My Father's Torso
Arturo Tolentino's Torso
It will no doubt come to a surprise to many Filipinos when they learn that they have probably seen the youthful contour of young law student, Arturo M. Tolentino, captured forever in the statue outside the University of the Philippines. I was not aware of this myself until my late teens that my father’s torso was used as a model by the sculpture when he created his masterpiece.
My grandfather however did not share his son’s enthusiasm for competitive weight lifting and wrestling. When Tatang learned about this, in his opinion, taking precedence over his son’s studies, he made his thoughts known and barred my father from competing. As a result, my father retired “as undefeated national champion’.
