About the author: Consuelo Ortiga y Pérez (c.1863 — ?). Among other distinctions, her father was a former Mayor of Manila, then vice president of the Consejo de Filipinas and whose home was the headquarters of the Circulo Hispano Filipino. Jose Rizal composed a poem on August 22, 1883, dedicated to her, “A la Senorita C.O. y R.”
About the diary: The Philippine Diary Project makes use of two versions of the diary, one in the original Spanish, the other, an English translation.
A typescript of the diary in the original Spanish is in the collection of the National Library of the Philippines, Memorias intimas: notas extractados de las memorias intimas de la Senorita Consuelo Ortigas Y Rey, a la que requirio de amores Jose Rizal y Mercado, con unas breves explicaciones de Don Eduardo de Lete. It was also published among the appendices in José Rizal: Diarios y memorias, Comisión Nacional del Centenario de José Rizal, Tomo I, Manila, 1961. The published version is the one used for the Spanish version in The Philippine Diary Project.
An English version was was published as “Memoirs of Consuelo Ortiga Y Perez” in The Journal of History, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1959). This is the English version used in The Philippine Diary Project.
In the footnotes, the following information is provided by Eduardo de Lete; no explanation exists for the slight discrepancy between the original and published translation.
Notas extractadas de las memorias íntimas de la señorita Consuelo Ortiga y Pérez y remitidas a Filipinas por Eduardo de Lete.
These are extracts from the diary of Consuelo Ortiga y Peréz, daughter of Mr. Pablo Ortiga y Rey, Counselor of the Philippines, whose house at Madrid Rizal and other Filipinos frequented. The diary came from Mr. Eduardo de Lete, one of Rizal’s contemporaries who became the fiancée of Miss Ortiga.
After the last entry comes this note, also by de Lete:
Aquí terminanlas notas o memorias íntimas de la señorita Consuelo Ortiga y Perez; ignoro si por la formalización de las relaciones, de ella conmigo, motivo pot’él cual se disolvi6 aquella reunión de filipinos en la ,cása del Consejero de Filipinas, D., Pablo Ortiga y Rey, denominado por Rizal y los contertulios:–El Padre Eterno– o porque ella perdiera el humor de continuarlas. Muetto años déspués D. Pablo su hijo Rafael fue a Filipinas destinadó, y cuando su hermana Consuelo se disponía a salir para Manila recibió la noticia, del fallecimiento de aquél, quedando sola y abandonada en Madrid. Muchacha romántica; hüérfana de madre desde temprana edad, poseyendo una ilustración poc() cóin.úrt en aquellos tiempos, vió fracasados todos sús amores y marchitas todas sus ilusiones. Fue muy desgraciada muriendo sola, triste y abandonada; víctima dé la tuberculosis.
Un excelente e ilustre amigo me comunicó éstas noticias cuando con motivo del matrimonio del Rey Alfonso XIII (1906) vine a Madrid con la representación de una muy importante empresa dé publicidad de Londres. –Eduardo de Lete
Here ends the intimate diary of Miss Consuelo Ortiga y Perez; I don’t know whether because of the formalization of our engagement – the reason why the Filipinos stopped gathering at the house of the Counselor of the Philippines, Mr. Pablo Ortiga y Rey, named by Rizal and companions, El Padre Eterno (The Eternal Father) – or because she lost the humor and she did not continue it.
After the death of Don Pablo years later, his son Rafael went to the Philippines to fill a post. When his sister Consuelo was ready to leave for Manila, she received the news of his demise. She was left alone and abandoned in Madrid. A romantic girl deprived of her mother at an early age, possessing an education rare in those times, she saw all her love affairs crumble and all her illusions wither. She was very unfortunate, dying alone, sad, and abandoned, a victim of tuberculosis.
An excellent and illustrious friend communicated to me this news when I went to Madrid as representative of a very important news agency of London on the occasion of the marriage of King Alfonso XIII in 1906.
May she rest in peace.–Eduardo de Lete