February, month of lovers, declarations, proposals & everlasting promises

But how honest are the compliments and intentions each lover gives to each other?. Are they only following an invented holiday by the commerce that has given February 14th the title of “Valentine’s Day” the day to appreciate and demonstrate love to their partner?. Or is this holiday, yet another day of infinite love gestures, compliments, and a nice dinner?.

Today, people love different. The innocence of loving someone has become almost a myth. Nowadays people are afraid to love, they are malicious, and most times relationships evolved just for sexual needs. The word love in a relationship it is often used after a while of being together, or it is never mentioned.

That’s why I have decided to write about “Maria” a novel by a famous Colombian writer named Jorge Isaacs, who mastered the most beautiful expression of love, innocence and youth in one story.

Jorge Isaacs was born on April 1st, 1837, in Cali, Colombia. He was a scholar, a soldier and writer. In 1864 he wrote the novel that immortalized his name “Maria” translated in over 20 Languages and categorized as one of the most important works of American literature. Jorge Isaacs, was inspired by an event that happened while he was growing up. The story and the people say that Isaacs fell in love with a girl named Esther, who was brought from Jamaica to the home of the writer’s father after the death of his mother. The young girl’s life was brief since she suffered from epilepsy.

Isaacs loved her and he turned his frustration into writing, and that was when the character of Maria was born, a child who was adopted by a rich family in the Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Maria begins to have feelings for his cousin Efrain who has left to the capital to study. After seven years of being away he comes back home and realizes he is also in love with Maria. Their love grew, but it always stayed pure, innocent and full of life. Maria was diagnosed with epilepsy at the same time Efrain had to go to London to start his university.

While Efrain is away, Maria becomes very ill, she tries to keep herself alive so she could see the love of her life once more, but her hope did not last long. Efrain arrived with a broken heart, and a lost soul, his first and only love was gone forever.

Although the end of this novel is tragic, it teaches us how to love, suffer and mourn, feelings human have difficulty expressing. Stories like this one does not happen today, that’s why we should appreciate and enjoy loving someone. Let’s be romantics, and love without limitations.