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    Basques in the Philippines
    Basques in the Philippines
    Basques in the Philippines
    Ebook395 pages5 hours

    Basques in the Philippines

    By Marciano R. De Borja

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    The Basques played a remarkably influential role in the creation and maintenance of Spain’s colonial establishment in the Philippines. Their skills as shipbuilders and businessmen, their evangelical zeal, and their ethnic cohesion and work-oriented culture made them successful as explorers, colonial administrators, missionaries, merchants, and settlers. They continued to play prominent roles in the governance and economy of the archipelago until the end of Spanish sovereignty, and their descendants still contribute in significant ways to the culture and economy of the contemporary Philippines. This book offers important new information about a little-known aspect of Philippine history and the influence of Basque immigration in the Spanish Empire, and it fills an important void in the literature of the Basque diaspora.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Nevada Press
    Release dateJun 12, 2012
    ISBN9780874178913
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    Basques in the Philippines - Marciano R. De Borja

    Basques in the Philippines

    MARCIANO R. DE BORJA

    FOREWORD BY WILLIAM A. DOUGLASS

    Reno, Las Vegas

    The Basque Series

    Series Editor: William A. Douglass

    University of Nevada Press,

    Reno, Nevada 89557 USA

    Copyright © 2005 by University of Nevada Press

    All rights reserved

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    Library of Congress

    Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    De Borja, Marciano R., 1966–

    Basques in the Philippines / Marciano R. de Borja ; foreword by William A. Douglass. —1st ed. p. cm. —(The Basque series)

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 0-87417-590-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

    1. Basques—Philippines—History. I. Title. II. Series.

    DS666.B33D4 2005

    959.9'0049992—dc22  2004018176

    ISBN-13: 978-0-87417-590-5 (cloth: alk. paper)

    ISBN-13: 978-0-87417-883-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

    ISBN-13: 978-0-87417-891-3 (ebook)

    For Atoy, Angel, and Agatha

    Contents

    List of Illustrations

    Foreword

    Preface

    Acknowledgments

    Chapter One. The Basque People

    Chapter Two. Initial Contacts

    Chapter Three. The Legazpi-Urdaneta Expedition

    Chapter Four. Conquerors

    Chapter Five. Missionaries

    Chapter Six. Galleon Traders and Merchants

    Chapter Seven. In Defense of Spanish Sovereignty

    Chapter Eight. Nineteenth-Century Settlers and Entrepreneurs

    Chapter Nine. During the American and Japanese Occupations

    Chapter Ten. Descendants in Philippine Society

    Conclusion

    Appendix

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

    Illustrations

    Map of The Basque Country

    Legazpi-Urdaneta monument

    Legazpi tomb

    Simón de Anda monument

    Banco Español-Filipino

    Map of Major areas of Basque immigration and settlement

    Puente Colgante

    Rope factory of Ynchausti & Company

    Port of Iloilo

    Marcelo de Azcárraga

    José Rizal

    Puente de Ayala

    Family of Paulino Aboitiz, 1901

    Jai alai fronton

    Manuel María de Ynchausti

    Makati, 1969

    Foreword

    As quintessential medieval shipbuilders and mariners, Basques played a key role in Spain's expeditionary voyages of discovery and conquest—beginning with those of Christopher Columbus. It is equally documented that Basque mariners, mercenaries, missionaries, and merchants were represented disproportionately (with regards to Iberian regional demography) in the annals of Spanish colonial history. Furthermore, in disparate times and places throughout the empire, and particularly in several Latin American colonies, Basques displayed a propensity to act as a self-aware and mutually supporting ethnic group whose interests could diverge from those of distant Madrid and non-Basque locals alike. In sixteenth-century Potosí and eighteenth-century Caracas this engendered resentment that culminated in violent anti-Basque backlashes. In sum, whether Basques acted as handmaidens of empire or its subverter, the contributions of the Basque diaspora in many parts of the globe are now reasonably well documented.

    This scholarly awareness includes the Philippines. However, until the present study by Marciano R. de Borja, our understanding of the island nation's Basque presence has been fragmentary and focused largely on the larger-than-life figures of a few personages. This is ironic since it might be argued that in no other destination has the influence of Basque immigration been greater and more sustained. It is a history initiated by Europe's first contact with the Philippines as personified in Juan Sebastián Elcano (from the Gipuzkoan coastal village of Getaria) and reflected in the continuing importance within Philippine society of the influential Ayala, Elizalde, and Aboitiz families (among others). The importance of the story is further underscored by the uniqueness of the area within Spanish colonial history. In the aftermath of the successful independence movement in continental Latin America, for the remainder of the nineteenth century the Philippines (along with Cuba and Puerto Rico) provided the only internal overseas destination for Spanish citizens. Consequently, it remained an outpost for the continuing flow of Iberian-based administrators, clerics, and businessmen. Since rural Basques were on the losing side in Spain's Carlist wars, the Philippines also attracted some Basque political refugees.

    In sum, within Basque diasporic history the Philippine experience exhibits certain particularities that can only be understood in their own terms. The present excellent work represents the first comprehensive overview of a heretofore missing chapter.

    WILLIAM A. DOUGLASS

    Preface

    This work is an initial attempt to reconstruct the story of the Basques in the Philippines from the arrival of the first Basques in the archipelago in 1521 with the Magellan expedition to the present Basque descendants. It is a study of Basque immigrants in the Philippines and an acknowledgment of their contribution to Philippine nationhood—a significant but unexplored topic in Philippine society and culture.

    Most of the people who spearheaded and monopolized the expeditions and the colonization of the New World and the Philippines came from the Kingdom of Castille. Thus, in the Philippines the Spaniards are generally called Kastila without distinguishing their regional origin. In truth, regional identities are well delineated in Spain. Apart from the castellanos, other groups participated actively in the enterprise of discovering, colonizing, evangelizing, and finally settling the vast Spanish possessions overseas. There were the gallegos from Galicia, the catalanes from Catalonia, the andaluces from Andalucia, and, of course, the vascos, or euskaldunak, from the Basque Country.

    The incorporation of the Basque provinces of Araba, Gipuzkoa, and Bizkaia into the Kingdom of Castille during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries allowed the Basques to participate later in the colonial undertakings of the Spanish crown. The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492 had a great impact on the Basque economy and later on the emigrant spirit of the Basques. There was a great demand for iron from the Basque foundries. The majority of the ships destined to ply the commercial sea routes of the Spanish colonies were also constructed in Basque shipyards.

    During the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, the Basques played a decisive role in the conquest of the Americas and also of the Philippines. They supplied the Spanish monarchy with soldiers, navigators, merchants, bureaucrats, and missionaries. Some of their descendants heroically defended the interests of the Spanish crown and fended off the encroachment of foreign powers. Others like Simón Bolívar would lead the South American colonies to independence.

    If we examine the pages of Philippine history books that recount the Spanish maritime expeditions and colonial regime (1521–1898), we find that the Basques played a leading role in the colonization, evangelization, and administration of the archipelago. Men like Juan Sebastián Elcano, Andrés de Urdaneta, Miguel López de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo, Martín de Goiti, and Guido de Lavezares represented the Basque energy, industry, and audacity that laid the foundation of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines.

    The first bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar, was a Basque. Other distinguished missionaries during the early years of Spanish evangelization of the Philippines were Basques, including Andrés de Aguirre, Diego de Herrera, Martín de Rada, and Pedro Arce. Basque merchants and capitalists actively participated in the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. Some of them would form the nucleus of the Royal Economic Society of the Friends of the Country during the latter part of the eighteenth century. The Royal Philippine Company, a state trading company founded in 1785, was actually a successor of the Royal Guizpuzcoan Company of Caracas, a Basque trading company that monopolized colonial trade in Venezuela.

    During the British invasion of Manila in 1762, a Basque stood out in resisting the British forces even as the Spaniards surrendered the city. He was Simón de Anda, a native of Araba. He would later be appointed as governor-general of the Philippines after the return of the archipelago to the Spanish crown.

    The first bank in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the Banco Español-Filipino de Isabel II, now known as the Bank of the Philippine Islands, the biggest private bank in the country, was established by the Basque governor-general Antonio de Urbiztondo in 1851. The biggest commercial and trading firm in the Philippines during the second half of the nineteenth century was Ynchausti y Compañía, owned by the Basque Joaquín José de Ynchausti. During the 1870s, international shipping in the Philippines was dominated by the Olano, Larrinaga y Compañía, a Basque shipping firm based in Liverpool, England.

    In the two immortal novels of Philippine national hero José Rizal (1861–1896)—Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo (works that inspired the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1896 and 1898)—the leading character, Crisóstomo Ibarra, is of Basque ancestry. This is probably a tribute to Basque ubiquitousness within the Philippine society during his time. During World War II, some Basques such as Higinio de Uriarte joined the guerrilla movement against the Japanese imperial forces and provided the Allied forces with valuable intelligence.

    Looking at the present, we cannot but marvel at the continuity in leadership provided by Basque descendants in various aspects of Philippine life, particularly in economic and political spheres. The Aboitiz, Araneta, Arrespacochaga, Ayala, Bilbao, Eizmendi, Elizalde, Garchitorena, Isasi, Loyzaga, Luzuriaga, Moraza, Uriarte, Ynchausti, Yulo, Zubiri, and Zuluaga families, among others, continue to occupy privileged positions in contemporary Philippine society.

    The Ayalas, for example, own a chain of blue chip companies with headquarters in Makati, Manila's financial center, whose famous avenue bears the name of the family. The Aboitizes, on the other hand, are a dominating presence in the interisland shipping, energy, and telecommunication sectors. For their part, the Luzuriagas founded Victorias Milling Corporation, during the American period the largest producer of refined sugar in the Philippines. It also became one of the biggest sugar companies in the world during the American regime.

    Jai alai, which literally means happy feast in Euskara and is the name of a variant of Basque pelota, was for a long time a popular betting game in the Philippines. The Manila fronton closed in 1986 and reopened briefly in 1998 only to be padlocked again a year and a half later. Despite a massive effort and protest to save it, the building was ordered demolished by the Manila city government in September 2000. The controversial Basque sport may still stage a comeback.

    Contemplating the current Philippine map, one will be surprised by the number of Basque place-names. There are provinces, towns, and cities called Anda, Garchitorena, Lavezares, Legazpi, Mondragon, Nueva Vizcaya, Pamplona, Urdaneta, and Zumarraga. Many of Manila's streets also carry Basque names. Among them are Ayala, Arlegui, Barrengoa, Bilbao, Durango, Echague, Elizondo, Gaztambide, Goiti, Guernica, Mendiola, Oscariz, and many more. They are only some of the visible manifestations of the Basque presence in the country. How can we ignore the contribution of this group who exerted tremendous influence in the political, economic, religious, and social development of the Philippines?

    The process of singling out the Basques' achievements or failures among the several ethnic groups that make up the Spanish population in the Philippines is not a simple task inasmuch as their actions and interests were intertwined with the general colonial activity and policy of the Spanish crown. Still, their exploits and outlook differentiated them from other Spanish settlers. Despite their small number, they maintained their strong ethnic identity and never fully assimilated themselves with others from the Iberian Peninsula. Such aloof and reticent behavior sometimes facilitated my research.

    I wish to clarify from the outset that this book deals mainly with the Basques from the Spanish side of the Basque Country, covering the four provinces of Araba, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Navarre, although there is a sporadic mention of French Basques and those who came to the Philippines from the Spanish colonies in the New World. Lastly, aside from learning about the Basques' presence in the Philippines, it is also interesting to find out how many Filipinos today can trace their roots to an immigrant Basque ancestor and how many Basques can still identify their own families' or their relatives' descendants in the Philippines.

    Acknowledgments

    I could have not written this book if not for the valuable assistance of various institutions and people. I wish therefore to thank the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fundación General Mediterránea for the scholarships granted to me so that I could undertake graduate studies at the University of Navarra. Others in Spain to whom I am grateful include the late Ronald Escobedo Mancilla, my thesis adviser; José Luis Illueca, then vice president of Philip Morris (España); my relatives Danny and Ester Pascual, for allowing me to stay with them while I did my research in Madrid; Ramón Herrando, who provided me with moral support and fraternal guidance during my whole stay in Spain; and Vice Consul Iric Arribas of the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.

    I am grateful to several people in Chile, including Rodolfo A. Arizala, former Philippine ambassador to Chile; Pedro Aretxabala, former delegate of the Basque Country in Chile; Pedro Oyanguren, director of the Basque-Chilean Foundation for Development; and Juan Mendicute of the Eusko Etxea (Basque Center) in Santiago. All of them provided me with useful information, encouragement, and advice.

    In the Philippines, I was assisted by Antonio M. de Ynchausti and Andoni F. Aboitiz, who generously shared information about their families and gave me a general view of the Basque descendants in contemporary Philippine society. Special thanks to Maritoni C. Ortigas and the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City (Philippines) for providing me with various references and photos that make up most of the pictorial section of this book.

    I am especially indebted to William A. Douglass, former coordinator of the Basque Studies Program (now Center for Basque Studies) of the University of Nevada, Reno, in the United States, for writing the foreword for this book and for providing me with relevant documents and materials. Needless to say, any errors in and shortcomings of this book are solely mine.

    Last, I wish to thank my wife, Espie, for her love and for patiently listening to my stories about the Basques for years and perhaps for many more years to come.

    Chapter One

    The Basque People

    To be an authentic Basque, there are three requirements: to carry a sonorous name that indicates the origin; to speak the language of the sons of Aitor, and … to have an uncle in the Americas.

    Pierre Lhande, s. j., L'Emigration basque, 1909

    To Lhande's description of the past emigrant vocation of the Basques, we can add to have an uncle in the Philippines, since the Basque diaspora was not limited to the Americas. A handful of Basques also migrated to, settled in, and left their indelible mark on Philippine society. The saga of the Basques in the Philippines is by no means negligible and is perhaps even more compelling and colorful than that of their brethren and cousins who settled in Latin America and the American West.

    In the Philippines the Basques played a decisive role in the establishment and maintenance of Spanish sovereignty from 1565 to 1898. They stayed even after Spain ceded the islands to the United States in December 1898. Even at present, Basque descendants, while maintaining a low profile, still play a prominent role in Philippine society. We cannot therefore thoroughly appreciate contemporary Philippine history and society without discussing the role of the Basques. Although they formed part of the Spanish contingent that colonized the archipelago, the Basques had a distinct character and remained outside the mainstream. They exhibited a brand of heroism and ambition, sometimes bordering on the bizarre. Who are the Basques? What is their character as a people? What makes them different from the other Spaniards or French? What was their role in the creation of the Spanish Empire?

    The Basques refer to themselves as euskaldunak, which means speakers of Euskara, the Basque language. They call their homeland Euskal Herria, although they have never had their own nation-state. They live in the seven traditional Basque territories of Araba, Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Navarre, which belong to Spain, while Behe Nafarroa, Lapurdi, and Zuberoa are part of France. Together the Basque Country has a total land area of 20,864 square kilometers. In the Basque context, the territories located in Spain are known as Hegoalde (Land of the South), while those situated in France are called Iparralde (Land of the North), or what the Anglophones refer to as French Basque Country.

    For centuries, the Basque people have been the object of numerous ethnographic, historical, and linguistic studies. Some scholars claim that they were the first inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula and even the oldest surviving ethnic group in Europe. But the Basques' first claim to uniqueness is their language, Euskara, whose origin is shrouded in mystery. Linguists are baffled by the fact that it is not related to the Indo-European linguistic family or to any known language at all, though there were serious attempts to compare it with such diverse tongues as Hungarian and Japanese. No linguistic affinities have yet been established. Remarkably, Euskara has survived and even thrived, notwithstanding the strong influences of Latin, Spanish, and French.

    In addition, the Basque language has always been famed for its difficulty. The Basques say that the Devil came to their country to learn it, but after seven years, having got no further than bai (yes) and ez (no), he gave it up in disgust. They add that he forgot even these two words as he was departing.¹ Referring to the Basques' pride in their language, the French writer Victor Hugo said, The Basque language is not just the nation, it is almost a religion.²

    Basques are normally identifiable by their sonorous surnames, which often refer to places, such as Bilbao, Elizondo, Loyola, and Zumarraga. Although this kind of surname formation is not unique to the Basques, what is surprising is that a great number of Basque surnames are related to the homestead (eche, or etxe): Echeverria, Echegoyen, Echegaray, Etcheverri, Echezarra, Echenique, Echeandia, and so forth; and names of trees: for example, areitz, or aretx (oak), from which hundreds of Basque surnames are derived: Areizaga, Aretxaga, Aresti, Arismendi, Aritegui, and so on. Other surnames are rooted in geographical features—mountain (mendi), valley (ibar), prairie (larre), and valley (aran), to name just a few. Prominent examples are Mendiburu, Ibarra, Larreta, and Arana. Basque surnames can also be a combination of the preceding.

    Another distinctive trait of the Basques is the unusually high proportion of blood type o (57 percent) and blood type A (41 percent), higher than in any European population, as well as an almost complete absence of blood type B (1 percent) and ab (nearly 0 percent). The Basques also manifest the highest occurrence of Rh negative factor (about 42 percent) of any population in the world. Rh negative o blood, which occurs frequently among Basques, is in high demand since it can be donated to any individual. Many Basques therefore are in theory universal blood donors.

    The Basques also exhibit physical features that differentiate them from other Europeans. They have good height, a strong body, large legs, a wide back, fair skin, brown eyes and hair, an oval face, aquiline nose, narrow jaw, bad teeth, small chin, and a large temple behind the forehead. The Basques' propensity for hard, manual work and athletic abilities in sports and dances can be partly explained by these physical attributes. Basques are also widely known for being independent-minded, stubborn, adventurous, opportunistic, indomitable, and strongly attached to their traditions. Other traits that could be added are hardworking, loyal, religious, courageous, persevering, and cheerful.

    Basque culture has survived despite centuries of foreign influence, be it Roman, Frank, Visigoth, Moor, Spanish, or French. After incorporation of the Basque Country within Spain during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (although Navarre remained an independent kingdom until 1512 when it succumbed to Castille), Basques have continuously enjoyed autonomy for centuries in exchange for loyalty to the Spanish crown. This arrangement was codified in the fueros (charter of local laws and privileges). The fueros enabled the Basques to be subjects of imperial Spain without altering their political system and cultural norms. By tradition, each ascending Spanish monarch had to travel to the Bizkaian city of Gernika and swear his obedience to the fueros beneath the famous oak tree of the city, before his sovereignty extended to Bizkaia. Inhabitants of other Spanish Basque provinces expected similar demonstrations of loyalty from the monarch.³

    A nation's character and identity is greatly influenced by geography and historical circumstances. The Basques are no exception. The Basque Country lies in between two great European states with equally glorious imperial pasts. Bounded by the Bay of Biscay in the northwest, the great mountains of the Pyrenees in the northeast, and the rugged plains of Castille in the south, the Basques live in a small, but diverse territory that played a key role in the imperial designs of both Spain and France.

    According to Julio Caro Baroja, the great Basque anthropologist, the smallness and narrowness of the Basque Country, its rich mineral resources, particularly iron, its abundant forests in the past, and its access to the sea have made the Basques, from the Middle Ages up to the present, ironsmiths, fishermen on the high seas, skilled navigators, shipbuilders, and industrialists.⁴

    The Basques contributed immensely to the conquest of Seville and southern Spain during the time of King Ferdinand II (1452–1516). They also intervened decisively in the reconquest of the kingdom of Granada, and some Basque sea captains were charged with transporting to Africa the Moors who chose not to accept the yoke of the Christian victors. There were also Basque mariners and mercenaries fighting in France in the service of the English or French during the wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The French Basques sided with the English, while the Spanish Basques supported the French. There were also Basque merchant ships trading in the Scandinavian countries and the eastern Mediterranean. And side by side with the mariners and merchants were the Basque corsairs who raided the English and French coasts and prowled the waters of the Mediterranean and North Seas.⁵ The Basques were also intrepid whalers and were said to have reached the coast of North America long before the Columbus expedition.

    Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia produced arms and supplies for Spain during the fifteenth century. Later, when swords and crossbows became obsolete because of the introduction of harquebuses, the Basques were quick to manufacture the new weapon, and, by the seventeenth century, their firearms had gained wide recognition.⁶

    The initial maritime expeditions aimed at reaching the Indies by sailing west gave Basque navigation a great impetus. By the end of the fifteenth century, Basques and Sevillians had participated in the first reconnaissance of the Canary Islands, which eventually became a springboard for future expeditions to the Americas. Soon Seville and the Basque Country became the main axis of the Spanish Empire. When the Great Armada of Philip II attacked England, the Basques were counted on to provide a considerable number of ships.⁷

    The Basques' participation in Spain's maritime expedition dates back to the voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1492. They became fixtures of succeeding enterprises. The Basques often formed the expeditionary and religious contingent. Their involvement in the commercial traffic was significant throughout the colonial period. Thus, the Basque Country was considered the cradle of Spanish navigators, providing in great part the manpower for the conquest of the Americas.⁸

    The participation of Basque sailors in maritime expeditions can be partly explained by the strong Basque influence in their preparation. Many of those occupying important positions in the Casa de Contratación (clearing house for maritime ventures) in Seville were Basques who engaged in all aspects of maritime and commercial enterprises. The Basque participation in the Spanish maritime expeditions and conquests was crucial. Basques were often at the vanguard of these daring enterprises at a time when they were considered missions with no return.

    The maritime discoveries stimulated the emigrant spirit of the Basque people and had a great impact on the Basque economy. The demand for iron from Basque foundries trebled during the first decades of the sixteenth century following the Spanish advances to the New World, and Basque shipyards almost monopolized the construction of vessels that plied the commercial routes to Spanish overseas possessions. Traveling to the Basque Country in 1572, the Italian Venturino remarked, Here, more ships are built than in the rest of Spain and the people are the most skillful in the art of navigation. They are very tough and expert seafarers and better than all other mariners.⁹

    Although the Basque Country, despite being a region of Spain and France, only belatedly converted to Catholicism, the Basque embraced the religion with great zeal and vigor. A Gipuzkoan, Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), founded the Society of Jesus. Later, Francis Xavier (1506–1552), a Navarrese Jesuit and a disciple of Ignatius, would be known as the Apostle of the Indies. Thousands of Basque missionaries and clerics would propagate the Catholic faith worldwide, particularly in the Spanish colonies in the New World and the Philippines.

    Basques were also famed calligraphers and amanuenses, at a time when printing was not yet widely available. The Spanish monarchs Charles I and Philip II, the Habsburg and Bourbon kings, as well as the nobility, employed personal Basque writers. Aside from their handwriting skills, the Basques were sought after as trusted and loyal secretaries.¹⁰

    Furthermore, the Basques have always been famous as stonecutters and were

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