How Spanish Am I?

Summary

The provided text reflects on the enduring impact of Spanish colonization on Filipino culture, language, religion, and personal identity, while also acknowledging the individual variation in retaining these influences.

Abstract

The article "How Spanish Am I?" delves into the lasting legacy of Spanish influence on Filipino society, which spans over 300 years of colonization from the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 to the Philippine Revolution in 1898. It highlights the adoption of Catholicism, the prevalence of Spanish loanwords in the Filipino language, and the persistence of Spanish-influenced traditions, including culinary practices and the celebration of Christmas. The author shares personal anecdotes about their family's religious practices, linguistic preferences, and name changes due to Spanish naming systems, while emphasizing that despite these influences, their core identity remains Filipino. The piece concludes by suggesting that the extent of Spanish influence varies among Filipinos, with the author themselves feeling little connection to their Spanish maiden name and Catholic upbringing, instead embracing their Filipino heritage.

Opinions

The author acknowledges the significant influence of Spanish culture on Filipino society, particularly in religion, language, and cuisine.
Despite the historical colonization and cultural impact, the author does not harbor resentment towards Spain.
The author believes that Filipinos were civilized before the Spanish arrival, and that the colonizers merely introduced new customs and beliefs.
Catholicism, though widely practiced in the Philippines, is depicted as less of a personal priority for the author since the death of their grandmother.
The author observes a shift in religious practices within their family, noting that some members have converted to other Christian denominations or Islam.
Spanish loanwords are recognized as a substantial part of the Filipino language, with examples provided from the author's local dialect, Bisaya.
The author expresses a sense of detachment from Spanish heritage, identifying more with Filipino roots than with the Spanish influences that persist in their culture.
The author views the introduction of Christmas celebrations as one of the positive outcomes of Spanish colonization.

Now the question is, do Spanish roots still live in Filipinos these days?

As you may have known, the Filipino culture had been greatly influenced by Spanish. Having been colonized from 1521, when Ferdinand Magellan came to Cebu, up until the Philippines Revolution in 1898, there is no question that Filipinos have acquired a lot of Spanish cultures and traditions.

My Religion

Catholicism was established in the Philippines as soon as they set foot in the archipelago. Prior to the colonization, native Filipinos used to worship many Gods including one whom we call Bathala, meaning the powerful god. At present, there are about 80% Filipino Catholics, that includes me, making the country one of the only two countries in Asia in which the Catholic religion is still predominant. If you visit a home of a Filipino household, you can see statues of their saints and crosses on altars. This is one of what is left of the Spanish’s influence in terms of religion.

In spite of being born a Catholic, I honestly do not practice much of Catholicism anymore after the death of my grandmother who was a devoted one. Our family used to diligently go to church on Sundays and spent most of the day there attending mass, joining a prayer meeting, and praying the rosary. Now, or since about twenty years ago, we gradually lessened our church visits. Many of my cousins are now Born-again Christians. I am still a Catholic but I am married to an Islam-convert man who also used to be a Catholic. Our children have been baptized in the Catholic church but we rarely go there and sometimes go to our cousin’s Methodist chapel and join them on Sunday worships.

My Language

Spanish used to be our country’s official language until 1986. According to my elderly relatives, they used to study the Spanish language in their elementary and high school years. Now, only less than 0.1% of the population are native Spanish speakers. In the region of Zamboanga, however, people continue to speak a little Spanish and mostly speak Chavacano, a Spanish-based dialect. The Filipino or Tagalog language also incorporated Spanish loanwords with 33% of words base on Spanish. Interestingly, my family always finds ourselves amazed every time we watch a Spanish movie or our favorite tv series, Money Heist because we can hear some words similar to ours.

In our household, we do not speak Filipino nor Spanish. We always speak in our local dialect, Bisaya, and sometimes we speak English. Though a few of our local dialect’s words were Spanish loanwords too. I have listed the most common Spanish loanwords below with the format, Spanish — Bisaya — English.

puede — pwede — may/can

vacuna — bakuna — vaccine

estudiante — estudyante — student

baño —banyo — bathroom

trabajo — trabaho — job

My Name

Most Filipinos have Spanish or Latin-sounding surnames but it does not necessarily mean we have Spanish blood. It was only a result of the implementation of the Spanish naming system in the Philippines during the colonization. When they started baptizing our ancestors to become Catholics, our ancestors also changed their names to religious things or saints' names such as de Los Santos (Saints), de la Cruz (Cross), and del Rosario (Rosary).

Before I got married, I had a Spanish surname too, Conchas.

My Favorite Dessert

Leche Flan is a popular Filipino dessert made from milk, sugar, and eggs. Originally though, the sweet caramel custard was brought to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period thus, the name Leche means milk. Funnily, in Filipino, Leche is a curse word. Haha!

Aside from this dessert, Filipinos often cook a variety of Spanish influenced cuisines such as Lechon, puchero, fabada, paella, morcon, embutido, and churros. These are specially served in Noche Buena or the Christmas eve dinner that Filipinos consider as the most important family gathering.

My Takeaway

Even though our country was colonized by the Spanish for more than 300 years, I do not have any resentment towards it. It ended decades before I was born and I do not fully know what had actually happened aside from what I read in the history books.

Doubtlessly though, Filipinos were already civilized even before the Spanish colonial. Spaniards just made them more civilized. Furthermore, in my opinion, the best of all the influences is celebrating Christmas day. If Christianism and Catholicism were not introduced, we would have had different beliefs and religions. We would not have been celebrating Christmas.

So to answer the question, “Do Spanish roots still live in Filipinos these days?” I would say, it depends on each Filipino. In my case though, no. It never did. Despite being a catholic and having a Spanish-sounding maiden name, I have Filipino roots and will always have them in me.