FILIPINO
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Filipinos are the citizens of the Philippines, located in Southeast Asia. The term (feminine: Filipina) may also refer to people of Philippine descent, regardless of citizenship.
Throughout the colonial era, the term "Filipino" originally referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines, also known as insulares, criollos or español filipino. This distinguished them from Spaniards born in Europe who were known as peninsulares. By the mid to late nineteenth century, however, the term "Filipino" had begun to refer to the indigenous population of the Philippines. According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, José Rizal was the first to call the native inhabitants "Filipinos". Today, Filipino is also used to signify the nationality and citizenship of one who is from the Philippines. This means that not only Austronesian Malay population are included but also other ethnic groups such as the Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and American.
History
The first humans in the Philippines are the Tabon Man, who was postulated to have lived at 0-1 BCE, and the Cagayan Man, who is in turn thought to live at about 250,000-500,000 BCE. The archaeological evidences indicate similarities of the two aforementioned fossils to fossils found in China and Indonesia.
The next group that arrived are the nomadic Negritos, whose ancestors were similar to the ancestors of the Andamanese and occupied several scattered areas throughout the islands. Unlike the following groups, they arrived before the Last Ice Age ended and were able to use land bridges.
Current archaeological evidences subscribe to the "Mainland Theory" of Peter Bellwood, that the ancestors of the present-day Filipinos, as well as that of the Malays, Indonesians, and the Pacific Islanders first crossed the Taiwan Strait 4,000 years ago, during the Iron Age. These early voyagers are thought to be the Austronesians. They used balangays (boats) to cross the Bashi Channel to the Philippines. This is attested by the fact that in Taiwan and the Philippines, the peoples are subdivided into several small tribes, whereas in Malaysia and Indonesia, most peoples are homogenous or are divided into large tribes, indicating that Taiwan, then the Philippines, was the starting point for Austronesian migration, and that the present-day Malays and Indonesians, as well as the Pacific Islanders instead came from the Philippines, and not from Malaya or Sumatra.
By the 14th century, the ethnic landscape in the country was already relatively fixed. The Austronesians from Taiwan gradually supplanted the Negritos then occupied the plains, deltas, and the coastal areas. Together with the later migrant Southern Chinese, they formed the primary ancestral lineage of the present-day Filipinos.
Frequent trades with China and Japan in the north, and with the Malays, Indians, Persians, and Arabs from the west and south also contributed to the ethnic and cultural make-up of the coastal areas. These included th adoption of Baybayin, Islam, as well as the concept of Karma.
With the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, two new groups of people were introduced to the country. These are the Spaniards and the American Indians. The Spaniards settled in the plains around Manila and Cavite, and some of them intermarried with the natives and the Southern Chinese. These gave rise to the Mestizos for peoples of mixed Austronesian and Spanish descent, and the "Tornatras" for peoples of mixed Austronesian and Southern Chinese descent. Over time, Mestizo and Tornatra communities have also sprung up in various parts of the archipelago, particularly in Cebu, Iloilo, and Bacolod. The American Indians that were brought here, according to author Austin Craig, nearly numbered similar to the native population. Most of them are of Nahuatl (Aztec) or Yaqui descent, or are Mexican mestizos themselves. Many of them intermarried with the indigenous population, particularly in Luzon. By the opening of the Suez Canal in 1867, the Philippines was opened for foreign trade, and there are many Europeans, particularly Britons, Germans, and French, who have settled in the islands.
American colonization in 1898 brought in a new ethnic group, the Anglo-Americans, and the Philippines was held by most American authors as the westernmost outpost of American ethnic and territorial expansion. A plan formulated by the American government was to transfer all the African Americans in the Mainland United States to the Philippines, but this never materialized, due to the Philippine-American War. From 1898 until the present-day, a continuous trickle of American immigration to the Philippines, mostly White Americans, has resulted to the country’s having the largest American and Amerasian population outside of North America.
Presently, the Philippines has over 160 distinct indigenous ethnic groups, over half of which are unique linguistic groups, but aside from this, there has been a great deal of intermarriage between the indigenous population and the foreign colonizers and immigrants that it is nearly impossible to set the proportion constants between the various groups. Prehistoric movements of people throughout the region have resulted to the country’s having a large minority comprised of Southern Chinese, Indians, and Arabs, while contemporary migrations have also led to a sizeable Spanish and American populations. More modern immigrations to the country have seen large numbers of Americans, Koreans, Japanese, and Indonesians settle in the islands, particularly during the 21st century. As of now, about 10% of all Filipinos have Southern Chinese ancestry, and 10% of the population is at least partly descended from the European and American colonizers and immigrants. Current increasing trends in immigration and interracial marriage with Caucasians, particularly Americans, as well as with East Asians, particularly Chinese and Japanese, are expected to result to a significant rise in the number of Filipino mestizos by the end of the first half of this century.
Ancestry
A Stanford University study conducted during 2001 revealed that Y-chromosome Haplogroup O3-M122 (labeled as "Haplogroup L" in this study) predominates among Filipino males. This particular haplogroup is also predominant among Chinese and Korean males. That finding is consistent with the theory that people migrated from China south into the Philippines.
Another haplogroup, Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this study), is also found among Filipinos. The rates of Haplogroup O1a are highest among the Taiwanese Aborigines. Overall, the genetic frequencies found among Filipinos points to the Ami tribe of Taiwan as their nearest genetic relative.
A 2002 China Medical University study indicated that certain Filipinos shared a particular gene marker that is also found among Taiwanese aborigines and Indonesians.
A 2003 University of the Philippines study based on 50 participants each from the islands of Luzon and Cebu provided some insight into the various places of origin of early Filipinos. Some rare genetic markers were found which are shared by people from parts of Asia.
Eurasians in the Philippines
The Eurasians of the Philippines form a very tightly knit relationship with Amerasians and due to their cultural similarities and common Western worldview. Both are considered as overrepresented in the entertainment industry, and are widely held in high esteem due to a generalized colonial mindset among Filipinos. Eurasians are viewed positively in the Philippines, and those with European phenotypes in particular are widely promoted as the standard of beauty. Most of the European introgression among Eurasians in the Philippines are of Spanish origin, while some, to a lesser degree, are of British origin. Meanwhile, contemporary migration and intermarriages between Filipinos (both male and female) with expatriates from Europe, Australia and the United States continue to result in an increasing number of Eurasians, particularly part white American, white Australian, British, French, German, Italian, Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Slavic and Scandinavian, among others, in addition to the more common Spanish. A recent genetic study suggests that around 10% of the Filipino population is Eurasian, although it is probable that counting at least part-European ancestry going back many generations, the percentage is much higher.
Manila Galleon
Filipinos of Spanish Descent (Tornatrás)
Spaniards are referred by Filipinos as "Kastila" (Castilian) named after the former Kingdom of Castile, now a region of Spain. The majority of the Filipinos of Spanish descent are of Andalusians origin, while a minority are Catalans or Basques descents.
A Filipino person may be a spanish mestizo without even realizing it because of the social perception that a person has to look a certain way in order to be considered mestizo, and also because of the historical stigma associated with having Spanish blood out of marriage (las queridas), which was frequent in Spanish colonies. This would've urged all Spanish-Filipino mestizos to hide their Spanish ancestry to avoid the social negative stereo-type stigma of being labelled as an elite child by the predominantly indigenous population. It was usually only the officially recognized marriages between Spaniards and indigenous Filipino women that were recognized as mestizos
Filipinos of Mexican Descent
Mexican Filipinos are a multilingual Filipino ethnic group composed of Philippine citizens with Mexican ancestry.
Most of their Mexican ancestors arrived in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period. Between 1565 and 1815, many Mexicans, Spaniards or Filipinos sailed to the Philippines and Mexico as sailors, crews, prisoners, slaves, adventurers and soldiers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon assisting Spain in its trade between Mexico and the Philippines. Some of their Mexican ancestors settled in, married local born native Filipinos and never returned back to Mexico. They have since integrated with, and been incorporated into the native core of Filipino society. There were even Mexican Filipino mestizos whose ancestors are Mexican Americans who settled Philippines from American colonial period to present whether as servicemen or businesspeople or are recent settlers directly from Mexico as businesspeople also.
Basques in the Philippines by Marciano R. De Borja
Basques in the Philippines
The Philippines having been a Spanish colonial asset for over 300 years, was populated by the conquistadors, merchants, clergy, sailors and entreupeneurs that were mostly of Basque origin. These families of Basque lineage over time entrenched themselves and slowly integrated into the Philippine social landscape, developing themselves into some of the most prominent families in the country. This is evident to this day in the market dominance of Basque-originating families such as the Aboitiz shipping magnates, the Zobel de Ayala family and political clans like the Zubiris and the Ozámiz. A majority of names of Iberian (mostly Castilian and Catalan) origin in the Philippines, however, come not from actual peninsular ancestors but from the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos, a list of surnames imposed on the former Spanish province’s native inhabitants by then Captain-General Narciso Clavería. As a result of this, most Basque surnames in the Philippines are a veritable indicator of actual Iberian Peninsular ancestry, while common Castilian and Catalan family names in the Philippines could very well be traced to the catalog used by the colonial administrators in issuing out family names to natives of the Philippines who did not yet use surnames.
Filipino American Mestizos
The Philippines also has large Amerasian populations (including part-African and part-native American), having the largest population of American citizens in all of Asia.
After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Philippine Islands and other remaining Spanish colonies were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, for 20 million dollars. Civil government was established by the Americans in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General of the Philippines. English was declared the official language. Six hundred American teachers were imported aboard the USS Thomas. Also, in order to subdue sporadic uprisings throughout the country, the U.S had to station American Troops on the islands. Many of the American (Caucasian or otherwise) soldiers stationed on the islands had children with the local women. American culture became one of the dominant influences on the islands, leading to the implementation of the American education system. While the Philippines was still classed as a U.S. colony, a condition that changed with the promise of independence and with commonwealth status that accompanied Congress's passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act in 1935, Filipinos were considered resident-aliens of the United States and were thus able to move back and forth without official documentation such as visas. Many male Filipinos then migrated to the continental U.S. and Hawaii to work primarily as agricultural and industrial laborers. Some Filipino migrants subsequently married Americans (Caucasian, Black, and Mexican) and had Filipino American children. Hence, the bulk of Filipino American mestizos were born as a result of this long-term movement of Filipinos to the United States of America.
Russian
There is a large number of Russians living in the Philippines (approximately numbered at 48,786) most of whom originally came to the Philippines as refugees trying to escape the former Soviet Union. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union Russians still choose to come to the Philippines because of lower living expenses, education, work and to create their own businesses in the Philippines. Approximately 20 percent of Russians who came to the Philippines were women seeking love and marriage with a Filipino man. The Philippines hosts the 2nd largest number of Russians in South East Asia. Most of the Russians in the Philippines are either in Manila, Cebu, or Makati.
