Filipino people of Spanish ancestry

Filipino people of Spanish ancestry

Trinidad Pardo de Tavera Paulino Alcantara Manuel Quezon Carlos Loyzaga German Moreno Jaime Fabregas Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala Marian Rivera
Total population
Unknown
Regions with significant populations
Metro Manila, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Naga City, Tigaon, Iriga City
Languages
Mostly Filipino and English, some Spanish-speakers still exist and other Philippine native languages
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Spanish people, Filipinos, Filipino mestizos
(*) The total number of historical immigrants is unknown, but the National Statistics Office of Spain reported that Spanish nationals residing in the Philippines numbered 3,110 as of January 1, 2012.

Spanish Filipinos are Filipino people whose racial make-up contains either of full or partial Spanish ancestry. These Filipinos are mostly descendants of migrants to the Philippines (a Spanish colony from the late 15th century until 1898), who intermarried with the archipelago's indigenous Austronesian ethnic groups such as the Tagalogs, Cebuanos and Ilokanos, among others.

The actual percentage of modern Filipinos inside and outside of the Philippines with Spanish ancestry is unknown, as is that of all other types of mestizo (Asian, American, Hispanic, etc.). This is because past governments and the modern Philippine Statistics Authority do not account for the racial background or ancestry of an individual when gathering data.

History

Background

Admixture has been an ever present and pervading phenomenon in the Philippines as early as the arrival of the Spaniards on the late 16th century. The arrival of Spanish abruptly halted the spread of Islam further north into the Philippines and intermarriage with Spanish people later became more prevalent after the Philippines was colonized by the Spanish Empire.

Japanese, Indian, and Chinese presence had been recorded in the Philippines since the 9th century that mixed extensively with the local population. During the Spanish colonial era, large-scale migrations of Chinese to the Philippines resulted in even more intermixing.

Spanish colonization

A Filipina of Spanish ancestry, in the 19th century.

The Spanish colonization in 1565, prompted the establishment of Spanish rule over the Philippines that lasted for about 333 years. Spanish people came mainly from Mexico and Spain, and the Philippines was ruled as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, with its capital in Mexico City until Mexico's independence in 1821, when the Philippines started to be governed directly from Spain.

Early Spanish who were born in Spain (Peninsulares) and Mexican settlers (Criollos), the latter being mostly of either European or Mestizo heritage known as Americanos (Americans), were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials, and religious missionaries, among others. Many of them settled in the islands and eventually married or inter-bred with the indigenous population.

File:Tigaon City Philippines, Toral residence, early 20th century.jpg

Descendants of a pure Spanish migrant from Spain Don Benito Toral y Alvarez and Filipino-Spanish Consuelo Garchitorena y Borjal.

In some provinces in Luzon, Mindanao and the Visayas, the Spanish government encouraged foreign merchants to trade with the indigenous population, but they were not given certain privileges such as ownership of land. From this contact, social intercourse between foreign merchants and Filipinos resulted in a new ethnic group. These group were called Filipino mestizos (mixed-race individuals). Some of their descendants, emerged later as an influential part of the Philippine society, such as the Principalía (Nobility).

Between 1565 and 1815, Hispanics from Mexico and Spain sailed to and from the Philippines as government officials, soldiers, priests, settlers, traders, sailors and adventurers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon, assisting Spain in its trade between Europe and Latin America (Spanish America) and Latin America and the Philippines.

People of other ethnicities, such as Amerindians (Mexican Indians) and Africans, also settled in the Philippines after serving as members of the crew on Spanish ships. Some of these individuals married Filipinos of different ethnic groups and classes and integrated into Philippine society. This contributed to the assimilation of the Hispanics into everyday society and according to an 1818 census, about 1/3rd of the inhabitants of the island of Luzon were mixed with varying degrees of Spanish ancestry and that the vast majority of military personnel have Latin-American origins. The soldiers that were sent from Spain's Latin-American colonies to the Philippines were often made up of Mulattoes, Mestizos, and Indios (Amerindians).

Racial integration

As opposed to the policies of other colonial powers such as the British or the Dutch, the Spanish colonies were devoid of any anti-miscegenation laws. Moreover, the Catholic Church not only never banned interracial marriage, but it even encouraged it. The fluid nature of racial integration in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period was recorded by many travelers and public figures at the time, who were favorably impressed by the lack of racial discrimination, as compared to the situation in other European colonies.

Among them was Sir John Bowring, Governor General of British Hong Kong and a well-seasoned traveler who had written several books about the different cultures in Asia, who described the situation as "admirable" during a visit to the Philippines in the 1870s.

"The lines separating entire classes and races, appeared to me less marked than in the Oriental colonies. I have seen on the same table, Spaniards, Mestizos (Chinos cristianos) and Indios, priests and military. There is no doubt that having one Religion forms great bonding. And more so to the eyes of one that has been observing the repulsion and differences due to race in many parts of Asia. And from one (like myself) who knows that race is the great divider of society, the admirable contrast and exception to racial discrimination so markedly presented by the people of the Philippines is indeed admirable."

Another foreign witness was English engineer, Frederic H. Sawyer, who had spent most of his life in different parts of Asia and lived in Luzon for fourteen years. His impression was that as far as racial integration and harmony was concerned, the situation in the Philippines was not equaled by any other colonial power:

"... Spaniards and natives lived together in great harmony, and do not know where I could find a colony in which Europeans mixes as much socially with the natives.

Not in Java, where a native of position must dismount to salute the humblest Dutchman.

Not in British India, where the Englishwoman has now made the gulf between British and native into a bottomless pit."

Language and Culture

Main article: Spanish language in the Philippines

Main article: Spanish influence on Filipino culture

Most common languages spoken today are Tagalog (with many words borrowed from Spanish), and English, which is used in the public sphere. Many other Filipinos also speak other Philippine languages.

Today, only a minority of Filipinos speak Spanish, only some mestizos from older generations, those with links with Spain, America or other Spanish-speaking areas and recent immigrants, have preserved Spanish as a living spoken language, although many Spanish cultural traits still remain, most notably the adoption of Christianity among the majority of Filipinos. Thanks to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a Spanish-speaking filipina the Philippine government has reinstated the instruction of Spanish at schools with a view to generalising its instruction nationally.

In addition, Chavacano (a creole language based largely on Spanish vocabulary) is spoken in the southern Philippines and forms one of the majority languages of Zamboanga Peninsula and Basilan.

Notable people

In the Philippines, there are some people who trace their roots back to the first Spanish settlers of the country through their surnames. Due to the introduction of the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos in the mid-19th century, it has become increasingly difficult to validate ancestral claims made by those who hold Spanish surnames. Today, some of those with precise ancestral ties can be found in politics, commerce, arts, entertainment industry and professional sports. Others have emigrated and later returned or settled down in another country.

Among the most notable Filipinos with direct Spanish ancestry are:

• Manuel Quezón, first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines
• José Ozámiz, Senator and Governor of Misamis Occidental
• Pilita Corrales, singer and songwriter
• Paulino Alcántara, footballer and manager of Club de Futbol de Barcelona
• Jaime Fabregas, film actor and musical director
• Enrique K. Razon, head of International Container Terminal Services, Inc.
• Jon Ramon Aboitiz, member of Aboitiz clan
• Francis Arnaiz, former player of Toyota and Ginebra San Miguel basketball team, from 1975-1986
• Eddie Garcia, film actor and director
• Maggie dela Riva, movie actress
• Isabel Granada, singer and actor
• Marian Rivera, actress and model