Renato Perdon
By
Sydney, Australia
Mon 28th February 2011
In this era of globalisation, one of the cultural identity that easily distinguishes one person from the other is his or her surname. This is particularly true of Asians who are socially visible because of their racial and cultural distinctiveness and whose names reveal their country of origin. Anywhere in the world, it would be next to impossible not to know that the Nguyens are Vietnamese; the Hoonsakulas are Thais; the Sanagaras are Indonesians; the Sauthorns are Laotians; the Lees are Singaporeans or Chinese; the Yamadas are Japanese; and the Mauangs are Burmese.
Cover of the 1973 reprint Spanish decree issued in 1844.
Indeed, these names are distinctively Oriental in sound and in written form. For Filipinos, whose colonial experience had made them unique in Asia, however, their names, as a form of ethnic identification, contradict the West perceptions of Asian identification. Populations the world over have noted that the names of their Filipino friends and acquaintances do not show their Oriental origin. Filipinos, more often than not, are introduced as Jose Maria Silos, Josefa Prudente, Manuel Castillo, Lino Bautista, Purisima Tuazon and other common names more popularly known in South American countries. In fact, in the US until the early 1970s, Filipinos were grouped demographically not as Asians but as part of the Spanish-speaking minority, in the company of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans, and other nationals of South America.
To answer the question on why Filipinos have Spanish names, we have to go back to their Spanish colonial history. And we owe it to a decree called Catlogo Alfabtico de Appellidos (Alphabetised Catalogue of Surnames) issued by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria on 21 November 1849. Governor Claveria arrived in the Philippines in July 1844 to take up his post as head of the Spanish colonial government. Claveria was not the typical Kings representative sent to the Spanish colonies whose preoccupation, upon arrival in their new post, was to enrich themselves at the expense of the natives. Claveria carried out the duties of the new colonial administrator with clean hands and brought changes to the islands. He was credited for introducing the election of town mayors and other local officials; local boundary changes, corrected the Philippine calendar (which for morethan 300 years was one day behind that of the rest of Asia) and; most importantly, ordered the adoption of surnames for Filipinos in 1849.
Words compiled from all sources and the compiler did not look into the meaning of each word, like the entry on bagongajasa (newly raped) see under B entries.
It was during Claverias countless visits to the country that he realised that Filipinos, in general, were not using surnames to distinguish themselves by families. He also experienced the confusion that hindered the implementation of regulations governing the administration of justice, public service, finance and public order. He realized that, because of the situation, it became impossible to prove the degree of blood relations between parties to a marriage.
A catalogue of family names was therefore compiled, incorporating both Spanish surnames and native names earlier collected by the religious orders. The catalogue also adopted names from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, geography, arts, and others. Surnames such as Lopez, Santos, Fontanilla, Garcia, Dedal, Mella, Montejo, Sarmiento, and Sarte became part of the list. Some native words included in the list were bigas (rice), bigla (quick), batungbacal (metal stone),apdo (bile), limot (forget), maiz (corn), and bubuyog (bumblebee).
The selection of words was not strictly supervised and this resulted in some embarrassing surnames adopted by Filipinos such as utang (debt), teta (nipple), bagongajasa (newly raped), temblor (earthquake), mesa (table), moneda (money), and duling (cross-eyed). In some places, particularly in non-Tagalog places natives who are not aware or conversant in the Tagalog language adopted names that could not pass if there was a rigid censorship of names adopted by the authorities. Have you heard a person, particularly, a woman whose surname was bagonggajasa (newly raped). One of my students in college taking up Philippine history had a surname baggonggahasa. During roll call, I purposely called her by her first name. She was grateful. Aside from baggonggajasa (newly raped), some natives probably adopted the name: baho (smelly), bahag (G-string), bayag (testacles), jueves (Thursday), hita (thigh), libog (lust), tabing-tabi (edgemost) and other unmentionable names, unaware of the meaning of their adopted surnames..
Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria issued the decree in 1844.
The reason behind issuing the decree was the need to establish a civil register that would be the basis for Philippine statistics. Aside from record-taking, the register was also aimed at exacting information on population movements, control of illegal migrants, tax evasion, personalservice or forced labour avoidance, and other abuses resulting from the lack of any effective way of identifying the inhabitants.
Claverias decree ordered Filipino families to adopt surnames from a printed alphabetical list. Pages from this catalogue were sent to all provincial governors who distributed them to the mayors of various towns. Every town, in accordance with the number of families within its jurisdiction, was assigned a number of surnames arranged according to letters.
The distribution was undertaken through the parish priests in every barrio or village community, with the help of the town mayor, another municipal official and two competent members of the community.
The decree was strictly enforced. Teachers were compelled to keep a register of all their pupils, listing their first names and surnames in that order. They were forbidden to address a student except by the assigned surnames. Non-compliance with this instruction was considered an offence and punishment decided by the leader of the provincial government. Even the military did not escape from this decree. The town mayor and the respective heads of barrios, with the concurrence of the parish priest, furnished the head of the provincial government with a list of surnames of soldiers. These surnames were then checked to find out whether they corresponded to each soldiers personal file.
At baptism, the parish priest required, in addition to the name to be given to the one to be baptized, the names and surnames of the persons father and mother, except in cases of illegitimate children. The same was required in the solemnization of marriage. All church and official documents required the surnames of parties to whom the documents would be issued. These documents were certified by the master registers, otherwise the documents were not deemed valid. This procedure was observed in capital cities, municipal and provincial courts, by authorities, military chiefs of the navy, treasury and other officials. Any person who changed his or her assigned name or surname was penalized and given a minimum penalty of eight days in jail or a three peso fine.
The first entry (A) in the decree.
In spite of the rigidity of implementing the decree, accidents happened. In some places, only a few pages of the catalogue arrived. This is the reason why, even today, in many towns of the Philippines, there are people whose surnames almost all begin with the letter A, another with B, and so on. Another reason was that in some provinces the catalogue was fanned out starting with the letter A at the capital and the following letters B to Z were distributed to the outlying areas until the whole province was saturated with pages from the catalogue.
To illustrate, in the Bicol town of Oas, Albay, a province located south of Manila, almost all the inhabitants have surnames beginning with the letter R such as Reburriano, Roa, Reodica, Ralto, Robido, and so on. Without knowing both the old and the new surnames, it would be impossible to record a Filipino family tree before 1849. No one has undertaken a historical study on the effect of this decree on the Filipinos.
One thing is sure, however, Filipinos, wherever they are, and whether they like it or not, will go on living with the consequences of this historical accident. However, to Filipinos living overseas, like in Australia and United Kingdom, a change of surname, if female, on marriage to a non-Filipino with an AngloCeltic surname is an option. Others can change their names by deed poll. So my student whom I cal during roll call as Ms. Susan Bagonggahasa would be the only way to erase the stigma brought to her family by the Claveria decree.
For further readings on the subject, see Footnotes to Philippine History by Renato Perdon, available in hardcopy or ebook from amazon.com. and www.universal-publishers.com
Why Filipinos have Spanish names?
Sydney, Australia
Mon 28th February 2011
In this era of globalisation, one of the cultural identity that easily distinguishes one person from the other is his or her surname. This is particularly true of Asians who are socially visible because of their racial and cultural distinctiveness and whose names reveal their country of origin. Anywhere in the world, it would be next to impossible not to know that the Nguyens are Vietnamese; the Hoonsakulas are Thais; the Sanagaras are Indonesians; the Sauthorns are Laotians; the Lees are Singaporeans or Chinese; the Yamadas are Japanese; and the Mauangs are Burmese.
Cover of the 1973 reprint Spanish decree issued in 1844.
Indeed, these names are distinctively Oriental in sound and in written form. For Filipinos, whose colonial experience had made them unique in Asia, however, their names, as a form of ethnic identification, contradict the West perceptions of Asian identification. Populations the world over have noted that the names of their Filipino friends and acquaintances do not show their Oriental origin. Filipinos, more often than not, are introduced as Jose Maria Silos, Josefa Prudente, Manuel Castillo, Lino Bautista, Purisima Tuazon and other common names more popularly known in South American countries. In fact, in the US until the early 1970s, Filipinos were grouped demographically not as Asians but as part of the Spanish-speaking minority, in the company of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans, and other nationals of South America.
To answer the question on why Filipinos have Spanish names, we have to go back to their Spanish colonial history. And we owe it to a decree called Catlogo Alfabtico de Appellidos (Alphabetised Catalogue of Surnames) issued by the Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria on 21 November 1849. Governor Claveria arrived in the Philippines in July 1844 to take up his post as head of the Spanish colonial government. Claveria was not the typical Kings representative sent to the Spanish colonies whose preoccupation, upon arrival in their new post, was to enrich themselves at the expense of the natives. Claveria carried out the duties of the new colonial administrator with clean hands and brought changes to the islands. He was credited for introducing the election of town mayors and other local officials; local boundary changes, corrected the Philippine calendar (which for morethan 300 years was one day behind that of the rest of Asia) and; most importantly, ordered the adoption of surnames for Filipinos in 1849.
Words compiled from all sources and the compiler did not look into the meaning of each word, like the entry on bagongajasa (newly raped) see under B entries.
It was during Claverias countless visits to the country that he realised that Filipinos, in general, were not using surnames to distinguish themselves by families. He also experienced the confusion that hindered the implementation of regulations governing the administration of justice, public service, finance and public order. He realized that, because of the situation, it became impossible to prove the degree of blood relations between parties to a marriage.
A catalogue of family names was therefore compiled, incorporating both Spanish surnames and native names earlier collected by the religious orders. The catalogue also adopted names from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, geography, arts, and others. Surnames such as Lopez, Santos, Fontanilla, Garcia, Dedal, Mella, Montejo, Sarmiento, and Sarte became part of the list. Some native words included in the list were bigas (rice), bigla (quick), batungbacal (metal stone),apdo (bile), limot (forget), maiz (corn), and bubuyog (bumblebee).
The selection of words was not strictly supervised and this resulted in some embarrassing surnames adopted by Filipinos such as utang (debt), teta (nipple), bagongajasa (newly raped), temblor (earthquake), mesa (table), moneda (money), and duling (cross-eyed). In some places, particularly in non-Tagalog places natives who are not aware or conversant in the Tagalog language adopted names that could not pass if there was a rigid censorship of names adopted by the authorities. Have you heard a person, particularly, a woman whose surname was bagonggajasa (newly raped). One of my students in college taking up Philippine history had a surname baggonggahasa. During roll call, I purposely called her by her first name. She was grateful. Aside from baggonggajasa (newly raped), some natives probably adopted the name: baho (smelly), bahag (G-string), bayag (testacles), jueves (Thursday), hita (thigh), libog (lust), tabing-tabi (edgemost) and other unmentionable names, unaware of the meaning of their adopted surnames..
Spanish Governor-General Narciso Claveria issued the decree in 1844.
The reason behind issuing the decree was the need to establish a civil register that would be the basis for Philippine statistics. Aside from record-taking, the register was also aimed at exacting information on population movements, control of illegal migrants, tax evasion, personalservice or forced labour avoidance, and other abuses resulting from the lack of any effective way of identifying the inhabitants.
Claverias decree ordered Filipino families to adopt surnames from a printed alphabetical list. Pages from this catalogue were sent to all provincial governors who distributed them to the mayors of various towns. Every town, in accordance with the number of families within its jurisdiction, was assigned a number of surnames arranged according to letters.
The distribution was undertaken through the parish priests in every barrio or village community, with the help of the town mayor, another municipal official and two competent members of the community.
The decree was strictly enforced. Teachers were compelled to keep a register of all their pupils, listing their first names and surnames in that order. They were forbidden to address a student except by the assigned surnames. Non-compliance with this instruction was considered an offence and punishment decided by the leader of the provincial government. Even the military did not escape from this decree. The town mayor and the respective heads of barrios, with the concurrence of the parish priest, furnished the head of the provincial government with a list of surnames of soldiers. These surnames were then checked to find out whether they corresponded to each soldiers personal file.
At baptism, the parish priest required, in addition to the name to be given to the one to be baptized, the names and surnames of the persons father and mother, except in cases of illegitimate children. The same was required in the solemnization of marriage. All church and official documents required the surnames of parties to whom the documents would be issued. These documents were certified by the master registers, otherwise the documents were not deemed valid. This procedure was observed in capital cities, municipal and provincial courts, by authorities, military chiefs of the navy, treasury and other officials. Any person who changed his or her assigned name or surname was penalized and given a minimum penalty of eight days in jail or a three peso fine.
The first entry (A) in the decree.
In spite of the rigidity of implementing the decree, accidents happened. In some places, only a few pages of the catalogue arrived. This is the reason why, even today, in many towns of the Philippines, there are people whose surnames almost all begin with the letter A, another with B, and so on. Another reason was that in some provinces the catalogue was fanned out starting with the letter A at the capital and the following letters B to Z were distributed to the outlying areas until the whole province was saturated with pages from the catalogue.
To illustrate, in the Bicol town of Oas, Albay, a province located south of Manila, almost all the inhabitants have surnames beginning with the letter R such as Reburriano, Roa, Reodica, Ralto, Robido, and so on. Without knowing both the old and the new surnames, it would be impossible to record a Filipino family tree before 1849. No one has undertaken a historical study on the effect of this decree on the Filipinos.
One thing is sure, however, Filipinos, wherever they are, and whether they like it or not, will go on living with the consequences of this historical accident. However, to Filipinos living overseas, like in Australia and United Kingdom, a change of surname, if female, on marriage to a non-Filipino with an AngloCeltic surname is an option. Others can change their names by deed poll. So my student whom I cal during roll call as Ms. Susan Bagonggahasa would be the only way to erase the stigma brought to her family by the Claveria decree.
For further readings on the subject, see Footnotes to Philippine History by Renato Perdon, available in hardcopy or ebook from amazon.com. and www.universal-publishers.com