The continuing saga of Mrs. Jose Rizal

The second sighting in San Francisco of Josephine Bracken

The news of Rizal's execution on December 30, 1896 went around the world by cable that connected Manila to the rest of the world via the Hong Kong telegraph office. The Manila Court has sentenced Dr Rizal to death for fomenting rebellion was just one line in most international news. There are other stories promoting his widow as the Joan of Arc.

From the New York Times (June 5, 1897)

RIZAL WIDOW FIGHTING SPAIN

Commands a Company of Philippine Rebels in Cavite. Widow fighting Spain.
TACOMA, Washington, June 4-
News has been received here that the beautiful widow of Dr Rizal is now commanding a company of Philippine island rebels armed with rifles, making headquarters at Naic, Cavite province. Last month definite information was received that she and her company were in Cavite, awaiting the expected activities of the Spanish troops in that section. Mrs Rizal was a step-daughter of a retired Hong Kong gentleman who went to Manila for his health. There his daughter met Dr Rizal and married against her parents' wishes. When her husband was captured and shot, Mrs Rizal determined to devote her life to the cause he had espoused, and as soon as her preparation could be made, she took the field. Excerpts from : Taranaki Herald (13 Aug 1898)

Women who fought for freedom
Then she determined to see what could be done in the Way of supplying arms and ammunition to the insurgents. She went to Manila, where she was promptly arrested and taken before General Rivera. ‘I have no fear of you," she said. "I am a British subject. Take me out and shoot me; I dare you to murder me as you did my husband." She was released and told to go to Hong Kong Instead she remained in Manila for several days. Then she went to Japan. She tried to get the government there to aid the insurgents.

Openly, she was refused, but it is said that secretly she was furnished with arm and ammunition. Then Madame Rizal went to the United States. She made several shipments of arms and supplies to Manila and then she went back to herself. She is now with the insurgents, fighting as often as they fight, along with other devoted women who have the V brand on their soft, round arms, the mark of the insurgents, who march and go into battle with tbe men and who fight like furies, their recklessness seeming to protect them.

She was armed with a dagger, a revolver, and a Remington rifle, and she was known far and wide long before her troubles began as a dead shot. She insisted ou going into the trenches and fighting side by side 'with the soldiers. The battle lasted two days, the Spaniards being driven back at every charge they made. Through it all, rang the sharp crack of Madam Rizal's, Remington. (excerpts from:Avenging a Husband Death, the story of the Philippines rebellion Nelson Evening Mail 21 Feb 1898)


On May 1, 1898, Dewey demolished the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay captured Manila. He waited for ground forces to muster in San Francisco. Dewey’s original request of 5,000 ground forces was increased to over 10,000. In Aug 1898, the soldiers from the Presidio sailed and actually landed in Luneta and Cavite.

New York Times reported the sighting of Mrs Rizal on May 16, 1898 in San Francisco.

Among those who have felt a personal joy over Admiral Dewey's victory is Mrs. JOSEPHINE RIZAL, now a resident of San Francisco, and formerly of Manila. Her experience of Spanish rule was quite enough to make her rejoice over the prospect of its downfall, for her husband was the Dr Rizal whose execution as a rebel made a sensation even in a city where executions have long been matters of every-day occurrence. Dr. Rizal was a man of education and advanced ideas, but he was not a rebel, and his only crime was the publication of a book in which a few facts about the Colonial administration were revealed. He was seized, carried to Madrid for trial, and then sent back to Manila and a volley of bullets in the public square. His wife saw him die, and then joined the insurgents for a while, sharing all the hardship and perils, and even taking active part in some of their battles. She says that Gen. Polavieja received $40000 for ordering Dr. RIZAL to his death, and that during his brief rule of the islands he made a colossal fortune by acts of utter infamy. Polavieja's predecessor was Gen. Blanco, and of the later Mrs Rizal speaks with something approaching admiration. His administration was marked by many atrocious episodes, she asserts, but Blanco prevented as much cruelty as he could, and occasionally punished guilty of it.

The Connection
Josephine firing the Remington rifle in Cavite and Marina, negotiates with the Remington Arm Company in Philadelphia? Filipino historian claims that on May 1897 she went back to Hong Kong but these foreign news reported otherwise that she stayed in Manila and then went to Japan trying to secure arms for the rebel. Katipunan was hoping to get Japan to furnish arm since the beginning of the rebellion. Did Josephine take an ocean liner to California and then proceeded to Philadelphia under the name of Marina Orbi? La dulce estranjera esta secreta.

She was in San Francisco when Dewey's armada was anchored Hong Kong. San Francisco incidentally was the port of entry of Jose Rizal in May 1888 where he stayed at the Palace Hotel. She did return to Hong Kong later and married another Filipino and died sometime in 1904.

Another question will be what prompted Mrs Rizal to join the rebellion that her husband did not want any part of. Was it avenging passion, seeking justice Certainly NY Times tried to put romance in this history? She became an agent of the United States foreign excursion. Her exploit was either greatly enhanced or underestimated by historians. Almost legendary! Her foster father was George Taufer, a German-American engineer from New York. This might facilitated her easy entry to the US.

The New York Times stringed all these events rather nicely but I am just an old amateur historian with hypochondriac view and mild case of hysteria. I am looking for NY Times to recant some of the news but have not found one yet.

If the New York Times was right, what happen to Mrs Rizal? Marina was never mentioned again. Was she conceived by overzealous journalist? How much arms and ammunitions were provided but one thing for sure American troops landed in Cuba and the Philippines just a year later. The mysterious widow did not appear again, so I am hunting a ghost. Scanning NY Times reading news reels from achieves gets tiring but the excitement increases my blood sugar count flowing to my eyes that I might miss something.

Rizal gave her a poem that reads in translation:
Josephine, Who to these shores have come. Looking for a nest, a home. Like a wandering wallow. If your fate is taking you. To Japan, China, or Shanghai. Don’t forget that on these shores. A heart for you beats high. “To Josephine”. Adiós, dulce estranjera, mi amiga, mi alegría

How easy was for Josephine to sneak inside the US territory? His step dad, George Taufer, is a retired Pump Engineer from New York. She could claim American citizenship as she was adapted at early age in the British held city of Hong Kong.

Part 3 will be coming shortly. I will try to explain what the Filipino writers and historians wrote about this widow after Dr Jose Rizal execution in Luneta. Did Josephine Bracken really reinvent herself as revolutionary Joan of Arc? Was she even capable of firing Mauser rifle? Why did the foreign news write Remington rifle instead? How much assistance she got from the US consulate?