EDUCATION FORUMDTAP

Issues without Tears

A Layman's Manual of Current Issues

VOLUME IV

LETIZIA R. CONSTANTINO TAP DIRECTOR

SM 60 I From Indio' to Filipino

As we prepare for a meaningful celebration of National Heroes Day on the last Sunday of August. let us focus our atten-tion this time not on particular illustrious Filipinos but on the Filipino people whose resolute struggle to defend their country and their freedom in every critical period of their history surely deserves the admiration and honor we accord to individual heroes.

The name Filipino is of colonial origin. Ruy Lopez de Villa-lobos, who led an expedition from Mexico which reached Minda-nao in 1543, gave the n~e Felipinas to the Samar-Leyte islands in honor of the Spanish prince, Don Felipe, who later became Felipe II, King of Spain. The name was eventually applied to the whole archipelago which became known as las islas Filipinas (Phil-ippine Islands).

But this did not make the inhabitants of these islands instant Filipinos. The Spanish conquerors called them indios, the com-mon appellation for all people encountered by tJle Spaniards in their expeditions in search of a route to India. The term Espaiiol-Filipino or Filipino for short was reserved for Spaniards born in t.lte Philippines to distinguish them from Spaniards born in Spain (also known as the Iberian peninsula) who were called peninsu-lares.

The Colonial Elite

The peninsulares were the ruling elite, with the Espanoles-Filipinos occupying a social status below them. Although their Spanish blood assured them of a place with the elite, tJ:1~ Espa-noles-Filipinos did not have quite the same opportumties for advancement as their peninsular brothers whether in government,

24 in the religious hierarchy, or in the economic field. It is never easy

Fro,'n Indio to Filipino

to play second fiddle, so th~ Espanoles-Filipinos had an ambiva~ lent attitude toward the penmsulares. On the one hand, they were proud to be. Spaniards lik~ them; on the other hand they resented the fact that the peninsulares regarded themselves as the only real Espa1\oles.

The . Espanoles~Fi1ipinos also had an ambivalent attitude to-watd Spain. As Spaniards, they considered Spain as ~~eir. mother country: but they also developed a loyalty to the PhIhpp~es, thE' land of their birth. The peninsulares had no such ambIvalence. They might have lived in the Philippines for. many years ,but th~y always lookeci forward to returning t

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ISSUES WITHOUT TEARS

old communal lands. Wealth allowed them to acquire Hispanic culture and to send theil' children to school in Manila and later even to Spain.

Rise of the' Mestizo,

Another sector that would become a component of the local elite consisted~f Chinese mestizos. Since the Chinese community was composed mostly of men (they regarded their stay in the Philippines as temporary and habitually left their families behind in China), many Chinese took native wives. The fruits of these unions were the Chinese mestizos. The Chinese mestizos were the beneficiaries of the business acumen, experience, and affluence of their fathers. Soon there were mestizo gremios (guilds) prospering

. alongside and even competing with Chinese gremios.

The Spaniards, though dependent on Chinese artisans and merchants for their needs, were always suspicious of them, restricting their movement within the country and periodically expelling large numbers. The Chinese mestizos did not suffer from such restrictions or prejudices. Brought up as Catholics by their native mothers, they ,blended culturally with the native popula-tion. Already . prospering on their own, they were in a position to take advantage of the new economic opportunities offered by the , periodic anti-Chinese drives of the colonial administration. They took over retailing aIld artisanry, then wholesaling, and finally be-came large land-owners, yielding commerce to the Chinese when the latter returned. With economic power came education and Hispanic culture.

As the main sector of the local economic elite, the Chinese mestizos resented the barriers to their further enrichment that colonial policies posed, for example the indulto de comercio, a privilege sold by the central government to most alcaldes mayores (Spaniards) which allowed the latter to engage in commerce within their respective jurisdictions and therefore limited the mestizo's economic opportunities. As landowners interested in acquiring more lands or as lessees of portions of friar estates, they viewed with resentment tht:: pJssession of these vast land areas by religious orders.

Hispanization as Filipinization

, By the 1800s, out of a population of four million there were some 240,000 Chinese mestizos, 20,000 Spanish mestizos and 10,000 Chinese. The term mestizo at that time referred to Chinese mestizos, not to Spanish mestizos who were designated as mesti-

26 zos-Espanoles or simply Espaiioles, if they passed for white . 'I lit

From Indio to Filipino

Spanish mestizos of this period were no longer regarded with. con-tempt as in earlier times when most of them were the frults of clerical and military liaisons with native women. The later genera-tion of Spanish mestizos were the children of Spaniards who had married into the elite principalia or Chinese-mestizo families.,

The local elite composed of Chinese mestizos, Spanish mes-tizos and wealthy indios became acceptable in the circles of Espanoles-Filipinos by virtue of their affluence and Hispanization. Thus, in effect Hispanization became the passport to Filipiniza-tion. Moreover, the grievances of the local elite against the Spanish administration were also those of -the Espafioles-Filipinos, The term Filipino was growing in scope though still based on 'wealth and Hispanic culture.

From the Hispanized local elite emerged the ilustrados (the enlightened), beneficiaries of higher education in the Philippines and abroad, usually Spain, They articulated the grievances of their class against colonial political, economic and sO'cial structures that' impeded their economic advancement, deprived them of political rights and denied them social equality with the Spaniards, They demanded reform!; and acceptance of the Philippines as an integral part of Spain, and of themselves as Filipinos but citizens of Spain. They now appropriated the name Filipino, changing itt; original connotations.

Filipino as Anti-Colonial Term

Since the ilustrado demands were articulated in behalf of all their countrymen and the people recognized many of these de-mands as corresponding to their own, the term Filipino was eventUally accepted by the people as a symbol of their national unity. With the people's active involvement in the struggle against Spanish rule, separation rather than assimilation became the na- tional goal and Filipino became the name of a distinct people. The term was separated from its colonial moorings and was proudly borne by a people who had earned it by their historic struggle for freedom from colonial rule. From a term designating a section of the colonizers, it had become the symbol of a colonized people's nationalism.

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P.S. A few years ago, certain quarters tried to float the idea of changing the name of our country to Maharlika, coincidentally pf(!fiid.ent Marco!';' nom de guerre during the Japanese occupation. An appeal to OlJr nationalist 5 ntim nts wa.s ade, The colonial rigin or th IHUll(' ,Filipino Wfl.'l br ugh up and Sri nokJ t mdo- 27

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