the ones which had fallen and been drowned by the oil did not cause me any dread. That for me became a great event. A curios change came over me which I have always noticed in myself whenever anything changes my feelings. The flame and the moth seemed to go farther away and my mother’s words seemed strange and uncanny. I did not notice when she ended the fable. All my attention was fixed on the fate of the insect. I watched it with my whole soul…It died a martyr to its illusions.

NARRATOR:
The tragic fate of the young moth which “died a martyr to its illusions” left a deep impression on Rizal’s mind. He justified such death as noble and worthwhile. And, like that young moth, he was fated to die as a martyr for a noble ideal.

EPISODE 2

1872 CLAMABA TO STA. CRUZ

MUSIC: “Ave Maria” from Cavelleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni

[Dona Teodora is shown being dragged by guards, falling on her knees and forced to walk to prison.]

NARRATOR:

Doña Teodora Realonda Mercado, Rizal’s mother, was the victim of persecution:

In June 1872, she and brother Jose Alberto were maliciously charged with trying to poison the latter’s perfidious wife who had gone off with a Spanish lieutenant of the Guardia Civil. The accuser had been their guest but had a grudge because Rizal’s father refused to give folder for his horse.

Doña Teodora was sentenced to two and a half years in the provincial prison. She was forced to walk fifty kilometers, from Calamba to Sta. Cruz, the capital of Laguna Province, handcuffed and with guards.

EPISODE 3

1877 MANILA

NARRATOR:

Pepe Rizal’s diary had copious passages about his first love.

PEPE RIZAL:

Wake up, heart, kindle again your extinguished fire so that in its warmth you may remember that time which I dare not judge. Go, thinking mind, and go again through those places, recall those moments in which you drank together the nectar, the bitter gall of love and disappointments.

My mother said that I should not go to Manila anymore to enroll in Metaphysics. Had my mother a presentiment of what was going to happen to me? Has the heart of a mother a double vision?

I found myself in Manila as if stupefied. A fellow collegian of mine accompanied me to Trozo where we met a girl of about fourteen years, fresh, pleasant, winsome, who we heard was going to marry a relative. She was short,m with expressive eyes, ardent at times, and drooping at other times, pinkish, a smile so bewitching and provocative that revealed very beautiful teeth, with an air of a sylph. I fon’t know what allure was all over her ebing. Dhr was not the most beautiful woman I had seen, but I had never seen one more bewitching and alluring. They told me to sketch her.

[Rizal is shown doing a pencil sketch of her.]

SEGUNDA KATIGBAK:

What flower do you like best?

RIZAL:

I like them all…and you which do you prefer?

SEGUNDA KATIGBAK:

I like the white and the pink ones. [Pause] Have you a sweetheart?

RIZAL:

No. I never thought of having one pay attention to me, especially the beautiful ones.

SEGUNDA KATIGBAK:

Why, is it possible? You deceive yourself. Do you want me to get you one?

RIZAL:

That was the first night that I felt anguish and inquietude resembling love, if not jealousy, knowing she was betrothed to another. I saw that a million obstacles would stand between us, yet my budding love was increasing and seemed to be gaining vigor in the fight. Since then, I knew that I loved her truly and in my own way, that is very different from other loves that I have heard mentioned.

NARRATOR:

Rizal’s last glimpse of Segunda was when he learned that she and her family were in a carromata headed for Calamba. He saddled a white horse to meet her carriage, but as he passed with Segunda smiling and waving her handkerchief at him, all he could do was doff his hat without uttering a word. His first romance was ruined by his own shyness and reserve.

EPISODE 4

1897 INTRAMUROS

NARRATOR:

After Segunda, he paid court to a young woman in Calamba whom he referred to in his memoirs as “Miss L.”

During sophomore year at the University of Sto. Tomas, he met a neighbor’s house the tall and charming Leonor Valenzuela whose pet name was “orang” Our hero sent her love notes in invisible ink which she could read by heating paper over a candle or lamp. But as with Segunda, he stopped short of proposing marriage to “Orang.”

His next romance was with another Leonor — Leonor Rivera- the daughter of his casera or landlady where he boarded during his third year at the university. He became engaged to this frail and pretty girl “tender as a budding flower with kindly, wistful eyes.”

CHENGOY:

And what have you heard from our friend Pepe?

LEONOR RIVERA:

You tell your friend that he owes me two letters. Perhaps he made a mistake and addressed his replied to the other Leonor.

EPISODE 5

[During the entire episode, the actors improvise on the action.]

NARRATOR:

While Rizal was in Europe, he entrusted to his friend Chengoy the task of checking on the two Leonors.

In letters ranging from February 1883 to September 1885, Chengoy writes from Manila to Pepe in Madrid and reveals himself the self-appointed consoler in love of two enchanting Leonors left behind by our hero. Chengoy berates him for being un hombre de doble sistema Leonor with perhaps a pun intended on “honor.”

The Leonor Rivera mythified as Rizal’s one great love is playfully referred to as la cuestion del Oriente or casarita, punning on both casera — to marry- and little casera — as her mother was Rizal’s landlady in the city.

She is called Leonor of the “purple city” very aptly as Chengoy alludes to her languishing in doleful martyrdom.

Not so the other Leonor, “Orang” Valenzuela, who shows spirit and pride in instructing Chengoy to tell her tocaya that she is no rival in amorios and to tell our hero that he will not find her single when he returns.

Chengoy takes in upon himself to visit the two Leonors alternately, protesting to whichever Leonor he visits that only she is the object of our hero’s affections. Chengoy notes that the two are keenly aware of each other’s existence but whereas la cuestion del Oriente pines away with a mysterious ailment, the spirited Orang vents her energies on horseback riding and continues to put on weight. At one time, Leonor of the purple city watches closely from a balcony for a glimpse of her rival in a procession but is thwarted as Orang goes by unrecognized, her face covered by a thick white veil. To which Chengoy exclaims, Amigo, que gulay!

Because of this engagement to Leonor Rivera, our hero desisted proposing to his later loves in Europe and Japan. The heartbreak came in 1890 when she — Leonor Rivera — married an Englishman.

EPISODE 6

MADRID 1883

NARRATOR:

In Madrid 1883, he found solace and joy in the company of Consuelo Ortiga y Perez to whom he dedicated a poem “A la Senorita C.O.y.P.” At this time he also composed his beautiful “Me Piden Versos.”

RIZAL:

You bid me now to strike the lyre,

That mute and torn so long has lain;

And yet Ica nnot wake the strain,

Nor will the Muse one note inspire!

Coldly, it shakes in accents dire,

As if my soul itself to wring,

And when its sounds seem but to fling

A jest at its own low lament;

So in sad isolation spent,

My soul can neither feel nor sing.

EPISODE 7

JAPAN 1888

NARRATOR:

There was a romantic interlude in Japan from February to April 1888 with a well-educated Japanese girl whom he called O-Sei-San.

RIZAL:

O-Sei-San [pulling at her arm], there’s something I must tell you O-Sei-San.

O-SEI-SAN:

Why do you look so sad…

RIZAL:

Your loveliness has infused joy and romance in my sorrowing heart. But my dear, I truly wish I could stay with you. These past months have been pure bliss for me. I must carry on very important work for my country. Tomorrow, I depart…Sayonara…Sayonara.

O-SEI-SAN:

[Sobbing] No, no, no. It cannot be. You are leaving me so soon. Rizal, Rizal, you are breaking my heart. [Rizal grasps her and they walk sadly away.]

EPISODE 8

LONDON 1889

NARRATOR:

Our hero found romance with Gertude Beckett- a buxom English girl with brown hair, blue eyes, and rosy cheeks. He called her Gettie and did a bust of her. She called him Pettie.

GERTUDE:

I can’t keep this pose any longer [going over to Rizal and caressing his hair]. Let me see what you’re doing.

RIZAL:

Gettie, Gettie, be a good girl and let me finish this bust.

GERTUDE:

[Giggling] Do you really think you can find the real me from a distance? O Pettie, let me show you the real me [drags Rizal to an adjoining room].

EPISODE 9

BELGIUM 1890

NARRATOR:

While attending summertime festival in Belgium in 1890, our hero had a brief romance with petite Suzanne Jacoby, a pretty Belgian girl. She cried when he left for Madrid toward the end of July 1890. She wrote to him in French,

SUZANNE:

Where are you now? Do you think of me once in a while? I am reminded of our tender conversations, reading your letter, although it is cold and indifferent.

A thousand things serve to distract your mind, my firnd, but in my case, I am sad, lonely, always alone with my thoughts — nothing, absolutely nothing relieves my sorrow. Are you coming back? That’s what I want and desire most adherently. You cannot refuse me.

Goodbye. You know with one word you can make me very happy. Aren’t you going to write to me?

NARRATOR:

At this time, he did sculptural works: Prometheus Bound, The Triumph of Death over Life and Terimph of Science Over Death.

EPISODE 10

BIARRITZ 1891

NARRATOR:

In 1891, at Biarritz at the French Riviera while finishing the last chapter of his novel El FIlibusterismo, Rizal fell in love with Nellie, the younger daughter of his host Eduardo Boustead. She would practice fencing with him in Juan Luna’s studio. Anotonio Luna was once engaged to her. In a drunken fit, Anotonio insulted Nellie and Rizal immediately challenged him to a duel. Fortunately the duel was averted. Luna gave way to Rizal’s courtship of Nellie. But there was one hindrance — Nellie demanded that Rizal convert to Protestanism, which he wouldn’t do. Although he became a Mason, he did not give up his Catholic faith. He and Nellie parted as good friends.

NELLIE:

Pepe you seem so intent in writing. You’ve been at it for a week now.

RIZAL:

It’s the last chapter of my novel, El Filibusterismo.

NELLIE:

And what, may I ask, do you hope to show, apart from how beastly the Spanish friars can be, as you did in the Noli Me Tangere? They’ll skin you alive for that, you know.

RIZAL:

I don’t care. I want to show our people that power tends to corrupt, and, when absolute, corrupts absolutely. It corrupts both the powerful and their victims, for “there are no tyrants where there are no slaves.”

NELLIE:

That’s awesome! But your Spansish masters won’t think so. Pepe, don’t you think it’s time to stay abroad? Make your home here with someone you love…

RIZAL:

And could that love be here in Biarritz, right here?

NELLIE:

Pepe, you know what I feel for you, but I don’t know what you feel for me.

RIZAL:

Hold me close and you’ll find out.

[Nellie puts her arms around him. Just then, Antonio Luna enters and shouts.]

LUNA:

Nellie Boustead, just as I thought. You’re nothing but a slut, so deceptively prim — but for that, a slut!

RIZAL:

[Jumping up and shouting] Luna, take back your words…apologize to Nellie. You have no right. She is no longer engaged to you. Apologize, or else face me in a duel in the field tomorrow.

[Luna gasps and finally bows low before making an exit.]

EPISODE 11

DAPITAN 1892 TO 1896

NARRATOR:

We now present the final years — during his four-year exile in Dapitan, which Rizal converted into an idyllic paradise — from 1892 to 1896.

DAPITAN 1894

[Rizal examines his mother’s right eye.]

RIZAL:

Mama, I am so happy that you and Maria have come to live with me here in Dapitan. It’s been over two years since my exile, but as you can see, this is really an idyllic place, with the Talisay beach in front, the waterworks at the back, the clinic and schoolhouses. The agricultural lands I purchased from lottery winning are producing coconut and hemp. What more can I ask for?

DOÑA TEODORA:

Hijo, a wife perhaps? You must forget about Leonor. I don’t know if she was happy with that Englishman she married. But you know she was always pining away. You must have heard the sad news, that she passed away recently.

RIZAL:

Yes, Mama. I wish I could have helped her with her ailment. But let us not talk about that. Let me look at your eyes, Mama. The eye which I operated in Hong Kong is fine. You can see from it, can’t you? But your right eye … I must operate on your right eye soon.

DOÑA TEODORA:

My son, I must be the most blessed mother in the world to have you — my doctor, my hero.

EPISODE 12

1896

NARRATOR:

In the last year of exile in Dapitan, the final romance ended in Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken marrying themselves before the eyes of God as no priest would marry them. An eighteen-year-old Irish born in Hong Kong, slender with chestnut blond hair and blue eyes: traveled with her foster father, Mr. George Taufer, who sought an ophthalmic surgeon, the famous Dr. Rizal, for his blindess. In a rage over their union, Mr. Taufer attempted to cut his own throat with a razor but was prevented from doing so by the good doctor. He returned alone to Hong Kong.

[Enter the blind Mr. Taufer accompanied by Josephine Bracken.]

JOSEPHINE:

Excuse us, but we are loking for the fmous ophthalmic surgeon, Dr. Jose Rizal.

RIZAL:

At your service, Señorita.

JOSEPHINE:

This is Mr. Taufer, my foster father. He is totally blind and seeks your help. I am Josephine Bracken. We have come from Hong Kong to seek medical remedies and you are the one almost everyone recommends.

RIZAL:

Don’t believe everything they say. I will however examine your father and see what I can do.

[They exit. Later, Rizal and Josephine re-enter joyously.]

JOSEPHINE:

The sea is so beautiful and the people so warm and caring, especially your family. And the children so much fun. Do you think I could learn to teach them?

RIZAL:

You will be a wonderful teacher… and a perfect wife, Joesphine. Did you hear me? I want you to be my wife and to stay with me forever.

JOSEPHINE:

Yes, Pepe…I’ve waited for you to say that.

[Mr. Taufer comes in using a cane.]

TAUFER:

Ah-huh! So that is what you’ve been up to, taking advantage of my blindness. Josephine, how can you do this to me? We will pack immediately and go home.

JOSEPHINE:

Papa George, this is my home now. I have found someone I truly love.

TAUFER:

[Shouting] You cannot leave me! I will kill myself!

JOSEPHINE:

Papa George… don’t… don’t. I will take you back, dear Papa, but I have to come back to Pepe. My happiness is with him!

[They exit with Rizal guiding Taufer out.]

NARRATOR:

The couple’s happiness was unfortunately blighted by Josephine’s giving birth prematurely to an eight-month-baby but because of a prank played on her by Jose, she slipped down the stairs. The baby lived for only three hours.

EPISODE 13

1896

GUARDS BRING RIZAL TO FORT SANTIAGO

NARRATOR:

Meanwhile the ominous clouds of bloody revolution darkened the Philippine skies and although Rizal objected to Bonifacio’s audacious project, he became the victim of Spanish intrigue. His trip through Europe to serve as doctor in Cuba ended in the firing squad at Bagumbayan.

In his “Last Farewell” hidden at the botton of a gas stove for his mother, he addressed Josephine Bracken as his “dulce estranjera, mi amiga, mi alegria!”

RIZAL:

[Reciting from “Mi Ultimo Adios”]

Adiós, Patria adorada, región del sol querida,
Perla del mar de oriente, nuestro perdido Edén!
A darte voy alegre la triste mustia vida,
Y fuera más brillante, más fresca, más florida,
También por ti la diera, la diera por tu bien.

Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caress’d
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life’s best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost.

On the field of battle, ‘mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not-cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom’s plight,
T is ever the same, to serve our home and country’s need.

I die just when I see the dawn break,
Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,
Pour’d out at need for thy dear sake
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.

Adiós, padres y hermanos, trozos del alma mía,
Amigos de la infancia en el perdido hogar,
Dad gracias que descanso del fatigoso día;
Adiós, dulce extranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría,
Adiós, queridos seres, morir es descansar.

[While Rizal recited from “The Last Farewell” inside a prison cell on one side of the stage, Dona Teodora (holding a gas lamp) and Josephine Bracken clasp each other at center stage. In the background, the other loves of Rizal appear ghostlike: Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, Leonor Rivera, Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, O-Sei-San, Getude Beckett, Suzanne Jacoby, Nellie Boustead.]

MUSIC: “Ave Maria” by Francisco Santiago