A Mexican colleague was telling
me the other day that her parents were about to celebrate their 50th
wedding anniversary so she and her siblings were thinking of planning a big
celebration, and one of her brothers was even considering a reenactment of the
“kidnapping”. As I looked puzzled when she said that, she proceeded to tell me
one of the most epic and fascinating love stories I’ve ever heard!
Both her parents grew up in the
town of Chichihualco, in the state of Guerrero, in Mexico but they came from
very different families. Miguel Vélez Ortiz belonged to a family of rancheros whereas María del Carmen
Romero Romero came from a wealthy family. As most girls of her condition, she
was sent to boarding school in Mexico City when she reached 12 years old.
Therefore, she would only come into town sporadically, mostly during holidays.
It was on one of those visits to her
family that Miguel saw María del Carmen for the first time and fell in love
with her. From then on, whenever he could he would ride his horse by her house
while she was in her balcony and they would stare at each other but never had
the opportunity to have a conversation. This continued for a while until one
day he decided to risk it all and came up with a plan.
It was Good Friday, March 27,
1964 and the town was observing the Catholic holiday. As part of the usual Semana Santa rituals that afternoon, there
was a procession where girls walked separate from the boys. As María del Carmen
was walking following the line of girls, all of the sudden she was ambushed by
some boys from the opposite side and was taken into a house. Then they ran away
with her walking on the neighboring houses’ roofs until they got to a “safe”
place where Miguel was waiting on his horse and then he took her to his
parents’ house.
The 17-year old Miguel then told
his parents he had kidnapped the 15-year old girl because he was in love with her
and he wanted to marry her. His father left immediately to get the local judge
so he could marry them. In the meantime, however, the town mayor (who happened
to be María del Carmen’s uncle) had been notified about the case so he showed
up at the house with the police to stop the wedding.
The mayor spoke with María del
Carmen, who was very frightened by the situation, and told her that there were
two options: either she could say she did not want to marry Miguel, in which
case he would go to jail and she would have to leave town immediately for
Mexico City (and probably not come back) OR she could just marry him, in which
case he would not be prosecuted. It was totally up to her!
Amazingly, she decided to marry
this guy who she knew nothing about and had never talked to! The wedding took
place that evening at 11pm and, as they say, the rest is history! Nine months
later María del Carmen and Miguel would welcome the first of eight children. 50
years and a few grandchildren later they are still happily married!
Of course, things back then were
very different from today but I cannot help it and commend their determination
to make their marriage work…they truly committed to love, even before they knew
each other! It really makes me wonder if nowadays we are focusing too much on
creating profiles and checklists for our potential partners, instead of
spending more time getting to actually know each other and building strong
relationships.
My colleague says that, whenever he
is asked what their secret to a long-lasting, happy marriage is, her father
always says that their marriage didn’t fail because they both decided to love
each other and they stuck with that decision…¡Viva el amor!