Did Jose Rizal have a son (or children)?
Search the key phrase “Jose Rizal children” and you will be surprised that some interesting personalities will come out. Results include Fuhrer of Germany Adolf Hitler, the Japanese named Yuriko, and even the founder of the People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong.
Here, I will talk about Jose Rizal’s son (not children), but will prove first that it is highly improbable (if not completely impossible) that Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Yuriko are “Jose Rizal children.”
Adolf Hitler as one of “Jose Rizal children”
Those who suspect that Hitler is Rizal’s biological son have interesting “history-based” circumstantial pieces of evidence, so they say, for their claim.
These include correlating the name of Adolf Hitler’s mother, which is Klara Polzl, and Rizal naming his female lead character in his novels as “Maria Clara.”
But common histories state that Maria Clara’s character in Rizal’s novels was patterned after Leonor Rivera, Rizal’s ‘true love,’ not after Klara Polzl.
Read: The Colorful Love Affairs of Dr. Jose Rizal by Jensen DG. Mañebog
References also declare that “Maria Clara” also personifies an ideal Filipina—loving and unwavering in their loyalty to their respective spouses—not any Austrian, or any European lady, for that matter. (Related: The Synopsis and Spirit of Noli Me Tangere)
I am yet to find any reference declaring that Jose personally had known Klara Polzl, Hitler’s mother. In fact, that name never appeared in the voluminous “manuscripts” (diary, letters, etc.) related to Jose Rizal.
A more serious “argument,” however, points out that Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889; her mother Klara Polzl became a chambermaid (some say, “prostitute”) in Vienna, Austria; and Jose Rizal visited Austria “in the years 1887-1888.”
Hitler was indeed born in 1889, so if Rizal were in a place where Hitler’s mother was in the year (take note) 1888, then, indeed, there might have been the probability that Rizal is Hitler’s father. But the big problem is—Rizal was in Austria in 1887, but never in 1888!
For the whole year of 1888, not even the shadow of Rizal has reached Austria. In fact, sources show no instance of him going back to Austria, be it in Vienna, Linz, or Brunn, after his visit there in 1887.
Other arguments about this I thoroughly discussed in: Why Adolf Hitler is NOT Jose Rizal’s son. But as a conclusion, I stressed there that Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and if Rizal were his biological father, then Rizal should have been in Austria (with Klara Polzl) around June to August the previous year (1888).
But as Rizal’s diaries, correspondences, and other pertinent records suggest, he was never in Austria in the whole year of 1888. So the inevitable conclusion is that Rizal could have not been Hitler’s father.
Yuriko as one of “Jose Rizal children”
Rizal went to Japan and had an affair with Seiko Usui. Seiko later had a child named Yuriko, who they say, is in fact Rizal’s daughter. And the “argument” (or imagination) goes on saying that Hitler formed an alliance with Japan During WWII because he knew that he had a half-sister there.
Japan then invaded the Philippines, the homeland of Adolf and Yoriko’s father.
Now, let’s talk about history and reality:
If only Jose Rizal had no patriotic mission and no political will, yes, he would have married the Japanese Seiko Usui (whom he fondly called O-Sei-San) and settled in Japan for good.
It was during Rizal’s second trip abroad when he met Seiko Usui. From Hong Kong, he arrived in Japan in February 1888. The two fell in love with each other, but their more-than-a-month happy relationship had to end, as the man with a mission, Rizal, had to leave Japan.
So the records state that onboard the steamer ‘Belgic’, Rizal left Japan on April 13, 1888 never to see Seiko again. Nine years after (in 1897), Seiko married Alfred Charlton, British chemistry teacher of the Peer’s School in Tokyo. Mr. Charlton died on November 2, 1915, survived by Seiko and their child Yuriko. (Read also: Seiko Usui: Jose Rizal’s Japanese Girlfriend)
Take note that Seiko had Yuriko as her child only after her marriage to Charlton—which happened some nine years after Seiko’s last meeting with Rizal. Clearly therefore, Hitler’s forging an alliance with Japan and the latter invading the Philippines in WWII had nothing to do with Yuriko and Rizal. (On Rizal’s true son, read: Jose Rizal Family Tree: The Ancestry of the Hero)
And what about Mao Zedong?
Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in Shaoshan, Xiangtan, China.
Rizal had never been to the inner part of mainland China. Yes, he visited Hong Kong, but it is 632 kilometers (392 miles) away from Xiangtan, the birthplace of Mao Zedong.
More importantly, Rizal was in Hong Kong (on his way to London) in February 1888, some five years before Mao Zedong was born.
In 1893, the year Mao Zedong was conceived and born, Rizal was living as an exile in Dapitan, a remote place 2,394 kilometers away from Mao’s birthplace. And yes, there was no record of “sperm donation” case back then. So do the math.
But yes, Jose Rizal had a son!
When Jose Rizal was living as an exile in Dapitan, he took as his ‘common-law wife’ Josephine Bracken. Before the year ended in 1895, the couple had a child who was born prematurely. “Rizal’s sisters say the boy was named Peter; others say he was named Francisco, after Don Francisco Mercado” (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 121).
Read: The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog
Unfortunately, the son died a few hours after birth. Rizal was said to have “made a pencil sketch of the dead infant on the jacket of a medical book. He then buried the baby in an unmarked grave in a secluded part of Talisay” (Bantug & Ventura, 1997, p. 121). (Read: Jose Rizal’s Bitter Sweet Life in Dapitan)
Filipino historian Gregorio Zaide narrated that Rizal played a prank on Josephine which frightened her so that she untimely gave birth to an eight-month baby (G. Zaide & S. Zaide, 1984, p. 240).
But doubting the veracity of this tale, some intriguingly ask questions like: Was the miscarriage due to a fall down from the stairs? Did Rizal push her during one of their quarrels? Or, did they quarrel intensely at all? (For Rizal and Bracken relationship, read: Josephine Bracken: Jose Rizal’s Dear and Unhappy Wife)
Some sources declare that the two had quarrels, “one of which, according to a 1966 article in the Free Press, was violent, leading to her [Bracken’s] miscarriage.
The same article, written by L. Rebomantan, suggests that Rizal’s days of consolation with Josephine were [soon] over and that his request for assignment to Cuba was also prompted by his unhappiness with her.” (Alburo, n.d.)
Bonus: The Half-sister of Jose Rizal’s son
Two years after Rizal’s execution, Josephine Bracken married on December 15, 1898 a Philippine-born mestizo named Vicente Abad y Recio from Cebu. Some sources introduce Bracken’s second husband as the son of a Hong Kong tabacalera company owner whereas others present him as one of the employees of Tabacalera.
Some narrations state that the couple moved to the Philippines in May 1899 while others say that the family returned to Manila a year after the couple’s child was born. Josephine gave birth to their daughter, Dolores, on April 17, 1900. (Realated: What happened to Josephine Bracken When Jose Rizal Died?)
Bracken died when her daughter was about to turn 2, so Dolores Bracken Abad did not have vivid memories of Josephine. When she grew up, Dolores married Antonio Mina of Ilocos. So although Dolores was not a fruit of Rizal-Josephine’s union, Antonio could legitimately boast that he married the only sibling (half-sister) of Jose Rizal’s son!
*If you want to know more about Rizal or history (e.g. Rizal’s girlfriends), search here:
Copyright © by 2013-present by Jensen DG. Mañebog
Check Out: The Colorful Love Affairs of Dr. Jose Rizal by Jensen DG. MañebogJensen DG. Mañebog, the contributor, is an author of textbooks and professorial lecturer emeritus in the graduate school of a state university in Metro Manila. His unique e-books on Rizal (available online) comprehensively tackle, among others, the respective life of Rizal’s parents, siblings, co-heroes, and girlfriends. (e-mail: [email protected])
Read Also:
The Interesting Tales of the Jose Rizal Family by Jensen DG. Mañebog