Of chupaculos and other Zambo mambos
As I got off the plane at the Zamboanga International Airport, the warm humid tropical breeze made my shirt cling to my skin like a plastic wrap, giving a letdown feeling that I’ve never left Manila. But as I walked to the multi-pointed gabled roof terminal and saw the huge welcome signs “Bienvenidos a todos,” I felt I’d arrived in some Latin American country. And, stepping inside the terminal, this suspicion was confirmed, hearing a somewhat confusing Babel of tongues. At first I thought it was Spanish, only to realize it was a gibberish patois that is neither Spanish nor any other Philippine language. But what is amazing is that the native speakers look no different from the rest of us. They speak Chavacano — the spoken dialect of Zamboanga City and its environs. Though I had been here before some 20 years ago as a houseguest of then Mayor Maria Clara Lorenzo Lobregat, nothing had prepared me for this second visit.
Chavacano developed when the Spanish colonizers had to bring in skilled workers from various parts of the country. Caviteños from Luzon (who had their own kind of Chavacano), Cebuanos and Ilonggos from Visayas and even from Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte worked side by side with the native Subanons and Samals. They absorbed the Spanish language into their respective vocabularies and diverse dialects to form what is now known as Zamboanga Chavacano. 
Jutting out like a gnarled ginger off the northwestern end of Mindanao, Zamboanga City is one of the oldest cities in the country that still exudes its Hispanic character. It’s also the Philippines’ third largest city in terms of land area, sixth in terms of population, and one of several cities that is independent of any province. It had different names to describe the place throughout its long history — “El Orgullo de Mindanao” (The Pride of Mindanao), “City of Flowers,” “Zamboanga Hermosa” (Beautiful Zamboanga), and presently it’s marketed by the current city government as “Asia’s Latin City.”
Waves of migrants settled in the city. There were the Subanons or river people who called the place “Jambangan” or Land of the Flowers. Later on, the Samals and the Badjaos came on their vinta, frail but fast boats, building their huts along the shorelines. They confused “Jambangan” with “Samboangan” which comes from sabuan, their word for the wooden pole used to push the vinta in shallow waters. As early as the 13th and 14th centuries, the future city was the center of barter trading among Chinese, Malays and the native Subanons, Tausugs, Samals, and the Badjaos. 
It was in 1569 when the Spanish flag was first flown off Caldera Bay. Many years after, Fort Zamboanga was built and it still stands, a tribute to Jesuit priest and engineer Melchor de Vera, who built the meter-thick walls to ward off pirates and slave raiders. The Fort was renamed Fort Pilar because it’s now a shrine to its patron, La Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza. In 1635, the city changed its name from Samboangan to “Zamboanga” (because the Spanish found it difficult to pronounce the former name) and so the year is considered the city’s founding as well.
Perhaps the best example of cultural diversity is in the cooking. People respect each other’s differences giving the city its unique character with the ease by which Christians and Muslims have accepted each other’s kind of food. Spanish dishes have been preserved through the centuries though given a Zamboanga twist.
It was my good fortune to have a cousin, Agnes Tayag, who has been living in Zamboanga City some 20 years and who speaks Chavacano like a native. She’s married to Sonny San Luis, a fifth-generation Zamboangueño with Samal roots, who admits that his wife now knows more about the city and what it offers. Together with another transplanted restaurateur, Ricky Manzano, they led me on a whirlwind historical and gastronomic tour of the city, including exploring the Aderes Flea Market at Guiwan. The indigenous cooking as well as restaurants that offer both trendy and traditional menus, plus specialty shops with their rich and unique offerings, make dining out in Zamboanga City a real culinary adventure where one can be moved to say “bien sabroso!” (Delicious!)
