Where First Love Lived : Casa de Segunda and Rizal

One never forgets one’s first.

Especially when one is eighteen and one meets the fair maiden, already engaged to another.

Thus began the story of the first love of our national hero, Jose Rizal, and his doomed yet serious affair of the heart with Segunda Katigbak. She later married Manuel Luz, and died in 1943. She was the grandmother of National Artist Arturo Luz.

Historian Ambeth Ocampo devotes two chapters of his latest book on her, and it is absolutely charming to read of what qualifies as “flirtation” a century ago, compared with what the more liberal youth of today dare to do when in the throes of adolescent infatuation.

Visiting her home (where her descendants still live!) in Lipa, Batangas, is like stepping back into a more genteel time. If you’re lucky, you’ll be treated to a mini tour by one of the fifth generation caretakers living in the compound.

One begins by ringing the ancient bell so that they will open the gate. Entrance is P100.00 per person.

Upon entering, one sees a beautiful courtyard with the bahay na bato on the right and a former storage-building-turned-residence on the left. When we gasped with awe, our guide (Ma’am Estelle) reminded us that this house was actually small compared to the huge lots of days past; a throwback to a time when Lipa was the only coffee exporter in the world, that catapulted the land owners to riches that enabled their wives and sisters to have diamond encrusted slippers.

(The fountain at the center of the courtyard)

(Gazing up at the family residence from the courtyard)

Such wealth meant that one had a huge gate that allowed horse-drawn carriages in the first floor, allowing merchants to disembark and be ushered in the lower first floor for business, and guests of honor and family friends in the upper room for chess, piano playing, and perhaps a turn around the huge balcony where one can still reach out to pick various fruits like santol and coffee beans.

(The “garage” and the stairs)

(The view from behind the staircase)

(A home full of music and art : every room had a painting and some were merely on the floor for want of space to hang them on! Arturo Luz was not the only artist in his family, it turns out)