by Althea Lorenzo
If by any chance, you would like to read something that would make you understand more how the different aspects of Filipino culture like family, love, career, and society work, the novel entitled Titser by Liwayway Arceo is definitely one of the must-read books ever published. As a Filipino reader, its story is so relatable that you would feel like you’re partly reading the story of your life. It tackles the common issues experienced by Filipino families and imparts different important life lessons that everyone should not miss.
The story centers on the life of the main character Amelita and how her family affected her relationship with her husband Mauro. It also discusses the profession Amelita pursued and how her mother extremely disapproved to it because her of prejudice and discrimination.
Aling Rosa embodies a typical traditional Filipino mother who deeply cares for her family specially to her children. She wants them to be well of and to be at their best even if it means to intervein with their personal lives. She goes with the saying, “mother knows best” and thinks that her decisions for them are what matter the most. But unfortunately, her genuine care for her children has been overshadowed by her extreme desire to make her children experience a wealthy life and have a more socially-constructed successful career. She thinks that being a teacher, which has a relatively smaller salary compared to other professions such as doctor, engineer, or business man, won’t give Amelita a stable life that she wants for her.
Amelita on the other hand, exemplifies someone who follows what her heart truly desires and not let anybody else choose for her- even if it is her own mother. She pursued her dream to be a teacher and married her husband whom she really loves, both of which is her personal decision. She represented all the teachers who give their whole lives to their profession even if it is hard only because doing something that you truly love makes everything worth the hard work. What she did convey a message especially to the youth that pursuing a career is not based on its title or what other people expects from you but rather to your passion. She ended the discrimination among careers and proved that money is not the most important thing in the world but happiness and contentment. Even though she disobeyed her mother at some point of her life, she still knows how to look back to where she came from and give her mother the gratitude and care that she deserves in return to her mother’s love for her.
I was able to say that Amelita’s story reflects Filipino family culture because for years, this is what I have been exposed to- what I always see in dramas and what I often hear from my relatives, and sometimes even from my own family. Arceo effectively portrayed a family that to its truest form and emphasized the important values and virtues every Filipino should possess.
Titser's Table 