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Why do most Filipinos claim they are Spanish?

Ive been browsing on questions about the Philippines culture and heritage on YA,and i keep seeing Filipinos saying false statements, like all of them are mixed with Spanish,American,Japanese, and that they shared the look/and are Hispanic people.Even here in the U.s, all the schools Ive been to, when it comes to the heritage,Cultural Topic,The majority of Filipinos Claim they are half Spanish,Yet i observe there Facial features, and find nothing near or close to a European/Spanish look nor Hispanic(100%looking Filipino).Just Because most of them have Spanish surnames,It doesn't mean all of them are descendants from the Spaniards.around 90% of the surnames were given to them by a book called the (Catálogo alfabético de apellidos) Filipinos share much close ties to the Malay race Culture(Indonesian,Malaysian etc),especially examining the Typical Filipino facial features its very similar to Indonesians and other Asians. There is even more Filipinos of Chinese descent than there are of Spanish descent,You can see alot of Chinese looking Filipinos(Chinos.) Upcourse Of 300 years of rule,There is a majority of Hispanic influence, especially the fact that most Filipinos are Roman Catholic ,the traditions,Celebrations and surnames Upcourse, SOME BASIC FACTS FOR FILIPINOS Only less than 3% have Spanish European Blood(Which includes Spanish,American,British,etc) Most Filipinos have Spanish Surnames... 90% was given to them when the Spaniards needed to setup the name system to develop the country..Traveling Town to Town,Villagers were lining up to pick a surname out of the book Book was called the (Catálogo alfabético de apellidos,) Its very easy to distinguish Hispanics from Filipinos... http://culturalcenter.boisestate.edu/organizations/oela/oela.jpg And very easy to mistake a Filipino to Thais,South-East Asian people etc ..http://www.southwestlife.com.au/images/trevorvine1.jpg Spanish people from (Spain) http://www.hector624.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/diada2.jpg Decided yet?If your Open minded,not ignorant and not trying to get a little fake exotic flavours flowing in the blood"then you can easily decide whom Filipinos identify more with" Dont get me wrong Im half Filipino/Half American myself,and i Love the Filipino ways,They are very kind,down to earth respectful people. Most Filipinos look a lot like eachother..But due to the mentality ,the public view is White skin is good,and you will see the Tv shows,Commercials and whitening skin products.I can say 90% of them are White skinned mixed looking Filipinas/Filipinos on the Television At the end of the day we are Filipinos (and nothing more)who take Pride in our culture,characteristics and way of life.

Public Comments

1. first time hearing this
2. stop bringing Filipinos down you idiot. You can't get self esteem that way! besides, you asked the same question yesterday!
3. The same reason descendants of assimilated Indigenous Central Americans claim to be Spanish. It's the colonial mentality still alive in their culture; being Spanish and white is seen as a positive quality (sadly). Spaniards did however contribute to the Filipino gene pool; even if a little.
4. it's a good thing you mentioned you are half Filipino (which means you know what you are talking about). Some of our fellow Filipinos are telling the truth... Filipinos really are a mixture of different races... Malay, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, etc... To answer your question, nevertheless, it's sad that majority of Filipinos have what you may call "colonial mentality". Though revolutionaries in the olden days fought for the liberation of the country from colonizers, the pain and suffering experienced in those days seems to have been forgotten by the younger generation. What seems to matter now are the good traits that can usually be found in the "more good-looking" races -- (pinkish skin, good height, aquiline nose, deep-set eyes, narrower head, thin lips, any hair color except black)... yet if you look at a Filipino, you would really find "some" of these features (if not all). The problem lies in the claim that "he IS spanish". It would be best if a Filipino would claim... "I am a mixture of a lot of races....". There are thorough-breds here though... we have a lot of prominent families here who marry only their kind just to retain a pure bloodline... in courtesy, i won't mention which races)
5. Yea i 100% agree with you! and your correct this goes for Filipinos living in Western countries(BTW,I'm half Filipino myself aswell,so me and you definitely know what we are talking about) Ive experienced what you've experienced..amongst many Filipinos and i just kinda Laugh at them when they say Ohhh yea I'm Spanish from my grandpa and Blah blah blah...and i just say "BUT YOU DON'T LOOK SPANISH" then i see there Grandparents,who look basically like Chinese-Filipinos(Chinos) then approach them,and ask them,then they start deny it that she said that. Honestly Filipinos don't look nothing near Hispanic,Latino nor Spanish! They look very similar to there neighbors in south east Asia like you said Indonesia,Malaysia,Thailand! They are part of the "Malay Race" or so called Austronesian peoples.If Filipinos really did look like the races of Spanish,Or Latino(Mixed) they would for the most part look half European/Spanish,Caucasian.In Latin America this is very evident ,and can easily be seen! Honestly,There's more Filipinos who look partly Chinese than there are who look Spanish..and don't forget that STATEMENT. Filipinos already had there Culture before the Spaniards arrived,and that Culture never died out,It is still largely present ,just try observing everything about us,our characteristics,Culture,Language,Food rice.!Unlike in South America most of there Culture died out!and Hispanic culture was established and influenced them alot!
6. Stop picking on my Filipino cousins. They are good people. They're one of us Asians.