Malditah Musings

Filipinos Do Speak Spanish

I always go to the forum and message boards and have a good read, and average sentence is "If Filipinos ..."," Filipinos spoke Spanish did not speak Spanish "" If Filipinos spoke Spanish now ... "" Only old Pilipino speaks Spanish. "The only type of Spanish in the Philippines are Chabacano ... "

I am 24 years old. When I was in Manila two years ago, I visited my great aunt, who said I was useless, so I assumed that he probably would not recognize me because it's been 13 years since he saw me, but I am amazed that the moment I arrived, walked up the steps in our old Spanish colonial style home, and entered the Sala, he called me my first name and began telling me about how tall I was and the way I look so "hybrid" with brown hair I included in my facial features. I told my great aunt, "No, look at the genealogy!" And he laughed and said, "No, I an Indio", The irony of course being that the words are from my great aunt standing there with her porcelain white skin, striking green eyes, sharp pointed nose, and curly hair was black before but now is a beautiful white snow.

Of course, we simply use the word hybrid in the Philippine language refers to the appearance. Referring to my previous articles in our blog about hybrid words, far for me to give a lecture to my great aunt about how the word hybrid is used in a different way in the Philippines and is spreading miseducation of Filipinos about our actual racial ancestry groups as a nation, especially when He is one to speak perfect Spanish and learned it as his first language. But at the same time, it is also understood that words change meaning in different countries, and it is just a natural part of language evolution.

I do not think I look Spanish or Latin, but apparently all the other people to recognize that desire is not a family member or friend of the family in my life always did. But the same thing always happens to my mother and my aunts and uncles, because we have features that are typically Malay. My Filipino friends always told me, "Did you not look Filipino ..." a comment which is intended to praise, but at the same time, made also makes one feel excluded. And I always thought it was ironic because I'm not looking for white, a lot of Filipinos especially the celebrities with a lot more powerful and more European features than I, over the whole of my family, I almost an Aeta, hehe. But course, okey, because Aetas are beautiful people.

Remember I worked for Fuji, the Japanese photo company in New York, and I want to talk to my broken Filipino Tagalog with our clients, "Oh! You're Filipino!" And something funny is because I used to talk to my speak Spanish clients and they always greeted me with "¿Como esta?" when they enter my office, so I used to say "Bien". Well, one day, I was busy doing some work, a woman walked in and said "¿Como esta?" and I said, "Bien, gracias", and I look up from my work, and realized that it was nice Filipina woman I know that our repeat client, so I scrambled and said, "I mean, good!" Hehe. This is when I look up to her face I realized that he said "How?" not "¿Como esta?", for the discerning ear, the way Filipinos and Latinos say this common greeting in our culture does not recognize, and it is certainly for me that day and I must forget it, hehe.

So I'm in the house of my great aunt, well the former house of my grandfather, which he inherited when he died. One time, I visited by myself, and after the snack, he Sat down with me to the window, and we have a long talk in Spanish, about a lot of things, and I keeping thinking to myself, why everybody is saying he is becoming senile when his memory is still there? And in Spanish, I asked him about his life growth, because I realized that I like because not visit the Philippines and this is my last connection to my grandparents and my family history, need to absorb all things, and need to know as much as possible before the inevitable happens. He wanted to talk to our maids in Tagalog, and speak me in Tagalog and English also, and I want to reply in my broken Tagalog, but mostly in English from my Tagalog is so broken, hehe. But when I switched to Spanish, He spoke only Spanish to me, and proceeded to angry to me in Spanish, saying that I do well in school, and do good things in my life, and work hard, etc. which was very irritating since he started to say the same thing over and over again. And then I asked him about his childhood, and he told me all kinds of stories, still in Spanish because it is her first language, about the Second World War, and how My great uncle died in the war, and all kinds of great things that I scrambled to write a piece of newspaper so I could save it for later.

The thing that I noticed he was okey, but seem a little impatient when he wants to conversate his maids in Tagalog, and it is nice, but when I spoke to her in Spanish, It is like a whole section of his memories just flooded back to him, and his eyes lit up, and I realized soon This is because a large part of his entire childhood and youth has lived in the Spanish language, and to have someone to awaken him now, it's just a wonderful things feel. It felt like when I looked into his green eyes and said to me all the stories about his youth and his life in the university and the war and about my grandparents, I was literally stepping back in time in a Manila that is not now, I am stepping back in time to the history of my family, and this is just surreal.

My uncle also visited the house, and we had a brief chat in Spanish also. And my aunt, who works in Canada for IBM as ... something very high payment, I can not remember the title of the job, but I know if this is a really good position to make the executive level, hehe, I hate that when Filipinos hear a Filipino who works abroad, they always assume it is either single or trustee or something like that, not with anything wrong with the job because they are very noble work, but not all Filipinos came from the same background, and there are also many Filipinos in world are highly educated and entered the U.S. or Canada through a scholarship, and proudly with my mother and my aunts, anyway, he always tells me how this Spanish woman always likes to chat with him during lunch, because my aunt and uncles also grew up in Spanish (not Chabacano) as their first language, before they learned English or Tagalog.

I also hate when some Filipinos realized that I spoke Spanish, they want to say "Ah, Chabacano? No, not that tell you when asked where I was from my family is from Manila (and has for generations from our family history is recorded), not from Zamboanga or Ermita and certainly not from Cavite, although these are good places. And we have family members who speak Spanish, not Chabacano. There are speak Spanish to the Filipinos not from the two provinces, but the miseducation about this topic seems deep Filipinos.

But Chabacano is a good Creole language, and I love hearing that is used because it is very easy to understand, even for me, because it is a mix of Tagalog and other local of dialects in Spanish, and understands the Spanish and Tagalog fluently, to put it all together, it is Chabacano, and I love it, I love hearing it.

It is absolutely true that Spanish is not widely spoken in the Philippines, and one step out of the airplane, it does not take long for anyone to realize that, however, The Philippines does have it's own unique version and the Spanish accent that Chabacano, Spanish is correct meaning is not a Creole, but is a Spanish has its own influences from Tagalog, including teeth stop between the affected Vowels from Malay language. However, people only seem to research this important and endangered part of our heritage are not Filipinos, but the American university scholars, and as Filipinos speak Spanish today may seem like a grand myth to many young Filipinos, especially the countries many of whom seem completely clueless about it among other things related to Filipino culture, it is indeed real. And it is true to my own family.

So, the point is, always take everything you read in Filipino forums and message boards with a grain of salt, because all the statements above that I have read before, and I heard repeated again and again by other Filipinos, I certainly know for a fact is not really considered that I am living proof of it, and so is my family, and experience it and see it with my own eyes, and live it every day.

And do not forget about the celebrities in the eyes of the Philippine public to speak Spanish: Pilita Corrales, Junior, Isabel Preysler, Enrique Iglesias, Julio Iglesias Jr., Shaila Durcal, Tamara Falco, Ana Boyer, Chabeli Iglesias, Carmen Morales, German Moreno, Jaime Fabregas, and many more.

Just because a Filipino speak Spanish does not mean he's not proud to be Filipino. Considering all the Filipinos that you identified the world, sometimes some Filipinos who speak Spanish are even prouder that Filipino than many Filipinos do not.

About the Author

Contributor to Filipino Cultured: Art, Entertainment, Culture, and Inspiration Blog