Love Conquers All
by Oliver Carlos
One of my favorite movies ever is Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit which stars Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta. This 1991 film is an adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights. I love its cinematography, how the director highlighted the pristine Batanes landscape as the backdrop of an equally breath-taking love story.
I observe that Filipinos love to see movies featuring the struggle of lovers who belong to different social standings. We don’t see this kind of plot in American films. Maybe we can trace this to our pre-colonial past, wherein our ancestors had social classes, and relationships between the royalty and a commoner or an alipin were not very much welcome. But we feel good in the end of such stories, when true love conquers all.
My maternal grandparents had a love story that is for the movies. Francisco Neri Tamolang (1916–2005) and Amparo Bauzon Blando (1918–2017) were the parents of my mother. Although both were born in Pangasinan, the two first met in Los Banos, Laguna in the 1930s.
Amparo was the daughter of Sofronio Blando, a judge during the American colonial period, well-known for his very strict and intimidating demeanor. Amparo was a pharmacy student in UST, a typical well-off girl studying in one of the most elegant universities in the country. One summer, she went to Laguna to spend her vacation there. She had a brother, Jose, who was a Spanish professor in the UP College of Agriculture (old name of UPLB). Jose had a big house in the upper campus, in the UP College of Forestry.
Jose Blando, who was also known as “Peping”, had a boarder in his large house. The boarder was a working student from Pangasinan named Francisco. He lost his Dad at an early age, so when he went to Los Banos to take up the 2-year Forest Ranger certificate course, he had to work several part-time jobs to survive on his own in the university. One of those jobs was working in the household of Prof. Peping. Francisco also earned extra income by catching insects in the forest and selling them to fellow UP students. The insects were needed in their entomology class.
At first, Amparo didn’t pay attention to Francisco. But Francisco was unfazed. He braved the odds in trying to win the heart of Amparo.
Francisco enrolled in a flying class. One training day, he landed his small aircraft on the UST football field! The Espana campus was opened only in 1927, and so at this time in the mid-1930s, there were just 3 buildings erected in the area- the main building, the church, and the gym. Amparo and friends were amazed as they watched the plane land. It’s not everyday that one would see a plane at close range. So when the aircraft touched down, a large crowd of students have gathered to see what’s the landing all about. Then lo and behold, a handsome young man in a white pilot’s uniform and holding a bouquet of flowers alighted from the plane and approached Amparo! Her friends were stunned at the sight. Since that day, Amparo ignored her other suitors, mostly medicine students. Francisco became the apple of her eyes.
Maybe this is the reason why Mamang (our endearment term for our grandmother Amparo) kept on telling me “you’re so handsome” once every 2 minutes when I visited her wearing my rayadillo military uniform on her 98th birthday. Her memories of the plane landing in UST must have been unearthed.
Love is indeed a very funny thing. It makes us work hard and overcome the toughest obstacles just to get what we want. In the Bible, Jacob worked two sets of 7-year cycles just to get the nod of Rachel’s father for the hand of his daughter. That’s a total of 14 long years of hard labor.
The Song of Solomon explains this thing called true love. We read in chapter 8:6–7 (ICB):
“Love is as strong as death….as strong as the grave.
Love bursts into flames. It burns like a very hot fire.
Even much water cannot put out the flame of love. Floods cannot drown love.”
If one is truly in love, no amount of hardships, trials, and troubles can discourage him. This is also the same kind of love Jesus has for you.
Do you have this kind of love for others? What are the sacrifices you have done for the one you love? Do you have this kind of love for Jesus too?
