[Solved] Filipinos discovered California

ZeXsY(PMP23) · 2020-08-05T18:43:05Z

On September 25, 2009, the state of California officially declared October as “Filipino American History Month” to honor the first Filipinos to set foot in California 426 years ago this week. Starting in January of 2014, thanks to a law authored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta, the first Filipino American elected to the State Legislature, California’s school children will learn more about Filipino American history.After learning about Filipino American history in California, people may conclude that Filipinos “discovered” California, which would be true but only in the same Eurocentric sense that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492 and Ferdinand Magellan “discovered” the Philippines in 1521.Unamuno’s unrecognized discoveryAlmost a century after Columbus discovered the Bahamas Islands (which he thought was India) and claimed this “New World” for the king of Spain, Spanish Captain Pedro De Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of that American continent while on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco.Although Columbus’ discovery is celebrated this October 14 as a national holiday in the United States, which Native Americans celebrate as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day”, no such honor is accorded Unamuno for his “discovery” of California on October 18, 1587.In fact, his discovery is not even recognized by Spain and is only commemorated by the Filipino American community because Unamuno reported in his ship’s logs that his deck crew was composed of “Luzones Indios”.Unamuno’s unrecognized discoveryAlmost a century after Columbus discovered the Bahamas Islands (which he thought was India) and claimed this “New World” for the king of Spain, Spanish Captain Pedro De Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of that American continent while on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco.Although Columbus’ discovery is celebrated this October 14 as a national holiday in the United States, which Native Americans celebrate as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day”, no such honor is accorded Unamuno for his “discovery” of California on October 18, 1587.In fact, his discovery is not even recognized by Spain and is only commemorated by the Filipino American community because Unamuno reported in his ship’s logs that his deck crew was composed of “Luzones Indios”.Manila-Acapulco galleon tradeUnamuno’s discovery of California was an offshoot of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi who sailed to Manila from Acapulco, Mexico in November of 1564. Assisting Legaspi in his two month long voyage was his chief navigator, Fr. Andres de Urdaneta.ADVERTISEMENTWhile Legaspi stayed in the islands that were named “Las Islas Filipinas” after the king of Spain, Fr. Urdaneta returned back to Acapulco. Just as he was nearing Mexico, Fr. Urdaneta sighted land that was not found in any of his charts. As he sought to find this land, he lost track of it in the mist and so continued on to Acapulco where he reported what he saw.Over the next 20 years, Fr. Urdaneta’s route from Manila to Acapulco was followed by Spanish galleon ships many of which were made in the Philippine islands and staffed with a crew of conscripted “Luzones Indios”. The main island of the new Spanish colony was Luzones (later shortened to Luzon) and all the natives therein were “Indios” as they were generically called in all Spanish colonies (because Columbus thought he discovered India).These “Luzones Indios” would later be called “Filipinos” so that is how I will refer to them below.In 1585, Archbishop of Mexico Pedro Moya De Contreras instructed Spanish Captain Francisco Gali, who was traveling to Manila from Acapulco as part of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, that on his way back, he was “to reconnoiter down the coast” to find the land that Fr. Urdaneta reported sighting.No detour to ChinaArchbishop Contreras specifically instructed Gali not to stop by China, mindful of the intense interest by Acapulco merchants in establishing direct commercial trade and commerce with China instead of having to go through the Spanish merchants in Manila. Unbeknownst to Gali, the Acapulco merchants had given money to Gali’s second in command, Pedro De Unamuno, to go to China. Fortuitously for the merchants, Gali died while in Manila, leaving command of his two ships to Capt. Unamuno.Before leaving Manila with two galleon ships and a crew of Spanish soldiers and Filipino deck hands, Unamuno was warned by the Manila authorities not to detour to China as they heard rumors that the Acapulco merchants wanted to bypass Manila and acquire their Chinese goods directly from China.Once Unamuno left Manila, however, he set sail for China. He would later claim in his defense that his diversion to China was accidental and due to “bad weather and lack of supplies”.When Unamuno landed in Macao, China, the Portuguese authorities there seized his ships as they viewed direct Spanish trade with China as inimical to their own trade interests. After they reported his China i...

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Philippian Isles of Austronesians (Las Isles Filipinas)

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Aug 20, 2020 6:52 pm

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Marina del Rey has streets named after the provinces of the Philippines. The street names include Palawan, Panay, Mindanao. Marina del Rey is a seaside community located in Los Angeles, California.

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