Talk:Sangley/Archive 1

Archive 1

I find this inacurate as well. I find the article theoretical as the author must have presumed that the Chinese immigrants of the Philippines is parallel to the social standing of the Chinese immigrants of Indonesia (formerly colonized by the Dutch). The Chinese immigrants of old Indonesian society were treated as one notch higher above the natives. As such, transactions and privileges were granted by the Dutch to these Chinese than the Indonesian natives. This is not the case in the Philippines.

Can you cite any evidence or reference that Mestizo Chinos has the right or privileges enjoyed but is denied from Indios? I agree that pure Chinese immigrants were not given some rights and privileges that both Mestizo Chino and Indio enjoy during that time since they were deemed as threat both by Spaniards and natives alike. But it's only the pure Chinese immigrants who were denied of that. If you would say "Polo" or some other mandatory taxes, an Indio maybe excluded of that if an Indio is wealthy or if he/she has inherited the right of exclusion from taxes from his "Maharlika" ancestors (Royal class natives). To avoid being treated as a Chinese or worse, from massacres, the pure-blooded Chinese would later try to adapt themselves to the mainstream society by marrying Indio women, change their name to Spanish or convert themselves to Christianity. Thus, also gaining the right that the rest of the Philippine mainstream society enjoy. Also, while Jose Rizal's father is a Sangley, he is not as he also has Japanese, Spanish and Indio blood so technically he is a Tornatras but he explicitly refused to be classified to any of it. During his sentence, A Spaniard classified him as Mestizo Chino on his record/profile, he explicitly demanded it to be erased, changing it from Mestizo Chino to "Indio Natural". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.127.33.114 (talk) 20:29, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

According to Wickberg, the Chinese immigrants (called sangleys) who agreed to convert to Catholicism and adopt Spanish names upon baptism were given several rights and privileges denied the unconverted sangleys. Among the privileges were the right to live anywhere in the islands, to engage in trade and commerce and to intermarry with indios. In addition, they were given a ten-year tax holiday immediately upon conversion. During the bloody massacres of the 17th century, those who converted were spared while those who refused were killed and the survivors expelled. The sangleys were not trying "to adapt themselves to the mainstream society"; they were trying to survive. Those who converted were deemed to be worthy subjects and were allowed to intermarry with indio women after being baptized. Their mixed-race descendants did not turn into indios; they became something else, mestizos de sangley.
Strictly speaking, the mestizos de sangley enjoyed the same legal rights as the indios as far as residence, occupation, land ownership and participation in local government are concerned. But in reality, the Spaniards had to depend upon the mestizos de sangley as the colonial middlemen to handle the domestic trades of the islands. As inquilinos or land-lessees, the mestizos de sangley also acted as middlemen rent-collectors between the Spanish Friars and the indio tenant-farmers, occupying a position similar to the Indonesian peranakans who acted as middlemen tax-collectors between the Dutch and the pribumis. That the mestizos de sangley were treated far better than the indios or sangleys can be gleaned from the fact that there were no recorded revolts led by mestizos de sangley. As a class, they were quite servile and obsequious to their white masters, constantly trying to buy favors from the Spanish authorities. And as inquilinos, they were quite abusive towards their indio tenant-farmers, a pattern of behaviour which persists to this day. Lastly, the indios were forced to wear the Baro ng Tagalog to signify their status as servants while the mestizos de sangley were allowed to wear European-style clothing to differentiate themselves from the indios.
The term Indio Principales referred to the indigenous families of means who were descendants of the Datus or tribal royalty. They were granted certain rights and privileges such as exemption from polo or tribute labor, appointment as capitan or barangay captain and election as gobernadorcillos or town mayor. However, as an ethnic group, they were still considered indios not white.
Regarding Rizal's Chinese ancestry, it is incorrect to regard him as anything but a mestizo de sangley. Indeed, Elizabeth Medina even claims that because Rizal is at most a fifth-generation Chinese mestizo, he must have only 1/32 of Chinese blood in his veins and thus may not be considered a mestizo de sangley. This is a false view. Filipino historians (Elizabeth Medina included) have the recurring tendency to either dilute or excise Rizal's Chinese ancestry in the same way that most Philippine Mestizos (de Sangley) today deny their CHINESE blood and claim SPANISH ancestry. During the Spanish Colonial Era, the Philippine Caste System consisted of several statutory classes as defined by law. The statutory class of mestizo de sangley referred to the patrilineal descendants of the original Catholic Sangley who first intermarried with an indio woman. ALL MALE HEIRS ARE MESTIZOS DE SANGLEY NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID. As Wickberg writes:
   Legal status—-as Chinese, mestizo, or Indio-— by the terms of this legislation — was not ordinarily a matter of personal
   orientation or choice. Rather, it was the status of the parents — particularly the father — that was most important.
   Thus, the son of a Chinese father and an india or mestiza mother was classed as a Chinese mestizo. Subsequent male descendants
   were inalterably Chinese mestizos. The status of female descendants was determined by their marriages. A mestiza marrying a
   Chinese or mestizo remained in the mestizo classification, as did her children. But by marrying an indio she and her children
   became of that classification. Thus, females of the mestizo group could change status but males could not. The implications of
   this system was that so long as legislation remained constant there would always be a sizeable group of people legally
   classified as mestizos, whatever their cultural orientation might be.
Their legal status was printed on the cedula or community tax certificate and determined how much tribute tax they had to pay. Rizal's grandfather, Juan Mercado, CHANGED THE TRIBUTE LIST of Biñan when he was the town mayor so that he and his family were reclassified as indios. Rizal's father, Francisco Mercado, attempted to do away with their family name "Mercado" which was adopted by his paternal ancestor Domingo Lam-co to signify their sangley roots. Rizal himself objected to his classification as a mestizo de sangley during his trial. But he could never get away from his sangley origins. The reason is that a mestizo de sangley male acquires his legal status by patrilineal descent. Because his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were mestizos de sangley, no matter how much Spanish, Japanese or indio blood he has in his veins, Rizal was still legally a mestizo de sangley even unto death.
Chinese Ancestry of Jose Rizal Legal Event Ethnic Status
Domingo Lam-co Baptized at age 35 and settled in Biñan, Laguna Catholic sangley
Francisco Mercado Given the family surname "Mercado" to signify their sangley roots mestizo de sangley
Juan Mercado Changed the tribute list of Biñan to reclassify his family as indios mestizo de sangley
Francisco Mercado Changed family name from "Mercado" to "Rizal" mestizo de sangley
Jose Rizal Mercado Objected to his classification as mestizo de sangley on his death sentence mestizo de sangley
The term Tornatrás which means to turn back referred to the mixed-race descendants of sangleys who married white which was considered highly desirable compared to marrying an indio. That is, the sangley turns his back from indio and marries white instead. In the Philippines, both the Tornatrás and the Mestizos were considered white and were allowed to live in Intramuros. In reality, the number of white women living in the islands was negligible so much so that the sangleys who settled in the islands had no choice but to marry indio women. Over time, a community of mestizos de sangley formed in Binondo, a district created specifically for them. Although the whites had the power, it was the mestizos de sangley who had the money, lots of it. And they used their money inherited from their sangley forbears TO BUY THEIR WHITENESS. The role of money was THE determining factor in the social mobility of the mestizos de sangley. As Wickberg explains:
   By the middle of the nineteenth century the economic position of the Chinese mestizos was stronger than ever. Not only did 
   they have substantial land interests, but they were well on the way to monopolizing internal trading, with only the provincial
   governors as their competitors...Lannoy, writing in the 1840's, said that despite the attempts of the Spanish to treat them with
   disdain, it was the Chinese mestizos who had the biggest fortunes in the Philippines.

   There was, in fact, social prestige attached to being considered a Chinese mestizo. Sinibaldo de Mas, writing around 1840,
   remarks on the rise of wealth, rather than lineage considerations, as the standard of social status...With the growth of 
   the idea of status by wealth it is not surprising that the Chinese mestizos should become envied models. In the localities 
   where they were, numerous, they were often among the wealthiest people, and, what is perhaps more important, they were 
   believed to be, as a class, wealthier than the indios. Hence, great prestige came to be attached to the name "mestizo"...
   The best illustration of this kind of mestizo-craze attitude may be found in the character of Capitan Tiago in Rizal's novels.
   Capitan Tiago is an excellent example of an indio cacique of means who wished to be regarded as a Chinese mestizo and was able 
   to purchase for himself a place in the wealthy and famous Gremio de Mestizos de Binondo.
Rizal knew this of course. His family, starting with his paternal ancestor, Domingo Lam-co, down to his father, Francisco Mercado, were the richest "capitalists" in the town of Biñan, Laguna. In his novel Noli Me Tangere, his choice of Don Rafael Ibarra, the father of Crisostomo Ibarra, as the richest "capitalist" in the town of San Diego, to be a Spanish Mestizo is quite strange. In those days (mid-19th century), the richest "capitalist" in almost every town in the Philippines were CHINESE Mestizos (mestizos de sangley) not SPANISH Mestizos. The only hint we have that Ibarra may have Chinese ancestry is when the body of Don Rafael Ibarra (who died in prison) was exhumed to be re-interred in a Chinese Cemetery (under orders from his arch-enemy Padre Damaso) but was thrown into a lake instead. That is, Padre Damaso wanted to insult the deceased by burying his dead body in the cemetery for "heathen" Orientals. This parallels actual life when the Spanish Friars would constantly insult Rizal by referring to HIS Chinese ancestry. By throwing the dead body of the hero's father -- Don Rafael Ibarra -- into the lake, Rizal wanted to sever his ties to his sangley ancestors by ERASING THE EXISTENCE of his own ethnic group, the mestizos de sangley! Rizal could then REINVENT HIMSELF AS WHITE by concocting a SPANISH GENEALOGY for his hero Crisostomo Ibarra. The intended audience of his novel, the whites in Spain and Europe, would naturally assume that Rizal, as represented by his hero Crisostomo Ibarra, was a SPANISH and not a CHINESE Mestizo. Indeed, this is a common mistake that Westerners make regarding the mestizos of the Philippines. As Wickberg explains:
   By the nineteenth century, the Chinese mestizos had become so numerous and their influence so great that the term "mestizo", as
   popularly used in the Philippines, meant "Chinese mestizo". This point is made by Retana, in his Diccionario de filipinismos,
   again in testimony before the U.S. Philippine Commission, and (naturally enough) by the Chinese mestizos themselves. This 
   explicit definition of "mestizo" as "Chinese mestizo" was implicitly opposed by James LeRoy, an acute, if not always accurate 
   American observer of the Philippine scene. LeRoy argued that Spanish mestizos were of predominant importance in the late 
   nineteenth century, and scarcely mentioned the Chinese mestizos. Apparently, LeRoy chose to believe that in popular usage the 
   term "mestizo" referred to Spanish mestizos, or else he did not concern himself with popular usage. Perhaps he simply assumed 
   that, logically, those enjoying fortune and power were most apt to be descendants of the conquerors and rulers. Whatever the 
   reason, LeRoy was, I believe, in error, and I shall now attempt to demonstrate why I think so.

   Spaniards and Spanish mestizos were few in number in the Philippines, and, more important, they were usually uninterested in
   trade, other than speculation in the Manila Galleon. Most indios lacked the capital or experience. There remained the provincial
   governors (Spaniards), the Chinese, and the mestizos.
Anti beast (talk) 13:50, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
This pattern of behaviour persists to this day. The Philippine "Mestizos" (de sangley) of today would vehemently deny their CHINESE blood and claim SPANISH ancestry. Some even invent fictitious SPANISH genealogies. Those who have the money always try TO BUY THEIR WHITENESS by consuming Western brands, living in "exclusive" villages such as Forbes Park, Dasmariñas Village or Ayala Alabang and buying memberships in "exclusive" clubs such as the Manila Polo Club. Just like Rizal's father, they send their children to attend "exclusive" Catholic schools. Thinking of themselves as white, they hold their weddings inside Intramuros and deride those living in Binondo as "I.B." or Intsik Beho when in fact Binondo -- NOT Intramuros -- is their HISTORIC BIRTHPLACE and ANCESTRAL HOMETOWN!
This need to REINVENT themselves as WHITE becomes even more pronounced outside the Philippines where the easiest way to become white is to sleep with whites or to marry white. For example, the status-conscious father of Andrew Cunanan sent his son to the "exclusive" Bishop's School in La Jolla, California. Cunanan would later try to REINVENT himself by changing his last name to "DaSilva" and by seeking the company of wealthy white men as his lovers. In the same vein, the status-conscious father of Jose Rizal sent his son to the "exclusive" Ateneo de Municipal in Intramuros and changed their family name from "Mercado" to "Rizal". Rizal would later take on half-a-dozen white lovers while in Europe. Although he caricatured Doña Victorina's attempts to marry white in his first novel Noli Me Tangere, Rizal himself ended up marrying a poor white Eurasian born in Hong Kong to a white British man and a Chinese woman: Josephine Bracken.
Anti beast (talk) 06:27, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Why do the mestizos de sangley have to buy their WHITENESS if they were treated better than the indios? 75.62.104.19 (talk) 08:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

The Spaniards created the mestizos de sangley in their own image by forcing them to adopt Spanish or Spanish-sounding names (e.g., San Lorenzo Ruiz) whereas the indios had to wait more than 250 years before Claveria's decree forced them to adopt Spanish names. However, unlike the mestizos and tornatrás, the mestizos de sangley were NOT treated as white because they had CHINESE not SPANISH blood! Remember the Philippines was a SPANISH not a CHINESE colony. Born and raised in Binondo, the mestizos de sangley grew up looking across the Pasig River at the WHITES-ONLY walled city of Intramuros with a mixture of awe, fear and longing. For 250 years, they were on the outside looking in at that Citadel of Whiteness in the Philippines. When the whites finally allowed the non-whites to attend the schools and universities inside Intramuros, the mestizos de sangley like Rizal took every chance to seize the opportunity. At the same time, with the arrival of steamboats, wealthy scions of mestizos de sangley families could now travel to Europe. Retana writes of Rizal:
   He came to the Peninsula at the age of 21, carrying a burden of sorrow in his soul. His academic triumphs, his success 
   in public literary contests moved him to compare himself with white people, and he ended up feeling superior to them.
   Nevertheless, in his country he was nothing more than an indio, and because of it he was wounded in the back...
In other words, like the proverbial frogs sitting at the bottom of the well for 250 years, they now had the chance to wade in the small pond of water. But the smart and rich ones could also climb out of the well and some of them did like Rizal and his fellow ilustrados. Whereas before they longed for acceptance in the small pond of WHITENESS -- Intramuros -- in the Philippines, suddenly after climbing out of the well, a vast ocean of WHITENESS appeared right before them: Spain, Latin America and the HISPANIC WORLD; Europe, North America and WHITE CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION! Rizal quickly mastered several European languages whereas in the Philippines, most Filipinos were not even allowed to learn Spanish! (That's why the Women of Malolos -- who belonged to wealthy, prominent mestizo de sangley families -- petitioned the Spanish Governor-General to open a night-school for teaching Spanish -- because they want to be sosyal -- but which the Spanish Friars vehemently opposed. Rizal wrote a letter to them "Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos" in TAGALOG.) Rizal then took on a string of WHITE lovers with WHITE skin, WHITE bodies, WHITE breasts whereas in the Philippines, the few whites living in the colony could be found only in Intramuros. Rizal just as quickly abandoned his Spanish mestiza girlfriend (Leonor Rivera) back in the Philippines. (Who cares about brown-skinned mestizas when you can have white-skinned Europeans?) Those were heady days and exhilarating times for Rizal and his fellow ilustrados. Surrounded by White Women, engulfed by White Culture and kissed by the White Goddess, they no longer felt like frogs from the bottom of the well, those savage islands called the Philippines. Instead, they felt like gods at the top of the well -- like true Spaniards -- who belonged to Spain, the Hispanic World and White Christian Civilization! They thought of themselves as white! (Calling themselves Los Indios Bravos was intended as a pun). They wrote about the abuses committed by the whites back in the Philippines. They wanted Philippine-born Filipinos to be accepted as white. Rizal went back to the Philippines. Exiled to Dapitan, he married WHITE. The Spanish Friars were livid -- how dare that indio insult them, the white masters of the Philippines? They wanted him dead. When the Katipunan Revolution broke out in 1896, Rizal disowned the indios dying by the thousands fighting the Spanish Army in the Philippines. He wanted to risk his life for Spain by enlisting as a medical doctor in the Spanish Army in Cuba. Rizal was en-route to Barcelona to accept his commission when the ship carrying him was turned back. In a mock trial lasting only a day, he was sentenced to death for the crime of rebellion. Why do they have to buy their WHITENESS? To quote Fanon:
   Out of the blackest part of my soul, across the zebra striping of my mind, surges this desire to be suddenly white...
   I marry white culture, white beauty, white whiteness. When my restless hands caress those white breasts, they grasp white 
   civilization and dignity and make them mine.
Anti beast (talk) 00:34, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

How did the Spaniards view the mestizos de sangley? 75.62.104.19 (talk) 08:05, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

The Spaniards viewed them with contempt and treated them with disdain. The Spaniards created the mestizo de sangley out of the bloody sangley massacres and expulsions of the 17th century. At the onset of Spanish rule, the whites needed a colonial workforce to help them build Manila and recruited Chinese migrants (called sangleys) to do the work for them. After the Chinese Pirate Limahong sacked Manila, the whites viewed the sangleys as a threat to their newfound colony and began treating them as "enemy aliens" thereafter. Spain issued a royal decree banning sangleys from residing in the colony. However, because their services as traders and artisans were needed in the colony, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas found a way to accommodate the sangleys: "induce" them to convert to Catholicism, allow them to intermarry with indio women and create a special district for the converted sangleys and their families. This district was called Binondo, the designated place for their mixed-race descendants, the mestizos de sangley. Because Binondo was (and still is) full of beho (traditional Chinese: 馬塵; Hokkien: beh hoo; English: horseshit), the sangleys who salivated at the prospect of marrying indios were thus called intsik beho tulo laway. To avenge the death of his father Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas at the hands of sangleys, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas orchestrated the First Great Massacre of 1603 in which up to 24,000 sangleys died. The Spaniards, fearful of a Chinese reprisal, sent emissaries to China to explain their actions and received this reply from the Chinese rulers regarding the sangleys:
   ...those whom the Castilians have killed were wicked people, ungrateful to China, their native country, their elders, 
   and their parents, as they have not returned to China now for very many years...
That is to say -- China DISOWNED them! At the time of the Ming Dynasty, it was illegal for Chinese subjects to emigrate and those who did so CEASED TO BE CHINESE. Later, under the Qing Dynasty, illegal emigration turned into a capital offense -- those who had left illegally faced the death penalty upon their return to China. As STATELESS PERSONS, they had to become colonial subjects of the Spanish Crown in order to remain in the islands.
Thus, the Spaniards created them as a matter of political expediency and economic necessity because the whites needed a class of people who would be loyal to the Spanish Crown and faithful to the Catholic Religion, and who would thereby act as a colonial middlemen between the whites and the indios. That the Spaniards succeeded in this respect is explained by Wickberg as follows:
   Historically, the mestizos had supported Spanish rule on more than one occasion. During the various Chinese revolts of former
   centuries the mestizos had either sided with the Spanish or else taken no part. The mestizos of Binondo were especially proud 
   of their record in this respect, and repeatedly called attention to it, styling themselves "true sons of Spain." In any event,
   the mestizos did not side with the Chinese against Spanish rule. Nor do we find, when we examine indio revolts against Spanish
   rule, any pattern of mestizo participation. If the mestizos' political record was apparently pro-Spanish, their cultural record
   was certainly so. There seemed to be no attachment to Chinese culture, and, instead, a very strong affinity for a Philippine
   version of Hispanic culture. Their interest in Catholicism was particularly strong. Individually and corporately they generously
   endowed local Catholic churches, the centers of local Spanish cultural influence...Even the mestizo way of dress, so far from 
   showing any Chinese influence, was a semi-European, semi-indio style — a style also affected by the Spanish mestizo in the 
   Philippines. The illustrations of mestizo dress one finds in Mallat — in particular the man's dress, with high silk hat and 
   knee-length shirt — were models of what the urbanized hispanized Filipino of the late nineteenth century would wear. The Chinese
   mestizo, clearly, was as hispanized — if not more so — as was the urbanized indio.
Anti beast (talk) 19:31, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean the sangleys CEASED TO BE CHINESE? 211.156.87.16 (talk) 12:44, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

During the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Ching Dynasty (1644-1912), the Chinese rulers enacted laws barring Chinese subjects from emigrating overseas. This reversed centuries-old policies which had allowed maritime trade to flourish during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) reaching a peak in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during Zheng He's voyages. Under the late Ming, Chinese male emigrants who had settled permanently overseas lost their Chinese nationality. This was in conformity to Confucian precepts which had extolled the virtue of filial obligation to one's ancestral homeland. During the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu rulers, recognizing the threat posed by Chinese emigrants, turned illegal emigration into a capital offense punishable by death. For abandoning China to settle down in Binondo, the sangleys forfeited their Chinese nationality and became effectively STATELESS PERSONS. The sangleys turned into colonial subjects of the Spanish Crown only after they had converted to Catholicism and had adopted Spanish-sounding names.
In Japan, after the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603 – 1868), the Japanese rulers passed anti-Christian edicts such as the "Statement on the Expulsion of the Bateren" drafted by the Zen Buddhist monk Ishin Suden and issued over the vermilion seal of Shogun Hidetada at the behest of Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1614, as follows:
    And now the band of Kirishitans has unexpectedly come to Japan. They do not merely sail trading vessels here to traffic
    in commodities. Rather, they recklessly desire to spread a pernicious doctrine, confound true religion, change the 
    governmental authority of this realm, and make it their own possession. These are the germs of disaster. This band must
    not be left unsuppressed. Japan is the Land of the Gods and the Land of the Buddhas. The gods are hallowed here and the
    Buddhas revered; the Way of humanity and rightness is followed assiduously, and laws regarding good and evil are perfected. 
    All of that notorious band, the Bateren, contravene the aforesaid governmental regimen, traduce the Way of the Gods,
    calumniate the True Law, derange righteousness, and debase goodness...These are truly the enemies of the gods and the 
    enemies of the Buddhas. If they are not banned immediately, the state will be sure to suffer grief in the future...
    So purge Japan of them! Expel them quickly without giving them an inch of land to grasp, a foot of ground to stand on!
    And if any dare resist these orders, they shall be executed.
From the point of view of the Japanese Samurai, the mestizo de sangley also CEASED TO BE ASIAN as well after conversion to that "pernicious" religion, Christianity. This was the reason why the Japanese Samurai tortured San Lorenzo Ruiz to death in Nagasaki, Japan in 1637. In his memory, the following children's rhyme was composed:
    De donde vienes? 
    De Binondo 
    Y que traes? 
    El Mestizo de Sangley.
Today, things haven't changed much for Chinese immigrants to the Philippines. The intsik students of Xavier and ICA want to DENY THEIR CHINESE ETHNICITY while the so-called mestizos of Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle Greenhills would do anything to DENY THEIR CHINESE ANCESTRY. They want to denigrate their fellow Chinese immigrants in Binondo as "G.I." or "Genuine Intsik" who are merely repeating a FOUR HUNDRED YEAR pattern of settlement, intermarriage and assimilation ever since the First Great Sangley Massacre of 1603 gave bloody birth to the original mestizo de sangley community of Binondo. Among them was San Lorenzo Ruiz, a mestizo de sangley who would later become the First Filipino Saint. The Binondo Church (now known as Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz) became the veritable refuge for the horrified survivors of the four bloody Sangley Massacres of 1603, 1639, 1662 and 1686 where close to 80,000 sangleys died.
Then as now, the Chinese rulers were quite clear as to the status of the sangleys:
   ...those whom the Castilians have killed were wicked people, ungrateful to China, their native country, their elders, 
   and their parents, as they have not returned to China now for very many years...
The Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國) in Mainland China is explicitly clear as to who has Chinese Nationality:
   Article 9: Any Chinese national who has settled abroad and who has been naturalized as a foreign national or has acquired
   foreign nationality of his own free will shall automatically lose Chinese nationality.
Rizal wrote about the sangley massacres of the 17th century in Noli Me Tangere which was written in the 19th century some two centuries after the bloody events:
   'No, it was nothing of the kind', answered the man who had asked the first question, 'It was the Chinamen who had rebelled.' 
   With this he shut his window. 'The Chinamen!' echoed all in great astonishment. 'That's why not one of them is to be seen!'
   'What a pity!' exclaimed Sister Ruja. 'To get killed just before Christmas when they bring around their presents! They should
   have waited until New Year's.'
Two centuries later, Rizal wanted to DESECRATE the memory of his own sangley ancestors who were slaughtered in the sangley massacres of the 17th century. In the same novel, he went on to EXCISE his own ethnicity by "throwing the dead body of Don Rafael Ibarra into the lake". Remember, Rizal's ethnic status as mestizo de sangley was based on his patrilineal descent from his original sangley ancestor -- Domingo Lam-co -- down to his mestizo de sangley father -- Francisco Mercado. Metaphorically, by "throwing the dead body of the hero's father into the lake", Rizal was trying to EXCISE HIS OWN ETHNICITY. He would then be free to REINVENT HIMSELF AS WHITE by concocting a SPANISH genealogy for his hero, Crisostomo Ibarra.
Spanish Ancestry of Crisostomo Ibarra Ethnic Status
Don Pedro Eibarramendia Spanish Settler
Don Saturnino Ibarra Spanish mestizo
Don Rafael Ibarra Spanish mestizo
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra Spanish mestizo
In many ways, Rizal behaved like the prototypical mestizo de sangley who would do ANYTHING to become white. Neither white nor indio, Rizal was a mestizo de sangley who didn't want to be a mestizo de sangley. He betrayed his own family -- his brother was tortured by the Spanish Authorities -- by enlisting as a medical doctor in the Spanish Army in Cuba. He betrayed his own country by siding with the whites against the indios during the Katipunan Revolution of 1896. He betrayed his own self by writing his last farewell -- Mi último adiós -- in SPANISH, the language of his executioners. He disowned his own people, the mestizos de sangley, by desecrating the memory of his own sangley ancestors who were brutally massacred and expelled during the 17th century. Four bloody sangley massacres -- 1603, 1639, 1662, 1686 -- took place in the 17th century. Rizal's paternal ancestor -- Domingo Lam-co -- missed the last sangley massacre of 1686. By converting to Catholicism and getting baptized at age 35, he was allowed to leave the Parían and to settle down in Biñan, Laguna where he prospered. He adopted the Spanish-sounding surname "Mercado" which means "market" to spare his descendants from anti-Chinese violence. But Rizal could never escape from the anti-Chinese racism of the Spanish Conquistadores. The Spanish Friars, for example, were virulently racist towards Rizal and would constantly insult him with ethnic slurs such as un vulgar mesticillo chino which means "vulgar Chinese half-breed".
But even this was not enough for Rizal.
In an allegorical sense, Rizal's novels serve as some kind of a CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD. If everything about Rizal -- his mind, heart and soul -- was white, then his only problem was that his brown body -- his indio body with sangley blood -- was not white. Similarly, if everything about the Philippines is white, then the only problem was that the people in the Philippines were not white. Rizal could become white only if the Spaniards kill him and get rid of his brown body, metaphorically representing the death of his own people. As the Filipino Christ, Rizal died so that his own people may become white. Rizal had anticipated the PHILIPPINE GENOCIDE in his "The Philippines: A Century Hence" when he asked pensively:
   What good would the Philippines be without the Filipinos?
After his execution, Rizal did turn white when he was eulogized by his biographer as a "Spaniard". His disciples -- the ilustrados -- now had to carry out his DEATH WISH which became reality with the arrival of the U.S. Military in the Philippines:
   Apres moi, le deluge.
Anti beast (talk) 11:04, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

This is quite inaccurate. History books say that Sangley is the generic term for the Chinese immigrants during the Spanish era. Here's an article with regards to the term Sangley [[1]]

I corrected the stale hyperlink above and also the inaccuracies reported. I added a more thorough explanation of the terms used by the Spanish authorities to classify the inhabitants of the islands. It would be useful to compare those terms with those used in Latin America. What do you think? Anti beast (talk) 16:38, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
Sangley? Never heard of this word. In Latin America, we use the word chino to describe someone from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines and other Asian countries. Mestizo de Sangley? Never heard of this weird term. Please see Mestizo. 75.62.104.9 (talk) 06:51, 24 December 2007 (UTC)
Sangley literally means business in a Chinese dialect called Hokkien. Although the term mestizo de sangley literally translates to mixed-race business person, the Spaniards used the term to refer specifically to mixed-race people of Chinese descent living in Binondo, Manila during the Spanish Colonial Period. Anyway, the term mestizo is used differently in Latin America than in the Philippines. Here's a summary of the terms commonly used in Latin America: Anti beast (talk) 06:21, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
Term Description
Indio indigenous person
Mestizo mixed-race person of Spanish or European and Indio ancestry
Mulatto mixed-race person of Spanish or European and African ancestry
Zambo mixed-race person of African and Indio ancestry
Criollo pure-blooded Spaniard born in the Americas
Chino person of East Asian origin
Here in Venezuela, we use mestizo to refer to people with European and Indio blood. Hugo Chavez who is half-mestizo and half-zambo is waging a Bolivarian Revolution against the criollos or whites. Are there criollos and mestizos in the Philippines? 75.62.104.199 (talk) 04:00, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
There are several white criollos who are quite prominent in the Philippines, i.e., pure-blooded Spanish Filipinos such as the Ayala, Soriano and Ortigas families. However, unlike Latin America, most of the people who emigrated to the Philippines were neither Spanish nor European, they were Chinese immigrants. But the Spanish authorities didn't know what to call these people, so they used the word "sangley" which means business in the Chinese Hokkien dialect. Most of these Chinese immigrants intermarried with the indios and sired a new race called mestizo de sangley. Of course, mestizo de sangley does not exist in Latin America. Instead, the word chino is used to describe people of East Asian ancestry. Barrio Chino, for example, means China Town. I have friends from Peru who refer to Alberto Fujimori as chino because he is a Latin American of Japanese descent who speaks fluent Spanish. Anti beast (talk) 06:22, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
Hugo Chavez is not popular with the white criollos who comprise the upper class in Venezuela. They make fun of his physical features such as his big lips and call him all sorts of names, for example, el indio putumayo, which is extremely derogatory in Venezuela. Being mostly indio with negro blood, Chavez calls himself the first Zambo President of Venezuela. By the way, Venezuela is famous for its beauty queens most of whom are white criollos. Are the mestizos de sangley prominent in the Philippines? 75.62.104.199 (talk) 05:37, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
Chavez who is a Zambo with African blood reminds me of Marcos who is an Ilocano with Sangley blood. Both are outsiders who went after the white establishment after taking power. However, unlike Latin America where most of the upper class are white, in the Philippines today, most of the upper and middle classes are mestizo de sangley. This is because many of the whites who settled the islands after 1850 left the country after WWII and during the Marcos regime. Not being white, the mestizo de sangley upper class have the wealth and power but not the status of the whites. The few white criollos left like the Zobel de Ayala family who claim descent from Spanish Aristocracy enjoy the highest status in Philippine Society. Anti beast (talk) 12:14, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
If the mestizos de sangley have money and power how come they don't have status in Philippine Society? 75.62.104.19 (talk) 08:54, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
The reason is because they are descendants of Chinese immigrants and not Spanish settlers. Let me explain this by using an example. Consider the case of San Miguel Corporation. Founded in 1890, it was managed by the Andres Soriano family for three generations. After Andres Soriano, Jr. died in 1984, Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. gained ownership of the company but had to surrender it to the government after Marcos fell from power in 1986. The government then asked Andres Soriano III to take over until 1998 when Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. regained control of the company.
San Miguel Corporation was considered the crown jewel of the Spanish Filipino business elites not only because of its size but more because of the way it was run: it was once a bastion of whiteness in the Philippines. When John Gokongwei, Jr. attempted to gain a board seat in 1976, the media painted him as a "pygmy" while the Board of Directors placed ads in the newspapers opposing his efforts. As expected, due to a Supreme Court ruling he failed in what should have been a mundane business transaction for public corporations.
Business Person Ethnicity
Andres Soriano, Jr. white criollo
Andres Soriano III white criollo
Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. mestizo de sangley
John Gokongwei, Jr. sangley
To view the corporate maneuvers from a historical perspective, one should consider the Spanish colonial legacy of "mestizaje" which privileges whiteness against all others. During the Spanish Colonial Period, it would have been unthinkable for either a sangley or mestizo de sangley to gain entry into Intramuros, the whites-only walled city in Manila, much less gain a seat in the San Agustin Church, the sacred burial ground of the white Spanish Conquistadores. Where Gokongwei failed Cojuangco succeeded largely because of Marcos who became President in 1965.
In politics, the ideology of "mestizaje" also manifests itself when Filipino politicians such as Sergio Osmeña or Alfredo Lim are maligned for their Chinese ancestry while those with Spanish ancestry such as Manuel L. Quezon or Lorenzo Tañada are celebrated. Even prominent Filipino "Nationalists" such as Don Claro M. Recto, a pure-blooded indio from the Tagalog tribe who styled himself as a "little brown Hispanic", are revered and respected for his fluency in the Spanish language and his mastery of Hispanic culture. Indeed, Filipinos with Chinese ancestry are supposed to denigrate their East Asian roots and to behave like "little brown Hispanics" .
Politician Ethnicity
Lorenzo Tañada white criollo
Manuel Quezon mestizo
Sergio Osmeña mestizo de sangley
Claro Recto indio
This state of affairs changed after Marcos came to power. Just one year after taking office in 1966, in a speech before the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), he remarked:

I have Chinese blood in me...I am not ashamed to admit that perhaps the great leaders of our country all have Chinese blood.

Not only that, whereas the Ayalas claim descent from Spanish nobility, Marcos claimed spiritual descent from the Chinese Pirate Limahong who attacked Manila during the early years of Spanish Colonization which led the Spaniards to build the walled city of Intramuros. Marcos tried but failed to overturn the "mestizaje" ideology of whiteness, among other vestiges of the Spanish colonial legacy in the Philippines (as in Latin America). Hispanic Filipinos hate Marcos not because he was a corrupt dictator but because he was too bakya for the sosyal crowd: he attended public schools, spoke Ilocano, promoted Ilocanos to high offices. He couldn't do the Tango, Cha-cha or Salsa unlike, say, Manuel L. Quezon. They wouldn't mind if one of their own kind became a corrupt caudillo dictator in the Latin American tradition. That's why Marcos declared Martial Law because he wanted to prove his manhood. He even attempted to rename the Philippines to impress his white mistress by showing that he had a big brown phallus. Similarly, in Venezuela, Chavez is trying to wage a second Bolivarian Revolution against the white criollos in Latin America. Ironically, Simón Bolívar, the Great Liberator of the Americas, was a native-born white criollo of Spanish noble lineage. And Bolivia, the country named in his honor, produced its first indio president in its 500 year history, Evo Morales, only in 2006. Anti beast (talk) 05:55, 3 August 2008 (UTC)