Description
María Clara , whose full name is María Clara de los Santos y Alba , is a fictional mestiza heroine in Noli Me Tángere , a novel by José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Her name and character have since become a byword in Filipino culture for the traditional, feminine ideal.
María Clara is the childhood sweetheart and fiancée of Noli Me Tángere 's protagonist, Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, the son of Don Rafael Ibarra. Although raised as the daughter of Santiago "Kapitán Tiago" de los Santos and his wife Doña Pía Alba, who are both native Filipinos, María Clara is revealed to have been the illegitimate daughter of Padre Dámaso, a Spanish Franciscan friar, who coerced Doña Pía into illicit sexual relations.
Dámaso is made the girl's godfather; Doña Pía had died giving birth to María Clara. Kapitán Tiago's cousin, Isabel, came to be the dominant maternal figure in her life. As her beau Crisóstomo Ibarra was studying in Europe, Kapitan Tiago sent María Clara to the Colegio de Santa Catalina de Sena, a convent school where she cultivated femininity under religion. Later in the novel, María Clara discovers the truth that Dámaso is her biological father.
