Paru-Parong Bukid (Eng Trans. Butterfly Field) is one of the more popular folk song in the Philippines that was successfully made into a classic ���kundiman��� (musical) movie eponymously titled – Paru-Parong Bukid. The movie was produced by Sampaguita Pictures in 1938 top-billed by renowned ���kundiman��� actor Rudy Concepcion and his favorite on-screen love interest, Rosario Moreno.

Unbeknownst to many, Paru-Parong Bukid was loosely adapted from the classic Spanish song entitled ���Mariposa Bella���. Mariposa Bella, much like Paru-Parong Bukid, is a song that exalts the beauty and amour of a Filipina and compares it to the exquisiteness of a majestic butterfly (Mariposa is butterfly in Spanish). The song was composed during the last few years of the Spanish-era Philippines in 1890���s. At this point in the Philippine history timeline, the 300 year Spanish colonial rule of the Philippines was coming to an end and a new colonial power, the Americans, was looming on the horizons. As the Americans started to spread their influence in the country through military campaigns, politics, and education, the Spanish culture in the Philippines began to wane and some of the classic Spanish songs popular during the Castillian rule, like Mariposa Bella, was left in the last era and forgotten. Only the song���s Tagalog version, Paru-Parong Bukid, prevailed during the American colonial rule in the Philippines. When Sampaguita Pictures released the movie Paru-Parong Bukid in 1938, most of the Filipinos who watched it didn���t even know the existence of Mariposa Bella.

The song  was only rescued from permanent oblivion when in 1960; Guillermo Gómez Rivera (who was hosting a radio show at that time for DZFM called ���La Voz Hispanofilipina���) conducted a series of studies dedicated to classic Filipino songs adapted from Spanish tunes. In 1962, based on his research, Rivera released to the Philippine masses a compilation LP of these classic Spanish songs (including Mariposa Bella) entitled Nostalgia Filipina. The album became a hit.

On August 14, 2007, Guillermo Gómez Rivera, with the cooperation of Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation, and the Spanish Embassy in the Philippines re-launched Nostalgia Filipina, this time in CD format. For this re-launch, according to Rivera, the primary goal is to raise awareness and appreciation for these classic Filipino songs sung in Spanish (like Mariposa Bella) and to co-relate these songs to the more popular Philippine folk songs today (Paru-Parong Bukid).

Paru-Parong Bukid
(Butterfly Field)

Paruparong bukid na lilipad-lipad
Sa gitna ng daan papagapagaspas
Isang bara ang tapis
Isang dangkal ang manggas
Ang sayang de kola
Isang piyesa ang sayad

May payneta pa siya — uy!
May suklay pa mandin — uy!
Nagwas de-ohetes ang palalabasin
Haharap sa altar at mananalamin
At saka lalakad na pakendeng-kendeng.