Sections History Rediscovering the “Missing Latinos in America”: The HispanoAsians and the ñ-Filipinos
| Rediscovering the “Missing Latinos in America”: The HispanoAsians and the ñ-Filipinos |
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any Filipinos in the United States are often included in the Hispanic-American mailing lists. Many Filipino Americans with Spanish family names often receive Latino advertising mailings. The question now is, “Can (or should) Filipinos in America consider themselves part of the Hispanic-American community?” Perhaps since 2008 is a leap year, Filipinos must make a virtual leap of faith to their Hispanic heritage.
I remember an incident in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1978. I was doing a business lunch with a Spanish-American entrepreneur in a Japanese restaurant in that city. The waiter, obviously of Japanese ancestry, was not fluent in English. He had a hard time getting our order. But when he heard me try to converse in my broken Spanish, he began to speak fluently in the Iberian tongue. He explained that he was born and raised in Peru, as he was a scion of Japanese settlers in that South-American country.
Editor’s Note: Excerpts of this article were published before in some Filipino-American publications in Los Angeles and Chicago and online in the www.pinoyonboard.com of New York.
Thus, I realized that day the presence of what I coined later the “Missing Latinos in America (MLA).”
The HispanoAsian-American Community
As I writer, I penned several years back an essay about the “MLA.” Unfortunately my essay was lost when my computer crashed way back in the mid-1990s and I failed to make a copy in a diskette or CD. I recall that I even posted excerpts of my essay in some e-forums. I will now rely on my memory in retelling the essay.
I said in my essay that even demographers in the United States failed to include several groups of Asians (Asian Americans) as components of the Hispanic-American community (or market). These Asians are the Filipinos (especially those with Spanish family names), the Japanese Americans who grew up in Peru and the once-thriving Chinese community in Cuba. Also included in the term “HispanoAsians” are the immigrants from Macao (the former Portuguese settlement in China) and the Indian settlers from Goa (the former Portuguese enclave in India). There are the settlers in what used to be a Hispanic Guam, with Filipinos accounting approximately for 27% of the island’s population. Sooner or later there will be immigrants from the former Portuguese colony of East Timor (off Indonesia). There are of course immigrants from South and Central America, Spain, Portugal and the former Hispanic colonies in Africa who are of Chinese ancestry. Yes, the Chinese (and Filipinos) are everywhere and some of them who migrated to the United States lived and studied first in Spanish-speaking countries.
The more than 3.0-million-strong Filipino-American community tops the number of the “MLA.” Certainly the HispanoAsians will swell the ranks of the Spanish-speaking (or Portuguese-speaking) Americans. The presence of these Latino-speaking Asians in America will reinforce the growing bilingual character and fabric of American society.
One of the biggest groups of these HispanoAsians came from Cuba. More than 50,000 Chinese were displaced by the Cuban revolution of former President Fidel Castro. Almost all of them fled also to the United States.
Rediscovering the “ñ-Filipinos”
A few years back the Newsweek magazine featured young Latino Americans on its cover and called them the “ñ-Generation.” I believe that I was ahead of the Newsweek by more than a decade in using the “ñ” adjective. In 1988, I wrote for a Filipino-American publication in Los Angeles about the “ñ-Filipinos.” I said that some Filipino Americans had the “ñ” in their family names but more often than not people merely use the “n” in addressing them. I might be remembered someday as the writer who coined the term, “ñ-Filipinos,” in referring to the “HispanoFilipinos.”
The best example of the “ñ-Filipinos” is the first American judge of Filipino ancestry in California. He is the Honorable Mel Red Recaña, who is a judge in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California. Nowadays lawyers and even some fellow Filipino Americans call him “Judge Recana.” They are unable to pronounce properly the “ñ.” And also because it is hard to type on the computer the “ñ.”
The “ñ-Filipinos” have to be included in Latino-American affairs because soon there will be more of them than Puerto Ricans.
There are of course more advantages than disadvantages for Filipino Americans to start rediscovering the “ñ” (read, as the Spanish heritage) in them. The “ñ-Filipinos” find it easy in learning how to speak the Iberian tongue because there are so many Spanish derivatives in the various Filipino languages and dialects. Aside of course from carrying Hispanic names and some knowledge of their Latino heritage, many Filipino Americans find Spanish useful in their work.
The importance of including the “ñ-Filipinos” in Latino-American affairs is tremendous. Pretty soon there will be almost a similar number of “ñ-Filipinos” as there would be Puerto Ricans in the United States, including of course the nationals who remain in Puerto Rico. (There are Filipino Americans whose ancestors came from Puerto Rico. The United States exiled thousands of Puerto-Rican activists after the American-Spanish War of 1899 to Guam, Hawaii and the Philippines.)
Even in political contests, it will be easier for budding Filipino-American politicians to win electoral contests if they campaign as “ñ-Filipinos.” This was the experience of former Hawaiian Gov. Ben Cayetano, who managed to attract the support of the modest number of Hawaiian voters of Puerto-Rican ancestry. Perhaps the Hispanic voters of Hawaii were responsible for the reelection of the Filipino-American Governor Cayetano, who won a second term with only a one-percent plurality. Unless an “ñ-Filipino” candidate faces a Hispanic-American opponent, the Filipino American will (and should) easily get the Latino-American voters’ sympathy and support. More so if the “ñ-Filipino” candidate is fluent in Spanish.
The Necessity of Being Bilingual
My brother-in-law, Enrique de los Reyes, is an optometrist in New York. He was forced to learn again how to speak Spanish. Why? Many of his patients are Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans, who prefer of course to talk to their eye doctor in Spanish. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. My brother-in-law had to reinvent himself as a “ñ-Filipino.” Perhaps his knowledge of the Iberian tongue will now permit him to read the literary works of his grandfather, Isabelo (Don Belong) de los Reyes, who wrote principally in Spanish. Don Belong was one of the great writers of the Philippines, aside of course from being recognized as the father of Filipino folklore. He was also the founder of the Philippine labor movement in 1901 and the Philippine Independent Church in 1902. Don Belong also translated the Bible from Spanish to Ilocano, the language of Northern Philippines and many Filipino Americans, as one out of three of them has Ilocano roots.
There are now thousands of Enrique de los Reyeses who are able to converse in Spanish because their jobs require them to be bilingual.
Filipino priests are finding it to their advantage to be able to celebrate mass and deliver the homily in Spanish in parishes where the congregation’s majority is Hispanic. And America is running out of priests, as American seminaries are virtually shutting down for lack of enrollment.
There is no better incentive for learning Spanish than financial rewards to those who are able to speak it.
The hundreds of thousands of Filipino-American medical professionals are finding it useful to be fluent, or at least be conversational, in Spanish. The Latino-American community is now the largest minority group in this country. Latinos compose the majority in some counties in the Western United States.
There are now hundreds of Filipino teachers who are being imported to teach in American public schools, especially in areas that belong to economically-disadvantaged school districts. Pretty soon their number will be in the thousands, as the United States is facing a shortage of qualified teachers. One advantage of the teachers who are bilingual is that they get higher salaries. At least their entry-level pay is higher if they are proficient in Spanish. Even the parochial schools of the Archdiocese of New York “imported” hundreds of qualified Filipino teachers, many of whom were bilingual.
As Filipinos in the Philippines come of know of the advantages of being “ñ-Filipinos,” more and more of them will start to fall in love again with Spanish and their Iberian heritage. There is no better incentive for learning Spanish than financial rewards to those who are able to speak it, at least conversationally.
Elementary and high-school students in the United States are now offered Spanish as elective subjects. Many of them take it, as normally proficiency in Spanish is a major advantage in being admitted to colleges or universities after they finish high school.
When Filipino-American pre-school children watch cartoons on American television, many of the programs teach Spanish words and phrases. I noticed this fact when I was babysitting my then five-year-old grandson who was watching the “Dora, the Explorer” cartoon series. Dora was teaching the viewers the Spanish equivalent of English terms used in the TV dialogue.
The other fact of course is that the “ñ-Filipinos” use Spanish numbers when they speak Filipino in their households in America. They count “uno, dos, tres . . .” instead of “isa, dalawa, tatlo . . . ,” etceteras, etcetera. The “ñ-Filipinos” do not use “upuan” or worse, “salumpuwit,” when they refer to a chair; they call it “sil-ya,” which is of course a Spanish derivative of most Filipino languages.
The Coming Spanish Renaissance in the Philippines
Whether public and/or private educators in the Philippines like it or not, many Filipinos will start learning (or relearning) Spanish in the years to come. The Iberian tongue used to be one of the official languages of the Philippines. While fewer and fewer Filipinos used Spanish in their daily lives or academic pursuits in the 20th century, the opposite will happen in the coming years. After all, Overseas-Filipino workers (OFWs) and immigrants now number in excess of eight-million spread in more than 100 countries. We should remember that Spanish is the language of one-sixth of the world.
My friends and I tried to jump-start the Spanish Renaissance in our community in the City of West Covina in California and in the County of Los Angeles. We organized the “Fiesta Hispana y Filipina” in June 1965 at the West Covina Civic Center and the Plaza Mall at West Covina. We were not able to do it again, as we got lukewarm support from city officials and the business community. But it was quite a first step in developing Hispano-Filipino friendship.
Aside from the need to learn Spanish among the Filipino Americans, there are more than 200,000 OFWs who work now in Spain. There are hundreds or even thousands of OFWs in Portugal, in Brazil and the rest of South (and Central) America. When these OFWs reach retirement age, many of them will return to the Philippines. And many of them will be fluent in Spanish. With a little encouragement and support from Spain, Mexico and the Hispanic-American community, especially the “ñ-Filipinos” in the United States, a Spanish Renaissance will happen in the Philippines.
The coming 500th anniversary of the voyage of Fernando de Magallanes and his motley crew from 19 countries will be the historical event of this century. When the world celebrates the exploits of Magallanes from 2019-2022, the Philippines will experience more Hispanic commemorative events. Millions of Latino tourists may be able to visit the landing sites of Magallanes in the islands of Samar, Leyte and Cebu, where the naturalized-Spanish explorer died in combat with native warriors. There will be of course a mad rush among the Philippine travel-related companies and their employees to become fluent in Spanish. This will certainly help in reviving the Spanish culture in the Philippines, especially if the hundreds of Spanish-built churches, fortifications and houses in many Philippine provinces are restored to entice further the coming of the Spanish visitors. And more visitors will come from the Latino world if the Philippine tourism officials would adopt the slogan that I suggested in 1992. I coined the tourism slogan, “The Philippines – the Only Hispanic Archipelago in Asia.”
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) that the American colonizers sent to the Philippines at the start of the 20th century managed to supplant Spanish with English in less than 50 years. (Now hundreds of Filipino and Filipino-American educators are teaching young Americans how to speak English and even some Spanish.) The second irony would be the “ñ-Filipinos” from the Filipino-American community leading the Spanish renaissance in the homeland. How ironic would it be? Only time will tell. As the Latinos put it, “Vamos a ver.” # # #
I finally read your article and your suggestion that we should be included in the Hispano-American directory. My comment on this is that we should not.
Simply because a lot of us have Spanish surnames would not mean that we are Hispanic. There are also lots of us with American or Anglo-Saxon and foreign surnames but again that would not automatically qualify us to be a member of their community unless we are of course indoctrinated in that culture.
Many Filipinos do not speak Spanish and those who took 24 credits of Spanish during the years that this was compulsory in all Liberal Arts, law, education, and Business Administration curriculae, very few of them can really converse in the language of Don Lope de Vega. There are few of us who can speak, write, and read it because of our desire to master this language. Not all Filipinos who took Spanish are into mastering that language.
I have been trying to convince the Spanish-Filipino group in the Internet that we are not Hispanic and the aim of our membership is to learn the language of Don Miguel de Cervantes and not to be culturally like him.
Filipinos are Hispanic though they had at least 3 centuries of Spanish colonization. They also have 50 years of American colonization and the impact of the latter experience is much more than our 3.5-centuries of Spanish experience. Many of us speak English fluently but that does not signify that we are Anglos.
Eddie AAA Calderon
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oh, I disagree with the limited vision of Eddie AAA Calderon. I think Filipinos should be in the Hispanic directory as well as the Asian one. FilAms would come out the winner for that double whammy. It's time we stop kidding ourselves with who we are. HispanoAsian is a great move. Now, that would be clear-cut strategic thinking for the benefit of all
FilAms, and not just a select few doing it the old way.
Kudos to you Bobby.
Bangkaw
Latin Americans are also under the sphere of American hegemony, but they are considered Hispanics. Descendants of Latin-American immigrants, some of whom have lost the Spanish tongue, are still considered Hispanics.
I agree with Bankaw, because the Filipino will get to enjoy the best of three worlds, i.e. the Anglo-Saxon world, the East-Asian world, and the Hispanic world. In the words, of Bankaw, "FilAms would come out the winner for that double whammy." Definitely, HispanoAsian is a great move.
Ken
We are schizophrenic in other words, which in a lot of ways explains why we have difficulties explaining ourselves. We are many! Ok, that means Schizoids!
Being facetious in some way of course but it does explain who we are, we share so much of the Hispanic culture, yet had always been proud to have maintained our original cultures and language. In spite of 333 years of Spanish and American yoke we remained loyal to our native self. Lots of times, we don't even realize we do this.
Very much unlike Mexican who look at themselves as Mexican while accepting the Hispanicity of the culture and evidence of language, the native
language no longer in existence for the large majority.
Backwards? Yes, we do it the other way around, and I like it that way, well, because we are in very unique way, FILIPINOS! No other way around it, we cannot deny that...
The way I explained to my Columbian friend who asked me: "How did you know they are Filipinos?" I answered matter-of-factly "Because Filipinos carry personal space like Asians, yet walk proudly like a Spaniard and show "Hollywood" in the way they act"...
Can any Filipino dispute that?!!
I admit that for myself, this is who I am, because I am Filipino!
If I start to feel comfortable with my fellow "Hispanized" native of Cuba and Puerto Rico, I am a member of Taino News, in Yahoogroups, and my friends in Peru, Colomia, Mexico, yet maintained my personal identity as Filipino...
That is because I am Filipino, and I feel comfortable in that.
Copper Sturgeon
RE: Italy, please read my essay, Filipinos Are Indeed the Italians of Asia (Part 8 of the "Filipino Psyche" Series)
Fluency in the Iberian tongue is only one of the factors that determine the Hispanic element in the Filipino heritage. You have to look at our people and their taste and fondness for music, dances, the more-Christian (and Hispanic) observance of Lent, the day of the Dead (November 1st), Christmas, fiestas, ferias, festivals and even their addiction to Mexican telenovelas.
In spite of what the Anglo Saxons contributed to the making of the Filipino heritage, the fact is that the Filipino is more Hispanic than Americanized. In fact, the Filipino is more Chinese than an Americanized person, even among the 3.0-million-strong Filipino Americans.
And many of the ABER Filipinos are learning Spanish in high schools and colleges. These American-born, educated or raised (ABER) Filipinos are some of the engines of the "Hispanic Renaissance" in the Philippines (that I wrote in my article Rediscovering the “Missing Latinos in America”: The HispanoAsians and the ñ-Filipinos ). Whether Filipino nationalists will like it or not, the Hispanic Renaissance in the Filipino homeland will takeoff between 2019-2022 (if not sooner) when the Philippines and the world will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the voyage of Fernando de Magallanes. In fact, it can be soonest, as soon as my friends and I launch the renaissance movement in 2009, as part of our OFW-led political party's socioeconomic platform.
Vamos ABER, oops, a ver, Dr. Eddie.
Mabuhay and Saludos,
Bobby M. Reyes
In a message dated 3/28/2008 9:10:27 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, writes:
"Ceferino Benedicto, Jr." wrote:
Julius,
Crystal is spelled with a y.
Eddie,
You over-exceeded yourself. Indeed it is a convincing article except for one fact. Filipinos were speaking Spanish when the Americans invaded in 1898. At least 10% of the population spoke Spanish as a mother tongue, while the rest of the population spoke the language with varying degree of fluency. Maybe some with the TH effort of Janina San Miguel trying to speak in gibberish English.
You failed to mention the fact that Americans sought to supplant Spanish with English as a medium of instruction in public schools, a system set up in 1867. You fail to point out that Spanish was discouraged and Spanish textbooks replaced with American Carter textbooks.
You fail to mention the fact that during the American invasion, Katipuneros volunteered in the Spanish Army. The Americans had to entice Emilio Aguinaldo with promise of independence to return and lure the Katipuneros away from the Spanish Army along with their armaments. Once, the Americans got their goal, they betrayed Emilio Aguinaldo.
Unlike American Hispanics who were fortunate to have Latin America just across the border. The Philippines was separated from the rest of our Hispanic brethren by miles of ocean. Technology was not that advanced yet, and the world was not yet a global village.
Thus, Filipinos lost the Spanish tongue... basically the Filipino Spanish tongue as spoken by Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, Lope K. Santos, Sergio Osmeña, Claro Mayo Recto, Cayetano Arellano, Arturo Tolentino, et al. Yet there are still speakers of this, correct me if I am wrong, virtually extinct Filipino Spanish.
Filipinos and Latin Americans have virtually a parallel history. The only thing was that Filipinos were basically as Arnold Toynbee described it a piece of Latin America washed up by gigantic waves into this part of Asia.
We are a piece of Latin America in Asia.
Ken
I am glad that we have learnt to disagree without being disagreeable. But again I do not share your opinion that we are more Hispanised than Americanised. Language is the primary force or the most important factor that determines a culture and since the majority of our people even during the Spanish time have not learnt how to speak English (please refer to the chapter in Dr. Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and building of a school which did not succeed) because the Spaniards did not really want the Filipino people except for the few in the urban setting to learn Spanish.
The Filipino people is as pliant as a bamboo and we will imitate or incorporate a popular culture or style other than our own.
We lean more towards American culture including education than the Spanish counterpart, pop Western music, dress style, et cetera.But even with this and our being very literate in the language of Robert Frost, nobody can and will call us Anglos. Just because we had fiestas and words in our languages(and they also include English words, Chinese, Indian, etc)
Eddie AAA Calderon
There is separation that only by looking at from a distance can see.
In other words we are Filipinos, this character was first molded by conquest of course, then additions of new traditions and enforced movements into controlled settlements ran by either religious groups or encomiendas, the native changed. This also changed the conquistadores, from what I discovered the young Juan de Salcedo began his carreer as a Spaniard but ended as warrior using native tactics to wage wars conquering what is now Laguna, Bicol and Quezon. Adjusting tactics as he repelled Lim-Ah-Hong. Established Vigan and died there after coming back "Home".
Our character and history is not the same as the rest of the Hispanic world, the value we placed on Spanish we did to English, we embraced baile of Spain the same way we embraced the twist and others. We changed yet remained the same.
We are just as much Filipino now, as we are before.
Our Asian neighbors consider us more alien in character, more Western, as we consider them alien for us, being more Asian than we could ever be.
Yes, we are Westernized, that means having Hispanic and American both! Both being western.
You can sell Philippines as being a Hispanized country to the Iberians, Americanized for Americans.
To say that we are a Hispanic country or American country would not do us justice, we are Filipinos and no other.
Copper Sturgeon
I am in total agreement with you. I think much of your essay focuses more on the advantages of a language towards the people of the Philippines and not solely to argue and primarily focus on ones "ethnicity" or "blood-line". The fact that the Spanish language will be a necessary TOOL for employment advancement which coincides with the deep Hispanic influence within the Filipino culture itself is simply logical for the Filipino/Filipino American to learn it. Not to be perfect in it, nor to subract the importance of Filipino/Tagalog and English, but to enhance the cultural, social and historical mosaic of what is the Philippines.
Too many Filipinos identify the Spanish language with two extreme stereotypical mindsets.
On one hand, it is viewed as a language of the ELITE. It is a colonial and villainized symbol based on the atrocities of being at the receiving end of a 350 year colonial process under the Spanish crown. No doubt, it happened period. Thereby giving the Iberian vernacular a "cruel master-hapless native" relational definition.
On the otherhand, when a filipino visiting or living in the States, the Spanish language is identified with all the negative images illuminated in the media that portrays the Spanish speaker as stereotypically uneducated, undocumented and un-patriotic, which in most cases is simply not true. They are primarily misunderstood. With this said, here in the states, the language is underlyingly viewed as an "inferior" tongue.
Your essay however, clearly illustrates that Spanish IS or will be a necessary TOOL in a world that is shrinking due to globalization.
The average Filipino, now, must clearly understand that the Spanish language it is not necessarily a definition to ones nationality, skin color, height, social status, education (or lack of it) or to colonialism.
It is a door of opportunity for personal advancement in cultural and socioeconomic endeavors. All the other arguments -pros and cons- are just secondary, yet important, speed bumps. The fact is, a Filipino learning Spanish, for whatever motivitaion, is indeed a reality that cannot be denied.
Thank You!
P.S.
I'm a second generation Filipino whose parents speak Ilokano as a first language and English as thier second, in addition to them speaking fluent Tagalog to other non-Ilokano Filipinos. So, it is not like I'm promoting Spanish because I have Spanish blood. Fact is I don't. I'm really not anti-Tagalog, pro-English and pro-Spanish. I'm just PRO-FILIPINO in a globalized world.
Also a reality, a Filipino national, who has a surname like Gonzales, Rodriguez or Lopez-by blood or decree- who does not know Spanish yet is attempting to study and learn it would not "look" too foreign in doing so.
In comparison, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean nationals attempting to learn Spanish has a different dynamic for some reason.
Go figure?
Anyways, continue on with your vision my friend. I've got your back!
By
I myself am an English speaker, fluently understanding Ilokano and have no intentions of attempting to learn Spanish, simply because of my age. I am going to celebrate my 28th anniversary of my 29th birthday this year.
I guess, myself being in the educational field and living in California, desire that the new and upcoming generational Filipino/Filipino-American youth to be at the cutting-edge of a potential "tri-cultural" dragon of Asia that is unique when compared to the "economic" dragons of China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. If being tri-lingual somehow elevates the archipelago's economic woes, than more power to it.
So my take is not to "Hispanicize" or "de-Asianize" the Filipinos, but more so learn a language that simply fits like a glove with its culture, despite the negative truths and events that go with it. Debating whether the Filipinos are Hispanic, Asian or not my primary concern. LaRaza is important, but in and that of itself, "won't pay the rent, baby!"
By the way, there was much talk that the current Filipino administration was to reinstate Spanish to its official language status along with Filipino and English, which was supposed to occur last January, 2008.
Has there been any new developments regarding this issue?
Thank you for your comments.
I will write a sequel to this article and I will you quote some of your words.
On the issue of reinstating Spanish as another official language of the Philippines, the present administration may not have the will to do it. In fact, many of its plans and programs are good only in press releases but not in practice. Nevertheless, I will follow up your query with the DILA people who are defending the Filipino languages.
Mabuhay,
Bobby M. Reyes
Editor
Wonderful article and I appreciate bringing this to the forefront. I passed it on to several people whom I have discussed this issue in the past.
Martha Montoya
loskitos.com
"Filipinas Hispana Mexican" created by a Mexican national name Enrykke who primarily focuses on the historical and physical similarities between the two regions.
"Mexico saluda al Filipinotown!" one of several by psaluda. This gentlemen leads a folkloriko organization that celebrates the "entire" Hispanic world. It appears that his focus is the whole spectrum of social, cultural, religious and political platforms.
Because of his organization, Filipinos in historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles, have invited the Hispanic contingent of nationalities in celebrating the Filipino-fiesta held in June that last two years.
Likewise, there was a formidable Filipino delegate invited to celebrate the independence days fiestas of Mexico and Central America in September. Which I think was the first time the Philippines was included in these Latin American festivities.
Both Enrykke and Psaluda are Latino nationals (Mexican and Venezuelan respectively), who are lobbying strongly to ignite the Philippines' potential in celebrating thier strongest historical and cultural -not primarily physical- features.
It might benefit you to ally yourself to Latinos like these or at least begin a dialogue. Hey, it only takes a few seeds to develop an acre of fruit.
Take care and best wishes in your vision to expand the Philippines outside of the paradigm.
Best wishes to you my good man, and I'll be looking into this page frequently in the future.
Thank you so much!
Mabuhay ng Pilipinas
Long live the Philippines
Viva Las Filipinas
Three exhortations, but all don't seem foreign to the Filipino ear, right? Go figure?
To be precise, the title created by Enrykke is "Filipinas Hispana Mexicana".
There is also another video displaying the Chavacano language simply titled, "Chavacano Language" created by Csundita, a Filipino-American linguist.
What is interesting about this video are the comments. If you read the multitudes of comments, the earlier ones are written in English. As you progress, some Zamboanganos have been bold enough to begin expressing themselves in writing.
Despite Chavacano being considered a Spanish-creole, they could also serve as a formidable ally to your cause.
Again,
Peace-out!
To be precise, the title created by Enrykke is "Filipinas Hispana Mexicana".
There is also another video displaying the Chavacano language simply titled, "Chavacano Language" created by Csundita, a Filipino-American linguist.
What is interesting about this video are the comments. If you read the multitudes of comments, the earlier ones are written in English. As you progress, some Zamboanganos have been bold enough to begin expressing themselves in writing.
Despite Chavacano being considered a Spanish-creole, they could also serve as a formidable ally to your cause.
Again,
Peace-out!
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