Travels of the Filipino

In the Filipiana Book Guild edition of Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines, by Robert MacMicking, Morton J. Netzorg writes in a footnote: “The Manila men were known worldwide as highly capable crewmen aboard merchant vessels. Scattered references to them are found in memoirs of Australian venturers. A small Filipino population was settled in Africa by the 1860s.” Further according to MacMicking, Filipino sailors were preferred to British and Scottish sailors because of their relatively high level of education. Blair and Robertson say that of the Filipinos serving on the galleon trade, many did not return. This illustrates that the Philippine diaspora was not a 20^th century affair, but has been on-going for centuries. It remains an understudied aspect of Philippine cultural and social history.

Last December we wrote about some of the cultural and religious influences Mexico had on the Philippines, especially during Christmas. The reverse is also true. Filipinos, historically, were an influential force in Mexico. A gentleman by the name of Floro L. Mercene — a journalist with whom we are well-acquainted — published a book in 2007 called Manila Men in the New World. It is an interesting study of what our Filipino sailors and travelers brought with them to the rest of the world.

Dr. Beniting Legarda in  After the Galleons wrote “. . . thousands of Filipinos settled in Mexico (as did thousands of Mexicans in the Philippines) and in the costa chica and costa grande of the state of Guerrero…one can see marked Malay features in much of the population as well as Philippine words, family names, and customs such as the manner of cooking rice.”  In Mexico, the Filipinos frequently inter-married with Africans and their descendents. According to Floro, these marriages produced a number of important individuals: “Among the notable Mexicans of African-Filipino heritage are Juan Alvarez, Lazaro Cardenas…Vicente Guerrero . . . Venustiano Carranza . . . [who] became president of Mexico.” It appears that many Filipinos settled in Guerrero, numbering close to two hundred thousand descendants today.

In Guerrero, and other parts of Mexico, there are strong indications of Philippine influence. For example, in the Acapulco area, some of the buildings and homes are based on the bahay kubo. Among the gastronomic influences is the making of tuba (called tuba fresca in Mexico). Back in 1618, seventy-four Filipino crew members of the galleon Espiritu Santo abandoned ship and stayed in Mexico. They taught the local Indians how to make tuba from coconut trees. It, “…became such a preferred drink among Mexicans that imports . . . from Spain began to suffer in comparison.” (Floro Mercene). Coconut trees and the bolo are another. A good indication that the coconut tree originated here is that in Mexico they call a beach house palapa (the Filipino word leaves of a coconut tree).

There are three other notable items that some have argued came from the Philippines. The first is ceviche, which some food historians have said is based on kilawin. The second is cockfighting. Pigafetta describes cockfighting in the Philippines, before it appeared in Mexico. The third potential item is the guayaberra, which may be based on the barong tagalong with a few twists (for example four pockets). According to Floro Mercene: “Proof of its provenance . . . is that in southern Mexico, the barong is known as Filipinas.”

As a colonial state of two nations we frequently study what was transplanted to our country. But, it appears that Filipino travelers, as early as the 16th century were bringing pieces of our country to the rest of the world.