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Culture & Groups Mexican loanwords in the Filipino language

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Amado
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acheute[sic] (Ixa arellana), achiti or asueti
anonas (Anona reticulata)
balimbin (Averrhoa carambola) or balimbing, which is of the same family as camias (Averrhoa bilimbi), known here as kamias or kalamyas;
avocado (Persea Americana) [sic]
caimito --> what we have Anglicized to "star apple", as though to say that, if there's no English translation for something, it doesn't exist; a very American way of regarding the world and a sick way of regarding ourselves
calabaza (Cucurbita maxima) or kalabasa or karabasa
chayote, which is better known as sayote
ciruela (Spondias purpurea) sinigwelas
casui (Cassuvium reniforme) or kasuy or balubad
guyaba (Psidum guajav) [sic] or bayabas
guayabano (Anona muricata) or guyabano
hicamas (Pachyrrhizus jicamas) or singkamas
maiz (Zea mays) or mais
papaya
pimienta (Piper nigrum) from the Indies but introduced via Mexico and known as paminta
zapote --> what kind of plant is this? isn't this a synonym of chico (sapodilla)?

Fruits and vegetables whose names end with “te” --> chayote and zapote should be on this list instead

tomate (Lycopersicum escukentum)[sic] which we call kamatis --> the scientific name should be either L. esculentum or L. lycopersicon Linn.
cacahuate (Arachis hypogaca)[sic] which is now cultivated for its pretty pink flowers and known locally as kakawate, madre kakaw or marikakaw --> I thought cacahuate is peanut or mani. And, oh, it should be hypogea.
camote (Ipomea Batatas) [sic] which has the same name in Mexico and the Philippines although the name comes from the Aztec camotl --> Batatas should be lowercase.
chocolate, which is known locally as tsokolate or sikulate but came from the Aztec zocatl

--> The typos are disappointing. These make us suspicious of whether Ocampo got the even harder native Mexican words right.

Other fruits:

camachile (Inga punges or Inga dulcis), the plant not the cookies that are shaped like the kamatsili fruit from the thorny tree, and came from the Aztec Cuanhmochitl
chico (Achras zapota) comes from the Aztec xicotzaptl
cereza (Muntingia calabura), small, sweet and full of seeds and better known as aratilis, ratiles or datiles, but called saresa in Pampanga.

Everyday plants or ornamentals of Mexican origin:

azucena (Plianthes tuberosa) which is cultivated for its white and fragrant flowers
cactus
calachuche (Plumeria acuminata), an ornamental that is also known as frangipani or kalatsutsi, kalasusi, karatutse, or kalanotse
chichirica (Catharanthus roseus), an ornamental plant that is also known as kantutan --> What the heck. You serious? As Google puts it, did you mean kantutay?
pascuas (Poinsettia pulcherrima) which is often given away or displayed during Christmas so that it is sometimes called pasko instead of poinsettia

--> Question: Isn't the yucky-tasting fruit chesa a Mexican import as well?

-->I've gathered elsewhere that the 'Tagalog' words tianggetocayopalenquenanay, and tatay are also Mexican-sourced words. I'm sure there are a dictionary-full more. We should unearth that little ancient Leon Ma. Guerrero reference book.

Here are more entries from   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tagalog_loanwords#Nahuatl_.28Aztec_Mexican.29

ensaymada from Nahuatl ensaïmada and Spanish ensaimada (a kind of pastry)
pitaka from petlacalli and petaca (coin purse)
sukil from xochitl, suchil (a flower)
tsonggo from chango, chango (monkey)
sili from chilli, chile (chili pepper; all chilis reportedly came from the Americas (and must have come to us via the galleon trade - RO)

the Spanish loanwords in the Filipino language are actually Mexican Uto-Aztecan loanwords. 

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Prau123 avatar
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Filipinos are usually not aware that the vocabulary words originated from the Native Indians that spoke Nahuatl language in Mexico and they presume that these words are originally Spanish brought by Spaniards during the Manila Acapulco Galleon Trade between 1565 to 1815.

 

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Amado
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@prau123

Some of the Filipino cuisines have a Mexican influence too. I will make a thread about the historical influence. 

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@Amado

 

Mexicans made our dishes more hotter and spicier in some regions in Philippines by using Sili Pepper on several dishes which translates to 'Wild Chili' which originated in Mexico.  The Filipino dish that's well known throughout Philippines is called Bicol Express.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sili Pepper

 

Siling labuyo - Wikipedia

 

image

 

 

 

 

 

Bicol Express

 

image

 

 

 

 

 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@prau123

 

Bicolanos have a large percentage thats of Mexican descent. 2 out of 10 Bicolanos or 20% of all Bicolanos are Mexican...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicolano_people

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@selurong

 

 

 

20% Bicolanos having Hispanic Ancestry refers to Mestizos and Cholos because when I was in Legazpi, Bicol for a few weeks, I only saw one Filipina who could pass up as a Mexican Spanish.  Majority of the population appear to look like typical Filipinos and there's also a large Indian population. 

Btw, 20% appears a bit too high to me.

 

 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@prau123

I have facebook friends from Bicol and alot them can pass as Cholo or Mexican.

 

Even the current Vice President, Leni Robredo who is from Bicol can look Mexican Mestiza.

 

Leni Robredo of Bicol.

 

image
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@selurong

 

 

 

 

 

Hispanics prefer their dish to be hot and spicy and it was them that brought the Sili Pepper to Bicol. There's probably a sizeable Hispanic population at one time in Bicol and others provinces in Philippines (1500's to turn of the century) but several of them have already interbred with the indigenous Filipinos.  

 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@prau123

 

Not only that, Bicol also became, alongside Cavite, the shipbuilding center of the Philippines. They had to import alot of skilled Mexican labor and Spanish designers to build the Galleons in the Astilleros of Bicol.

 

http://www.themua.org/collections/items/show/1594

 

 

 

 

 

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@selurong

 

 

There were several Mexicans and Spaniards in Philippines back in those days and it seems as if today we rarely see them. The demographics during those times were different compared to today.

Several Mestizos in the Philippines today are descendants of shipbuilders (in particular Galleons).

Although today Filipinos do like to discuss about those time period because the remnants of their architectures, arts, dishes, clothing, some vocabulary, etc. are still visible today.

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@prau123

 

Yeah agreed. Without fresh immigration from the Latin world, what Filipinos have of Hispanicity are remnants which keep getting diluted with each passing generation.

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Amado
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@prau123

I have never tried Filipino food before but based on the pictures here, it seems Filipino food is interesting to try out. 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@Amado

A lot of common foods with Mexico such as Chicharon, Barquillos, Champorado, Kaldereta and etc.

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Amado
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@selurong

I know Filipinos eat plantain chips just like we do. 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@Amado

 

Mexico literally fed the Philippines during the Spanish era. 

The Silver Subsidy, and foodstuff supplied by Peru and Mexico to wartorn Philippines was a feeding too (War with Muslims in the South and Japanese Pirates to the north, made sure that the territory was always on the edge of chaos)

 

If I remember rightly the local Criollos called the Manila Galleons which freshly arrived from Acapulco with weapons, food, money and colonists as the "Armada de Socoro". 

 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/forced-migration-in-the-spanish-pacific-world/intertwined-histories-in-the-pacific/B9884057A52870B8D9519C53104D2C21/core-reader

 

 

 

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Amado
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@selurong

I'm still learning about Mexican history in the Philippines. I wish there were more books about this history because the general Mexican population has no idea about the Philippines.

Usually, most of the Mexicans who aware of this are Mexican-Americans. 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@Amado

There are plenty of books the problem is that since Americans forced us to speak English and they demonized Spanish as the language of poor nations, after colonizing us, we forgot the volumes of material we had in our relationship with the Hispanic world. When our original Constitution was written in Spanish, our original flag was modelled after the Argentinian Sun of May in the Argentine Revolution, we took the blue and red colors in the flag from the Cuban flag. 

 

And that, it was Latinos who inspired the Philippine revolution against Spain.

 

Novales Revolt

Novales' unease with the way Spanish authorities treated creoles later grew, reaching its climax when peninsulars were shipped to the Philippines to replace Creole officers. He found the sympathy of many Creoles, including Luis Rodríguez Varela ("El Conde Filipino") as well as demoted Latin American officers in the Spanish Army. "Officers in the army of the Philippines were almost totally composed of Americans," observed the Spanish historian José Montero y Vidal. "They received in great disgust the arrival of peninsular officers as reinforcements, partly because they supposed they would be shoved aside in the promotions and partly because of racial antagonisms." As punishment for this dissent, many military officers and public officials were exiled, including Novales, who was exiled to Mindanao to fight pirates. Undeterred, he secretly returned to Manila.[1]

On the night of June 1, 1823, Novales, along with a certain sub-lieutenant Ruiz and other subordinates in the King's Regiment, as well as discontented former Latino officers "americanos", composed mostly of Mexicans with a sprinkling of Creoles and mestizos from the now independent nations of Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica,[3] went out to start a revolt.[2][4] Along with 800 Filipinos which his sergeants recruited, they seized the Governor-General's Palace, the Manila Cathedral, the city's cabildo (city hall) and other important government buildings in Intramuros.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Novales

 

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Amado
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@selurong

Was it Mexicans who inspired the Philippine Independence? 

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Rene B. Sarabia Jr
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@Amado

 

Not just Mexicans, several Latin American countries. Mexicans laid the foundation by inspiring local revolts before the Philippine Revolution occured.

 

Much like Guererro state in Mexico which had alot of Filipino exiled, being a center of the Mexican independence movement.

 

Cavite province in the Philippines which took in alot of exiled Mexicans also became the eventual center of the Philippine revolution.

 

We also patterned our constitution on the American, French, Argentinian, Cuban and Mexican constitutions.

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@Amado

Several Filipino dishes/desserts are variants from Latin America/Latin Europe and therefore you've actually tried some of them already. Filipino Leche Flan is the same as Mexican Leche Flan. I am surprise that you have not tried Filipino dishes yet since you're acquainted with a lot of Filipino co-workers. 

 

 

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dyno avatar
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How do you say, you are very pretty in spanish? 

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Amado
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@dyno

Eres tan hermosa.

awww Thank You 😉 

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Lannie avatar
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Great journalism. 

 

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Germinator
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 I didn't know this was Mexican words Happy  

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