GMA considering reinstating Castilian as official in the Philippines

Good, finally the time has come that Spanish finally returns to Asia. In 1987, whose dumb idea was it to abolish the language that describes our names, customs, religious traditions, money, months, telling time, fiestas, city and town names and passion for life?

Proyectos Saluda;

Filipinos generally think that the officializing the Spanish language would replace Tagalog and English as the medium in schools.

I think what GMA is promoting is that Spanish should be taught not as a medium of instruction, but as a separate entity of "a" course to be learned from the elementary level on.

As it stands now, it is has been regelated to an optional course of study at the university level, when this proclomation would primarily "elevate" the Spanish language from a "foreign" language scope to a "cultural" language being that it is imperative for the "new" generation to fully understand why their father's surnames are "Rizal, Bonafacio, Roxas, Marcos, Estrada, Ramos, and Arroyo"-past surnames of presidents of the Islands.

It would benefit them for it to be understood in the language that these surnames originated from, not being interpreted from English or Tagalog!

Proyectos Saluda,

As the Philippines and Filipinos encounter a probable "great" debate as Arroyo-Macapagal furthers her decision, I ask that you and the other Latin-American nationalities encourage, exhort and remind Filipinos of thier Hispanity. But please be sensitive of the fact that they think they are Asian because they don't "look" Hispanic, thus gives them a reason "why" they don't need to embrace the Spanish language, perhaps not physically, but most definitely defines their strongest "Asian" cultural and social features and day-to-day mannerisms.

Thank you, my primos latinos! Here are some examples of words day to day in Filipino;

Kumosta!
Anong horas mo? Las tres y media
veinte sinko sentavos
lunis, martis,miyerkoles,juwebes,biyarnes,sabado,domingo,
enero, febrero, marzo....octobre, nobiembre...
tata, nana, primo, kumpadre, kumadre...iho, iha...

get my drift? these are examples of what they call Hispanismos, or loan words. They changed it from its Spanish form to the Tagalog form.

Note; there are 4000 to 7000 Hispanismos "incorporated" into all the Filipino vernaculars (Tagalog app.5000, Cebuano 7000,) depending on which provincial island culture.

Chavacano -literally bad-taste- is a Spanish-creole, 300,000, strong where 80-85% of its structure IS Spanish.

Help us please, especially Mexicans. There are alot of you, please!

more Filipino "hispanismos", see how much you can understand;

abugado, aksideni,agrabiyado,ambulansiya, banyo, bangko, calendariyo, cigariliyo, demonyo, espanya, galanti, gobernador, gwardia, heneral, ignoranti, iksplikar, importanti, iskuwela, kandila, kantar, karga, katoliko, kontra-bida, lapis, libro, maistro, mantikiliya, palasyo, parke, papel, problema, radyo, rason, repbublika, sapatos, seguro, simpatiko, trabaho, trabahador,

and the word most ladies describe me, GUWAPO!

Now, pronounce the words with the English phonetical patterns, and these words become Spanish. The sad thing my Mexican/Latino primos, Filipino youth DO NOT EVEN KNOW THESE few examples ARE SPANISH ORIGINATED WORDS. Sad, but true. They use these Hispanismos everyday in their LIVES and think it is solely TAGALOG? HELP!!!!!!! Please, help remind them with courtesy.

To the organization of Proyectos Saluda;

FYI, there is a good web-site that I feel is educational for all Mexicans/Latinos to examine. Just go to google, "Spanish Made Easy For Filipinos". There are multitudes of information at that site to inform "those Latinos who care" to re-introduce, re-vitalize, and renew the importance of the Filipino component;

1) Asian - by location and indigenous cultures,
2) American - only by its usage of English that had replace Spanish in its Western-cultural experience.
3) Hispanic- based on 350 years under the Spanish crown.

Interesting, generally the filipino celebrates its last 100 years of history and forget the approximately 350 years of experience that founded their present day collective culture.

Mexicanos y Latinos...HELP please, at this point in world-history two things are happending;

1)our Hispanity will be awakened from its sleep,
2)or will be put to death forever...

Note:
Chavacano speakers from Zamboanga - 290/300,000
Spanish speakers (1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th language) - 2,000,000. Although hidden because of its negative legacy.

The foundation is already there!

to the good folks at proyectos saluda,

the debate is on, if you google, "Reinstating the Spanish language in the Philippines", there is a growing number of discussions and forums.

please, jump in...it is time that the Philippines celebrate their Hispanic heritage, enhancing thier multi-culturual-lingual mosaic.
the two principle figures of Filipino history;

Jose Rizal - wrote poems and literature expressing his adoration to the Philippines IN SPANISH and DID NOT want independence from Spain, but rather equality. Why Spanish?

Andres Bonafacio - Led the independence movement. He and the illustrados wrote the first constitution, IN SPANISH, only to be crushed by...the U.S.A.

Why Spanish? Because contrary to what the Tagalog nationalists and American imperialists believed, the majority of Filipinos at that time were able to speak it as a 1st, 2nd or 3rd language.

However, the Americans said that in 1898, only 2% of the population could speak spanish. They were only counting the "pure" Spanish filipinos, not the mestizos, and the indigenous peoples. Remember, 3 5 0 years and ONLY 1% could only speak Spanish? Something does not seem right. Also, it was the census in 1 8 9 8 ! ! How valid is that? Looks like manipulation to me.

Anyways, pure Tagalog only nationals use the "superior-we are Asian" card.

Latinos/Mexicanos....HELP US...we are being crushed by Tagalog only nationalist and Filipinos who are products of the American imperialists!

proyectos saluda;

those of you who care, please somehow get in contact with the "Instituto Cervantes de las Filipinas" and inquire what Latinos/Mexicans can do. Every little encouragement would help. Understand that this instution is only 16,000 compared to an overall popoulation of 90,000,000.

The conquistadors are gone, the Americans are gone. The opponents are now home-bread Filipinos who want Tagalog or Tagalog-English as the language/s to define the future filipinos. With globalization the popular rhetoric, a Tagalog-English-Spanish speaking country is the way to go.

Thank you so much for reading this, though it may never be printed. I have made this into a discussion thread, opposed to a brief comment. So I understand if my comments need not be printed. I just hope indivually that your organization spread the word the Filipinos are not solely "Chinos", but in fact they are your "Primos". The sad thing, is they don't feel this way because they are in Asia, that is a tragedy!

God bless you all, and thank you for your time!

One more time,

Psychological weapons to revive spanish in the P.I. one has to keep in mind;

1521-1821 Las Filipinas was administered by Mexico City and New Spain/Mexico...unitl Mexican independence.

1821-1898, Las Filipinas was directly ruled from Madrid, Spain

1898-1900 - Spanish-American War, under the guise of the Americans "helping" Cuba fight for independence, Spain's last remnants of a great empire ceased as Cuba became an economic-puppet, and the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the U.S.

1900-1908(?) Phillipines "thought" that the Americans were helping "them" kick out the conquistadores. Andres Bonafacio and the ilustrados, ratified a constitution with Spanish as the official language for the new independent island country. America had different intentions. As a new "global" power, was extending its muscles INTO the Asian market. War, that no-body cares to remember- broke out between the Philippines' new masters. Over 1,000,000 soldiers perished, and the U.S.A. created a new "territory" implementing an educational system with English as a medium of instruction at all levels. It did so with the justification that only 1% of the islanders spoke Spanish.

However, it was 1898, and the only people who were counted were "pure" Spanish descendants FROM Spain. Not the mestizos nor the natives who spoke it as a co-vernacular, 2nd language or 3rd language. Some say if that were the case, the numbers would have been substantially higher.

1936 - the Commonwealth of the Philippines was created, "commonwealth" elevated from a territorial status and what is Puero Rico's situation today, to guide the Philippines to independent status which occured in 1946. The mystery is Tagalog, amongst 8 major dialects and many minor dialects, was chosen to be the national lanugage declared by Manual Roxas. English was to be the continued medium of instruction in education, while Spanish was relegated to mandatory status of study at the university level, and important and legal documentation. Roxas himself was 50% Castillan and spoke Spanish as his first language, and English and Tagalog also.

1941 census, 10,000,000 Filipinos spoke Spanish as a first language, co-language or second/third language and many more could understand it.

1941-45 - WWII happens, and the Japanese conquers much of Asia and the Philippines. The Americans/allies with their military might leads the Philippines out from under Japanese subversion. Now, the Americans were looked up to as "saviors" thus the Tagalog (now known as Filipino) language and English became "married" sort of speak. With
American television, music and movies gaining important influence in the U.S.A, this particular generation "embraced" everything English and American.

1973 - Dictator Ferdinand Marcos abolishes Spanish in legal documents.

1987 - President Arroyo, creates a new constitution, solidifying Tagalog and English as the official languages, and taking out Spanish's official status. In addition, made Spanish a "foreign" language to be "optionally" studied at the UNIVERSITY level. How many average Filipinos -a third world country - can AFFORD to go to the universities?

It is the events from 1900-1987 that had created what many say is the "spanish-cultural AMNESIA" that many Filipinos exemplify.

To my primos from the proyectos saluda,

I am sorry for my "many" words, but living in Los Angeles area all my life, and knowing your home base is here too, I feel that you can emphathize with my heart.

Now, with President Gloria Arroyo Macapagal's decree slowly and silently becoming a decree, my question is why is she "only" asking the Spanish government to help? Mexico -aka New Spain- administered the islands from 1521-1821. Should she had asked the Mexican government for assistance, aslo?.

After all, I know for a fact that the Filipinos - with no disrespect intended - probably best identifies with Mexico because the cultures are mirror images of one another when practicing Catholic customs and traditions. Not to mention that we also eat, "flan, empenadas, avocados, manogs, filipino menudo, adobo," symbolizing more commonality with Mexico/Central America. Not to mention the qualified teachers in Mexico who are more than able to help assist the Philippines revive its Hispanity.

With a large number of Filipinos having lived in California, Mexicans have always been a reminder of Filipino culture, though many see the similarities, but find no importance in it.

The ideal situation would be Mexican-Americans who are qualified bi-lingual teachers to contribute, given the fact that they know English and Spanish as co-languages, and their "browner" skin tone which the Filipinos would see as "one of their own" oppose to your classic European features from Spain that would remind them of thier colonial subversion to Spain.

You see my primos, the "nationalists" who oppose Spanish returning use the "we're going back to our colonial times -card". They have this manipulative idea that the Spain from the 1500-1900's is the same Spain that exists today.

My notion is, with this deep-seeded thought implanted to many Filipinos regarding the Spanish language, would it not benefit them if they see "mestizo" Mexicans with mixed and even "brown" features traveling to the Philippines and help revive Spanish? In addition, Mexico experienced colonization and independence from Spain too! Another threading-bond! Would that not be more "psychological" advantageous? I don't know, maybe I'm thinking too much. Sorry!

Food for thought, that is all! Thanks again!

Fact;

2000 census stated that only 35,000 Filipinos speak English as a "First" language, less than 0.5% of its total population. However, 64,000,000 speak it as a 2nd or 3rd language out of a population of a little more than 90,000,000 or 64%.

Now, in 1900, when the Americans justified English as the medium of instruction in the Philippines, they built their claim that only 1-2% spoke it as a first language.

Do you see my point!

Now, the galleon trade with Mexico/New Spain lasted from 1521-1821. Rule of thumb was two galleon ships sailed to the Philippines to China, back to the Philippines then to Acapulco. Each boat had about 200-300 sailors.

Mexican sailors who left Mexico on this journey could not return and stayed in the Philippines. Likewise, Filipino sailors went on the excursion and forever stayed in the Philippines.

Now, given the pecking-order of Spanish colonials and the biological-features that are part of the Mexican mosaic, one knows who the Captain and high-ranking officers would be, and we know which skinned-people would be the majority of the crew.

You have 600 Mexicans, majority mestizo or indigenous, a year for 350 years. (Remember, both countries were Catholic and passionate which meant these sailors had to "take care of business",) There's alot of Mexican blood all over the islands. But, since brown "with" brown you get brown, it would be difficult to see clearly the Hispanity of brown skinned Filipinos today.

Fueling the notion that Filipinos are strictly Malay-Asian stock with NO hispanic blood line!

Mexican independence occured in 1821...Spain (European features) directly takes over. From this point, the majority of Hispanics emigrating to the Philippines were people from SPAIN, not Mexico!

Of course when the Americans got there to count how many Filipinos there were who spoke Spanish as a first as first language, they would get 1-2%.

They did not count or could not see, the Mexican blood-line (more mestizo and indigenous) that mixed with the brown skinned locals, which after 350 years I imagine were definitely higher than 1-2%.

Do you see the manipulation that occured?

Selected government-run schools, in the Philippines, are now reinstating and reintroducing Spanish into the curriculum. Now that the first step has been initiated, the Latin American nations and communities really need to help the Philippines regain its Hispanic heritage to a national and global scale. We need your help...

I am a filipino and had the chance to learn a bit spanish during my university years because we were required to enroll such subject. it was pre-requisite then for i was studing politics which probably was helpful since a lot of documents in the government are based in spanish. now, i see the relevance why we should study spanish. i would affirm what everybody or whoever said that opening the philippines to use spanish again as a language is an opportunity and chance for filipino people to appreciate its hispanity and open doors to economic relations with hispanic countries around the world. however, i observed that a lot filipinos do not want to recall the cruelty the spanish people did to the filipino people. although we really have so many influences from spanish culture, many filipinos deny their history as being maltreated by the spanish people. it would be very diffcult as well to again put into a decree wherein for a hundred years now we've been talking into english-tagalog-cebuano. spanish really was forgotten. it would be a very big discussion to all filipino people. some people commented that they find difficult sometimes to teach english how much more spanish that is an alien language now in the philippines.

Great point. The same thing happened in Guam. And since most, if not all, the Acapulco/Manila galleons made stops in Guam enroute to Manila, the influence was much greater on is considering our small population. The Chamorro women were the first women the sailors would encounter after spending many weeks at sea. And many a visiting sailor fathered mixed mexican-chamorro children. Even some surnames here in Guam are belived to be of native mexican indigenous origin. Common Chamorro foods include tortillas and tamales.

Chavacano de Zamboanga: spoken in Zamboanga City is 850,000, spoken in Basilan 70% of total population of Basilan, 30%tthoughout Zamboanga's provinces and co-official language of Semporna-Sabbah,Malaysia.

Chavacano de Cavite: spoken in Cavite is 40% of the population of Cavite city and 10% thoughout Cavite province.

Chavacano de Ternate: official language of Ternate.

Castellano Abakay (Davaoeño Zamboangueño) 20% of the total population of Davao City.

Chavacano de Cotabato: spoken in Cotabato City... 10-20% of the total population of Cotabato City and other parts of Cotabato Provinces...

Worldwide spoken by about -/+2.5milliones Chavacanohablantes na entero mundo...

It's not really hard to learn spanish. A lot of filipinos don't realize that there are many spanish words that we use.

Felices Pascuas!!!!

First of all I am a proud Filipino. I was born in Filipinas but now an American Filipino. I believe that Filipinos should go back to speaking original franca lengua that was written in the constitution of Filipinas in spanish. Many Filipinos blame Spain for many things and tend to ignore what other colonizers have done to them as well. I say get over it! Accept that your country was and will always be a Hispanic country. You Filipinos should be proud of who you are! Stop blaming others for your mistakes and sufferings. Spain has contributed many good things to our Filipino culture. I believe most of the oppositions comes from people who have no education and have no access to the Truth. Many Filipinos hate to be associated with being hispanic due to the misconception of them as being bloody murderers and rapist. You guys need to stop and take a look at yourselves. You are the past and the future of Filipinas. You can't have a future without a past. Embrace the past, learn from it, and use it to better your country. I used to be anti-spanish, but I learned to embrace my past, my heritage and be proud of it. I learned that Filipinas was ruled by Spain under the rule of Nueva Espana which is now Mexico. Filipinos and Mexican has contributed to each others heritage under the influences of Spain. I used to hate being mistaken as mexican or columbian but now I don't take offence to it due to I have learned through my research that I have aztec and spanish blood in me and that happend because Filipinas and Nueva Espana had great relationship with each other until Nueva Espana now Mexico gained its independence from Spain. If you do your research you will know the Truth, the real truth not the blemished truth that Americans teaches us today. If you really want to know who you are, learn your true past. To tell the truth, more fiilipinos were killed, tortured and raped by Japanese and Americans. Education is the key to Filipinas! I specially hate it when uneducated fiilipinos try to write in tagala or tagalog and try to change the spellings of the words so it don't look like spanish. Have you noticed that most of the words are in spanish? Who are you fooling but yourselves, you make yourselves look like a bunch of illiterate fools. For example, Cuarto is spelled Kuarto or Peso is spelled Piso. Did you know that the currency of Filipinas is Peso not Piso? Go ahead and look it up you will be surprised that I am right. No matter how you try to change the spellings of the words it is still a spanish word . The only thing it does is that it makes you look like you just can't spell. As for spanish being the franca lengua of Filipinas I am for it 100%. I wish I have learned spanish before coming to the United States as it would help me very much in getting a better job and be able to communicate with other hispanic people. Also I want to point out that Spanish will soon be the official language of America as it is more widely spoken here. To withhold spanish as the official language of Filipinas is to hold it back from its progress for a better future for the country and its people. If you are ashamed to be called hispanic then you are ashame of your country, of its rich hispanic heritage, traditions, foods, and culture. In that case you better stop celebrating Fiestas, Flores de Mayo, Santa Semana, Viernes Santo, Noche Buena etc... By the way I filled out a form that asked you if your ethnic and race. I put Hispanic as ethnic and Asian as Race. I wish they had a way for me to check Filipino as a race.

Viva Isla de Filipinas!

spanish is a shit language. but the philippines is a poor man's nation. and spanish is a poor man's language. might as well.

hola amigos,

I am a native Spanish teacher from Barcelona ( Spain) I would like to come to work to Philiphines I would appreciate if someone could send me contacts or links where to apply for a job .Gracias. my email is danimanfs@yahoo.es