Filipinos in Nueva España: Filipino-Mexican Relations, Mestizaje,

and Identity in Colonial and Contemporary Mexico

Rudy P. Guevarra Jr.

Journal of Asian American Studies, Volume 14, Number 3, October

2011, pp. 389-416 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: 10.1353/jaas.2011.0029

For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jaas/summary/v014/14.3.guevarra.html

Access provided by Arizona State University (6 May 2013 12:55 GMT)

 Filipinos in Nueva España
Filipino-Mexican Relations, Mestizaje, and Identity
in Colonial and Contemporary Mexico

rudy p. guevarra jr.

The Mexico-Philippines relationship created and managed by Spain from

the 1500s to the 1800s was the first Pacific Rim association, especially to
demonstrate that the cultural byproducts of the transcontinental ties
deserve as much attention as their economic, political, and military
counterparts.
—Evelyn I. Rodriguez1

I n november 2004, I took a trip with a friend to Acapulco, Mexico, to

embark on an exploration of cultural identity and history. It was then

part of my dissertation research. I wanted to find out just how long and
extensive the relationship between Filipinos and Mexicans was, which
I knew predated those beginning in the early twentieth century in the
United States, and in particular San Diego, California, where there is a
large and growing multiethnic Mexipino population.2 I knew that the
story of Filipino and Mexican interethnic relationships has a rich, complex
history. During the course of this trip I came to find out just how rich
and complex the history is.
Walking down Calle Cinco de Mayo in Acapulco, I could not help but
notice the Filipino-owned stores and shops, and hear the conversations as
the proprietors spoke to their staff and clientele in Spanish and Tagalog. All
over Acapulco there are other distinct signs of a recent Filipino presence.
Many of the local residents have visible Filipino or Asian features.3 The

jaas october 2011 • 389–416

© the johns hopkins university press
390 • JAAS • 14:3

cultural signposts along this journey spoke to the intimate relationship

between Mexico and the Philippines, spanning several generations. The
relationship was facilitated for 250 years during the Manila-Acapulco gal-
leon trade (1565–1815).4 These transpacific voyages were responsible for
one of the world’s most lucrative and long-lasting global enterprises, which
included an enormous array of luxury goods, medicinal plants, agricultural
products, and people.5 This essay addresses how these exchanges had a
profound impact on both Mexico (Nueva España) and the Philippines.6
Indeed, the ways in which both indigenous and mixed-race Filipinos and
Mexicans crossed a vast ocean to become part of each other’s social and
cultural worlds and the mestizaje (racial and cultural blending) that oc-
curred attest to an extensive historical connection with lasting implications.

Luxury Goods, Silver Bullion, and Brown Bodies Across the Pacific

Between 1565 and 1815, numerous goods from Asia, the Philippines, and
other areas of the Pacific were highly coveted by the Spanish elite in the
Americas and Spain. Manila was the entrepôt from where all goods were
processed, readied, and shipped to Acapulco, Mexico (which was also
known as the “City of Kings”).7 Trade goods such as silks, porcelains, agri-
cultural produce, spices, teas, and other luxury and consumer merchandise
from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, Borneo, Cambodia, Malay, Siam
(Thailand), the Spice Islands (Moluccas, Java, and Ceylon), and other parts
of Asia and the Pacific were traded for silver to Chinese merchants.8 In
addition to silver, other goods shipped back to the Philippines included a
wide variety of agricultural goods, medicinal plants, and other items that
“covered the necessities of the island population.”9 This global exchange of
goods and silver transformed the material and cultural lives of merchants
and consumers in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The Philippines provided key items in this transpacific endeavor.
Indeed, probably the greatest item produced/built and exported from
the Philippines were the galleons themselves. The majority of the vessels
were built in the shipyards of Cavite, but galleons were also constructed
in Acapulco, Natividad, Zihuantanejo, and other port towns in Mexico.10
In the Philippines, most of the workforce used to construct these mighty
vessels was managed through a forced system of labor called polo, which
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 391

was considered “the most oppressive phase of the Spanish domination on

the islands.”11 Countless Filipino indios (Indians) were worked to death in
the construction of these galleons. Seen as a dispensable commodity, these
workers were underfed, mistreated, and worked to the point of exhaus-
tion and death. Though there were skilled Chinese and Filipino indio and
mestizo artisans who helped construct the galleons, the majority of the
hard labor was done in the shipyards by indigenous Filipinos.12
The shipbuilding process was very labor intensive. Filipino indios cut
down the abundant teak and other hardwood trees and hauled them from
the jungles to other workers who were waiting in the shipyards to construct
the galleons.13 The hardwood trees were desired for their durability and
strength to withstand canon fire. So important were these hardwoods in
the construction of the galleons that they were considered “the best that
can be found in the universe,” and “if it were not for the great strength
of the galleons and the quality of their timbers . . . so dangerous a voy-
age could not be performed.” Given the durability and strength of the
completed galleons, they were often referred to as “castles in the sea.”14
Yet once completed the galleons generated a new form of forced servitude
for many of the workers. Filipino indios (who were also known as chinos)
were forced to board the galleons alongside Sangleys (ethnic Chinese) and
mestizos de Sangleys (Chinese mestizos) and work as seamen, servants, and
slaves. Slaves were sold upon arrival in Acapulco to the highest bidders.
Slaves were part of the galleon cargo, despite restrictions by the Spanish
Crown. At first, a 1626 law levied a tax of 4,000 reales, or 500 pesos, per
slave brought from the Philippines. By 1700, a royal order was implemented
prohibiting the trading of Filipino indio slaves altogether, yet slavery was
not the focus of the wealth that Spain depended upon.15
Though not in numbers comparable with other European powers in
the transatlantic slave trade, Spain nonetheless brought slaves as part of the
galleon cargo.16 Pacific ports such as Acapulco were used as docking sta-
tions to deliver these slaves into Mexico and other parts of South America.
Slaves were also used in conjunction with other local and mixed-race
populations to replenish the local supply of Mexican indios who, not even
fifty years earlier, were decimated by Spanish diseases. Filipino indios and
Chinese and African slaves were thus brought in to supply the demand for
indentured labor in what became known as the “Acapulco slave trade.”17
392 • JAAS • 14:3

Filipino indio women suffered other indignities. They were used as concu-
bines for Spanish nobles and other officials, who often times impregnated
and abandoned them once they reached port. This practice became such
a problem that the Spanish Crown wanted to avoid it altogether; thus a
decree was issued in 1608 to put an end to this custom: “One prominent
official had carried fifteen of these women with him on the voyage. Several
were delivered of children by him, while others left the ship at Acapulco
in a pregnant condition, ‘which made a great scandal.’”18
For Filipino indio men in the galleon trade, their fate had multiple
outcomes. As previously mentioned, there were thousands who served as
laborers in the building of galleons, both in the Philippines and Mexico. As
underpaid sailors and slave labor, Filipinos were also used to navigate the
galleons. The navigating prowess of the Filipino seamen and their knowl-
edge of the Pacific Ocean assured that many of the galleons touched port
in Acapulco. Their history of inter-island and long-voyage trading with
other Asian countries made them invaluable navigators. The experience
of these Filipino indios across Pacific waters forced the Spanish to rely
heavily on them. For most galleon crews, Filipino indios outnumbered the
Iberians by five to one.19 A Spaniard later praised these seamen as follows:
There is not an Indian in those islands who has not a remarkable
inclination for the sea, nor is there at present in all the world a people
more agile in manoeuvres [sic] on shipboard, or who learn so quickly
nautical terms and whatever a good mariner ought to know. . . . They
can teach many of the Spanish seamen who sail in those seas. . . . There
is hardly an Indian who has sailed the seas who does not understand
the mariner’s compass, and therefore on this trade route there are some
very skilful [sic] and dextrous [sic] helmsmen. . . . When placed upon a
ship from which they cannot escape, they fight with spirit and courage.20

Despite the contributions Filipino indios made to the galleon voyages,

their Spanish masters and employers treated them inhumanely. Various
complaints were made regarding their condition, which included mis-
treatment and poor or inadequate food, water, and other amenities. One
Castilian recalled Filipino indios being “treated like dogs.”21 The problem
was so bad that Spanish officers implemented a law in 1620 to protect
them from such abuses. As one galleon passenger noted: “That day the
cloth the king allows the seamen to keep them warm was divided among
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 393

them. The rations allowed to the Indios were about half that granted to
the Spaniards, and near the end of the voyage, when the provisions grew
scarce and foul, it was the fare of the native seamen that was most restricted
in amount and quality.”22
Moreover, when provisions ran out, “unnecessary cargo,” (for example,
indios) was “dumped overboard to prevent the starvation of the crew”
(Spanish crew members). In addition to these abuses, the Filipino seamen
were cheated out of their wages. Many were the victims of wage fraud of
most if not all of their pay.23 Filipino indios grew tired of the brutal treat-
ment and the long, arduous voyages. They responded by deserting once
they disembarked in Mexico. In Mexico, these deserters found freedom
in an atmosphere and with a people similar to their own who they could
intermarry with and blend into.
Thousands of Filipino indios deserted. In fact, according to historian
Edward Slack Jr., the overwhelming majority of Asians who came to Mexico
during the course of the 250-year galleon trade era were Filipino.24 Their
desertion freed them from forced servitude. However, Filipino indios knew
their ties would be completely severed from the Philippines and, more
important, their families and friends. One can only imagine what many
of them felt knowing they would never see their loved ones again if they
deserted. These actions thus give us insight into the cruelty and horrors
that these Filipino indios faced under Spanish colonialism, which led them
to desert in such mass numbers, never to return to the Philippines. Once
they deserted and were assimilated into Mexican communities, many of
them cohabitated and married local Mexican Indians and other mixed-
race women, starting their own familial and friendship networks. Some
remarried even though they had wives back in the Philippines.25 Once
they were settled, they invited other Filipino indios arriving to Acapulco to
also desert and join their multiethnic communities. Their ability to blend
among the local Mexican indio and mixed-race population illustrates the
shared racial, class, and, to a lesser extent, gender elements that channeled
them to these specific communities, where they would be accepted yet also
escape the clutches of their Spanish masters.26
The opportunities available to Filipino indios in Mexico also far
outweighed those in the Philippines. The cultural exchanges of food, agri-
394 • JAAS • 14:3

cultural products, language, and other influences that took place between
Filipino and Mexican indios and mestizos established the foundation for
their continued interrelationships. Though Spain colonized both Mexico
and the Philippines, it was Mexican and Filipino interaction on an intimate,
local level that initiated the transpacific cultural and human exchange as
it exists today, which has influenced both countries tremendously. Thus
the relationship between Mexico and the Philippines can help us to sub-
stantiate broader arguments and reconceptualize the people’s role in this
era of colonial globalization.

Food, Medicine, and Spirits

The making of tuba wine (lumbanog) provides an example of this cultural

exchange through early globalization. The Filipino indios who deserted
the galleons taught local Mexicans how to make tuba wine. They referred
to this drink as tuba fresca or vino de cocos (in brandy form). By the 1600s
there were already established coconut groves ranging along Mexico’s
western coast.27 Filipino indios were already involved in the production
of the wine, so they freely engaged with their Mexican counterparts in
teaching them how to make this spirit.
According to historian Henry J. Bruman, the beverage was so popular
that by 1610 a Spanish decree was implemented prohibiting the making
of tuba wine. Spain moved to outlaw the production of tuba wine mainly
because it had become the beverage of choice for the local Mexican popu-
lation in provinces such as Colima and Zacatula. In addition, the sales of
Castilian wine had dropped, leaving Spain with less tax revenue. Taverns
and even churches replaced the Castilian spirit with the Filipino coconut
wine, which led to its prohibition.28 Despite the prohibition of the co-
conut wine and threats to fine those who participated in its production,
distribution, or consumption, the industry still thrived. By 1619 the vino
de cocos industry became so organized and popular that Spanish officials
reported that Mexican locals drank nothing else except “what the Filipinos
make.” The report stated:
It can be averted, provided all the Indian natives of the said Filipinas
Islands are shipped and returned to them, that the palm groves and
vessels with which the wine is made be burnt, the palm-trees felled, and
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 395

severe penalties imposed on whomever remains or returns to making

that wine. . . . All the Indians who have charge of making that wine go
to the port of Acapulco when the ships reach there from Manila, and
lead away with them all the Indians who come as common seamen. For
that reason, and the others mentioned, scarcely any of them return to
the said Filipinas Islands.29

The competition with Castilian wine was so great that Spain was
willing to deport Filipino indios who made their wine back to the Philip-
pines. Mexican officials, however, permitted them to participate in the
local economies when their skills encouraged cooperation and the mutual
benefit to each other. The coconut wine that Filipino indios introduced
to Mexico is still produced today. In western Mexico, locals still use the
Tagalog word “tuba” to describe this popular spirit.30
The agricultural exchange between the Philippines and Mexico ex-
pands beyond the introduction of tuba wine to the Mexican population.
The use of nipa palm leaves by Filipino indios, who brought the coconut
palm trees with them, also introduced thatched roofs to Mexico. These
nipa huts were called palapa by Mexicans, and are also used to this day.31
Many other types of agricultural and medicinal products and seeds were
also exchanged. Mexico provided the Philippines with maize (corn), avo-
cado, guava, maguey, tobacco, and the cacao bean, from which chocolate
is derived. Other products through Mexico via the galleon trade included
pineapple, arrowroot, peanut, lima beans, yams, balimbing, cassava, chico,
papaya, zapote, tomato, and squash. Medicinal plants included tuberose,
spider lily, canna, Mexican poppy, camchile (for its tanbark), ipil-ipil,
various peppers, lantana, cactus, madre de cacao, periwinkle, campanella,
and an assortment of dye plants, including mimosa, indigo, and achuete.
From the Philippines, Mexico received coconuts, the mango de Ma-
nila, tamarind, rice, and various medicinal plants introduced by Filipino
indio mediquillos to the Spanish missionaries and, arguably so, to native
Mexicans once these herbs were brought overseas. Mexican culinary tradi-
tions were also influenced with the introduction of ceviche (kilawin), and
cultural forms of entertainment such as the spectacle of cockfighting also
have their origins in the Philippines.32 These are just some of the many
agricultural and cultural exchanges that both groups engaged in, which
had a lasting impact on both their countries.
396 • JAAS • 14:3

Linguistic Exchanges

Spain had its own cultural impact on both Mexicans and Filipinos for
over 300 years, which further solidified their common experiences.
These included language, food, religion, fiestas, music, and clothing. For
one, the Iberians introduced thousands of their words into the Tagalog
language, as well as Chavacano, another Filipino dialect.33 Spanish is also
the dominant language in Mexico. Even words that described the familial
and kinship ties that were created through God parenting were similar.
The word compadrazgo in Mexico, for example, was compadrinazgo in
the Philippines. Comadre and compadre in Mexico were kumadre and
kumpadre in the Philippines. Though they had spelling variations, their
meanings and use were the same.34 The use of language to describe par-
ticular foods was also prevalent. These included menudo, caldo de arroz,
paella, chicharones, asado, escabeche, pan de sal, empanadas, adobo, lechon,
chorizo, and many others.35
Similarly, Filipinos and Mexicans had a crossbreed of language with
many Mexican words, or “Mexicanismos,” making it into regional Philip-
pine dialects. Indigenous Mexican words from the Aztec Nahuatl language,
for example, made it into the Tagalog vocabulary. These include: achuete,
atole, avocado, cahuete, cacao, caimito, calabaza, camachile, camote, cala-
chuche, chico, chocolate, coyote, nana(y), tata(y), tinagui, tocayo, zacate,
and zapote among others. Words that were Nahuatl in origin that took
on a Filipino name include xicama-tl (singkamas), tianquiztli (tiyangge),
cachuatl (kawkaw, or chocolate), xoco-atl (tsokolate), tamalli (tamales),
chayohtli (sayote), tocaitl (tocayo), and chilli (sili), among others. From
the Philippines, Mexico got tuba (tuba fresca), ilang-ilang (hilanhilan),
and Parian. There were also other idioms and modes that were exchanged
between Mexicans and Filipinos. Language would thus be a significant
factor in facilitating their cultural and genetic blending.36

Religious and Cultural Fiestas

Religious and cultural fiestas among Mexicans and Filipinos also share
a Spanish influence. Spanish Catholicism played a pivotal role in the
conversion of many indigenous peoples in both Mexico and the Philip-
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 397

pines. Though not always successful, it was the means by which Iberian
conquistadors and clergy tried to wipe out the indigenous identity of those
they conquered. The newly converted indios were given Spanish surnames
during baptism.37 This not only showed their conversion to Catholicism
but was useful for Spain to keep census counts of their converts. As with
language, religion was brought to the Philippines via Mexico.
Mexico was so vital to Castilian control over the Philippines that
even their religious affairs were handled under the jurisdiction of its sister
colony, and not Spain.38 Mexico sent many clergy from various religious
orders to convert the indios in the Philippines. Due to the success of these
religious orders, it is estimated that 80 percent of the current population is
Catholic. Yet, in other parts of Asia, resistance and martyrdom met many
of these priest and friars. Thus, because of the success of Catholicism in the
Philippines, it is the only predominantly Catholic country in Asia. Spanish
influence is also evident in the myths in both the Philippines and Mexico,
such as the Aparecido, or apparition. Furthermore, devotion to La Virgen
de Guadalupe, an indigenous Mexican version of the Virgin Mary, can be
found in churches throughout the Philippines. Other religious images that
made their way from Mexico to the Philippines include La Virgen de la
Salud from Pátzcuaro, La Virgen de San Juan De Los Lagos from Zapopan,
La Virgen de Antipolo, and the Cristo Negro from Guiyapo, among others.39
Fiestas and other cultural activities were also very similar. For example,
the serenading of women was prevalent in both the Philippines (harana)
and Mexico (serenata). Musical devices, such as la bandurria, and other
stringed instruments were analogous.40 Both groups also share the celebra-
tion of certain religious holidays. In both Mexico and the Philippines, for
example, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated every first of
November. During the Christmas season, other festivities and religious
practices are comparable. Both groups traditionally attend Midnight
Mass and Las Posadas. Moreover, harvest festivals are also similar, such as
the maize festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the lutrina in the Philippines.41
Other cultural celebrations that both Mexicans and Filipinos share are the
coming of age ceremonies for young women. The Mexican quinceañera
and the Filipino debut are alike in tradition and significance. The Mexi-
can camisa guayabera (dress shirt) is another example. The shirt’s origins
come from Cuba, which was also influenced by long-term contact with
398 • JAAS • 14:3

the Philippines. The shirt’s designs and embroidery resembled the Filipino
barong Tagalog, which was based off of the Camisa de Chino worn by Chi-
nese and mestizos in Manila. In Southern Mexico, the camisa guayabera
is also known as the Filipinas. Indeed, volumes can be said regarding the
multiple similarities between Mexicans and Filipinos, which were shared
and blended over centuries.42

Acculturation and Integration

One of the most significant exchanges that took place because of the gal-
leon trade between the Philippines and Mexico involved people. Given
that the Philippines formed part of a colonial extension of Mexico, and
not Spain, this relationship facilitated the traveling of Filipinos to Mexico
and Mexicans to the Philippines.43 Thus began of the process of mestizaje,
or the racial and cultural blending of peoples between both countries.
The transpacific passage promoted the intermixing or amalgamation of
these two peoples and their cultures, and has been part of the historical
process that continues to this day between the Philippines and Mexico.44
As previously mentioned, these include the slaves, servants, and seamen,
as well as soldiers, clergy, administrators, and civilians. Within this con-
text, both Filipinos and Mexicans lived and married each other within the
local populations. When Miguel López de Legazpi traveled from Mexico
to the Philippines for example, it is estimated that over half of his crew
(300 out of 400 men) were Mexicans, which included creoles, mestizos,
and Mexican indios.45
Subsequent voyages to the Philippines introduced more Mexicans
to the local Filipino population. Although the exact numbers cannot be
determined, it is highly likely that thousands of Mexicans who made their
way to the Philippines deserted and blended into the local population.
In time, their historical memory and identity as Mexican was lost after
generations; thus they became Filipino. Their country of origin may have
been lost, but their cultural and linguistic remnants still exist.46 Mexicans
living in the Philippines at the time were called Guachinangos. This term
was most likely used to describe their mixed-race ancestry and social class.
In addition, there is a town called Mexico in the province of Pampanga in
the Philippines, arguably another testimony to this connection.47
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 399

The desertion and settlement of thousands of Mexicans in the Philip-

pines indeed illustrates the ways in which their connection was not unilat-
eral, but reciprocal. Filipinos migrated to Mexico in even greater numbers
than Mexicans who established permanent lives in the Philippines. Scholars
such as Edward Slack Jr. estimate that approximately 75,000 Filipinos
settled in Acapulco, San Blas, Costa Grande, and other parts of Mexico
during the galleon era.48 As the main port of entry, Acapulco, Guererro,
was the center for migration. From Acapulco, Filipinos fanned out and
made their way along el camino de China (the Chinese road) to Oaxaca,
Puebla, Michoacán, Jalisco, Puerto Vallarta, Guanajuato, Vera Cruz, and
Mexico City. They also settled in Baja and Alta California.49 They married
within the local population of Mexican indios and mestizos, blending and
escaping the confines of their life of drudgery on the galleons. The Mexican
coastal communities provided a welcoming environment familiar in its
tropical climate and people, who shared similar indigenous and mixed-
race populations as well as Spanish-influenced customs.50
I contend that cultural exchange was one of the fundamental reasons
both Mexicans and Filipinos continued to have interrelationships beyond
the Spanish colonial era and into the twenty-first century. These former
Iberian colonies shared so many elements of their culture through the
process of mestizaje that it left an imprint on each other’s lives. Con-
sciously or unconsciously, this surfaced between Mexicans and Filipinos
whenever they interacted with each other, whatever the circumstance.
Their physical appearance as dark-skinned indigenous and mixed-race
peoples with Spanish surnames and similar language benefited those that
deserted, whether it was in Mexico or the Philippines. Moreover, the rich
tapestry of their connectedness through blood, culture, religion, food,
music, language, habits, family life, traditions, and folklore strengthened
a bond that would last for generations.51 Often times we take for granted
those things that we have borrowed from others and make as our own.
The fact that both Filipinos and Mexicans borrowed and shared so many
things with each other is a topic of discussion that warrants further re-
search. What makes this connection so impressive is that it was a 250-year
process that ensured both groups would have long-lasting ties beyond a
few generations of Filipino deserters in Mexico. In fact, one scholar claims
the Filipino presence in Mexico goes back as far as fifteen generations.52
400 • JAAS • 14:3

Monuments and other remnants also evoke a Filipino presence in

Mexico. In Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, for example, stands a statue of Lorenzo
Paulo, a Filipino sailor during the nineteenth century who settled in the
area. Other areas of western Mexico that still have descendants of Filipinos
include Acapulco, the Costa Grande north of Acapulco, Coyuca (which was
once called Filipino town), and the state of Colima.53 One claim estimates
around 200,000 descendants of these Filipinos currently reside in Mexico.
Given the length of time that they have been in Mexico, all of these Filipino
descendants have been absorbed into the general population and now
culturally identify as Mexican.54 As previously mentioned, their physical
and cultural similarities also made it possible for them to be assimilated
into local Mexican communities, thus influencing how their identities
were forged. Although most of these descendents identify as Mexican, they
nonetheless recognize their Filipino ancestry and are proud to let people
know about their multiethnic identity. This connection to their Filipino
ancestors and heritage binds them to the historical tapestry of Filipino-
Mexican relations over time and geographic space.
As Filipinos became part of the local Mexican population, settling
down and forming families and kinship ties with friends, their involve-
ment in Mexico went far beyond the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. Their
activities in Mexico also went beyond economic and cultural contribu-
tions. Many Filipinos were also participants in several historical events in
Mexican history. According to Philippine historian Jaime B. Veneracion,
for example, there were several key Filipino figures involved in the revolt
against Spain led by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. These included
Ramon Fabie, a Filipino who served as lieutenant with Father Hidalgo
when he proclaimed Mexican independence from Spain on September
16, 1810. Fabie’s role in the revolt cost him his life. He was hanged with
several others for his participation in the rebellion.55 There were also two
Filipino brigade commanders under General Jose Maria Morelos whose
army came from the state of Guerrero. Under Morelos, approximately 200
Filipino-Mexicans joined the struggle against Spain and soon served under
General Vicente Guerrero.56 One can only fathom how many countless
Filipino-Mexicans participated in this event, as well as other historical
moments in Mexican history.
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 401

To add to the richness and complexity of this relationship between

Mexico and the Philippines, there were Mexican revolutionaries, such as
Fr. Hidalgo’s confidant Epigmenio Gonzalez, his brother Emeterio, and
forty others, who were exiled to the Philippines. They remained in the
Philippines until Mexico finally achieved its independence from Spain
in 1821. Given their presence in Philippines, it is likely that they shared
ideas of revolution with their Filipino counterparts who came into contact
with them while in exile and incarcerated. In addition, a revolt of criollos
(Mexican-born Spanish) occurred in the Philippines in 1822.57 Although
the revolt ended in defeat and some of the participants were either executed
or returned back to Mexico aboard the galleon Flor del Mar, it was the sign
of the times that Spain was losing its control over its overseas colonies.
Spain in turn tried to eradicate anything Mexican in the Philippines
for fear of similar ideas of revolt. Spain’s military weakness however, was
already apparent to local Filipinos. The writings of these criollo revolu-
tionaries, such as Luis Rodriguez Varela, quickly gained public attention.
In his Proclama Historial, for example, he referred to himself as “el conde
Filipino.” As noted by Jaime B. Veneracion, “perhaps for the first time, a
political statement used the term ‘Filipino’ as a national identification.”58
Indeed, for an Iberian born in Mexico to refer to himself as a Filipino
inadvertently showed the bond that these two countries had as colonies
of Spain, despite his own ethnic background as a Spaniard. The cries for
revolution in Mexico reverberated across the Pacific Ocean to its sister
colony the Philippines, where seeds of rebellion were slowly beginning to
take root. At the time, revolutionary Mexico understood the ties that it
had with the Philippines, not only economically, but also culturally and
politically. A secret Mexican government memorandum stated:
Now that we Mexicans have fortunately obtained our independence by
revolution against Spanish rule, it is our solemn duty to help the less
fortunate countries . . . especially the Philippines, with whom our country
has had the most intimate relations during the last two centuries and a
half. We should send secret agents . . . with a message to their inhabitants
to rise in revolution against Spain and that we shall give them financial
and military assistance to win their freedom. Should the Philippines
succeed in gaining her independence from Spain, we must felicitate
her warmly and from an alliance of amity and commerce with her as a
402 • JAAS • 14:3

sister nation. Moreover, we must resume the intimate Mexico-Philippine

relations, as they were during the halcyon days of the Acapulco-Manila
galleon trade.59

As this letter suggests, Mexico not only saw the importance of aid-
ing the Filipinos in revolting against Spain but also wanted to continue
its economic, social and cultural relationship. The implications of this
message were evident fifty years prior to the Katipunan and their revo-
lution against Spain. Led by General Emilio Aguinaldo, the Philippines
declared its independence and established a republic. Filipinos however,
would have to fight against the United States, which had its own imperial
ambitions and ushered in another era of colonialism after the start of the
Philippine-American War of 1898.60 Although Philippine independence
from Spain did not occur as early as desired, just the thought of the type
of relationship between the two countries is enough to evoke excitement
and pride, since both recognized each other as allies. As Bishop Antonio
Joaquin Perez of Puebla, Mexico, wrote: “Never mind. In God’s own time,
the Filipinos will rise in arms against Spain and win their independence
like our people. Then, and only then, shall we be able to resume our ties
with the Philippines.”61
Bishop Antonio Joaquin Perez’s statement illustrated the welcom-
ing possibility in resuming their relationship as independent nations.
The opportunity, however, never materialized. By 1815 the galleon trade
finally came to an end. This resulted from both increased competition
with foreign traders after the Seven Year’s War with Britain, and Mexico’s
increasing activities toward full independence from Spain, which it finally
achieved in 1821. Although Mexico and the Philippines would not have
the same sort of constant connection of people, goods, and ideas as they
once did during the heyday of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, they
did nonetheless recognize their shared history under Spanish colonial-
ism. In Acapulco, Mexico, for example, there are several museums, such
as the Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego, and the Museo
Histórico Naval de Acapulco, which have extensive information on the
Manila-Acapulco galleon trade and the influences of these countries on
each other’s history and culture.62 Scholars from both the Philippines
and Mexico have also written about this intimate connection, which has
sparked a growing interest among new generations of academics who seek
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 403

to further this line of inquiry with regards to this understudied aspect of

mestizaje in the Americas.63
Since the galleon trade, Mexicans and Filipinos have forged a continu-
ous, albeit new thread to the historical connectedness they once shared.
The Manila-Acapulco galleons of the past have now been replaced by the
ocean cruise liners of the present, which bring thousands of Filipinos to
Mexico every year as unconscious agents of this modern journey of identity
and community formations now driven by the tourist industry. Indeed,
their presence symbolizes this historical conjuncture, which manifests
itself in current migrations. These contemporary relationships are now
forged through global markets where Filipinos and Mexicans come into
contact at the local level in an exchange of goods, services, and relation-
ships. These contemporary relationships although mirroring history, are
now under a different guise: transnational tourism.

Contemporary Filipino-Mexican Relations

As a result of the long-lasting interrelationships between Mexicans and

Filipinos in areas like Acapulco, there are many documented locals who
“looked like Filipinos.”64 The enduring presence of Filipinos in Mexico
ties the historical legacy to more recent migrations. Indeed, they con-
tinue to venture to Mexico, though not as slaves, servants, or seamen per
se. Filipinos (and Filipinas) who now come to Mexico do so as workers
aboard Norwegian, Carnival, and other cruise line ships. In juxtaposing
the lives of the Filipino galleon seamen with contemporary experiences
of Filipino cruise line workers, these recent migrations are links to past
migrations, which continues to shape Filipino-Mexican interrelationships
in the twenty-first century. These vessels can be considered modern-day
galleons that bring Filipino workers in contact with the local Mexican
community in areas like Acapulco, for example, which is now a famous
tourist destination. Annually, thousands of Filipino cruise workers dock
and spend their down time in the town of Acapulco while tourists shop.
They spend their money in the local community, shopping and buying
goods for their next trip across the Pacific. They also visit local Filipino-
Mexican-owned restaurants and bars where ties have been forged through
previous contact with Mexican locals.
404 • JAAS • 14:3

Figure 1. Photo of the Lutong Pinoy, Calle Cinco de Mayo, Acapulco, Mexico.
Image provided by author, 2004.

There are even contemporary Filipino immigrants who have decided

to remain in Acapulco, working in the various restaurants as cooks, enter-
tainers, and service workers. Some even established their own businesses.
One such individual is Gavino, who owns the Lutong Pinoy (Filipino
eatery) in Acapulco.65 Along with his Mexican wife, Lore, and their staff,
they cater seasonally to the Filipino clientele who visit their restaurant for
some home-cooked Filipino delicacies after working on cruise liners for
weeks at a time. Gavino serves familiar delicacies such as lechón kawali
(crispy pan-fried roasted pork), garlic shrimp, and fried tilapia, along
with steamed rice. He even has special Filipino dishes such as sisig that
he cooks on the side for his favorite customers and friends who visit him
nightly from these ships.66 His restaurant not only offers familiar foods
but also karaoke, pool tables, and other forms of entertainment familiar
to Filipinos, as well as hotel rooms above the restaurant for patrons to
stay overnight.
I spent several nights in Acapulco listening to the stories of these
Filipino and Filipina cruise line workers.67 For many of them this was
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 405

their home away from home. They could converse freely in Tagalog with
each other and Gavino (who also speaks Spanish and English), while the
Filipino men flirted with the Mexican waitresses. In fact, several Filipinos
are involved with some of the waitresses and have children with them.68
These relationships, and the children born out of this experience, con-
tinue to forge this legacy of Filipino-Mexican relations and the shaping of
contemporary multiethnic identities. These workers, the significant others
they have in Acapulco, and those Filipinos who decide to stay in Mexico
are modern-day reminders of the relationships that were formed during
the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.
I also had the good fortune of interviewing several Filipinos and
multiethnic Mexipinos in Acapulco.69 One was Jun Lacang, who works
as a singer at a local restaurant. A Philippine citizen, he worked as an
entertainer on one of the cruise ships that docked in Acapulco. He fell
in love with a local Mexican woman whom he met through her uncle,
his former employer in California. Needless to say, as he put it, “I fell in
love with a beautiful Mexican woman, and decided not to go back to the
Philippines.”70 He has been in Acapulco for over thirty years. He often
reminisces about the Philippines but mentions that he is happy living in
Mexico. As Jun keenly noted, in the United States he faced a lot of discrimi-
nation because he was Filipino, yet in Mexico he was accepted and found
a place to call home. He has a FM2 passport, which allows him to live in
Acapulco though he cannot vote. Jun and his wife own property, and his
children, who are multiethnic Mexipinos, hold dual citizenship with the
Philippines and Mexico. Jun, like many other Filipinos before him, made
Mexico his home, where he lives a happy life.71 For many Filipino men, the
reason they stayed in Acapulco was because they fell in love with a local
Mexican woman. As with Jun, Gavino also mentioned how he worked as
a chef on a cruise ship but fell in love with a local Mexican woman and
stayed in Acapulco. He decided to establish his roots there as well, raising
his Mexipino children.72
The identities of these multiethnic Mexipinos is worth noting. The
Mexipinos I spoke with in Acapulco were proud to call themselves Filipino
even though they were culturally raised as Mexican. Such is the case of
Araceli Tellechea, a Mexipina born and raised in Acapulco, Mexico. Her
406 • JAAS • 14:3

grandfather, who was Filipino, came to Acapulco during the late 1920s,
where he worked as a fisherman. According to Araceli, her grandfather met
and fell in love with her grandmother while he was working in Acapulco.
He decided to stay and raise a family, which is now in its fourth generation.
Though they are more culturally Mexican and have no ties to the Philip-
pines, Araceli is proud to be Filipina and acknowledges her multiethnic
identity through the connection she has with her Filipino grandfather.
The way she embraces both her ancestries illustrates her identity as be-
ing both Mexican and Filipina.73 Further research into this phenomenon
in Mexico will no doubt continue to add to the complexity of this story.

Conclusion

The 250 years that Filipinos and Mexicans initially came into contact
through Spanish colonialism and their involvement in the Manila-Aca-
pulco galleon trade laid the foundation for what would become a large,
cultural, religious, agricultural, and human exchange across the Pacific.
The descendants of those Mexicans living in the Philippines, and Filipinos
living in Mexico, are the remnants of this rich history. For Mexico, this
was more evident due to the larger numbers of Filipinos who migrated
and remained. Though most of the knowledge we have about Mexican
history overlooks the contributions of Filipinos and other Asians to the
region, their legacy has been well documented and celebrated in Acapulco.74
Although Filipinos and other Asians were a part of the complex pro-
cess of mestizaje that took place throughout the Americas, their presence
has been missing from the larger historical Mexican and Chicano narrative.
Yet as historian Evelyn Hu-DeHart has noted regarding the Asian pres-
ence in the Americas, “these histories are hidden in plain view.”75 Indeed,
places like Acapulco, with its rich history through the galleon trade, have
recognized and celebrated this cultural diversity. Recent scholarship has
also begun to unearth these narratives and include the Filipino presence
in the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora to the Americas.76 Though time
has passed since the days of the galleon trade, the interconnectedness of
Mexicans and Filipinos has endured through contemporary times under
the guise of transnational tourism. Acapulco is still a haven for contem-
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 407

porary Filipinos who come to live among a people who are very similar
to their own. Moreover, individuals like Araceli, as well as the children of
Gavino, Jun, and other Filipinos who married or had relationships with
local Mexican women, are contemporary examples of this legacy. Filipinos
and Mexicans continue to have relationships and marry in Mexico, as well
as in the United States, another area where a growing multiethnic Mexipino
population is occurring. These stories illustrate a historical phenomenon
that has spanned time and place to create a multicultural experience that
is deeply Mexican yet also Filipino.

Notes
I would like to thank Marivel Danielson, Seline Szkupinski-Quiroga, Kelly
F. Jackson, and Django Paris for providing comments on earlier versions of
this essay. Many thanks as well to Evelyn Hu-DeHart and Edward R. Slack
Jr., who also provided insightful comments and additional sources to include
in later versions of this essay, which I am grateful for. All errors remain my
own.
1. Evelyn I. Rodriguez, “Primerang Bituin: Philippines-Mexico Relations at the
Dawn of the Pacific Rim Century,” Asia Pacific Perspectives 6, no. 1 (May
2006): 4.
2. The author would like to thank David Galbiso for his invaluable assistance in
gathering information for this article. He helped track down my interviewees
and assisted during the interview process. For more on Mexipino identity,
see Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., “Burritos and Bagoong: Mexipinos and Multiethnic
Identity in San Diego, California,” in Crossing Lines: Race and Mixed Race
Across the Geohistorical Divide, ed. Marc Coronado, Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., Jef-
frey Moniz, and Laura Furlan Szanto (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Alta Mira Press,
2005), 73–96.
3. Mexicans refer to those who have Asian features as looking “chino,” or “chinito”
(Chinese), a generic label that collectively includes Filipinos and other Asian
ethnic groups.
4. The name for this was often referred to as the Manila, Acapulco, or Manila-
Acapulco galleon trade, depending on who was writing about it and what
direction the ships were heading. For the purpose of this essay, I use the term
“Manila-Acapulco galleon trade” to highlight the connectedness of these
two locations in Spain’s global trading. See William Lytle Schurz, “Mexico,
Peru, and the Manila Galleon,” Hispanic American Historical Review 1, no.
4 (November 1918): 389–402; Miguel Ángel Fernández, The China Galleon
(Monterrey, Mexico: Grupo Vitro, 1998); William Lytle Schurz, The Manila
Galleon: The Romantic History of the Spanish Galleons Trading Between Manila
and Acapulco (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1959).
408 • JAAS • 14:3

5. See Schurz, Manila Galleon; Juan Crespí, A Description of Distant Roads:

Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769–1770, trans.
Alan K. Brown (San Diego, Calif.: San Diego State University Press, 2001),
21.
6. Mexico at the time of Spanish control was called Nueva España, or New
Spain. From this point on I will refer to New Spain as Mexico, in order to
distinguish my point about the interrelationships being between Mexico and
the Philippines.
7. Edward R. Slack Jr., “The Chinos in New Spain: A Corrective Lens for a Dis-
torted Image,” Journal of World History 20, no. 1 (2009): 37.
8. For a more detailed description of the goods that were shipped, see Eugene
Lyon, “Track of the Manila Galleons,” National Geographic, September 1990,
7–16; Schurz, Manila Galleon, 32–33, 49–50, 70, 73–74, 115; and Stanley J.
Stein, “Tending the Store: Trade and Silver at the Real de Huautla, 1778–1781,”
Hispanic American Historical Review 77, no. 3 (August 1997): 378.
9. Museum Exhibit Display Information, “Contributions of New Spain to the
Philippines,” Museo Histórico de Acapulco Fuerte de San Diego, Acapulco,
Mexico. All subsequent references to the museum’s exhibit displays will be
referred to as MEDI.
10. In addition to shipbuilding in Cavite, galleons were constructed in Panga-
sinan, Albay, Mindoro, Marinduque, and Iloilo. Cavite, however, remained
the main shipyard where hundreds of Filipino indios and mestizos, and
Chinese, constructed these vessels. With regard to galleons being constructed
in Mexico, Gaspar Molina, a Filipino sailor, provides such an example. Span-
ish officials commissioned Molina to construct two galleons, Nuestra Señora
de la Concepción (1761) and Nuestra Señora de Loreto (1768) in Loreto. See
MEDI, “Construction of Galleons,” Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de
San Diego, Acapulco; Lyons, “Track of the Manila Galleons,” 30–31; Museo
Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego, Guía Turística y Cultural de
Mexico 5, no. 27 (n.d.): 18; Floro L. Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos
Thriving in Mexico,” Philippine News, June 21–27, 2000, A15; Harry W.
Crosby, Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier,
1697–1768 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994), 347; and
Fernández, China Galleon, 45.
11. Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A15; Schurz, Manila Galleon, 197;
Lorraine Jacobs Crouchett, Filipinos in California: From the Days of the Gal-
leons to the Present (Cerritos, Calif.: Downey Place Publishing House, 1982),
7–9; Teodoro A. Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed. (Quezon
City: Garotech Publishing, 1990), 83–87.
12. “Indio” was a term used by the Spanish to refer to those who were indigenous
to the Americas, the Philippine Islands, and other areas where they encoun-
tered native peoples.
13. Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 39.
14. Schurz, Manila Galleon, 196; Fernandez, China Galleon, 46.
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 409

15. Schurz, Manila Galleon, 33.

16. A brief definition of terms must be discussed for the purpose of this article.
According to Edward R. Slack Jr., “chino” identity was used to collectively
identify persons who came from Asia, including the Philippines. It is a
complex, dynamic term that is “chronically and geographically determined.”
Thus it depended on the context and when it was used since it changed
over time. The Spanish also referred to the Chinese as Sangleys, which was
a distinctive term specifically for them. To be mestizo de Sangley meant one
was a Chinese mestizo, or Chinese-native Filipino. The term “indios chinos”
(Chinese Indians) was a subgroup, which meant native Filipinos. Most ref-
erences to “indios” in Spanish records regarding the Philippines generally
referred to native Filipinos. Where they were from would also be included
at times to distinguish Filipinos from a particular area. For example, native
Filipinos from the island of Luzon were called “indios Luzones.” The term
“Filipino” was initially reserved for Spanish born in the Philippine Islands
until the nineteenth century. For the purpose of this article, I will use the
terms “Filipino indios” and “Filipinos” interchangeably to describe native
Filipinos. For more on these terms, see Edward R. Slack Jr., “Sinifying New
Spain: Cathay’s Influence on Colonial Mexico via the Nao de China,” Journal of
Chinese Overseas 5 (2009): 5–8; Slack, “Chinos of New Spain,” 35–67; Gonzalo
Aguirre Beltran, “The Slave Trade in Mexico,” Hispanic American Historical
Review 24, no. 3 (August 1944): 419–421; Schurz, Manila Galleon, 63, 210;
Crouchett, Filipinos in California, 6; Alex Fabros Jr., email correspondence
with author, December 9, 2002; Edward Slack Jr., email correspondence with
author, January 3–4, 2011; Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A14; Alex
Fabros Jr., “Were We Here Before the Mayflower?” Filipinas (October 1995):
32; Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 74–76; and Antonio S. Tan, “The
Chinese Mestizos and the Formation of the Filipino Nationality,” Asian Center
Occasional Papers Series II, No. 2 (Quezon City: University of the Philippines,
1984).
17. Alex Fabros Jr., email correspondence with author, December 9, 2002; Fernán-
dez, China Galleon, 32; Fabros, “Were We Here Before the Mayflower?” 32;
Stannard, American Holocaust, 77–87; Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperial-
ism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1986), 200; Alfred W. Crosby Jr., The Columbian Exchange:
Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 1972), 35–63; Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Hu-
man Societies (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 355; Beltran, “Slave Trade in
Mexico,” 420–421; Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 41–42; and Slack, “Sinifying
New Spain,” 9–10.
18. Not much is known about the whereabouts of these Filipino indio women
after they were abandoned in Acapulco. One can only conclude that they
also assimilated into the local Mexican indio and mestizo communities. See
Schurz, Manila Galleon, 272.
410 • JAAS • 14:3

19. Schurz, Manila Galleon, 210.

20. Ibid., 211.
21. Ibid., 212.
22. Ibid.
23. Governor Corcuera noted this abuse in 1636, when he stated that “they have
not been paid in one, two, three, or even ten and fifteen years.” See Schurz,
Manila Galleon, 211–212; and Fabros, “Were We Here Before the Mayflower?”
32.
24. Edward Slack Jr., email correspondence with author, January 3, 2011.
25. Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 39–40.
26. Africans were also a part of Mexico’s multiracial society. See Beltran, “Slave
Trade in Mexico,” 412–431; Herman L. Bennett, Africans in Colonial Mexico:
Absolutism, Christianity, and Afro-Creole Consciousness, 1570–1640 (Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 2003), 1–2, 14–32; Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán,
La Población Negra de México, 1519–1810: Estudio Ethnohistórico (México:
Ediciones Fuente Cultural, 1946); Patrick J. Carroll, Blacks in Colonial Vera
Cruz: Race, Ethnicity, and Regional Development (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1991); C. E. Marshall, “The Birth of the Mestizo in New Spain,” Hispanic
American Historical Review 19, no. 2 (May 1939): 172–173. The problem of
desertion was so bad that some galleons at Acapulco did not have a crew for
the return trip to Manila. Such was the case of the Espíritu Santo, which lost
practically all of its Filipino indio workers. William Lytle Schurz states that
seventy-four of the seventy-five Filipino seamen deserted; however, Henry
J. Bruman provides evidence that seventy out of seventy-five deserted the
galleon Espíritu Santo. Bruman relied on a Spanish report written by Sebas-
tián de Pineda in 1619, which was translated and included in Emma Helen
Blair and James A. Robertson, eds., The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, 55
vols. (Cleveland, 1903–1909), 18:184–185. All accounts document that the
majority of the galleon crew deserted. See Schurz, Manila Galleon, 211; Henry
J. Bruman, “Early Coconut Culture in Western Mexico,” Hispanic American
Historical Review 25, no. 2 (May 1945): 216.
27. See Bruman, “Early Coconut Culture,” 212–215; and Mercene, “15 Genera-
tions of Filipinoso,” A14.
28. Bruman, “Early Coconut Culture,” 215. See also Henry J. Bruman, Alcohol in
Ancient Mexico (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2000).
29. Bruman, “Early Coconut Culture,” 215–216.
30. For more on the process of making tuba wine, see Ramon Almario Jr., “Back-
yard Winery: Sobering Thoughts on a Potent Brew,” in Filipino Heritage:
The Making of a Nation (Manila: Lahing Pilipino Publishing, 1977–1978),
3:640–644; Bruman, “Early Coconut Culture,” 215–219; and Slack, “Chinos
in New Spain, 41.
31. The word “palapa” is derived form the Javanese word “kelapa,” which means
coconut. For more on the introduction of the nipa palm, see Agoncillo, His-
tory of the Filipino People, 87; and “Philippines-Mexican Connection,” http://
www.bughaw.com/?p=84.
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 411

32. Ceviche is fish or shrimp that is chopped up and cooked by marinating it in the
acid of citrus fruits, such as lemons or limes. It is usually mixed with onions,
tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado, depending on the recipe. Filipinos have a
similar dish, kilawin. The process of making this Filipino dish was taught
to Mexican locals, since they previously did not have citrus fruits until the
galleon trade. See MEDI, “Contributions of New Spain to the Philippines”;
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, “The Man Who Would Have Been L.A.’s First
Filipino,” in Philippine Woman in America (Quezon City, Philippines: New
Day, 1991), 56; Eduardo Quisumbing, “Herbolario Drugstore: Medicinal
Plants Can Be Useful to Modern Doctors,” in Filipino Heritage, 3:692–693;
Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A14; Agoncillo, History of the Filipino
People, 86–87; and Carlos Quirino, “The Mexican Connection: The Cultural
Cargo of the Manila-Acapulco Galleons,” (source unknown), 933–934, Manila
Galleons File, Filipino American National Historical Society, National Pinoy
Archives, Seattle, Wash. All subsequent citations will be referred to as FANHS
NPA.
33. MEDI, “Crossbreeding or Mestizaje,” Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte
de San Diego, Acapulco; Amalia R. Mamaed, “Distant Cousins,” Hispanic
(January/February 1994): 30–32.
34. For more on the concepts of compadrazgo and compadrinazgo, see Robert
R. Alvarez Jr., Familia: Migration and Adaptation in Baja and Alta California
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987); and Donn V. Hart, Com-
padrinazgo: Ritual Kinship in the Philippines (De Kalb: Northern Illinois
University Press, 1977).
35. Gilda Cordero-Fernando, “There’s a Spaniard in My Soup,” in Filipino Heri-
tage, 5:1152–1153; Mamaed, “Distant Cousins,” 33; Agoncillo, History of the
Filipino People, 87. Nahuatl words were verified by using Frances Karttunen,
An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1983).
36. MEDI, “Crossbreeding or Mestizaje,” and “Influences,” Museo Histórico de
Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego, Acapulco; Brainard, “L.A.’s First Filipino,” 56;
Cordero-Fernando, “There’s a Spaniard in My Soup,” 1153; Quirino, “Mexican
Connection,” 932.
37. According to writer Gutierre Tibon, a lot of Spanish surnames are actually
Mexican in origin, from the Nahuatl language. Some of these include Ayate,
Apan, Zacate, and Mecate, among others. See Gutierre Tibon, Diccionario
Etimólogica Comparado De Los Apellidos Españoles, Hispanos Americanos, y
Filipinos (México: Editorial Diana, 1988), xii–xiii.
38. MEDI, “Religious Life,” Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego,
Acapulco; Quirino, “Mexican Connection,” 934.
39. MEDI, “Religious Life”; Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 86; John
W. Burton, “Myths Shared with Mexico,” in Filipino Heritage, 5:1276–1283;
Mamaed, “Distant Cousins,” 30.
40. Mamaed, “Distant Cousins,” 32.
412 • JAAS • 14:3

41. “Las Posadas” is the Spanish word for “inn” or “shelter.” Both Mexican and
Filipino Catholics traditionally celebrate the event. It is the reenactment of
Joseph and Mary’s flight from Nazareth and their search for shelter in Beth-
lehem. This tradition was brought to the Philippines, where it is celebrated
as Simbang Gabi. Mexican and Filipino Catholics also traditionally celebrate
Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, then go home to open presents. For more
on this, see Praveena Raman, “Las Posadas: A Latino Christmas Celebration,”
Tri-City Voice Online, December 22, 2005, http://www.tricityvoice.com/ar-
ticledisplay.php?a=1116. Dia de los Muertos, as it is known in Mexico, is called
Araw ng mga Patay in the Philippines. Known also as the “Day of the Dead,”
it is a celebration honoring loved ones who have died. The celebration has its
origins in Mexico, were indigenous groups such as the Aztecs were practicing
it for at least 3,000 years. Although the Spanish tried to eradicate this practice,
they were unsuccessful. Instead, the celebration took on a sort of fusion of
both Aztec cultural and Spanish Catholic elements. Spanish clergy moved it
to November, so it would coincide with the Catholic celebration of All Saints
Day. This celebration traveled across the Pacific during the sixteenth century,
making its way into the religious lives of newly converted Filipino Catholics,
where it is still celebrated. See Carlos Miller, “Indigenous People Wouldn’t
Let ‘Day of the Dead’ Die,” Arizona Republic Online, October 5, 2005, http://
www.azcentral/ent/dead/history/; and Friar Frank Wintz, O.F.M., “All Saints
Day in the Philippines Festive Celebrations Amid the Tombs,” American
Catholic.org, http://www.americancatholic.org/e-News/FriarJack/fj102805.
asp. For more on the maize festival in Mexico and the lutrina festival in the
Philippines, see Jaime B. Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” Filipinas (July
1997): 20.
42. See Evelyn Ibatan Rodriguez, Comparing Filipina Debuts and Mexican
Quinceañeras, Mexican-Filipino American File, FANHS NPA. For more on
the camisa guayabera and barong Tagalog, see Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow
Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora (New York: Kodansha Globe,
1994), 160; Jean Baptiste Mallat, The Philippines: History, Geography, Customs,
Agriculture, Industry and Commerce of the Spanish Colonies in Oceania, trans.
Pura Santillan-Castrence and Lisa S. Castrence (Manila: National Historical
Institute, 1983); Floro L. Mercene, Manila Men in the New World: Filipino
Migration to Mexico and the Americas from the Sixteenth Century (Quezon
City: University of the Philippines Press, 2007), 123–127; Quirino, “Mexican
Connection,” 934; Mamaed, “Distant Cousins,” 32; and Marcelino A. Foronda
Jr., “Vigan: A Study of Mexican Cultural Influences in the Philippines,” Journal
of Social History (Manila) 21, nos. 1–2 (January–December 1976): 1–12.
43. An example that novelist Cecilia Manguerra Brainard mentions are Cebuanos
who were sent to Mexico in 1565, and a group of 300 Mexicans who arrived in
Cebu in 1567. See Brainard, “L.A.’s First Filipino,” 55; and Quirino, “Mexican
Connection,” 933.
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 413

44. Although the Chinese and other Asians as well as Africans were a part of this
mestizaje collectively, for the purpose of this article I focus on Filipinos and
Mexicans. See MEDI, “Crossbreeding or Mestizaje,” and “Philippine Culture,”
Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego, Acapulco. For more on
the term and process of mestizaje, see Arnoldo Carlos Vento, Mestizo: The
History, Culture, and Politics of the Mexican and Chicano (New York: University
Press of America, 1998); Suzanne Bost, Mulattas and Mestizas: Representing
Mixed Identities in the Americas, 1850–2000 (Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 2003); Marshall, “Birth of the Mestizo,” 161–184; and Gloria Anzaldúa,
Borlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books,
1987).
45. Schurz, Manila Galleon, 22; Carlos Quirino, “Mexican Connection,” 933–934.
46. Given that most of the Filipino indio crews usually deserted upon landing
in Acapulco, on the return voyages to the Philippines, Mexican indios and
mestizos comprised the bulk of the crew back to Manila. If their treatment
was similar to what Filipino indios endured, it is likely that they, too, jumped
ship when they landed in Manila and were absorbed into the local Filipino
populations. See MEDI, “Contributions of New Spain to the Philippines,” and
“Crossbreeding or Mestizaje”; Quirino, “Mexican Connection,” 933; Brainard,
“L.A.’s First Filipino,” 55–56; Greg B. Macabenta, “The Global Pinoy: The Ma-
nila-Acapulco Connection,” Manila Times Online, December 7, 2005, http://
www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/dec/07/yehey/opinion/20051207opi2.
html.
47. In her article, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard lists Cebuanos being sent from the
Philippines to Mexico under Fray Urdaneta’s expedition back to Acapulco in
1565. Mexicans were also sent to the Philippines from Mexico, including 300
in 1567 and another 200 in 1570. Although Brainard claims the term “Guachi-
nango” means “one who dwells in the forests and jungles,” the word in fact is
used to describe the red snapper fish. Given that Mexicans in the Philippines
were soldiers of Indian and/or mixed-race ancestry, the term may have been
used to describe their character as someone from the lower social classes in
the Philippines. These Mexicans were eventually assimilated into Philippine
society by the nineteenth century. See Brainard, “L.A.’s First Filipino,” 55–56;
Mercene, Manila Men in the New World, 134; and “guachinango,” Oxford
Spanish Dictionary (2005), http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.
asp?spen=guachinango. Some of the descendents from Mexico, Pampanga
in the Philippines, include both Filipinos and Filipino Americans, who have
an organization called Circulo Mexicano in the Bay Area of California. See
Danny Galang, “Circulo Mexicano’s Twin Events,” Philippine News, February
26–March 3, 1997, 15, Circulo Mexicano File, FANHS NPA.
48. Although Floro Mercene claims that 60,000 Filipinos deserted and remained
in Mexico, Edward R. Slack Jr. notes that 75,000 is a more reliable estimate
given the fact that 75 percent of all chinos were actually Filipino indios. This
number is also based on the number of ships (not just galleons) that made
414 • JAAS • 14:3

the journey from the Philippines to Mexico and the numbers of total Asian
immigrants who came to Acapulco, which Slack notes: “(100,000) would be
within the bounds of probability.” See Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,”
A1; Edward Slack Jr., email correspondence with author, January 3, 2011;
Edward Slack Jr., “Orientalizing New Spain: Perspectives on Asian Influence
in Colonial Mexico,” APMA symposium series paper (provided courtesy of
Edward R. Slack Jr.), 2, 6; and Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 37.
49. El camino de Chino (the Chinese road or path) included what Edward R.
Slack Jr. called “the arteries” that connected Acapulco to these other sites in
Mexico. Given the geographical disbursement of Filipinos, they most likely
took this path along with other Chinese and Asian deserters and settlers. See
Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 37–38; and Mercene, Manila Men in the New
World, 81–90.
50. Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” 20.
51. MEDI, “Philippine Culture,” and “Crossbreeding or Mestizaje.”
52. See Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A1, A14
53. Araceli Tellechea, interview by author, Acapulco, Mexico, November 11, 2004.
54. Floro Mercene quotes Mexican scholar Ricardo Pinzon on this estimate. See
Floro L. Mercene, “Central America: Filipinos in Mexican History,” Ezilon
Infobase, January 28, 2005, http://www.elizon.com/information/printer_476.
html; Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A1, A14; and Veneracion,
“Mexican Footprints,” 20.
55. Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” 21.
56. According to Ricardo Pinzon, these two Filipino soldiers—Francisco Mongoy
and Isidoro Montes de Oca—were so distinguished in battle that they are
regarded as folk heroes in Mexico. General Vicente Guerrero later became the
first president of Mexico of African decent. See Floro L. Mercene, “Central
America: Filipinos in Mexican History,” Ezilon Infobase, January 28, 2005,
http://www.elizon.com/information/printer_476.html.
57. Brainard, “L.A.’s First Filipino,” 55; Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” 21.
58. Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” 21–22; Cordero-Fernando, “There’s a
Spaniard in My Soup,” 1153.
59. Veneracion, “Mexican Footprints,” 22.
60. For more on the Katipunan and the Philippine-American War, see Agoncillo,
History of the Filipino People, 149–212; Federal Research Division, Philippines:
A Country Study (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress, 1991), 20–21;
and Paul A. Kramer, The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States
and the Philippines (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006).
61. Federal Research Division, Philippines, 22.
62. In November 2004, I visited both museums while conducting research for
my dissertation. The Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego, was
the old Spanish fort that once guarded the inner harbor of Acapulco and
the sailing galleons from pirates. It has since been renovated into a museum
with numerous artifacts and a wealth of historical information and publi-
 Filipinos in Nueva España • guevarra • 415

cations on the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. The Museo Histórico Naval

de Acapulco is the Naval Museum of Acapulco, which also has extensive
historical information, maps, and artifacts on the galleons. For more on the
museums, see Departmento de Servicios Educativos, “Acapulco,” Acatl Car-
rizo (Acapulco, Mexico: Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego,
Agosto-Septiembre, 1997), 7; Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San
Diego, Guía Turística y Cultural de Mexico 5, no. 27 (n.d.): 10–11; and Lyon,
“Track of the Manila Galleons,” 28.
63. See Adolfo Gómez Amador, “La Influencia Filipina en la Arquitectura del
Occidente Mexicano (Primera Parte),” Revista Filipina 4, no. 2 (Otoño 2000):
1–5; Mercene, Manila Men in the New World; and Veneracion, “Mexican
Footprints,” 20.
64. Mercene, “15 Generations of Filipinos,” A14. These were also similar things I
noticed among the locals when I visited Acapulco, Mexico, to conduct research
on this project in November 2004.
65. During our conversation, Gavino requested that his full name not be printed.
Personal interview notes, November 10, 2004.
66. Sisig is a spicy and fatty pork dish.
67. I was in Acapulco in November 2004 with another Mexipino friend, David
Galbiso, who introduced me to Gavino.
68. This was revealed to me by some of the waitresses during my stay with my
hosts at the Lutong Pinoy. Personal field notes, Acapulco, Mexico, November
10, 2004.
69. Although my interviewees did not identify as Mexipino, I use this term as
a means to interpret their understanding of being multiethnic Mexican-
Filipino.
70. Jun Lacang, interview by author, Acapulco, Mexico, November 12, 2004.
71. Ibid.
72. I did not find any instances of Filipinas forming relationships with Mexican
men and staying in Mexico. This is not to say it did not occur. More research
is needed in this area to fully document the gender dynamics of these rela-
tionships.
73. Araceli Tellechea, interview by author, Acapulco, Mexico, November 11, 2004.
74. While in Acapulco, I had the opportunity to speak with Conrado Palomino,
the administrator of the Museo Histórico de Acapulco, Fuerte de San Diego,
who informed me of the relationship that Acapulco still has with the Phil-
ippines. In the past, Philippine officials visited the museum to partake in
celebrations honoring the Filipino presence and contributions to the region.
For example, Philippine president Fidel Ramos visited the museum during
the late 1990s, where he donated a replica of a galleon ship to be displayed.
Gavino also informed me of this particular event where he was invited to
cook for President Ramos. Personal interview notes, November 2004.
75. This quote was borrowed from Evelyn Hu-DeHart’s presentation at the
“Unruly Crossings” plenary at the Association for Asian American Studies
conference in Austin, Texas, in April of 2010.
416 • JAAS • 14:3

76. For more on recent scholarship documenting the Filipino presence in Mexico,
see Slack, “Sinifying New Spain,” 5–27; Slack, “Chinos in New Spain,” 35–67;
and Mercene, Manila Men in the New World.