Asian Ancestors Detected in DNA Study in Mexico

@rodriguez

Article

Their DNA resembled that of present-day populations from the Philippines and Indonesia. Historic records suggest their ancestors may have been enslaved and carried from Asia to Mexico in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on Spanish galleons. “We’re uncovering these hidden stories of slavery and people who lost their identities when they disembarked in a whole new country,” Moreno-Estrada said. For more on the colonial history of Mexico, go to “Conquistador Contagion.”

Wikipedia suggest that the Filipinos onboard the Spanish Galleons were not entirely slaves.  There were Filipinos onboard the ships that were also sailors, crews, adventurers, prisoners. 

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_immigration_to_Mexico#:~:text=Most%20of%20their%20Filipino%20ancestors,during%20the%20Spanish%20colonial%20period.&text=Smaller%20waves%20of%20Filipino%20migration,American%20War%20of%201898%E2%80%931900.

Most of their Filipino ancestors arrived in Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. For two and a half centuries, between 1565 and 1815, many Filipinos and Mexicans sailed to and from Mexico and the Philippines as sailors, crews, slaves, prisoners, adventurers and soldiers in the Manila-Acapulco Galleon assisting Spain in its trade between Asia and the Americas. Some of these sailors never returned to the Philippines. Most settled in and integrated into the Mexican society. 

The Filipinos slaves that finally arrived at Guerrero state in Mexico probably got their freedom back as they integrated with the common native people of the time.