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Phillipines and Mexico

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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Phillipines and Mexico
    Posted: 20-Aug-2004 at 12:28

 

source:http://www.los-indios-bravos.com/english/eng_proj_06. html

Mexicans as a whole regard the Philippines not as a former colony of Spain, but of Mexico -- not legally, of course, but in every other way.

The fact that Ferdinand Magellan and Miguel Lpez de Legzpi took possession of the islands in the name of the King of Spain cannot be contested. Neither can it be denied that the governor generals were appointed by the Spanish kings, a clear attribute of sovereignty. But from 1565 to 1815, a period of 250 years coinciding with the commercial intercourse between Manila and Acapulco, the links between the two countries bordering the Pacific Ocean were so close that they have given rise to the claim that the Philippines was indeed a former colony of Mexico.

Magellan and Loaisa sailed to the Pacific Ocean via the straits at the southernmost tip of South America aboard vessels made in Spain. But starting with Alvaro de Savedra in 1527, the ships that sailed for the archipelago were constructed on the western coast of Mexico. Hernn Corts, the conqueror of Mexico, built three small ships near the mouth of the Zacatula River (now Rio Balsas) for his relative Alvaro. Ruy Lpez de Villalobos sailed aboard six vessels made in Jalisco in 1524.

When Legzpi left the port of Navidad, also in the province of Jalisco, his four ships had been built in that small sea town. Although Legzpi was a Basque from the northern region of the Spanish peninsula, he had spent 20 years of his life in Mexico City, while his grandsons, Felipe and Juan de Salcedo, were born and bred in Mexico. The latter -- known as the last of the conquistadors, after subduing the native groups in Luzon and thwarting the corsair Limahong, or Lin Feng, from capturing Manila -- died of a malignant fever in his encomienda in Vigan on March 11, 1576. Probably half of Legzpi's crew was composed of Mexicans: creoles like the Salcedos, mestizos and Aztec indios.

The majority of the military reinforcements and married colonists sent to the Philippines during the first two centuries after Legzpi were Mexicans. The first group of 300 that reached Cebu in 1567 was commanded by Felipe de Salcedo. The second group of 200 reached Panay in 1570, just before Martin de Goiti sailed for the conquest of Manila. Another military group that reached Manila in 1575 was composed of 140 Spaniards and 38 Mexicans, all recruited in Mexico. Much later, prisoners from Mexico were sent to the islands in exile. The total number of Mexicans that emigrated to the Philippines has not been fixed, but in the two centuries and a half of contact we can safely assume that this figure reached several thousands.

Toms de Comyn, general manager of the Compaia Real de Filipinas, in 1810 estimated that out of a total population of 2,515,406, "the European Spaniards, and Spanish creoles and mestizos do not exceed 4,000 persons of both sexes and all ages, and the distinct castes or modifications known in America under the name of mulatto, quarteroons, etc., although found in the Philippine Islands, are generally confounded in the three classes of pure Indians, Chinese mestizos and Chinese." In other words, the Mexicans who had arrived in the previous century had so intermingled with the local population that distinctions of origin had been forgotten by the 19th century. The Mexicans who came with Legzpi and aboard succeeding vessels had blended with the local residents so well that their country of origin had been erased from memory.

Nevertheless, these Mexicans left behind them their linguistic heritage: there are scores of words of Nahuatl origin in the Tagalog language. To mention a few: achuete, atole, avocado, balsa, banqueta, cacahuete, cacao, caimito, calabaza, camachile, camote, calachuche, chico, chocolate, coyote, nana(y), tata(y), tiangui, tocayo, zacate, and zapote. Of course, many more words of Spanish origin had been adopted by the Tagalog and other native groups into their language. A town in the province of Pampanga, originally named masicu, for a place where the fruit chico abounded, was undoubtedly renamed Mexico by the emigrants from the New World who settled there early in the 17th century.

Aztec Garden

A good number of fruits, medicinal plants and flowering plants were exchanged between Mexico and the Philippines. Besides corn (maiz in both countries), tobacco -- an American plant -- was introduced in the Philippines probably via the Portuguese in Malacca before the arrival of the Spaniards. It grew to be so popular in the islands that the government made a monopoly out of it in 1782 as a revenue-raising measure. The avocado, maguey and cacao came from Mexico. Although pepper was probably indigenous to the Philippines, the word sili undoubtedly was derived from the Mexican Chile, while the piquant local sauce called tabasko got its name from the Mexican province of Tabasco. In return, Mexico got its mango from the islands, and with so high a regard did the Mexicans hold this Oriental fruit that to the present day, beautiful young maidens still elicit the exclamation of "que manga es."

Among the fruits, vegetables and plants brought into the islands from Mexico and South America were pineapple, arrowroot, peanut, lima and yam beans, balimbing, cassava, chico, papaya, zapote, tomato and squash. Among the ornamental and medicinal plants: tuberose, spider lily, canna, Mexican poppy, camachile for its tanbark, ipil-ipil as a hedge plant, the sensitive mimosa, indigo and achuete for dye, madre de cacao, periwinkle, campanella cactus, lantana, and some kinds of peppers. The sweet potato, or camote, was already grown locally by the time Magellan landed, but other species probably came from Mexico. These items were brought mainly by friars who settled in the archipelago after staying for a year or two in Mexico.

Although presentday Filipinos are not aware of it, a number of their dances and musical compositions did not originate from Spain but from Mexico. "La Paloma" and "Sandunga Mia," for example, were composed and first heard in the New World. The barong Tagalog might have been copied from a province of Mexico. An investigation into this aspect of Filipino culture will reveal more ties between the two countries.

Even in religious matters, the Philippines came under the early jurisdiction of Mexico. In 1578, Pope Gregory XIII created the bishopric of Manila, and made it a suffragan to the archbishopric of Mexico. The first bishop, Domingo de Salazar, brought with him 30 Dominicans, four Jesuits and six seculars; we can presume that a minority of them were Spanish creoles from Mexico. Salazar had been in the New World converting and instructing the indios for a quarter of a century prior to his appointment, and was a supporter of the policies of Fray Bartolome de las Casas and Fray Francisco de Vitoria for a more humane treatment of the natives. He came into acrimonious conflict with the civil authorities in the islands because he protected the natives against slavery, exploitation and the tyranny of the encomenderos. He returned to Spain in 1590 to advocate the restoration of the Royal Audiencia, which could check the abuses of the colonizers. He also urged the creation of a Philippine Ecclesiastical Province independent of Mexico, subdividing the archipelago into three bishoprics in Luzon and one in the Bisayas. The aged prelate was successful in his pleas before the king and the Council of the Indies: a royal decree of November 26, 1595, reestablished the Audiencia, while a royal decree of July 17, 1595, raised the See of Manila to the category of a metropolitan, with three suffragan bishoprics under it. The aged prelate, however, never saw the fruition of his labors, for he died in Spain on December 4, 1594.

Mexicans of Spanish parentage occupied numerous posts in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Philippines. Of the Spanish peninsular clergy sent to the islands, the majority often spent many years of missionary service in Mexico. The third bishop of Nueva Caceres, in the Bicol region, Baltazar de Cobarrubias, was a Mexican-born and -educated friar who had received his holy orders at the Augustinian convent in Mexico City. He became bishop elect in 1603, but in a Secrel consistory held in the Vatican two years later he was transferred to the bishopric of Antequera (Oaxaca in Mexico), and moved to the See of Michoacan in 1608.

Unholy War

Another Augustinian from Mexico, Francisco Zamudio, was consecrated the eighth bishop of Nueva Caceres in 1630. Because of his Mexican background, his tenure of office in Naga (the native name for Nueva Caceres) was filled with disputes, not only with his friar brethren but with his archbishop as well. The rivalry and subsequent bitter conflict in the Philippines between the friar orders -- known as the regulars -- and the seculars, most probably started with Bishop Zamudio and culminated in the martyrdom of Fathers Burgos, Gomes, and Zamora some 250 years later.

Fray Zamudio insisted on his diocesan rights of examination and visitation over the discalced Franciscans see. In Mexico, the right of the church hierarchy over the regulars had been upheld, but in the Philippines, the latter had resisted vigorously against what they considered as an encroachment of their monastic privileges. The provisors of Manila and Cebu upheld Zamudio, but Archbishop Hernando Guerrero sided with the regulars and annulled the bishop's actions. When the archbishop and Governor General Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera had a bitter altercation over jurisdiction, Zamudio sided with the latter, with the subsequent result that Guerrero was exiled to the village of Mariveles at the entrance to Manila Bay. Because of the vacancy in the metropolitan see, Zamudio was named Provisor General in May 1636 by the cabildo, or cathedral chapter composed wholly of seculars. He immediately absolved every one that had been excommunicated by the exiled prelate. Since Guerrero had named a Dominican for the post prior to his departure, the Catholic Church in the Philippines almost disintegrated into a schism because followers of both sides acrimoniously supported their respective points of view.

The underlying reason for this public dissension was racial. The rivalry between Spaniards born in the peninsula and those born in the colonies, the creoles or americanos, affected not only the clergy but also the lay population. The Augustinians, and the Hospitaller Orders of San Juan de Ojos, San Hipolito and Guadalupe, whose members were creoles, were opposed by the Carmelites and the apostolic colleges in that country. "While legally they (both factions} were on complete equality," writes Dr. Domingo Abella, Philippine ecclesiastical historian, "class distinctions were apparently encouraged as much as possible by the Spanish colonial policy, because the principle of divide et impera of every aristocratic system was the leading idea for the permanent subjection of the colonies."

The rivalry reached such an extent that in 1627 the Dominican Order in Mexico refused to admit creoles into its ranks, an act which the Spanish king disapproved. In the Philippines the situation had not openly reached that extreme. The insular hierarchy managed to keep the number of creoles, mestizos and indios who were embracing the religious life down to a minimum. But the racial discrimination rankled among those born in the colonies. Archbishop Guerrero and Bishop Zamudio were both Augustinians, but the former was a peninsular, while the latter was a creole, and this was probably the reason for their taking opposite sides.

The controversy was resolved by elevating the matter to the Council of the Indies in Madrid, although it could have been referred to the Viceroy of Mexico, because administratively the islands were under the jurisdiction of Mexico, but then the peninsulars feared that the viceroy would side with the creoles. A royal decree in 1639 finally solved the conflict. Zamudio was rebuked for meddling in affairs outside his jurisdiction, and ordered to return to his diocese. But the bishop never learned of his reversal, for he died several months before the decree was issued, and was entombed in the Augustinian convent in Intramuros.

Zamudio's successor in the Bicol provinces was also another Augustinian born in Mexico, Nicols de Zaldivar. He was a resident of Madrid. After he was sworn into office in 1639, he sailed for Mexico, where he tarried for about three years. He was denounced to the Council of the Indies as "living in the city of Mexico with great scandal in all respects: he operates a gaming table in his house, where cards are played continuously." The king therefore peremptorily ordered him to leave for Manila, and instructed the viceroy to see to it that the orders were obeyed. By the end of 1642, he was performing his duties in Naga. He prudently did not continue the controversial policies of his predecessor. Shortly before his death, in 1646, he played an important role in the defense of Manila when the Dutch fleet attacked and tried to capture Cavite, where the naval arsenal and port were located.

Another Mexican-born prelate, Miguel Poblete, occupied the archbishopric of Manila in 1653. Like Bishop Zamudio, he insisted on the right of subjecting the friars under the jurisdiction of bishops, in accordance with a bull of Pope Urban VIII. He announced the withholding of all stipends for curacies if disobeyed. The monastic orders retaliated by threatening to leave their parishes. Faced with the threat of vacancy, Poblete had to withdraw his order. When the archbishop refused to appoint Governor General Diego Salcedo's nominee as one of the canons of the cathedral, he was threatened with banishment to Mariveles. Poblete reluctantly acceded to the appointment but under protest. An irked governor thereupon suspended the archbishop's salary as well as those of his canons, forcing the prelate to borrow money for his personal support. These vexatious acts hastened the aged dignitary's death, for he passed away on December 8, 1667, mourned by the people "for his virtues and Christian charity."

Culture-Laden Galleons

The most enduring link between Mexico and the Philippines were the galleons that sailed almost annually between Acapulco and Manila. Starting in June of 1565 with the San Pedro, one of Legzpi's fleet, the ship returned to Mexico with Fray Andrs de Urdaneta delineating the return route across the vast Pacific. The San Pedro carried a small quantity of spices and gold gathered in Cebu and northern Mindanao, thus initiating the long history of trade between the two countries. The ship going east became known as the Nao de China -- to this day among Mexicans while those going west were termed Nao de Acapulco. The former brought the luxury items of the 0rient to the New World and Spain, such as porcelain wares of the Ming dynasty, brocades and silk from China, spices from the Moluccas, perfumes from Arabia, rugs from Persia, fine muslins from Madras, pearls from Sulu, and the famed manton de Manila, which, despite the name, were in reality silk shawls woven in the southeastern coasts of China. In exchange, the New World poured millions of its wealth into the Far East in the form of the silver coins known as "pieces-of-eight," turned out by the Mexican and Peruvian mints.

Of the 108 galleons that crossed the Pacific in two centuries and a half, the actual number built for that purpose probably totaled less than half -- that is, about 50 vessels in all. The majority of the 108 made more than one round-trip voyage, while a score foundered on their maiden voyage. Hence, of the approximately 50 galleons constructed for the Manila-Acapulco run, about 15 were built in Mexico, five were built in other countries, and the rest were made in Philippine shipyards. The provinces of Jalisco and Guerrero on the Pacific coast undoubtedly supplied most of the galleons built in Mexico, specially during the first 50 or 60 years of its history.

The influx of Mexicans to the Philippines was reciprocated to a smaller extent by the emigration of Filipinos to that country. The first of this group were the four followers of Magat Salamat, son of the Lakandula chieftain of Tondo exiled to Mexico by Governor Santiago de Vera in 1588 after the first abortive revolt against the Spanish regime. These were Gabriel Tuambacan, Francisco Aeta (a Negrito?), Luis and his son Calao, whose family names were not recorded. Hundreds of indio sailors deserted their ships upon arrival in Acapulco or later in San Blas. Up to this day there exists a small colony of Filipinos, descendants of those who had jumped ship, residing at San Blas.

As a corollary to the galleon trade, there developed the situado, or financial aid to the Philippines. The island colony had to pay its soldiers, the salaries of bureaucrats, hospitals, widows' pensions, and other expenditures of administration. The tributes and taxes raised in the islands were vastly insufficient to meet the expenses of government and the king left it to his viceroy in Mexico to solve this problem. What could be more logical than to levy import taxes on the goods coming from Manila aboard the galleons, and use these sums as a monetary aid to the island colony? The usage was confirmed by Philip III in his decree of 1606.

At first the situado was made up of the returns from the almojarifazgo, or customs tax, collected at Acapulco. Much later, when the galleon trade could not meet the amount either -- because the ships could not make the voyage because of typhoons, shipwrecks or capture by the English -- the Mexican treasury had to draw from its own funds to help the Philippines balance its budget. At that, the arrival of the situado in Manila did not take place regularly, and the archives in Spain, Mexico and Manila contain correspondence complaining of the resulting fund shortage.

Prior to 1687 the annual situado was not fixed, and depended on the exact amount of the deficit in the islands for a given year and the availability of funds from the viceroyalty. During the last decade of the 17th century, the total annual sum of the situado was set at 250,000 pesos. The amount of the aid sent, however, varied from time to time.

In the second decade of the 18th century, Manila officials complained to the crown that the reduction by 100,000 pesos in the subsidy was unfair and causing hardship in insular administration. As governmental expenses increased with each decade, insular officials requested Madrid to increase the situado -- a demand which coincided with the request of merchants that the volume of the Manila-Acapulco trade be expanded. Bigger vessels were thus constructed, more merchandise was sent to Acapulco, and more silver dollars were shipped to Manila. By the end of the 18th century, the galleons were permitted to trade at six times their initial limit.

Starting in 1802, the trade with Acapulco began to wane. The galleons Casualidad, Montaes and Rey Carlos returned to Manila with unsold cargoes. The entry of American and European traders into the Mexican market plus the establishment of the Compaia Real de Filipinas in 1785 had encouraged direct shipping between the Iberian peninsula and the islands, cutting down on the monopolistic aspect of the galleon trade. To cap its termination, Mexico declared its independence in 1810, and in the following year the San Carlos could not land its cargo in Acapulco because the Spanish priest -- general Jos Mara Morelos had laid siege to that port. The galleon sailed instead to San Blas, where it disposed of its cargo at a big loss. Not knowing that a revolution had broken out in Mexico, authorities in Manila had dispatched in 1811 the Magallanes to Acapulco, where it became stranded in the harbor, and was able to return only four years later to become the last of the galleons to cross the Pacific. Frigates were sent from Manila by insular merchants, but no buyers could he found in Acapulco, which was in revolutionary flames, and not until 1821 did it gain its freedom. The famed galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines had come to an end.

Nevertheless, the Mexican influence on the Philippines was to have an epilogue several years later in the brief hut bloody revolt of Captain Andrs Novales, a creole who might have been born and educated in Mexico.

"Officers in the army of the Philippines were almost totally composed of Americans," observed the Spanish historian Jos Montero y Vidal. "They received in great disgust the arrival of peninsular officers as reinforcements, partly because they supposed they would be shoved aside in the promotions and partly because of racial antagonisms."

Some months previously, in February 1823, a dozen of the leading suspects among the creoles who called themselves 'hijos del pais" were deported to Spain. Among them were Domingo Roxas, leading businessman and ancestor of the present-day opulent Ayala, Zobel, Roxas and Soriano families, Jos Ortega, general manager of the Royal Company, the barrister Jos Maria Jugo, Captain Jose Bayot and his two brothers, Luis Rodriguez Varela, former mayor of Tondo and self-styled count of the Philippines, Regino Mijares, sergeant-major of the king's regiment, and a dozen other suspects. Ordered to leave for Misamis Province, Novales instead convinced the brother officers and non-commissioned officers of the king's regiment to join him in a coup d'etat in June of that year. These "americanos,", composed mostly of Mexicans with a sprinkling of creoles and mestizos from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica and other former colonies of Spain in South America, supported Novales. With about 800 native soldiers they seized early in the morning the royal palace, the city's cabildo and important government buildings in Intramuros, killed the lieutenant governor, Mariano Fernndez de Folgueras, but failed to seize Fort Santiago because his brother who commanded the citadel at the last minute refused to open its gates.

The loyalist troops, led by Spanish peninsulars, mustered a counterattack, and the timely arrival of a battalion of native soldiers from Pampanga Province spelled the end of the rebellion. Novales was arrested trying to escape from Intramuros, and his followers either caught or killed. A drumhead court martial was immediately convened, and by late afternoon of that same day Novales and his principal followers were executed by a firing squad.

From that time on, Spain took good care that the Mexican links with the Philippines were terminated, and in the seven decades that followed erased the Mexican influence from the minds and hearts of the Filipinos

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  Quote Tobodai Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Aug-2004 at 21:52

and theres supposed to be a story about a Spanish soldier int eh 1500's who claimed to have been teleported from Mexico to Manila in an instant and the inquisition got to him but decided he was telling the truth!

 

I dont remember where I heard that, of course I doubt it very much.

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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Aug-2004 at 09:46

 

  Actually, the spaniards used the Tlaxcas and other kingdoms agaisnt the Aztecs, once defeated,the spaniards used Tlaxcas and Aztecs to defeat to the Purepechas at Michoacan, then they used Tlaxcas, Aztecs and Purepechas to fight against the Caxcanes at Jalisco.

  From Jalisco departed the first expedition at Barra de Navidad to Conquer Phillipines.

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  Quote demon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Aug-2004 at 12:49
Interesting I should say.
Grrr..
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  Quote Herodotus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2004 at 16:09

"Mexicans as a whole regard the Philippines not as a former colony of Spain, but of Mexico -- not legally, of course, but in every other way."-Jalisco Lancer

Well, here's how i see it:

1) Spain discovered and claimed the Phillipines.

2) Spain directly ruled the Phillipines.

3) During the great majority of the commercial intercourse between Mexico and the Phillipines that you mentioned, Mexico was legally and actually a colony of Spain, and therefore part of Spain itself.

4) The Spanish cultural legacy in the Phillipines is far greater than the Mexican (more customs and words).

I'm not mexican, but i have a hard time understand why mexico would have this feeling of ownership or dominance in the Phillipines.

If this is a normal reaction, why didnt the U.S feel that Canada or Australia was a colony of theirs?

anyways, i dont mean to judge these sentiments if they are indeed genuine, i just dont understand them.

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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2004 at 17:45

 

  Allow me share with you, Herodotus.

  First of All, the spaniard ships departed from Mexican soil with mexican natives ( aztecs, tlaxcas and purepechas ) as bearers and soldiers.

   It was effectively a mix of race between mexican natives brought to the Philipines with the local population.

   The trade of Nao de China departured from Philipines to Acapulco, Mexico.

   Philipines natives also emigrated to Mexico and fought for our independence under the orders of Gen. Juan Alvarez.

   Our Lady, The Virgin of Guadalupe has devotion also in Philipines.

   Our Independence Day, September 15 is celebrated in Philipines as independence day.

   The first time ever that mexican forces fought in foreign soil was in the Philipines ( Fight Squadron 201 ).

   I still have some other reasson to expose. 

   I have meet some filipinos and they are not that different from us.

   We both could be conquered and defeated by Spain and the US. However, our national identities remains.

   That's something that bring us more in common.



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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Sep-2004 at 23:59

 

 

Republic of the Philippines
Province of Pampanga
Municipality of Mexico

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~camiling/mexico_history.htm

source: http://www.delapaz-ewf.org/History.htm

The Spanish found neither spices nor exploitable precious metals in the Philippines. The ecology of the islands was little changed by Spanish importations and technical innovations, with the exception of corn cultivation and some extension of irrigation in order to increase rice supplies for the growing urban population. The colony was not profitable, and a long war with the Dutch in the seventeenth century and intermittent conflict with the Moros nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury. Annual deficits were made up by a subsidy from Mexico.

Colonial income derived mainly from entrept trade: The "Manila galleons" sailing from Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico brought shipments of silver bullion and minted coin that were exchanged for return cargoes of Chinese goods, mainly silk textiles. There was no direct trade with Spain. Failure to exploit indigenous natural resources and investment of virtually all official, private, and church capital in the galleon trade were mutually reinforcing tendencies. Loss or capture of the galleons or Chinese junks en route to Manila represented a financial disaster for the colony.

Trade with Europe and America As long as the Spanish empire on the eastern rim of the Pacific remained intact and the galleons sailed to and from Acapulco, there was little incentive on the part of colonial authorities to promote the development of the Philippines, despite the initiatives of Jos Basco y Vargas during his career as governor in Manila. After his departure, the Economic Society was allowed to fall on hard times, and the Royal Company showed decreasing profits. The independence of Spain's Latin American colonies, particularly Mexico in 1821, forced a fundamental reorientation of policy. Cut off from the Mexican subsidies and protected Latin American markets, the islands had to pay for themselves. As a result, in the late eighteenth century commercial isolation became less feasible.

source:http://www.filipino-info-pws.com/webpagefilinfo.htm

It must be noted that during the first two and a half centuries (1565-1828) Spain ruled the country through Mexico. The viceroy of Mexico governed the country in the name of the Spanish king. During this period the famous Manila-Acapulco trade existed. And many Mexicans--colonial officials, missionaries, soldiers, and traders--came to the Philippines. They introduced plants and animals, industries, songs and dances, customs and traditions into the country. Moreover, many of them married Filipino women. So it came to pass that Filipino acquired a Mexican heritage.

source:

The Spanish did not develop the trade potential of the Philippine's agricultural or mineral resources. The colony was administered from Mexico and its commerce centered on the galleon trade between Canton and Acapulco in which Manila functioned secondarily as an entrepot. Smaller Chinese junks brought silk and porcelain from Canton to Manila where the cargoes were re-loaded on galleons bound for Acapulco and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The Chinese goods were paid for in Mexican silver.

source: http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html

Summary of her position paper. A notable development of the Galleon Trade was the cultural interchange between the two colonies. What Filipinos today regard as a Spanish influence in food, language, and customs, may in fact be Mexican in origin. The Tagalog word palengke, for example, may have originated from the Mexican palenque. The Philippines also adopted the Mexican monetary standard, the peso. In exchange, Mexico got the Philippine mango and Chinese silk, a highly prized commodity in Mexico in the 18th & 19th centuries. Lace-making was a skill that traversed the Pacific from Asia and is still an industry today in Olinalia, Mexico.

source: http://www.los-indios-bravos.com/english/eng_proj_05.html

Creole Revolt

Meanwhile in the Philippines, a year after Mexico declared itself independent in 1821, a mutiny of Creoles or criollos (Mexican-born Spanish) broke out. It was led by Andres Novales, Luis Rodriguez Varela and the Bayot brothers. What triggered the revolt was the order of the colonial government to disarm the Creole solders. The order suggested that the loyalty of the soldiers was in doubt after Mexico declared its independence from Spain. But the Creole officers thought this was just a ruse to prevent them from getting promoted. They feared being displaced from their jobs by recently arrived troops from Spain.

For several days in June 1822, the revolt was a success. The rebels took over the residence of the governor-general in Manila as well as public offices and strategic forts in the other parts of the archipelago. However, the government mustered loyalist Pampango troops from various presidios for a decisive counterattack. Now outnumbered by local troops, the Creole rebels surrendered. Some were executed outright, while most were sent back to Mexico the following year aboard the galleon "Flor del Mar."

What made this revolt politically significant for Filipinos was its demonstration of Spanish military weakness. It also called to public attention the personalities behind the uprising as well as their writings, which previously circulated only among the elite. One of its leaders, Luis Rodriguez Varela, had written a tract called "Proclama Historial" in which he referred to himself as "el conde Filipino."

The tract implied that Rodriguez Varela was commited to the King of Spain, who was deposed by the French as a result of Napoleon Bonaparte's expansionism, but it also agitated for some reforms that would be needed in order to secure the loyalty of the subjects in the Philippines. Varela also attacked the corruption in the local government.

source: http://www.geocities.com/afpmuseum/history/history_chapter02 .htm

Philippine Scouts

As part of the American pacification drive against the Army of the First Philippine Republic, the Americans organized special forces officered by Americans but manned by Filipinos. This followed the time-honored tradition of colonial powers using native troops to quell dissent, under the principle of divide and rule. The first unit of this type was experimental, one company of Macabebes organized in September 1899 and led by Lt. Mathew Batson, U.S. Army. It was experimental in the sense that Batson's superiors - including Gen. Arthur MacArthur - did not trust any Filipino enough to arm them; Batson had used the Macabebes as guides and interpreters earlier, and was convinced of Macabebe loyalty. The experiment proved successful, with the Macabebes fiercely loyal to their new masters. The Macabebes, incidentally, were descendants of Mexican Yaqui Indians who were brought to the Philippines by Spain.

 

source: http://www.ahtg.net/TpA/filipino.html

Total: 0.6 million of Filipino descent in 1999 ( Mexico )

Geography: Main concentrations in the Californias, Sonora

Following the Third World War and the Mexican conquest of the United States territories to its north, the liberal Mexican government resettled Hispanophone Filipino refugees from their camps in the East Indian Commonwealth to the promising if underpopulated northwestern states of greater Mexico. More quickly than Korean-Mexicans, the Filipino immigrant communities of the California and Sonora are quickly mixing with their native-born Mexican neighbours, due to the Filipinos' knowledge of Spanish and their Catholicism.

source: http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html

Filipinos in the New World

By one account, some 60,000 Filipinos sailed on the galleons from Manila to Acapulco over two-and-half centuries, mostly as crews. Many escaped upon reaching Mexico, never to return to the Philippines. Most of the Filipino sailors were natives or indios. There were also many who belonged to the mestizo class, products of intermarriages between Spanish and native Filipinos who traveled as merchants, technicians or functionaries.

Every year between 1570 and 1815, two galleons sailed from Manila to Acapulco to carry on a flourishing trade monopoly for Spain. One of every five members of the crew was a Filipino native but some historians claim it went as high as 50 to 80 percent Filipinos. The other crew members were Spanish, Mexicans and Portuguese.

patch_201.jpg
 
Squadron 201 flew fifty-nine combat missions from Porac and Clark Fields on the island of Luzon against Japanese positions until the war ended in August 1945. Five 201 pilots died in the Philippines.


Edited by Jalisco Lancer
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  Quote Landsknecht_Doppelsoldner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Sep-2004 at 08:15

Jalisco Lancer,

That was a very interesting post, with a great deal of useful info (for which I thank you, since it is a subject of great interest for me).  However, I must confess to sharing Herodotus's sentiments on this issue--ie., the Philippines were not a colony of Mexico, but of Spain.

Respectfully,

David Black Mastro

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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Sep-2004 at 02:09
Don Jalisco Lancer,

Here are some historical facts that I am aware of:

1) When Mexico was still a possession of the Spanish crown,   The Philippines was technically ruled by the viceroy in Mexico. Guam, the Carolines, and the Marianas was ruled by the governor-generalship of Manila. So yes, it can be said that the whole of the Spanish Orient had closer administrative direction from Mexico.

2) Most of the "Spanish" troops whch garrisoned the walled city of Manila in the 1600's up to the early 1800's were in fact Mexican Spanish and were called "chichenengos" (what that means or for what reason, I don't know).

3) There are a number of highly revered Catholic religious images such as The Virgin of La Naval de Manila, The Black Nazarene, an exact copy of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Santo Nino de Cebu, all of which originated from Mexico.

4) All these are a direct result of the Galleon trade route of which Mexico is the main relay station from the orient to the Spanish mainland. "Manila Galleons", if they are lucky, sail at the rate of two ships a year to Alcapulco.

5) Naturally, all this came to an end when Mexico gained independence from Spain, and control from Madrid became more direct with the opening of Suez canal and the invention of undersea cables.

I always thought that our Filipino nationalist heroes should have been more active in garnering support from Mexico or Latin America in general during the Philippine revolution, but alas.

One note which may interest you is that some of the first units to liberate Manila from the Japanese in 1944 was a column of Mexican Army soldiers.

Edited by etajima
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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Sep-2004 at 09:53

 

  Hi Etajima:

 

Wellcome to AE forums.

Thanks for your kindly post.

Regards

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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Sep-2004 at 01:04
Glad to be of service, Jalisco Lancer.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-May-2005 at 00:35

We Filipinos and Mexicans are like family. We're like your cousins in the east pare. But lately since spanish was abolished, younger generations have forgotten what it's like to be Latin. They now speak english. We hope that it is the Mexican people who will try to connect with us again like in the old days. We hope to resume our once close knit reltaionship with Mexico.

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  Quote Belisarius Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-May-2005 at 22:18
Yes, then we could invade the United States and seek revenge for the deaths of over 200,000 Filipinos under American colonialism and the unjust invasion of Mexico in 1848.
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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-May-2005 at 12:28

Let's keep away the animosity for later.
We as mexicans share the same appreciation toward Filipinos.
Please kindly correct me If I'm wrong, but I'm under the idea that September 15th is celebrated also in Philipines and that there's a devotion for our Lady of Guadalupe.

Regards
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-May-2005 at 21:11

Originally posted by Belisarius

Yes, then we could invade the United States and seek revenge for the deaths of over 200,000 Filipinos under American colonialism and the unjust invasion of Mexico in 1848.

yeah, there were successful revolutions by 1898 in the Philippines but just in time the Americans swoop in to take away our freedom. Just as we were about to kick the Spanish out the Americans instigated the spanish American war.

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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-May-2005 at 21:19

Originally posted by Jalisco Lancer


Let's keep away the animosity for later.
We as mexicans share the same appreciation toward Filipinos.
Please kindly correct me If I'm wrong, but I'm under the idea that September 15th is celebrated also in Philipines and that there's a devotion for our Lady of Guadalupe.

Regards

yes, we also celebrate the Lady of Guadalupe and there is this Statue of Jesus kneeling with a cross. He is called the Black Nazarene and he was made in Mexico. He is very special to us because he had brown skin so most Filipinos could relate to the image.

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  Quote Jalisco Lancer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Aug-2005 at 11:49

Filipinos in Mexican history
By Floro L. Mercene
Jan 28, 2005, 00:21



MEXICO CITY The role played by Filipinos or strictly speaking, Filipino-Mexicans, in Mexicos struggle for independence is largely ignored by most historians. Ricardo Pinzon, an English teacher from a college in Acapulco, maintains the Filipinos were very visible in this struggle.


In fact, according to Pinzon, two Filipinos became brigade commanders in the army of General Jose Maria Morelos in the state of Guerrero in the Pacific Coast of Mexico from 1810 to 1821.

***

Mexicos fight for independence from Spain was started by a priest, Fr. Miguel Hidalgo in Dolores in 1810. Morelos picked up the fight in Western Mexico and recruited about 200 Filipino-Mexicans to join his army. The Filipinos were placed under the command of General Vicente Guerrero, who later became the first black president of Mexico.

***

The Filipino brigade commanders under General Guerrero were identified by Ric Pinzon as Francisco Mongoy and Isidoro Montes de Oca. They distinguished themselves in battles against government troops that in Guerrero they are regarded as folk heroes.

When Guerrero finally surrendered in 1829, he was accompanied by two Filipinos acting as his aides, Miguel de la Cruz and a certain Atieh.

***

Ric Pinzon traveled from Acapulco to Mexico City for our interview. A great fan of the Filipinos and their contribution to Mexicos growth as a nation, he is writing a book on the Filipino presence in his country, a fact largely ignored by historians.

Filipino sailors on the Manila galleons had been traveling to Mexico between 1570 and 1815. Many of them married local girls and settled in Mexico.

***

By Pinzons estimate, there are about 200,000 descendants of Filipinos in southern Mexico. They are concentrated in the Costa Grande north of Acapulco. The town of Coyuca 35 miles north of Acapulco was called Filipino town in the old days. There is also a large Filipino community in Colima, about eight hours ride north of Acapulco.

***

Pinzon says three former governors of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, may have Filipino ancestry. Juan Alvarez, born in Espinalillo, a Filipino colony, became president of Mexico. His son, Juan Alvarez, became governor of Guerrero in the 1870s.

Alejandro Gomez Maganda figured in the 1910 Revolution and also became governor of Guerrero in the 1940s.

***

Filipino influence on Mexican culture is very apparent, especially on Mexicos Pacific Coast, where people today continue to imbibe tuba, the drink derived from the coconut tree. They are also engage in games like kite-flying which they make with papel de China. Their names for their fishing boats is panga, which they suspect is of Filipino origin.

***

In the 18th century, the Manila galleons were attacked by pirates from England and the Netherlands. To fight them off, the Spanish authorities created a small army of Filipinos called the chino brigade in Acapulco. A total of 108 galleons were built in the Philippines during two and a half centuries of its existence. Four were captured by pirates and about 30 were sunk by typhoons.

The trade ended when the Mexican independence movement began in 1810. The last galleon to reach Acapulco was the Magallanes.

source:
http://www.ezilon.com/information/printer_476.shtml
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05-Sep-2005 at 11:22

hello newbie here! this is a very interesting thread and a topic i'd love to research further.

the mexican influences on the philippines that are readily apparent were mostly due to trade...we've also never celebrated the 15th of September as our independence day. It's on June 12, at some point we celebrated July 4 as our independece day too.

as somebody posted a while back, the younger generation has almost lost their Latin roots. It's rapidly dying.  nobody really speaks spanish anymore... any spanish or mexican linguistic influence has almost totally gone, except a few words inserted now and then. curiously only the zamboangans in the northwestern part of mindanao speak a semblance of spanish. but generally filipinos nowadays only speak their native dialects, depending on the region plus english, chinese, or arabic.

well anyway, this is very interesting although i disagree about the philippines as a mexican colony. that doesn't make much sense to me. we certainly have so much in common historically and culturally though.



Edited by Raisa
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  Quote Landsknecht_Doppelsoldner Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20-Nov-2005 at 13:57

The "Latin influence" in the Philippines is still manifest in the Filipino martial arts of eskrima and arnis de mano--methods of sword, stick, and knife fighting.  Over 60 percent of the terms used in these arts are Spanish or Spanish-derived.  In addition, there are spiritual aspects to these martial systems that are derived from Catholicism, like the oracion prayer in Latin that is used by eskrimadors for protection and power in combat.

It is interesting to note that there are similar methods of combat that exist in other former Spanish colonies, like garrote larense from Venezuela (which makes use of various sticks, knives, and the machete), and El juego del palo, the stickfighting method from the Canary Islands.



Edited by Landsknecht_Doppelsoldner
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  Quote pebbles Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Mar-2009 at 15:25
 
Filipino people are the most un-Asian nationality in the Far East,Mexicans can have them ( Oriental-Hispanics ) for cousins LOL
 
 
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