The doomed love of Jose Rizal and Leonor Rivera

In a previous article, I wrote about Josephine Bracken, Jose Rizal’s last love. For today, we talk about another woman in Rizal’s life. This week, on April 11 in 1867, Leonor Rivera was born in Camiling, Tarlac. She was, without a doubt, Rizal’s truest love and would later be immortalized as Maria Clara, the idealized Filipina heroine in his novel Noli Me Tangere. Like Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara, Jose Rizal’s and Leonor Rivera’s love story was doomed from the start. Leonor's mother, Silvestra Bauzon, opposed Rizal and Leonor’s relationship and didn’t want a “radical” to be her daughter’s husband. It’s said that though Rizal had thoughts of an early marriage, these were overruled because his unmarried sisters didn’t want to take care of Leonor and even Paciano Rizal thought his younger brother would mar his career by marrying early.

It is also interesting to point out that Leonor Rivera was also Rizal’s cousin, although for many years many writers and historians got their relationship wrong. Many of Rizal’s correspondences refer to Leonor’s father, Antonio Rivera, as his “tio” or uncle. This led most historians to immediately conclude that the Rizals were related to the Riveras, with some even erroneously saying Rizal and Leonor were second cousins. As Rizal’s family tree has been explored extensively, we know for a fact that the Riveras were not related to the Rizals. Contrary to many historians’ belief, the blood relationship was between the Alonzos (Rizal’s mother’s family) and the Bauzon-Leyvas (Leonor’s mother’s family). Many forget that Antonio’s wife was also a “tia” of Rizal, though because she didn’t like Rizal, she wouldn’t be mentioned by Rizal in his letters.

Since the family of Teodora Alonzo’s mother, the Quintoses, and the Bauzon-Leyvas were from Pangasinan, the family connection was between these families. American biographer Austin Craig mentioned a Vicenta Leyva y Bauzon as a cousin of Rizal’s mother, whose estate was later administered by her sister Concepcion Leyva y Bauzon, with whom Rizal also corresponded several times. Concepcion Leyva later stood as a marriage sponsor to Leonor Rivera and Charles Kipping in 1891. Concepcion and Vicenta were the daughters of Don Jose Leyva and Doña Basilia Bauzon, mentioned by Rizal in one of his letters as “Impo Iliang” or grandma Iliang.

It is then safe to conclude that the connection between Leonor Rivera and Jose Rizal was through the Bauzons and Leyvas. Basilia Bauzon de Leyva was most likely the sister of Silvestra Bauzon’s father, Basilio, who was Leonor’s grandfather. Silvestra’s grandmother was likely a Quintos and a first cousin of Brigida de Quintos (Rizal’s maternal grandmother).

As mentioned, Leonor married Englishman Charles Henry Kipping in 1891 and they had two children, though only one survived. It was the birth of the second child in 1893 which led to her early death at the age of 26. It is sad to note further that after Leonor’s death, Charles Kipping returned to England and left his son with his in-laws. Charles died a mere three years after leaving the Philippines and his tombstone in England only indicates he came from the Philippines and the names of his parents and curiously does not mention Leonor as his wife.

Despite the failed love affair of Jose Rizal and Leonor Rivera, Leonor’s descendants participate in wreath-laying ceremonies on Rizal's death anniversary to pay tribute to the man who loved their ancestor Leonor, and who their ancestor also loved unconditionally. Silvestra Bauzon might have succeeded in preventing her daughter from marrying Rizal, but she was unable to stop Rizal from immortalizing his one great love through the character of Maria Clara in a book that is still read by thousands of students every year. Thus, history has guaranteed that the love that Leonor Rivera and Jose Rizal had would never be forgotten by the Filipino people.