Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Anonymous
Anonymous asked in TravelAsia PacificPhilippines · 1 decade ago

Why do many Filipinos claim to be "Spanish" when those "Spanish" ancestors are really Mexican

No ship ever sailed from Spain to the Philipines, the only ships to Manila sailed from Mexico with Mexicans on board. The only "Spaniards" the Filipinos ever met, were from New Spain - todays Mexico.

Isn't the only "Spanish" blood ever to see the Filipines really Mexican?

Update:

The Spanish ships went from Spain to Habana, Cuba, from there to Veracruz, Mexico. They were offloaded and cargo went on foot across Mexico to Puerto Vallarta or Acapulco, from there they sailed to Manila. Then they returned across that same path.

No ship sailed around Tierra Del Fuego strait to the Philippines, or around Africa to the Philippines (Africa and India were in the Portuguese sphere so Spanish ships weren't allowed to follow that route).

Update 2:

Magellan was Portuguese, and he is probably the only one to get to the Philippines without going from Mexico. His ships got there with a few men remaining. Of his fleet 18 men returned to Spain (though he was Portuguese). None of his men stayed in the Philippines. The Spaniards who conquered and settles the Philippines were Mexican.

21 Answers

Relevance
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I guess filiipinos don't really like their own race.

  • 1 decade ago

    The Philippines and Mexico were colonized by the Spaniards almost on the same time. Ferdinand Magellan is indeed Portuguese, but has Spanish troops.

    Spaniard Hernán Cortés went to Mexico in 1519. The Aztec King Moctezuma II invited the spaniard to Tenochtitlán, he believed that Cortés might be the serpent god Quetzalcoatl. It was a disastrous plan since Cortés was able to make allies on the way to the place. In May 1521, Cortez and his followers attacked and conquered the Aztecs. Cortés then colonized the area and named it Nueva España (New Spain). By 1574, Spain controlled a large portion of the Aztec empire and had enslaved most of the indigenous population.

    And when did the Spanish arrived in the Philippines? 1521 right? The same year that Cortés invaded the Aztec population in New Spain.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    I agree and it somewhat pisses me off..

    Out of all Spanish colonies the Philippines had the smallest amount of Spanish people. Most did not intermingle with the natives and stayed within their own socioeconomic ranks(as the elite pretty much does today) and large scale immigration never happened.

    It's all down to colonial mentality. The way filipinos have been treated in the past by white people and the way that Philippine media portrays the standard of beauty makes many claim(without any evidence what so ever) that their grandpa is Spanish or whatever... which even if that was true doesnt make them spanish.

  • 1 decade ago

    Let me correct a few things:

    Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines in March of 1521. He sailed under the Spanish Flag bringing Spaniards along with him. Antonio Pigafetta was able to return to Spain without him.

    Over the next few decades Spanish Expeditions came to colonize the Philippines. Ruy Villalobos came and named the islands "Las Islas Filipinas" after the king of spain. Spanish Culture, Religion and Government were imposed for over 300 years.

    Subsequent expeditions came from New Spain (Mexico).

    His predecessors ( Legaspi, Villalobos, etc) established the Philippines as a colony (province) of Spain. The Manila Galleons did travel from Acapulco, Mexico (New spain) to Manila in the Galleon Trade. It was later established as a province of the new spain until 1821 (Mexican Independence).

    So there were really ships from Spain for over a hundred years of the early phases of the Colonization

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • 1 decade ago

    Come to think of it Spanish friars sired children from Filipino women. Spanish progenies came from Spaniards who came and settled in the islands long after the death of Magellan when the Spaniards came to colonize the country.

    My great-grandmother (paternal side) was half Spanish; her father was a true blue Spanish friar. On my mother's side, her grandfather had Spanish family name when the Spaniards gave the "indios" new names patterned after their

    own.

    Best proofs that the Spaniards came and conquered the Philippines can be gleaned from much of Jose Rizal's works. It didn't mention Mexico or Mexicans ever colonizing the archipelago. Yes, trade existed between the Philippines and Mexico long before Magellan's time however, there was no mention of them ever co-habiting with the natives.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Three things, Paul: 1. Learn the difference between a doctoral dissertation and a article or memoir. 2. One hoax cannot indicate the inferiority of conventional archeology, because creationists have several of their own, including Paluxy footprints, the Calaveras skull, Moab and Malachite Man, and others. More telling is how people deal with these hoaxes. When Piltdown was exposed, it stopped being used as evidence. The creationist hoaxes, however, can still be found cited as if they were real. Piltdown has been over and done with for decades, but the dishonesty of creationist hoaxes continues. 3. Bend over.

  • 1 decade ago

    Mexicans? Where did you get that idea? Both the Philippines and Mexico were colonised by Spain. The natives of Mexico are not Spaniards!

  • 1 decade ago

    I'm 150% Filipino. Only a fraction of a very small percentage of Filipinos have Spanish blood.

  • 1 decade ago

    you are partly right, but Mexico also was one of the colony of the Spain at that time. they only came to the Philippines as instructed by the Spaniards.

    because of this Filipinos gives credit to Spain who colonize them rather than Mexican" pendejos"..

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    In the Philippines there is a racist caste system in play that demarcates and stratifies individuals.

    This caste system is not only found the in the Philippines it's also found in other countries which were formerly Spanish colonies; countries like Argentina, Peru and Mexico.

    This is system is called a Casta and it is often observed that an individuals race reflects his/her social prestige. Below is a list of the divisions of the Casta arranges according to rank.

    THE SOCIAL DIVISION IN THE PHILIPPINE CASTA

    * Peninsulares

    Persons of Spanish or descent born in Spain

    (i.e. from the Iberian Peninsula which led to the name). They were considered so much higher than other castas that many women went back to Spain to give birth.

    They are the elite and they held important jobs in the government, the army, and the Catholic Church, and usually did not live permanently in the Philippines. This system was intended to perpetuate the ties of the governing elite to the Spanish crown.

    After Philippine Independence their unholy kind was persecuted and removed from these hallowed islands

    * Filipinos

    This term was used to identify people of Spanish ancestry, but born and living in the Philippines. The Filipinos are the upper class of the society. Many Filipinos owned businesses or haciendas and were very wealthy. They occasionally had government jobs, but they were not respected by the peninsulares. During the Philippine revolution the term was expanded to incorporate all peoples living in the Philippine archipelago which included the full or mixed Chinese, Hispanic or Indian residents and the mainstream Malays, in modern usage however the term "Filipino" became synonymous with the indigenous Malay peoples that form the bulk of the population.

    * Mestizos

    Originally this refers to a persons with one peninsular parent and one indio parent. Mestizos are considered the middle class of Philippine society, however during the course of Philippine history in the face of historical demographic shifts such as the mass Chinese migration to the Philippines, the presence Latin American traders (due to the Galleons), the arrival of Indian money-lenders, the invasion of the United States of America and the occupation by Japan the term was expanded to encompass all Filipinos with partial foreign and native ancestry.

    * Indios

    Like in Latin America, the term "Indio" refers to the native inhabitants. Often the unmixed Malays were called Indios, this is considered deregatory; they form the mainstream demographic slice of the Philippine islands. They are often abused and are drafted for slave labor. Such is the case of the Cavitenyos whose general population often starved or went bankrupt due to the slave driving of the penninsulares in order to create the famed Galleons.

    * Negritos

    They are the dark skinned aboriginal people of the Philippine islands, they are disdained and ostracized due to their black skin.

    So basically the answer to your question is this: It's just plain old contempt fostered by 300 years of racist rule.

    Hispanics who come from Latin America that are now Philippine citizens are often mestizos but the mestizos are of lower social ranking compared to the Penninsulares, the pure blooded slave masters of the Philippines!

    Hence they often hide their Indio blood and masquarade as full born Spaniards inorder to avail of the sense of superiority over the lower castes

    ^_________________^

  • 1 decade ago

    Are you sure? What are your sources? I don't think I've ever read that only Mexicans arrived here.

    However, I know a lot of Filipinos claim to be Spanish when they're clearly not. I think these people are ashamed to admit that they're pure Filipino, so they dilute their heritage and claim to have foreign blood. As for me, I'm a 100% pinoy.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.