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Spanish Filipinos

Spanish Filipino or Hispanic Filipino are people of Spanish and Filipino heritage. The term includes all individuals of Spanish descent in the Philippines, including criollos and mestizos who identify with Spanish culture, history and language.

History
" woman in Hispanized Philippine dress (ca. 1890s) The history of the Spanish Philippines covers the period from 1521 to 1898, beginning with the arrival in 1521 of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain, which heralded the period when the Philippines was an overseas province of Spain, and ends with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in 1898. The Spanish discovery of the American continent by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, an expedition sponsored by Queen Isabella I of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, laid the foundation of settlements and explorations in the New World. Spain became the first European country to permanently colonized the American continent in 1492. In 1541, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the viceroy of New Spain and first colonial administrator in the New World, to send an expedition to the Philippines to establish a larger Spanish presence there as a base for trade with the Spice Islands and China and to extend Spanish control over the Moluccas in the Portuguese East Indies. The expedition ultimately failed, with Villalobos dying in a Portuguese prison on Ambon Island in 1546. In 1564, conquistadors led by Miguel López de Legazpi, prompted the colonization of the Philippine Islands that lasted for 333 years. The Philippines was a former territory of New Spain until the grant of independence to Mexico in 1821 necessitated the direct government from Spain of the Philippines from that year. Early Spanish settlers to the Philippines were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials, religious missionaries, and among others, who were born in Spain or in Mexico called "Peninsulares" (Spanish migrants living in the colony). Their succeeding generation known as "Criollos" (Spaniards of pure White blood, born and raised in the colony) contributed to the population's development. " family For centuries several hundreds of Spaniards settled in the islands along with their families to start a new beginning in the New World, to take advantage of the rich and exotic resources the colony had to offer. Some of these individuals married or inter-bred with the indigenous Filipino population while most married only other Spaniards. Their descendants consisting of "Criollos" or "Insulares" and "Mestizos" (those of "mixed-blood" individuals) became part of the island's indigenous society; some became town officers and farmers, and others became ordinary citizens. Government officials and those of high ranks were granted with haciendas (plantation estates) by the Spanish government. In some provinces like, Vigan, Iloilo, Cebu, Pampanga, and Zamboanga, The Spanish government encouraged foreign merchants from Southeast Asia and the Asian continent to trade in the colony, along with the European and indigenous population, but they were not given certain privileges such as ownership of land. Contacts with Europeans, social intercourse between foreign merchants, and indigenous people resulted in a new ethnic group. These groups were called Mestizos (mixed-race individuals), who were born from intermarriages from European Spaniards and indigenous Austronesian-speaking Filipino natives. Some of their descendants emerged later as an influential part of the ruling class called the "Principalía" (Nobility) class. The Spanish implemented incentives to deliberately entangle the various races together in order to stop rebellions. According to a historical colonial conversation that was published, stated by a government official explains: ''"It is needful to encourage public instruction in all ways possible, permit newspapers subject to a liberal censure, to establish in Manila a college of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy: in order to break down the barriers that divide the races, and amalgamate them all into one. For that purpose, the Spaniards of the country, the Chinese mestizos, and the Filipinos shall be admitted with perfect equality as cadets of the military corps; the personal-service tax shall be abolished, or an equal and general tax shall be imposed, to which all the Spaniards shall be subject. This last plan appears to me more advisable, as the poll-tax is already established, and it is not opportune to make a trial of new taxes when it is a question of allowing the country to be governed by itself. Since the annual tribute is unequal, the average shall be taken and shall be fixed, consequently, at fifteen or sixteen reals per whole tribute, or perhaps one peso fuerte annually from each adult tributary person. This regulation will produce an increase in the revenue of 200,000 or 300,000 pesos fuertes, and this sum shall be set aside to give the impulse for the amalgamation of the races, favoring crossed marriages by means of dowries granted to the single women in the following manner. To a Chinese mestizo woman who marries a Filipino shall be given 100 pesos; to a Filipino woman who marries a Chinese mestizo, 100 pesos; to a Chinese mestizo woman who marries a Spaniard, 1,000 pesos; to a Spanish woman who marries a Chinese mestizo, 2,000 pesos; to a Filipino woman who marries a Spaniard, 2,000 pesos; to a Spanish woman who marries a Filipino chief, 3,000 or 4,000 pesos. Some mestizo and Filipino alcaldes-mayor of the provinces shall be appointed. It shall be ordered that when a Filipino chief goes to the house of a Spaniard, he shall seat himself as the latter's equal. In a word, by these and other means, the idea that they and the Castilians are two kinds of distinct races shall be erased from the minds of the natives, and the families shall become related by marriage in such manner that when free of the Castilian dominion should any exalted Filipinos try to expel or enslave our race, they would find it so interlaced with their own that their plan would be practically impossible".'' Filipinos and other Asians were brought to Mexico as slaves and servants, while some Africans were brought to the Philippines by the Portuguese traders, to work on plantation settlements as slave workers or settlers working in the colony. Between 1565 and 1815, both Filipinos and people from Latin America and Spain sailed to, and from the Philippines in the Manila galleon trade to Acapulco, assisting Spain in its trade on the colony. ==Population==
Population
in Cabildo Street, inside the walled city of Intramuros, Manila in 1890. Colonial statistics Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga Census In the late 1700s to early 1800s, Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga, an Agustinian Friar from Spain, in his Two Volume Book: "Estadismo de las islas Filipinas" and two parents, per tribute) and came upon the following statistics: The Spanish-Filipino population as a proportion of the provinces widely varied; with as high as 19% of the population of Tondo province and Zamboanga 40%. If calculating for the family size of a tribute which is 1 tribute to 9 persons in a family. "1:9" (1 Father and 8 Children as per the average number of children in the census, and disregarding the race of the mother that legally follows that of the husband upon marriage) Nevertheless, a 2019 Anthropology Study by Beatrix Dudzik, while using skeletons collated by the University of the Philippines and sampled from all across the Philippines, thus published in the Journal of Human Biology, using physical anthropology, estimated that, 72.7% of Filipinos are Asian, 12.7% of Filipinos can be classified as Hispanic, 7.3% as Indigenous American, African at 4.5% and European at 2.7%. However, this is only according to an interpretation of the data wherein the reference groups, which were attributed to the Filipino samples; for the Hispanic category, were Mexican-Americans, and the reference groups for the European, African, and Indigenous American, categories, were: White Americans, Black Americans, and Native Americans from the USA, while the Asian reference groups were sourced from Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese origins. in that, when the reference group for "Asian" was Thailand (Southeast Asians) rather than Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese; and the reference group for "Hispanic" were Colombians (South Americans) rather than Mexicans, used to identify the different types of names given to the people living in the colony. They are: • "Español" - A pure White European person from Spain. • "Peninsulares" - A pure White Spaniard born in Spain but is also a settler and a citizen, living on the islands. • "Criollo"/"Insulares" - A White Filipino of pure European Spanish ancestry, born and raised as citizens of the islands, or a person of pure White ancestry native to the island, who were descendants from White European settlers. • "Mestizo"/"Mulatto" - A native Filipino or an Indigenous American Indian person of mixed Spanish ancestry, and an African person of mixed Spanish descent. • "Indio" - A native Filipino or an Indigenous American Indian person, or an individual belonging to a tribal group, native to the islands. • "Negrito"/"Negro" - A indigenous Black Filipino person, and an African person brought to the colony as slaves to work on plantation. • "Sangley" - A word invented and used in the Philippines to denote an individual of Chinese or other East Asian background. • "Islas Filipinas" - The name of the islands. • "Felipinas" - The name given to the islands in 1543 by explorer Ruy López de Villalobos in honor of Prince Felipe II, who later became King of Spain in 1556. This name initially referred to just the islands of Leyte and Samar. It was later on expanded to include the entire archipelago. • "Hispano América" - The Spanish colonies in the Americas. Present-day 21st century Filipinos This category is about a term used to identify the different types of Filipino ethnic groups living on the islands. They are: • "Native Filipino" - People of un-mixed or a Filipino person of pure ancestry from the islands. • "Polynesian Filipino" - People of Polynesian backgrounds living on the islands, or a Filipino person of mixed Polynesian ancestry. • "Oriental Filipino" - People from another Asian background living on the islands, or a Filipino mixed with other oriental backgrounds, or a person of South Asian descent living in the islands. • "Mestizo Filipino" - A Filipino person of mixed ancestry. • "Hispanic Filipino" - People of mixed native Filipino and Spanish or Latin American ancestry, or a Spanish-speaking Filipino, Hispanicized Filipino, Peninsular, Criollo, or a person of Hispanic South American descent living on the islands. • "White Filipino" - People of White European, White American, White Latin American, White Middle Eastern and other White ethnic backgrounds living on the islands. • "US/Native American Filipino" - A person of White American-native descent, living on the islands. • "Black Filipino" - People of Black African, African American and Black Latin American backgrounds, living on the islands, or a Filipino person of mixed Black ancestry. ==Religion==
Religion
The majority of Spaniards, Latin Americans and Hispanic Filipinos are Christians, with most adhering to Roman Catholicism. ==Language==
Language
Spanish, Spanish creole (Chavacano), English, Tagalog and other Indigenous Filipino languages are spoken in their community. Philippine Spanish Philippine Spanish (Spanish: Español Filipino, Castellano Filipino) is a Spanish dialect and variant of the Spanish language spoken in the Philippines. Philippine Spanish is very similar to Mexican Spanish due to the contribution of grammar and vocabulary spoken by Mexican settlers in the country, during the Galleon trade. A constitution ratified in 1987 designated Filipino and English as official languages. Also, under this Constitution, Spanish, together with Arabic, was designated an optional and voluntary language. Spanish is now spoken mostly by Hispanic Filipinos, educated Filipinos and Filipinos who chose to speak the language. Most Spanish Filipinos speak Spanish as their first, second or third language as they have shifted to communicating in English and Tagalog and/or other Indigenous Filipino languages in the public sphere. ==Economy==
Economy
Support from wealthy Hispanic, Chinese, and Indian communities in the country has played an important part of helping shape both the economy and traditional identity of the people. The most successful Hispanic individuals are found in the upper-class society, most of whom are highly educated and are involved in business and economic sectors. They support and contribute to some of the Philippines's most important investments in infrastructures such as telecommunication, technology, electricity, water, transport, banking, land economy, tourism, sport and entertainment, shipping trade and marketing. ==Legacy and political controversy==
Legacy and political controversy
Public communication in the Philippines In 1899, the First Philippine Republic promulgated a constitution that designated Spanish as the nation's official language. The Philippines was the only Spanish speaking country in Asia, from the beginning of colonial rule in the 1500s until the first half of the 20th century. It held official status for over four centuries and was redesignated as an optional language in 1987. The Philippine government under the leadership of Corazon Aquino, deliberately suspended the use of Spanish language for some unknown political reasons, likely influenced and a victim of the American Black Legend. "Discourteous" and "hypocritical" Filipino politicians influenced by third world Southeast Asian corruption, political agendas, a failed government and economic system, extreme poverty and years of bleak uncertain future that still surrounds the Philippines. Quezon himself was of mixed Spanish ancestry. Spanish still remains and continues to be understood/spoken by Spanish Filipinos and native Filipinos who chose to study &/or speak the language in public. However, it is mostly spoken and used in universities and in Hispanic communities. The Philippines is a member of the Latin Union where the language is used for education in the Instituto Cervantes, in the capital city of Manila. In 2010, the former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo, a fluent Spanish speaker, re-instated the language as a compulsory subject to be taught in schools and universities. One of the reasons of change was that she wanted to the Philippines to return to traditional ways of life, be bilingual, competitive, wealthy and respected, and able to compete in the world economy. The other was for global employment demands such as in the call center and business process outsourcing industries. However sixteen years later as of 2026 Q1, literacy in this language largely remains confined to a few. Most Spanish-speaking Filipinos also use English in the public sphere and may also speak Tagalog and other Philippine languages. In addition, Chavacano (a creole language based largely in the Spanish vocabulary) is spoken in the southern Philippines and forms the majority of Zamboanga Peninsula and Basilan region. ==Culture==
Culture
Hispanic Filipinos share some similarities to cultural practices from people in Latin America and Spain, including a shared history, tradition, names, arts and literature, music, food, religion and language. They have also taken some influences from the United States, as evidenced by their admiration for Anglo-American Popular culture. Literature "Literatura Filipina en Español" Philippine literature in Spanish ("Literatura Filipina en Español") is a body of original Hispanic literature made by Filipino writers in the Spanish language which was first published in 1593 by Spanish Roman Catholic priest. Today, this corpus is the third largest in the whole corpus of Philippine literature (Philippine literature in Filipino being the first, followed by Philippine literature in English). It is slightly larger than Philippine literature in vernacular languages. However, because of the very few additions to it in the past 30 years, it is expected that the latter will soon overtake its rank. The most popular written Hispanic literature in the Philippines is "Noli Me Tángere," a novel written by José Rizal. Art Hispanic art explores the rich history and story of the ancient world, combined with colonialism, religion and contemporary way of life. Music and cinema Hispanic music is a blend of traditional European folk music mixed with Indigenous American-Indian, Indigenous Filipino and African sounds, together with contemporary European, Latin and Anglo-American genre. Films, hip-hop, pop, dance, rock and heavy metal are also popular. Cuisine Spanish cuisine is traditionally of European origin. Filipino cuisine is a blend of European and Asian influences. Sport is played in specialized venues such as the pictured jai alai or the earlier Manila Jai Alai Building. The players are mainly of Basque (Spanish or French) descent.|alt=A two-storeys building with a red roof. On the façade and the roof, a figure of a moving man holding a long basket on his right hand and a helmet on his head. Since it is day, the neon tubes shaped as different phases of the player movement are barely visible. Over the figure, the letters "Ja[missing i] Alai". Cars are parked before the building. Football is the most watched and played sport in Spain and in Latin America. In the Philippines football is also popular particularly among the Hispanic communities and fans of the sport. Tennis, basketball, beach volleyball, volleyball, baseball, boxing, UFC, cycling, motor sports and water sports are also widely appreciated in the Spanish community. The game of basketball is one of Spain's most popular sports and is second only to football, played at a professional level, while in the Philippines it is considered its national sport. == Notable people ==
Notable people
A list of famous Hispanics from around the world who are part Filipino heritage, known for their status and achievements. International SportPaulino Alcántara - Football • Eduardo Teus - Football • Juan Torena - Football • Manuel Amechazurra - Football • Gregorio Querejeta - Football • Nick Rimando - Football • Saúl Berjón - Football • Leylah Fernandez - Tennis MusicLuis Eduardo Aute - Spanish Singer-songwriter. • Joe Bataan - Singer • Asia Nitollano - Singer • Cassie Ventura - Singer • Jasmine V - Singer FilmsNeile Adams - Actress • Steven R. McQueen - Actor FashionArianny Celeste - Model LiteratureGeorge Santayana - Writer and philosopher FictionJuan Johnny Rico - Novel and film character JournalismIsabel Preysler - Journalist, socialite and television presenter PoliticsMarcelo Azcárraga - Prime minister • Juan Álvarez - President • Isidoro Montes de Oca - Revolutionary leader • Alejandro Gómez Maganda - Governor • Jorge Moragas - Chief of Staff of the Spanish Prime Minister Philippines EconomicsZóbel de Ayala family - Business family • Joseph MacMicking de Ynchausti • Jaime Augusto Zóbel de Ayala - Businessman • Fernando Zobel de Ayala - Businessman • Enrique K. Razon - Businessman • Andrés Soriano - Businessman • Ramón Aboitiz - Businessman SportCarlos Loyzaga - Basketballer • Santiago Rublico - Footballer • Jessica Miclat - Footballer • Kiara Fontanilla - Footballer • Quinley Quezada - Footballer • Reina Bonta - Footballer FilmsAshley Ortega - Actress • Gloria Romero - Actress • Delia Razon - Actress • Amalia Fuentes - Actress • Marian Rivera - Actress • Fernando Poe Jr. - Actor • Eddie Garcia - Actor • Jaime Fabregas - Actor • Janine Gutiérrez - Actress and model MusicChanty - Singer and actress • Pilita Corrales - Singer ArtJuan Luna - Artist • Fernando Zóbel de Ayala y Montojo - Painter FashionCeleste Cortesi - Beauty pageant • Ahtisa Manalo - Beauty pageant • Katarina Rodríguez - Beauty pageant • Stella Araneta - Beauty pageant • Gloria Díaz - Beauty pageant LiteratureFernando María Guerrero - Writer • Lourdes Castrillo Brillantes - Writer JournalismDyan Castillejo - Journalist ReligionJosé María of Manila - Roman Catholic Saint • Juan de Plasencia - Priest • Manuel Rojo del Río y Vieyra - Priest PoliticsJosé Rizal - Nationalist, writer and polymath • Emilio Aguinaldo - 1st President of the Philippines and revolutionary leader • Felipe Calderón - Revolutionary leader • Antonio Luna - Revolutionary leader • Ilustrados - Educated class • Rodrigo Duterte - 16th President of the Philippines • Chito Gascon - Commission on Human Rights • Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - 14th President of the Philippines • Bongbong Marcos - 17th President of the Philippines • Manuel L. Quezon - 2nd President of the Philippines • Marcelo Fernán - Chief Justice and President of the Senate ==See also==
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