If you have been following social media news, there was one curious case that made it to quite a few headlines in mainstream media. Dubbed the “halfies issue,” this was about an exchange of online comments made by two “halfies”—or mixed race Filipinos—who were both personalities in the world of Philippine pageantry. Long story short, the two “halfies” made remarks that offended Filipinos, including other more popular pageant personalities.
But “halfies” are not exactly new in Philippine society, and their prominence goes beyond the world of pageantry. In more recent times, you find Filipinos of mixed races in sports, particularly Philippine teams for basketball, football (soccer), and rugby. Historically, you would find them in textbooks and in monuments, as several of the prominent figures in the country’s list of heroes were, in fact, of mixed faces.
These mestizos—or tisoys—were either of the Spanish (mestizo español) or Chinese (mestizo de sangely) kind. Contrary to what some suggest, these terms were not originally made to be derogatory but were coined in order to help categorize the increasingly growing population of mixed origins in the Philippines during the later colonial era.
Mestizos in Philippine history are more popular than you think. Many celebrated Filipino historical figures were “tisoy” or “halfies.” Among these were Jose Rizal himself, who was of a mixed racial origin that included a bit of Chinese and Spanish—a trait he shared with others of the ilustrado class, including the brothers Juan and Antonio Luna (born from a Spanish mestiza mother), Mariano Ponce (from a Chinese-Filipino mix), and Jose Alejandrino (of a Spanish and Chinese heritage).
Other notable mestizos in history include Emilio Aguinaldo (Chinese mestizo), Andres Bonifacio (whose mother was a Spanish-Chinese mestiza), and Manuel Quezon (whose parents were Spanish mestizos, but also had Chinese heritage).
This, of course, does not mean that there were no “pure-blooded” Filipinos among our roster of heroes. There were many. These include Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Emilio Jacinto, and Apolinario Mabini, to name a few.
Listing down the mestizos who have made a name for themselves in Philippine history, one might say, is an exercise in futility. After all, mixed racial heritage is not uncommon in the Philippines. It is also, in fact, not something many have been paying special attention to or having made any issues out of until recently, with the “halfies” comment made by the two pageant participants.
Still, a lot can be said about where such comments could possibly come from—perhaps as a product of colonial mentality, of “Pinoy baiting” on social media, or a combination of both—and this is not, in any way, a defense of the remarks of those two pageant world “halfies.”
What sets the above-mentioned historical “halfies” apart from the two pageant men who recently made headlines is their undisputed love for the Philippines. These historical mestizos may not have represented the country on the global beauty stage, but they definitely left a mark on the world that have helped define what it truly means to be “proudly Filipino.”