Leonor Rivera’s piano soon back in Dagupan
CITY’S MEMENTO OF RIZAL’S PAST
A MORE than 100-year old piano of Leonor Rivera, a childhood sweetheart of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, believed taken by an aunt of Leonor to Bulacan when she and family moved there, will soon be returned to Dagupan where it really belongs.
City Councilor Jeslito Seen chair of the committee on arts and culture of the Dagupan City council, said the piano now an important relic, is presently in the museum of the province of Bulacan. But with the help of the provincial government of Bulacan agreed to give it back to Dagupan City.
The National Cultural Commission (NCC), at the request of the city of Dagupan, talked to officials of the Bulacan provincial government and the latter agreed to turn over the piano to Dagupan at a still unspecified date next year.
Record showed the Riveras lived in Dagupan City where Leonor learned how to play the piano.
Seen said several sites are being eyed where Rivera’s piano would be placed for public viewing. Many artists whom Seen had talked to said they are interested to have Dagupan as the art center of the north as it is rich in history and culture.
Rivera and Rizal met at La Concordia College in Manila where she studied. At that time, Leonor was only 13 years old. They corresponded and became sweethearts, which relationship lasted for eight years. Their correspondence continued even after Rizal left for Europe, at which time, Leonor was already aged 15.
Rizal composed a song entitled “Leonor,” Seen said.
Rivera was the “greatest influence” in preventing Rizal from falling in love with other women while Rizal was traveling outside the Philippines. Rivera’s romantic relationship with Rizal lasted for eight years. She was immortalized by Rizal as the character María Clara in the Spanish-language novel Noli Me Tangere.
The Riveras are from Camiling, then a town in Pangasinan, before it became part of Tarlac. They moved to Dagupan as Leonor’s father, Antonio Rivera, was engaged in clothing merchandize. While in Dagupan, Leonor and Rizal continued their correspondence. However, the letters of Rizal to the girl were being kept away from her by her mother Silvestra Bauzon, believed to be from Lingayen.
Bauzon was opposed to the courtship of Rizal to her daughter, not only because at that time, Rizal was already labelled as a filibuster but also because the two are, second cousins.
Google search said Rizal’s father Francisco Mercado and Leonor’s father were first cousins. However, it is possible that those that had blood relations were actually Leonor’s mother Silvestra Bauzon and Rizal’s mother Teodora Alonzo since they were both from Lingayen, said foremost Pangasinan historian Restituto Basa.
When Rizal learned the Riveras moved to Dagupan from Camiling, he visited and serenaded her here. Rizal was no stranger in Pangasinan as her mother Teodoro Alonzo was the grand daughter of Manuel Quintos, the first Sangley mayor of Lingayen. The Quintos Bridge in Dagupan was named after him.
While in Dagupan, Leonor was introduced by Crisostomo Villamil, a railroad engineer from Dagupan and an uncle of the late Dr. Ricardo Villamil, to his fellow engineer, Henry Kipping, an Englishman, and the two were married on June 7, 1890 at the Dagupan church.
“I saw the record of the marriage of Rivera and Kipping in the church here,” Seen said.
The two had a son and when Leonor gave birth to second child she died, at the age of 26.
Rizal was executed six years later by a firing squad in the early morning of December 30, 1896.
The Riveras had relatives in Pampanga and Bulacan. An aunt of Leonor who inherited the piano took it when she and family moved to Bulacan.
He said if Rivera’s piano is returned to Dagupan, it will be a priceless treasure of the people, just like first locomotive that first ran the Caloocan- Dagupan railroad line now on display in front of the Dagupan City Museum. (Leonardo Micua/Tita Roces)
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