Queridas de Rizal

Looking Back #16

by Ambeth R. Ocampo

"Querida, in the Philippines, refers to a mistress. In its original Spanish sense, however, querida/querido means someone beloved or cherished. It is in this light that I share these essays, as appetizers for the definitive book on Rizal’s loves that I will work on in retirement.”

Genres: Nonfiction, History

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Lamberto R. Ocampo better known as Ambeth R. Ocampo (b. 1961) is Filipino historian, academic, journalist, cultural administrator and author best known for his writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal, and for his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, "Looking Back." He became the Chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines in 2002 until 2010, and was appointed as Chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2005 until 2007.

Reviews

[Kit ୭ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro para sa mga chismosa (me)

[Majuchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Veron · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book from the Looking Back series. It's certainly an easy read because of the essay-compilation format. I learned new things not only about Rizal's ex-loves (seeing this side of the him is kind of entertaining), but also a little bit about how historians dig up what we know about the past thorough stories, portraits, documents, etc.

[Anne Noreen Carlas Sustituido · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a nice short read. I learned a lot of things about Rizal’a love life. Also, this book pique my interest to learn more about Josephine Bracken. What I knew of her from the history books is quite different from the untold stories that I have read here. But it would have been nice if Rizal had an offspring with anyone from the women he’s been with.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite boring. The essays are redundant.

[jini]

The first half of this book delves into the different girls Rizal was romantically associated with, debunking rumors and revealing events regarding them. On the other hand, the second book discusses Josephine Bracken's complex character. The latter resonated with me because I used to think that Josephine became part of history just because she was Rizal's "wife", but that was far from the truth. Her personality and behavior was fun to analyze through this book, which gives many narratives about how she was like and what she did throughout her life.

The book also reveals that history may sometimes be objective. The way history is written will always be up to the historian: whether or not they analyze the primary sources correctly and whether or not they think that they information they gather is relevant to what they are coming up with.

Overall, the book is a great resource for research on Rizal's romance and character. I hope to read the full version of this promised by Mr. Ocampo soon.

[Gab of Green Gables · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't expect to breeze through this book in a good way, it was so fun to read about Rizal's queridas (beloved).

Aside from being known as a hero who fought for our country's freedom through his famous novels, I saw Rizal as an ordinary human being in this novel who expressed his admiration to different women in letters and even giving them codenames.

I found Leonor Rivera's relationship to be so interesting since family lore says that the ashes of her letters with Rizal were gathered and sewed onto her wedding dress in marriage to Charles Henry Kipping.

Josephine Bracken is so intriguing, and this book opened up my curiosity on whether she really got married to Rizal on the day of his execution.

I'm stoked to read the definitive book on Rizal's lovers by Ambeth Ocampo that he'd work on in his retirement.

Such a great read!

[Marlo Mangilin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relatively OK read - good compilation of what is available re the loves of Jose Rizal. Ambeth's style and strength lies in using facts and piecing together evidence to either dispute or affirm a popularly known belief or understanding, clearly delineating fact from (mis)interpretation and sometimes fiction. In cases where there is gap in info, it would have been better for Ambeth to take the opportunity to lay down what his personal take on the topic rather than leaving the reader with a question.

As a side note, the book will benefit from proof-reading as there are a number of typos which can lead to misinterpretation of the information.

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of sir Ambeth’s books for years, but I guess the other publications are far more engaging than this. Initially I thought of giving this a 3-star as I found the last few chapters kept on repeating a lot of excerpts from articles and I can’t help but think “hey, I’ve read this before from the previous chapter”. I changed it to 4 stars now as the first few chapters were indeed interesting. I felt like I was being biased against Josephine Bracken thinking that she is giving off a scammer vibe. So biases aside, I’m giving this a 4 star rating. Maybe it’s just that my tastes are changing as well.

[clairedelune · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short and refreshing read! I learned a lot about our national hero’s love life. However, since this book is pretty much only a collection of essays, I feel like you would need to delve into other sources to actually gain a more comprehensive picture of each women and the roles they played in Rizal’s life.

[Matthew Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

In comparison to his previous writings on Rizal, Ambeth has placed on center the forgotten love life of the national hero and how we can relate with this. This pretty much supplements his earlier magnum opus, Rizal Without the Overcoat.

[jellybean]

i think this is the one that i learned the most interesting facts from and was really surprised by some misconceptions about the loves of rizal's life, especially josephine bracken

[Jun S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

👍

[Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

We continue with lots of fun facts and historical tidbits on Rizal, and the series has not been disappointing.

[Albert Rejas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best book in Ambeth Ocampo's Looking Back series so far. Once again, Ocampo presented his historical expertise on Rizal through short but insightful essays.

Lourd De Veyra show's famous tagline "tsismis noon, kasaysayan ngayon" fits the book.

[Jun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart breaking pa rin ang kuwento nila ni Leonora Rivera, hays.

[eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0⭐
Fun and approachable read. Medyo natawa ako when Rizal said he looks japanese lmao. I-push natin yan, sige!

[Rish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️

I did not expect to have so much fun reading this but I did. Who knew reading about all the drama on Rizal’s love life would be so entertaining??

[Dana Epino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned many things and debunked many misconceptions that has been thought to me about Rizal's women. It's also nice that it gaved two sides of a coin type of argument in presenting facts especially with regards to the chapter abt Josephine Bracken.

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the highest rating I've given for an atrociously edited--if at all--book, which reads more like a first draft. But I don't care, because the content far outweighs the editing. Ambeth Ocampo is the kind of storyteller who delights in telling a story, all multiple, probable versions of it. And that delight can be infectious.

In this 16th book of his Looking Back series, Ocampo gives us a synopsis of each of our national hero (and mine!), the polymath Dr Jose Rizal's five queridas--his loves. Curiously, in almost all Filipino dialects today, querida has been bastardized, and refers to a mistress or kept woman. So I'm glad Ocampo sets the record straight early into the book: "Querida, in the Philippines, refers to a mistress. In its original Spanish sense, however, querida/querido means someone beloved or cherished. It is in this light that I share these essays, as appetizers for the definitive book on Rizal’s loves that I will work on in retirement.” I look forward to that book.

As is customary after reading anything by Ambeth Ocampo, I ended up with more questions than answers. History has provided too few leads. My thoughts and takeaways after reading the book:

- Was it the photography, or do most of the girls' portraits make them look mannish?
- Segunda Katigbak was Jose Rizal's first love. She was 14, he 16. Had the universe conspired in their favor, they would have made an ideal match. But from his own admission, his sixteen-year-old self was torpe, and his last meeting with Katigbak certainly substantiates that.
- Leonor Rivera stands out as the most attractive. And the most devoted, if she did indeed sew the ashes from the burnt letters of her Jose, whom she was engaged to at the age of thirteen, into the hem of her wedding dress. I wonder if she stayed true to her word, when she swore never to sing nor play the piano again, once she married Charles Kipping, Jr. Even discounting that, I think she loved him best, and the most sincerely. She deserved to be immortalized as his Maria Clara.
- Having experienced almost two pandemic years of semi-seclusion, and despite myriad digital distractions, I found it difficult to be cut off from society, especially the society I craved for. So I doubt Josephine Bracken would have caught Rizal's fancy had he not been into his third year of intellectual, cultural, and socially deprived exile. As her authenticated letters have shown us, she could be crass, scheming, and dishonest. Lovely handwriting, but what terrible spelling and grammar. Was her manner of speaking as crass as her writing, her voice indelicately loud? Whichever version we go with, ultimately, Bracken was a product of her unfortunate circumstances, and a far cry from the sheltered, educated, de buena familia young ladies he was exposed to. And like most Filipino men regardless of social upbringing, education, or status, the virile Rizal, so long deprived of a chance to flex his chivalry, could not resist a buxom redhead in distress.
- Long before Ocampo's books on our national heroes ever saw print, as a child in the seventies I had already heard of the names--and they were always referred to by their full names--Josephine Bracken and Leonor Rivera bandied about during adult conversations. Looking back, the former's name was almost always voiced with a hint of gleeful malice, and the latter spoken of with hushed, consistent reverence. Subconsciously this gave me my initial impressions on both women, impressions this book confirms in print. Did there use to be a lot of bad press on Josephine Bracken to account for all that veiled hostility against her? How come I never came across a history teacher who denigrated her in class?

Ambeth Ocampo's writing is light, conversational, and candid, filled with amusing, anecdotal digressions, such as how he came to be a "happy sour grape" despite letting go of a national treasure for a measly P7,000 decades ago. Best of all, his ubiquitous books are priced very reasonably, making these accessible to a larger demographic. Thanks to Ocampo, today's youth are more historically informed than I ever was.

[zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

ang landi ni rizal hayuf

[saint · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5