Rizal's Wandering Swallow, Josephine Bracken |
One
of the most misunderstood women in Philippine history is Josephine Bracken,
otherwise known as Mrs. Jose Rizal. The National Hero himself referred to her
as his dulce extranjera and Errante Golondrina (the wandering
swallow). Her role in Rizal’s life was not always the romantic ideal that we
would have wanted for our greatest hero. Some writers and historians have tried
to paint her in the most unflattering of ways. Several have alleged that she
was an illegitimate daughter of an Irishman in Hong Kong and a Chinese woman
and that her relationship with her step-father, George Taufer, was more than
father and daughter. It does not help that even among the educated and
respected writers politicians, such as Austin Coates who claimed in his 1968
biography of Rizal that Josephine was illegitimate and of mixed race, and the
late Sen. Raul Roco who implied in a keynote lecture at a National Conference
in Cebu City that Josephine was a bar girl whose relationship with her foster
father was probably far from innocent!
Naturally,
much if not all of these allegations is untrue. In the book The Philippines and Round About, With Some
Account of British Interests in These Waters by Sir George John
Younghusband of the British-Indian army, she was described as "the
daughter of a sergeant in the British service, an Irishman who, when his term
of service had expired, had settled down at Hong Kong. Miss Bracken was born at
the Victoria Barracks, Hong Kong, and her mother dying soon afterwards, she was
adopted by a kind couple named Tauffner, who took her to Manila with them and
reared and educated her."
In
Austin Craig's Lineage, Life and Labors
of Jose Rizal: Philippine Patriot, Josephine is introduced to the readers
through her step-father, George Taufer: "he and his wife, a Portuguese, had
adopted and brought up as their own the infant daughter of a poor Irish woman
who had died in Hong Kong, leaving a considerable family to her husband, a
corporal in the British Army on service there."
These
books are two of the earliest references we have of Josephine Bracken, and
though no names of her parents are mentioned here these validate Josephine
Bracken’s own short autobiography where she stated:
Rizal's carving of Bracken |
“My mother is a native of
Ireland and was married to my father on the 3rd of May 1868 in Belfast, Ireland. My father’s name is James Bracken and my
mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Jane MacBride. We were five brothers and sisters, Charles,
Agness, Nelly, Francis and myself Josephine.
Charles was born on the 10th of April 1869. Agness was born in Malta on the 14th May
1873. Francis was born on the 2nd of June 1875 and died on the 1st April
1875. Nelly was born at Gibraltar on the
21st July 1871 and I was born in Hong Kong at the Victoria Barracks on the 9th of
August 1876. My father is a corporal and
detachment schoolmaster of a detachment at Pembroke Camp. My mother died on the 2ndof September 1876
after giving birth to me. After the loss
of my beloved mother I was then removed to the care of a (illegible) laborer
until her burial. As my father is a
military he could not attend to all of us especially for me being so very small
he gave me to a family to be adopted.
The kind and benevolent couple Mr. and Mrs. Taufer took very good care
of me until I was seven years old.
Unfortunately at that age was when my adopted mother died.”
Of
course, some historians have also cautioned us that this supposed autobiography
of Josephine is nothing but a forgery, though the source was most likely
Josephine or even her father.
At
any rate, the whole point of this article is not the Irish roots of Josephine
Bracken, which has already been superbly discussed in another blog under the
title The Story of Josephine Bracken andthe Proof of her full Irish Origins.
Josephine
remarried to Vicente Abad after becoming a widow. Though many Abads of Cebu
claim Vicente as an Abad of Barili, Cebu, existing records show otherwise. This
particular Abad family was of creole origin, unlike that of the Barili Abads
who were, by the time of Josephine’s and Vicente’s marriage, already classified
under the indio racial category.
Because the surname is pretty common in the Spanish peninsula and there is also
no conclusive documentation proving that the Abad last name of Barili is not
from the Claveria decree, at this point Vicente Abad has to be considered as
not related to the Abads of Barili, Cebu.
Vicente
Abad was the third son and fourth child of Vicente Abad and Maximina Recio.
Because records consistently describe the children of Vicente Sr. and Maximina
as creoles or mestizos and Vicente Sr. as a Spaniard, then it is logical to
assume that Maximina was an india or
a mestiza herself.
Vicente
Abad, Sr. was hired by the Spanish colonial government to oversee the tobacco
industry of the colony, being considered as one of the foremost experts in the
tobacco industry. In 1885 he was named chief technical adviser for the Compania
General de Tabacos de Filipinas, a position he held until the Philippine
Revolution when he decided to return to his country of origin, eventually dying
in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1900.
Vicente’s
eldest child, Clodoaldo Abad y Recio, was born in Cebu on September 7, 1865. He
graduated with a medical degree from the University if Santo Tomas in 1890. He
distinguished himself in the medical field and served in various government
posts during and after the Spanish regime in the Philippines. Clodoaldo was
followed by the only girl in the family, Victoria, who was born in 1868. Then
she was followed by Jose Mario Abad y Recio, who was born in Loon, Bohol, on January
19, 1871. He obtained a BA in Pharmacy in 1892 from the University of Santo
Tomas and, like his older brother, also distinguished himself in his chosen
field.
The
youngest in the family was Vicente Abad, Jr. who was born in Cebu in 1876 and
obtained his degree in Pharmacy in 1896. He was an agent of the Tabacalera Company, just like his
father, in Hong Kong, and it was there where he met Josephine Bracken later
married her on September 15, 1898.
Their
marriage produced one child, Maria Dolores Bracken Abad, born on April 17,
1900. But even this birth was shrouded in controversy. Early articles written
about Bracken's only surviving child were also full of questions, with some
alleging that due to her very Filipina visage she was probably not Abad's child
but probably Rizal's. However, considering Rizal died in 1896 and Dolores was
not born until 1900, these speculations were simply nothing but speculations
and laziness on the part of the researchers to actually check primary records.
Even the simple checking of the dates would have saved these so-called
historians from speculating nonsense.
Whatever
the case, Dolores B. Abad married an Ilokano, Salvador Mina, son of Juan Mina
and Isabel Lamadrid, on April 4, 1926, in Manila. Her marriage record clearly
indicated Josephine Bracken and Vicente Abad as her parents. From this
marriage, 2 sons and 2 daughters were born. One of Dolores’s grandsons, Macario
Ofilada Mina, wrote Errante Golondrina,
an honest and well-researched biography of Josephine Bracken.
An incomplete family tree of Josephine Bracken (click to enlarge) |
In one review of Errante Golondrina, the reviewer
wrote: “The Rizal family, and others, roughly elbowed Jose's 'poor Josephine'
aside in an indecent haste to grab whatever was left of his estate. And therein
lay, in some ways, an even greater tragedy. In Rizal, among the noblest men of
his, or any other race, Josephine had seen the face of what the Filipino could
be. In the actions of Rizal's family and others she saw the Filipino unmasked,
as they actually were, not Rizal's Filipino. (Filipinos) are not what I thought
them to be, I took them to be like my husband, but I see that I am deceived,”
wrote an embittered Josephine from Hong Kong. Rizal's name and his books have
been quoted repeatedly since his death, his story is known to every
schoolchild, yet the country of Rizal's imagination is as unborn as the child
he and Josephine almost had. In their story is the sad story of the
Philippines.”
Indeed, what a sad life Josephine Bracken lived. Today, as the country celebrates Rizal’s martyrdom, let us also remember the life of the woman who remained by his side until his death. Josephine Bracken’s life was sad from the very beginning. In Rizal’s company she finally found some happiness, only to be cut short by Rizal’s death. Her story and Rizal's indeed is a sad story of the Philippines.
Click here to view Josephine's family tree.
Click here to view Josephine's family tree.
Sources:
- George John Younghusband. The Philippines and Roundabout, with some Account of British Interests in these Waters, London: Macmillan, 1899.
- Augusto de Viana. A Glimpse into the Life of Josephine Bracken, April 10, 2013.
- 1911 Ireland Census, National Archives of Ireland, accessed December 28, 2014
- Austin Craig. Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal: Philippine Patriot, Austin Craig
- Erlinda K. Alburo. "La Dulce Estranjera", SUMAD: Essays for the Centennial of the Revolution, Cebu, 1999.
- The story of Josephine Bracken and the Proof of her Full Irish Origins.
- Gene Cabrera. Josephine Bracken: Her Struggles and Her Last Days, July 2, 2011
- The Life and Times of Josephine Bracken, November 12, 2003
- Various records accessed from FamilySearch (marriage record of James Bracken and Elizabeth Jane McBride, marriage record of Maria Dolores Abad and Salvador Mina, baptismal record of Charles Breakin (Bracken), death record of Victoria Abad y Recio).
- Manuel Artigas y Cuerva. Galeria de Filipinos Ilustres: Biografias a Contar Desde las Primeros Tiempos de la Dominacion Hispana, de los Hijos del Pais que en sus Respectivas Profesiones Descollaron ơ Hayan Alcanzado alguń Puesto de Distinción en Sociedad, Manila: Imp. Casa Editora "Renacimiento", 1917-1918.
- Macario Ofilada. Errante Golondrina: The Life and Times of Josephine Bracken. Manila: New Day Publishers, 2003.
interesting...
ReplyDeleteMy wife's mother's family has some Abad ancestors her oldest Abad Ancestor is Mariano Abad married to Inocencia Ascarraga. There is the Bicol Region of Albay.
ReplyDeleteThe claveria decree was in 1849. But the earliest known abad from our line, torribio abad was born in 1815.
ReplyDeleteOh! How very sad!
ReplyDelete