Josephine Bracken sues Rizal’s mother, 1902
IN 1902, Paciano Rizal Mercado, elder brother of Jose Rizal and a general of the Filipino-American War who had retired to an estate in Los Baños, broke a 15-year silence by writing Ferdinand Blumentritt in Europe. Josephine Bracken, common-law wife of Rizal in Dapitan, had sued Teodora Alonso in an attempt to force the Rizal family to produce what she claimed was Rizal’s last will and testament. Paciano advised Blumentritt to ignore Josephine who might turn to him for sympathy. Paciano told Blumentritt that he and the Rizal family knew of no such will.
Years earlier, Josephine had written a series of letters to Bluemntritt requesting his assistance in claiming what was due her as Rizal’s widow—a modest fortune that included P1,000 in cash; Rizal’s library then packed and stored in Hong Kong, and entrusted to Jose Ma. Basa, which was worth around P3,000; and paintings by Juan Luna that, then as now, were prized canvasses. Josephine complained that by withholding her “husband’s will,” the Rizal family cheated her of a rightful share in Rizal’s estate.
Two decades ago I stumbled on this distasteful exchange of letters in the National Library. Why nobody had cited them before is a question I am leaving for another column. To provide readers with a sense of the issue, let me quote an unedited letter that Josephine sent to Blumentritt on Nov. 29, 1897:
“Respectable Friend: I let you know by these few lines that my late husband Dr. J. Rizal left all his books to you. There are three bookcases, I mean library in care of Mr. Jose Maria Basa’s house. I opened the will last month and found that the bookcases were for you, he very often told me that those books cost him 3000$. I asked Mr. Basa for the books and he denied them, I think it is better for you to write over and ask him for the things that my husband left for you.
“Yes; dear friend the Philippines (Filipinos?) out here now they are not Gentlemen, they deceived me a great deal their were 1000$ given to Rizal by the Freemason Lodge so it was to be given to me, but they took it and spent it all. I think it is the best thing for you to give me a letter to hand the book cases to me and I will sent it over to you, because Mr. Basa is selling all the best books. I have lots of troubles with the Philippines (Filipinos) they are not what I thought them to be, I took them to be like my husband, but I see that I am deceived.
“Hoping that all your famailly (family) are enjoying good health and please excuse my letter if it is badly written because I am with a strong feavour (fever?).”
This faithful transcription of the manuscript letter above displays Josephine’s command of English and makes me wonder how and why she offered English classes when she was living in Cebu. Nevertheless, she did not want for clients, and it has been said that one of her pupils was Sergio Osmeña. From the letter above, it is also clear that she wanted Blumentritt to give her the authority to claim Rizal’s books from Basa so that she could send them to Europe. Why not have the books sent direct from Basa in Hong Kong to Blumentritt in Litomerice? I have often been accused of going beyond the documents, but anyone who reads the letters can sense something amiss.
According to the late Austin Coates, when Josephine’s lawyers came round to claim these books, Basa simply asked Josephine to prove she was indeed married to Rizal. The legal issue ended there but left another historical problem: were Rizal and Josephine married? There is a Jesuit account regarding the marriage in Fort Santiago shortly before Rizal walked to his execution, but that is not what people still debate about. Marriage means that Rizal did write and sign that controversial document of retraction that was uncovered in the archives of the Arzobispado de Manila decades after his execution.
Whether Rizal’s retraction is a forgery or not provides some people with meaning in life; let’s leave them to their interests and agendas.
There must be some legal document somewhere to provide context to the letters between Josephine, Blumentritt and Paciano that ran from 1897 to the time of the lawsuit in 1902. Josephine claimed she saw a copy of Rizal’s will and demanded that the Rizal family produce it. Paciano declared Rizal died intestate. It was her word against Rizal’s mother and brother. When you come to it, how can the “dulce extranjera” (sweet foreigner) immortalized in Rizal’s “Ultimo Adios” hope to win a case in court by suing Rizal’s sainted mother Teodora Alonso?
Then there is the question of the original manuscript of the “Ultimo Adios” that Josephine took when she left the Rizal household for Hong Kong in 1897. Was this her property or the property of the family? This manuscript was acquired by the Philippine government in 1908 from an unnamed American collector and is now preserved in the National Library in Manila. Was the manuscript stolen? Or was it rightfully Josephine’s to sell later? All these are sordid details best swept under the rug during Rizal’s 150th birthday next month, but these illustrate clearly that our heroes and historical figures were human as you and me. Sometimes, encouraged by lawyers, they haled each other to court too—perhaps, with the famous last words, “I will demand you!” [Ide-demanda kita!]
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