Sangley - Politics

Politics

The Spanish authorities had initially depended upon the unconverted sanglays to both supply the labor and manage the colonial economy of the islands. But after the attacks of Chinese pirate Limahong, the Spanish colonists viewed the sanglays differently, fearing them as enemy aliens who posed a security threat due to their number. To protect their precarious position, the Spaniards enacted policies designed to control the residents of the islands by means of racial segregation and cultural assimilation, such as limiting the number of resident sanglays to around 6,000, a measure that was proved soon impossible to maintain.

The Spanish founded the Parían in 1581 in what became Manila as the official marketplace and designated residence for the unconverted sanglays. Circumventing a royal decree outlawing the sanglays, as governor-general of the Philippines, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas created Binondo in 1594 for the Catholic sangleys and their indio wives and their mestizos de sanglay children and descendants. He gave the sanglays and mestizo de sanglays a land grant in perpetuity. They were allowed to establish a self-governing organization, called Gremio de Mestizos de Binondo (Guild of Mestizos of Binondo).

The Spanish colonists attempted to assimilate the sanglays into the Hispanic culture and converted many to Catholicism. They allowed Catholic sanglays to intermarry with indio women, but did not recognize marriages of the unconverted sanglays, as they did not officially sanction marriages among subjects that were performed outside the Catholic Church.

Beginning in 1600, the first generation of mestizos de sanglay formed a small community of several hundred in Binondo. This is where San Lorenzo Ruiz grew up. He later was beatified by the Catholic Church as the first Filipino saint. During the 17th century, the Spaniards carried out four Great Massacres and Expulsions against the unconverted sanglays in response to real or imagined fears of an imminent invasion from China. In the aftermath, many sanglays converted at least nominally to Catholicism, adopted Hispanized names, and intermarried with indio women.

Contemporary historians note the changes in how mestizo de sanglay fared in Philippine society. In the late 18th century, the mestizo de sanglay markedly improved their position. After the violence and turmoil of the Spanish expulsion of Chinese for having sided with the British in their 1762 invasion of Manila,

mestizo economic power increased in conjunction with its social and political clout. The formation of auxiliary units called Real Princípe in Tondo mirrored these trends. Spanish military commanders publicly expressed a preference for mestizo regiments over native militias, enraging Filipino indio elites and requiring a deft negotiation of the political realities in Manila. —

The founding of Chinese mestizo regiments in the Philippines was part of New Spain's military modernization during the reformist Bourbon era. At the same time, New Spain created a colonial militia in Latin America, consisting of mestizos there. While the colonies developed in distinct ways, there were similarities between the rise of the mestizo classes; when colonial authorities armed them, it was in recognition of their rising social position and integration into the colonial economies.

After the Spanish colonists abolished the Parían in 1790, they allowed the sanglays to settle in Binondo. In the 19th century, the population of mestizos de sanglay grew rapidly over the years as more Chinese male immigrants arrived, converted to Catholicism, settled in Binondo and intermarried with indio or mestizo de sanglay women. With no legal restrictions on their movement, mestizos de sanglay migrated to other areas in the course of work and business, such as Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Cavite, Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, Capiz, etc. The number of unconverted sanglays dropped from a high of 25,000 prior to the First Great Massacre of 1603 to below 10,000 by 1850. From 1810-1894, the population figures for the Philippine islands were as follows:

Race	Population (1810)	Population (1850)	Population (1894)
indio	2,395,677	4,725,000	6,768,000
mestizo de sanglay	120,621	240,000	500,000
sanglay	7,000	10,000	100,000
Peninsular (from Spain)	4,000	25,000	35,000
Total	2,527,298	5,000,000	7,403,000

From the 18th century until the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish authorities came to depend upon the mestizos de sanglay as the bourgeoisie of the colonial economy. From their concentration in Binondo, Manila, the mestizos de sanglay migrated to Central Luzon, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros and Cavite to handle the domestic trade of the islands. From trading, they branched out into landleasing, moneylending and later landholding. With wealth, they gained the ability to give their children elite education at the best schools in the islands and later in Europe.

The Philippines was granted the status of a Spanish Province with representation in the Spanish Cortes following the promulgation of the Cádiz Constitution of 1812, and their subjects granted Spanish citizenship, thus acquiring legal equality with Spanish-born Spaniards in the Philippines. Toward the end of Spanish rule in the 19th century, the mestizos de sanglay called themselves Filipinos, showing their identification with their islands.

Also calling themselves the "True Sons of Spain", the mestizos de sanglay tended to side with the white Spanish colonists during the numerous indio revolts against Spanish rule. In the late 19th century, José Rizal, a fifth-generation mestizo de sanglay, arose as an intellectual from the relatively wealthy, middle-class, Spanish-educated Filipinos known as Ilustrados. He was among those who called for reforms in the administration of the colony, integration as a province of Spain, and political representation for the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes.