Who were the first Filipinos? Who would have thought this simple question would be more difficult to answer than the final question in this year’s Ms. World competition. š
For the greater part of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, āFilipinosā was a term used to refer mainly to Spaniards born in the Philippines. They were also known as creole or insulares.
A 1976 dissertation by Riego de Dios mentions that the word creole is from the Portugese crioulo which originally meant āa white man of European descent, born and raised in a tropical or semi tropical colony.ā
People of the Philippines
Aside from the creole, there were other inhabitants of the Philippines that were defined by their racial origins and heritage. The native inhabitants were called Indios while the Spaniards who came from Spain were known as peninsulares. Intermarriages between these two classes gave birth to the Spanish mestizo. The Chinese merchants who also settled in the Philippines and intermarried gave us the mestizo sangley or the Chinese mestizo.
So when exactly did the Filipino identity as we know it now emerge from this rich mix of races and cultures?
The Rise of the Filipino
When the Spaniards first came to the Philippine islands in the 1500s, there was no central governing body binding the islands. The loyalties of the native inhabitants were to their respective tribes and chieftains. Lapu-lapu of Mactan, Humabon of Cebu, Sulayman of Manila, Amarlahagi of Laguna and Bankaw of Limasawa were examples of local leaders who, in their own times and regions, maintained identities independent of their neighbors.
Even when provinces were already awakening to the fire of the revolution in the late 1800s, regionalism was still at play. In his book, A Question of Heroes, Nick Joaquin reveals, how after having been provoked, the CaviteƱo revolutionaries, who distinctly referred to themselves as the revolutionaries of Cavite to the implied exclusion of others, banded together and shut out the ManileƱo supremo Andres Bonifacio in favor of their own on the question of leadership.
Later, during the war with the Americans, clan and regional loyalties would lead to the fall of the Ilokano general Antonio Luna whose subordinate officers refused to obey him and professed loyalty only to their fellow CaviteƱo Aguinaldo. The BulakeƱos meanwhile gravitated towards General Gregorio Del Pilar and only became loyal to Aguinaldo and the continuing revolutionary efforts because their general was Aguinaldoās favorite.
In effect, history shows our ancestors were divided and alternately fighting both foreign invaders and each other.
It is perhaps appropriate to say that the evolution of the concept of the Filipino was gradual and at times painful. Historian Teodoro A. Agoncillo
One of the more recent history writers Luis H. Francia
The First Filipino
Nick Joaquinās book tells the story of creole Luis Rodriquez Varela, a propagandist involved in local politics who sought equality with the peninsulares. In 1790, he began calling himself Conde Filipino, thereby going on record as one of the earliest to identify himself as Filipino.
Joaquin also mentions how, in 1898, in Singapore, four exiles, Chinese mestizo Emilio Aguinaldo, Spanish mestizo Isidro De Santos, Creole Jose Leiba and Tagalog Gregorio Del Pilar, came together to meet with American Consul General E. Spencer Pratt to discuss the Spanish-American war. Their apparent representation of four different racial groups seemed to indicate that finally, the concept of the Filipino identity was transcending racial differences.
Diplomat Leon Ma. Guerrero refers in his book to Rizal as The First Filipino. There is no decree set in stone giving Rizal that distinction, but Guerrero maintains that Rizal deserves the title because he was the first to desire to unite the archipelago and āenvisioned a compact and homogenous society of all the old tribal communities.ā Historian Ambeth R. Ocampo echoes a similar thought, observing that Rizal called his native countrymen Filipinos even at a time when the term was yet used mostly for creoles.
Bones of Contention
As with many bold claims in history, the proposition that the first Filipinos did not include the native born has been contested. In an article published in Liwayway in 2012, Jon E. Royeca contends that as early as the 1600s, Indios were already called Filipinos as attested to by original Spanish books and reports.
Royeca cites in particular RelaciĆ³n de las Islas Filipinas by Jesuit Pedro Chirino in which he refers to the native born as Filipinos at least twelve times in his book. Royeca adds that other writers, namely Francisco Colin in 1663 and Juan Francisco de San Antonio in 1738 have also used the term in the same vein in their works.
In social media, Royeca clarified that it was Renato Constantino who proposed in the 1960s the idea that it was the Philippine born Spaniards who were the original Filipinos. Historian Agoncillo echoed the same concept which has since entrenched itself in some academic circles and which other historians have begun to repeat in their own works.
In My Humble Opinion
If the only question was the time when the term Filipino was first used and to whom it first referred to, Royeca presents a strong argument and may very well be in the right. His revelation however, has succeeded in opening a variety of other questions and counter arguments. For example:
- Did Chirinoās work, and the work of succeeding writers who came after him, reflect the norm in their time? Did most Spaniards at the time, especially those who called the shots, accept natives as Filipinos too?
- Were the native born consistently and pervasively called Filipinos in the course of Spanish occupation?
- Was there any widespread value or meaning to the native born to be called Filipinos?
- Was being called a Filipino politically, economically, culturally or socially meaningful to the native population at the early years of occupation?
- Did the natives themselves accept, appreciate and value this collective label?
I have not read of anyone presenting an official decree or law in the early decades of Spanish occupation that limited the use of the term Filipino to a group of people. Hence, in my opinion, both natives and Philippine born Spaniards could technically be called Filipinos and as the original Spanish documents show, some Spaniards have called Indios Filipinos.
It is worth noting however that at first, none of the native born had the desire to be called Filipinos. There was no national consciousness that drove an archipelago, or at least most of it, to demand for a common identity. Loyalties were not to a nation but to tribes, clans, chieftains and regions. Moreover, the Spaniards seem to have preferred to call the native born Indios. Hence, although there was no law governing the use of the term, it’s possible that in the early centuries, the term Indio was more popularly used by the Spaniards for the native born and the term Filipino was the more popular term for the creole or insulares.
It was only in the 1890s, leading up to the Malolos Republic, when a strong sense of nation came about and then there evolved a desire to make the term more inclusive of everyone born in the Philippines regardless of racial origin. I stress here the word “strong” because for any national identity and label to have value, it must be widely OR strongly desired. As Guerrero and others point out, Rizal was ahead of his time for desiring nationhood before it became a massive rallying cry.
So the real, more critical question should not be when the first instance the term Filipino was used and to whom it was attached to but when we Filipinos started to think of ourselves as Filipinos. When did we awaken to the realization that we are or should be one Filipino nation? And for the sake of argument, have we completely awakened at all?
Information Sources
We didn’t just grab stories in the air for this article. The following books were used as information sources:
Wow! I’ve never read anything about history for the past couple of years. Nakakapanibago. Nice post!
It was a good thing that some pictures are still kept to date for us to have a better visualization on how the previous Filipinos lived.
I guess the Philippines is a mix race with the original Filipino mixed with Chinese, Spanish, American and a little of Japanese inhabitants.
There was a study by Standford University that revealed that far majority of Filipinos are simply pure “malay” (like our neighbors Indonesians and Malaysian), and only very very tiny insignificant percentage have Spanish blood in them or other “foreign blood” in them as a matter of fact(the Spaniards then were mostly racist and discriminatory that they didnt want to inter-marry with natives. Heck, most natives were not accepted in Spanish schools and did not learn Spanish language. I have a book that proved this). I know we all want to think we are “mestizos” or “mixes”(brought about by inferiority complex for our race – taught to us by hundreds of years of Spanish brainwashing).
Hi! May I Know this book?
I have read a lot about that too. I access archived books through the internet. For the most part I have never had to even have an account. The pro Spanish language who are American haters (as if Filipinos are crazy about Americans) easily disprove that with their claims of Americans yellow journalism and black propaganda. They are claiming that that Spanish as a language was so widespread but the Americans imprisoned pro Spanish advocates like Claro M Recto in order to totally eradicate Spanish in the Philippines.
Filipino is a race of all races and I am sure for those who have studied Philippine history know this fact. What I am thankful about the rise of a Filipino is the giving of identity of those people living in the country Philippines.
Thank you for bringing back to me our history. My husband loves history so much. He will be glad to know about your site.
Definitely a must-read! My husband and I often talk about such – where is or what is the real identity of us Filipinos (he is half-Singaporean so he should be more concerned haha)…Thank you for bringing this up and compiling all the info and history…we will discuss (hubby and I) this further tonight, for sure.
wow! that was a lot. What’s amazing about history is the thing behind with what we have now…
Our school books used to say that aetas are the first Filipinos. Now, it’s the Spaniards?..hmmmnn
I guess you did not understand what you read. Do you think Lapu-lapu called himself “Filipino”? Heck, even Diego Silang did not call himself “Filipino”, he called himself “Ilocano” probably. The Aetas originally did not call themselves “Filipino” neither did any of the early people in Philippines that we now call “Filipinos”. The article simply discussed when and how the word “Filipino” started being used as an identity. It doesnt change the fact that the earliest inhabitants of Philippines (we now call “Filipinos”) were the Aetas and the “Dawn Men”.
I recommend you watch the old classic movie “Ganito kami nuon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?”
Thank You for your recommendation.
Haven’t read from any books way back that the first Filipinos were Spaniards.
There’s a group claiming that we owe our nationality to Spain because they named the islands into one group called Filipinas and that the language that united all Filipinos is Spanish therefore we should speak it. They also claim that the Spaniards treated us well and that we were governed with our ancestors’ consent because our ancestors gave their consent through a referendum. The referendum according to them was an order from King Philip II. They are also inciting hatred towards the Americans. It’s not their hatred towards the Americans that I find disturbing, It is their hatred in itself. Don’t try to contradict them, they will reply with a very insulting response. Nothing wrong with speaking Spanish but I can’t swallow that I’ll be speaking Spanish because I owe that to the Spaniards and according to them we are suffering from crisis in national identity because we do not speak Spanish; therefore through speaking Spanish we keep our true cultural heritage.
maybe worthy of mention is the fact that for most of the time, the so-called “Guardia Civil” army used by Spain to repress the locals was comprised mostly by island natives themselves. As the Spaniards(and later the Americans) were fully aware of the country’s well-documented divisiveness and regionalism, the foreign conquestadores made it a strategy to recruit natives from the North (e.g. Ilocos region) to help suppress the natives in the Visayas, and likewise stationing the Visayan and Ilocano recruits in Tagalog region (this way, there was less possibility of Guardia civil’s sympathizing with the “locals’ they were asked to suppress). It was when the natives everywhere were beginning to finally feel more “united” during the revolution and many Guardia civil recruits were being convinced to defect to the Katipunan when Spain finally decided to send true Spanish soldiers from Spain to Philippines to replace the majority of the Guardia Civil.
Sorry, I forgot to thank the owner of this blog. Reading this made me proud to say, my ancestors might not have had a name for the place where I was born, still that place was my ancestors’. Does not matter if I am a aeta or mestizo, my ancestors were in that place they now call the Philippines.
I don’t believe the Areas were the first people of the Philippines. One documentary film somewhere in the Burmese, Laos and Cambodian areas by the SBS of Australia few years back have some disturbing truth for me as I had an Igorot friend before who looked like them and watching the ways of their mountain native the way the dressed and speak they looked and sounded like Igorots even their apparels, dwellings, etc. Perhaps these people came by land bridges well ahead of the early Malaysians and Indonesians who came on barangay boats (to get away from the sultan whom they didn’t like coz they were prohibited from eating pork according to my principal at Tejeros Elementary school in Cebu City 1957). Although the 3rd wave of barangays from Indonesia were already fully muslimized and settled in Southern Philippines.
I mean Aetas. Sorry for the spelling. In fact, you will notice as well the rice terraces of the Mountain Province are identical to those of the Burmese Laos and Cambodians places. I wish someone will investigate more on this topic to really define properly who were the first inhabitants of the now Philippines islands.
Hi, would anyone know which of the 6 books/chapter the author cited references the following fact : “āFilipinosā was a term used to refer mainly to Spaniards born in the Philippines”?
I’m working on a project and need an official source for that fact (I likely can’t get all 6 books)
A Question of Heroes by Nick Joaquin
The First Filipino by Leon Ma. Guerrero
Rizal Without the Overcoat by Ambeth R. Ocampo
A History of the Philippines by Luis H. Francia
History of the Filipino People by Teodoro Agoncillo
Who Were the Original Filipinos by Jon E. Royeca
Hi Bel. Here you go š
History of the Filipino People 8th Edition by Agoncillo – page 120. He said, “…the people called Filipinos applied only to the Spaniards born in the Philippines (insulares), and the indigenous were derogatorily called indios…”
Rizal Without the Overcoat 2012 Edition by Ocampo – page 10. He said, “…Rizal addressed his countrymen, mostly ‘natives’ or indios like you and me, as ‘Filipinos’ at a time when the term was reserved for Spaniards born in the Philippines.”
A History of the Philippines by Francia – page 112. He said, “The term ‘Filipino’ was originally applied only to Creoles – Spaniards born in the Philippines.”
I would caution you when you mention these points though. A lot of other academics and history enthusiasts do not agree and will fight you for it. See what I say in the article above under the sections ‘Bones of Contention’ and ‘In My Humble Opinion’.
This is yet the best and most concise explanation I have ever read. thank you.