RP MESTIZOS ARE ORIGINALLY CHINESE,  NOT SPANISH

Guillermo Gómez Rivera

23 march 2008 

 
Anybody who goes to old Filipino provincial cabeceras like Malolos, Bulacán, or Vigan, Ilocos Sur, will immediately find out (unless half-asleep), that one half of these provincial capitals is called "Sector de Mestizos"(the other half being "Sector de Naturales" or Nativos).
 
A perfunctory inquiry on who compose the "Sector de Mestizos", will immediately discover that its denizens are of Chinese Origin who were Catholicized and Hispanized by the Spanish Catholic missionaries and married with native Tagalog Catholic women. MESTIZO, therefore, means in the Philippines"Chino Cristiano".
 
It is, at the start,  a blend of a Chinese "body" and a soul that is Hispanic because Catholic and usually Spanish-speaking as in the case of one José Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and even Padre José A. Burgos.
 
The racial mestizo with the Spaniards came a little bit later, when a few Spanish men married a daughter of this MESTIZO or Chino Cristiano Families and produced MESTIZOS TERCIADOS, like the heroes mentioned above.
 
NOW, the vast majority of those who, today, are labeled as MESTIZOS from Spanish fathers, are in reality CHINESE MESTIZOS also or MESTIZOS terciados because of an INDIO ancestor that came as the wife, or concubine, of the CHINO CRISTIANO who settled  in the mentioned SECTORES DE MESTIZOS.
 
There is the case of SUN TUA CO, now TUÁSON, who upon being given Spanish citizenship and a title of nobility by the Spanish King with coat of arms and the Tuáson Lands known up to the present,  got married to a purely Spanish lady of nobility imported from the Peninsula. And from this marriage all those who have the surname Túason in their family tree are MESTIZOS TERCIADOS with Spanish blood of nobility to boot.
 
Those Filipinos that come from pure Spanish parents, are called CRIOLLOS or CREOLES. But once mixed with MESTIZOS TERCIADOS, they also become MESTIZOS TERCIADOS racially speaking.
 
A prominent examle of MESTIZOS TERCIADOS, aside from the numerous Tuásons,  are all the descendants of the ARANETA CLAN. Also the LACSON CLAN and even the LOCSIN clan. Not to mention the Madrigal-Paterno clan.
 
With this reality as a starter on the topic about RP MESTIZOS, the Wikependia site on this matter is nothing but mis and dis-information based on racial discrimination against those with Spanish blood in these Islands. The target of their discrimination is Spanish blood. And, also, the Chinese Blood which they confuse with the blood of the "advenedizos" or the "infieles" of yore.
 
As the Chinese say, all those that discriminate against those with Spanish blood are not only "dancing uon the dust of their ancestors" but nothing but plain ignoramuses (because of their evil Americanization) about what is the Filipino in his mixed linage, original Hispanic culture and the Filipino Identity.
 
The "New Mestizos" we have, out of Americanization are the "hanggang pier bastards" that usually come from eligitimate parents who met in the RR joints in Olangapo, Subic, Sangley Point and Angeles. These are usual Pinay hostesses that shack up with a sex-hungry American soldier usually infected, then by the horrible "Vietnam Rose VD" or the now deadly "Aids" or "SIDA". 
 
At least all those that descended from the local PARIANES and SECTORES DE MESTIZOS were not carriers of VD.
 
Today these "half-Americans" are being glamorized before the ignorant Filipino masses as the "PINOY Idols" or what have you. And they think that the old Spanish-Indio-Chino mestizos from the mentioned SECTORES or PARIANES are just as illigitimate as the so-called "Phil-Ams" of today.  They think that those from the oppulent Sectores de Mestizos and the Parianes are as low as they are in fact. Ignorance about our Hispanic past surely covers up their murky origin and their ignorance as the Filipinos that they dont want to be. But then, their American fathers dont even recognize as their children, even if illigitimate.
 
Those who want to talk about MESTIZOS in WIKEPENDIA should first study their own family tree for their own good.
 
Tratandose de racistas protestantizados y agringados contra los mestizos terciados, tenemos que subrayar que su  ignorancia es atrevida por ser los bastardos de PINOY que son al hablar en Taglish. Hecho que confirma la desmerecida mezcla de "Philippine" y "Unggoy" (simios in tagalo). 
 

Some comments on the web:

that maybe the case but mestizo refers to people back then with
spanish bloodlines. the offspring of former chinese immigrants who
married native women are not registered as mestizo but native. rizal's
record is a perfect example of what i mean.

the mestizo part has to do with the spanish throughout filipino
history and it is only in the 20th century that a reference to any
foreign bloodline other than the spanish that the "mestizo" took hold.

mestizo meaning the native mixing with foreign nationalities other
than the spanish in general terms. this is a modern convention.

your example of a former chinese family marrying with filipinos of
spanish descent is a clear example of a spanish mestizo offspring
rather than a chinese mestizo. chinese has always been referred to in
the past as chino not mestizo.

Don Guimo is correct here. All of our heroes could trace their ancestry to a Chinese progenitor. Chinese body, but Hispanic soul. Thus, we have Spanish looking people with Chinese sounding surnames. And  Chinese looking people with Spanish sounding names.

As we have explained so many times to the other forum, it is not in the DNA, but in the culture.

what i pointed out was the mestizo term referred to filipinos with
spanish heritage in their mix. mestizo did not mean chinese mestizo at
all during the spanish time but rather spanish mestizo. sure there
were filipinos who had both chinese and spanish in their bloodlines.
but the mestizo traditionally even in the philippines pointed to the
spanish in the mix. So a filipino with both chinese and spanish
parents did not mean chinese mestizo but a spanish mestizo in the
registry.

i am not denying the chinese connection at all with some filipino
families. i am only putting in perspective what mestizo means even
during the time of spanish governance. and after that.

take my family tree for example. my great maternal grandma was a
descendant of a former xangley who became a farmer who married a
native woman. my great lola on her registry was not written down as
chino or chinoy or mestiza for being "half and half". she was written
down as native. her son my lolo was also indicated as native. my lolo
married my lola a white filipina of spanish/mexican descent. my mom
and her siblings in turn were categorized as mestizos and mestizas
even during the 1930's.

this was the case with rizal or the mercados who have never been
categorized as chinese or chinos. they were natives. and hispanized.
it was not far fetched at all in rizals diary to complain that he was
being mistaken for something else other than an indio in his travels.
he always claimed to be an indio. whatever chineseness from his great
great grandfather was already extinct in the generations that followed
since that intial immigration. rizal was a hispanized indio and not
chino at all. whatever others invent out of him now were more half
truths and totally misleading. sure rizal still had that genetic
marker from his great great grandfather domingo lamco. but rizal was
not a chinoy but a pinoy because he was a tagalog (rather than a
chinaman) because of that genetic and cultural transformation.

what i disapproved in recent days is the exaggeration of the chinese
connection by some and create more myths. the reason most filipinos or
lowlander filipinos dont have a tradition of confucianism or taoist
mentaltiy is because of the hispanization that ensued along with the
austronesian cultural interaction. for all the ethnic chinese claims
of colonization they have yet to unearth of a single pillar and single
stone and artifacts that pointed to a definitive structure or a
chinese colony before the spanish. so the claim by chinaman having a
historical connection to the land are just more excuses for their
necolonialism in recent years. remember that chinese arches and
chinese temple did not exist until recently. whatever chinese "purity"
by the chinese who immigrated here at the behest of the spanish
colonial authorities has been transformed by their conversion, their "
racial" intermarriages and their hispanization.

i dont know if it accurate to say that all of the filipino heroes have
chinese progenitors in their bloodlines. thats not correct at all.
there are filipinos like rizal who have a single great great chinese
ancestor intermarrying with a native woman. but the offspring of that
union would not be registered as chinese "mestizo" but indigeno. sure
there are movers and shakers of the philippines with some chinese
ancestry in their mix. but i cannot agree that its the general rule at
all because its not true.

i am not disapproving nor deny the existense of spanish era chinamen
who assimilated. for these former chinese are no more roman or
visigoth anymore than what the spaniard is today. i also agree that
hispanic is cultural and thats how it must be for us too along with
other hispanized nations.

but i am not all willing to concede that filipinos are essentially
chinese with hispanization as some have been alluding in threads and
the web. that my friend would be another hoax.

you said it yourself several posts back. whatever chinese there is
among prominent filipinos are only in their names. for they too are
already hispanics. the only exception to this rule are the traditional
ethnic chinese who remained unassimilated. and the newcomers that
come from china, taiwan etc are of a similar bent.

and to me they are not filipinos. there is no such thing in my opinion
called a chinese filipino. there is only filipino. if they cant
assimilate they should consider going back to their own native land
for they remain foreigners in the homeland.

The Philippines is not a multi-ethnic nor a multicultural country. the
lie being perpetuated by political hacks with high fallutin "academic"
titles is to make it appear that the philippines is similar to the
U.S. Well, no, not at all. Filipinos and the Philippines remain a
unicultural or a monocultural country despite the austronesian
linguistic diversity. We are all cut from the same cloth regardless of
which region we come from. A cebuano and a chavacano for example have
similar cosmology, cultural practices and traditions. The U.S is an
immigrant country from many countries while the philippines is not
one. Thats the truth. But this seems to be the first casualty when
some people force their opinion on us just to continue imitating
current trends especially if its from the U.S. 

Tsinoy or chinoy to me is another way of saying that china owns the
philippines. This dog and pony show about loyalty and all that is
fooling nobody. Only the neocolonizers believe it. With help from the
usual academic sellouts among Filipinos. Imagine me doing the same
thing and calling myself a kastilaloy even if I have a spanish
heritage in my background. See how hispanophobic "pure" filipinos daw
react with this one.

The fact is that a majority of the so-called Chinoys among the movers
and shakers in the past have never identified themselves as Chinoy.
This is a modern invention by the chinese themselves to show to us
natives that we are subjugated. Just look at the registry from the
past. A chino or a chinoy refer to an ethnic chinese living in the
philippines. They have never been defined to mean those Filipinos who
have been mixed with the Chinese. The most that can be said of Chinoys
are ethnic chinese who finally assimilated culturally but remained
genetically chinese. 

Filipinos are not americans and will never be one no matter how they
try to be like americans. Filipinos are filipinos. And that includes
for the most part for being hispanized. There is no going back. We are
a monocultural people. Different people in terms of diverse
austronesian languages on our backgrounds but we are one nation. The
rest are just foreigners on extended visit in the homeland. 

We are not the U.S. I have no problem with Filipinos who are americans
and are U.S citizens. But Filipinos who imitate the kano are as phony
as the next tribal wannabe.

I  can only be Filipino, and nothing else.  The strains of blood no longer as I'm a product of history, although I must admit that keeping those different blood strains in mind is a constant and good reminder that this thing called "ethnic purity" is, well...el paligo del baboy para el lechon. 
 
But of course, given that I'm headed to Indo-America in May, people over there will be "guessing" one more time whether I'm Aymara, Quechua, Chino, Japones, or Mexicano.  And so, it helps to keep my memory intact (with the help of pisco and vino tinto, of course) when I do the "explaining".  "Filipino", meaning I have indio, but because of my unique family history - there's also the Spanish Jew mixing up with the Chinese (better for business, he, he , he!), then the Mexican mixing up with the local india women (hence, that unique "temper" that sounds so familiar).  To put it simply:  I'm everything but "Pure".
 
My issue with the "academicianics" is their never-ending classification and re-classification according to genetics, as if we were guinea pigs.  And their telling me that some are more pure Filipino than others.  My body and soul are Filipino, punto final.  Regardless of how my ancestors ended up in the Philippines. 

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