The term "Filipino" began as a class designation for Spanish creoles born in the Philippines but did not include indigenous peoples, who were called "indios". Over time, as the native elite and Chinese mestizos became wealthier and more Hispanicized through education, the term expanded to include these groups. By the late 19th century, "Filipino" had taken on national connotations and identified all inhabitants, as the elite classes came to lead the revolution against Spain.

1. WHO IS FILIPINO
The term Filipino which now identifies the totality of the native inhabitants of this
nation began as a class. It did not then apply to all the natives. However, the concept of
Filipino grew as a result of certain historical developments and embraced a greater
number of individuals first on the basis of race, later on the basis of property
qualifications, and still later, social prestige. Only much later did it become a term of
national identification breaking through all racial, economic, and social barriers.
Original Filipinos
The term Filipino began as an elitist concept with racial connotations. It was used
to designate the creoles or the Spaniards born in the Philippines, in contrast to the
peninsulares or those who born in the Iberian peninsula. The natives were called indios.
Of course, the real colonial elite were the peninsulares, but the creoles or Españoles-
Filipinos were also considered as part of the broader spectrum of the ruling class because
their Spanish blood assured them social status just below the peninsulares.
These creoles, however, did not have the same opportunities as their Iberian
brothers in the political, religious, and economic fields. Their material aspirations were
often thwarted by the policies of their peninsular brethren. Their grievances gave rise to
feelings of resentment. Consequently, the Españoles-Filipinos, like their creoles
counterparts in South America, had an ambivalent attitude toward Spain and land of their
birth. As Spaniards, they felt a sentimental attachment to their mother country, but in
contrast to the peninsulares, they also developed a very real sense they had become hijos
del pais – sons of the country. The peninsular knew that sooner or later he would return
to his native land, that he was at most on an extended visit in this country. His interests
and family ties were mainly in Spain. The Filipino-Spaniard was economically and
emotionally based in the Philippines. While culturally and socially a Spaniard, he realized
that he was more at home in the Philippines than in Spain. Moreover, here he was
considered by the people as part of the ruling elements. In Spain he would at best among
equals and therefore possibly a non- entity.
Then economic position and the liberalizing influence of education brought the
leading creoles into conflict with the religious oligarchy and the exponents of restrictive
Spanish policies over the colonies. The original Filipinos were therefore both colonial
and anti-colonial. They were Catholics who were at the same time anti-clerical. They
were for the progress of the Philippines because it meant the progress or their class. Yet
this same class position did not allow them in the beginning to toy with ideas of
independence because this might mean the elimination of their group as participants in
the ruling process. They were therefore essentially only for reforms that would enable
them to prosper. The Españoles-Filipinos regarded the Philippines as their country. They
welcomed the mestizos and the native elite as allies because both of these groups had
become beneficiaries of Spanish rule and were therefore in favor of its continuation with
appropriate modifications.

2. Auxiliary rulers
The native elite were the principales, affluent landowners many of whom were
descendants of the early datus. Having been entrusted with fiscal and administrative
duties, they became adjuncts of Spanish power. Through the illicit extraction of part of
the tribute and the polo assessments, they were able to acquire wealth. Their eventual
acquisition by formal ownership of lands which formerly belonged to the barangays
added to their social prestige. From mere administrators of socially-owned land during
the pre-Spanish period, they eventually became formal owners of these lands. They
became auxiliary members of the ruling class.
Chinese mestizos
A third group within the emerging Philippine elite was composed of Chinese
mestizos, the fruit of Sino-indio marriages. They were a class which was considered more
productive than the indios, a fact confirmed by their position in the tribute lists. They
paid double the tribute levied on the indio because they were supposed to have twice the
earning capacity of the latter.
The subsequent expulsion of the Chinese and the restrictions placed on their re-
entry after the British Occupation propelled the Chinese mestizos to prosperity. They took
the place of the Chinese in the economy of the colony and became an affluent class. By
the first half of the 19th
century the Chinese mestizos had a virtual monopoly of wholesale
and retail trade, had acquired developed a sophisticated version of Hispanic culture. They
were cashing in on the evolving export economy by collecting agricultural crops and
distributing manufactured goods. They became the intermediaries between the rising
foreign capitalist firms and the growing industries.
Ambivalent attitudes
These Chinese mestizos were not Chinese in orientation. Their native mothers had
seen to it that they Chinese mestizos were able to send their sons to Manila and even to
Europe to study. These young men became the agents of further Hispanization of their
group. Many of them merged with the principalia via marriage.
Educated young indio sand Chinese mestizos came to be known as ilustrados. As
the term itself implies, historians have emphasized the education of this elite rather than
its property base. While it is true that some ilustrados were not as rich as others, it must
be remembered that during this period education was and almost exclusively the
prerogative of wealth. The rich were wise and the wise rich. Money and culture separated
them from the masses.
The native and mestizo-sangley*ilustrados, like the Españoles-Filipinos, had an
ambivalent attitude toward Spain and their native country. Their education was Spanish,
and the mental conditioning they received was Castilian. Spain was their mother country.
They aped the Spaniards and aspired to be like them. Yet, despite their wealth, they were
not and could never be Spaniards. The Spaniards tolerated them as allies, but the racial
barrier and the economic restrictions on their position made them conscious of their
inferior status, giving rise to a resentment that they secretly nursed. They were therefore

3. pro-Spanish and at the same time anti-Spaniard. They were natives and yet they were
different from the rest of their countrymen. Property had separated them from the masses.
Education and culture further emphasized the bifurcation of society.
Local aristocracy
Although to a lesser degree, the native ilustrados suffered from mistreatment like
the mass of the people. However, they also enjoyed some of the privileges of rule. They
were therefore for reforms which would secure for them equality with the Spaniards and
would legitimize their status as members of the ruling class. They voiced the general
demands of the masses for justice and civil rights although, more often than not, their
advocacy sprang from they stood apart from the rest of their countrymen.
The emergence of the cacique class from the rank of the native principalia and the
landed mestizo-sangleys made them the target of wealth-seeking Spaniards who married
into this native aristocracy. The result was the Spanish mestizo. These Eurasians, in
contrast to the early Spanish mestizo, were no longer regarded with contempt as bastard
fruit of clerical and military liaisons with the native women. They, too, were considered
part of the aristocracy because of their wealth and their education.
To summarize: the emerging local elite during the last days of Spanish rule were
the creoles, the Chinese mestizos, the Spanish mestizos, and Spanish culture.
The abolition of the tribute list of the 1880s and the subsequent adoption of the
new system of taxation put an end to the classification of persons according to race since
it was becoming clear that ethnic origin and wealth were not correlated. Consequently,
individuals had more freedom of choice to call themselves Spaniards, Chinese, or
Filipinos. The merger of the mestizo and indio social systems began to take place; the
term Filipino was now expanding. The creoles and Spanish mestizos, the Chinese
mestizos and the members of the principalia who were urbanized and therefore
Hispanized were now becoming known under the generic term – Filipino. Filipino was
thus acquiring a larger area of application, although the leadership was still Hispanic in
language, custom, and culture.
The cultural basis
Thus, for a time, the term Filipino was applied, mainly to those who were
Hispanized. The object of Hispanizing the indio was to make him a Filipino since the
term originally applied to Spaniards. The ilustrados believed that Hispanization was the
basis of being a Filipino. A study of the role of the ilustrados during the last decades of
the 19th
century shows that their main aim was the thorough Hispanization of the
Philippines so that it might deserve to become a province of Spain. They never fully
entertained the idea of separating from Spain. They were essentially assimilationist, not
separatist. This was to be a fatal source of weakness of the Revolution when these leaders
took over. From the propertied and Hispanized elements came the seeds of compromise,
just as the early collaborators with the Americans would spring from the same source.

4. Hispanize to Filipinize
The term Filipino was growing in scope, but it still had at that time its less
limitations based on wealth and culture. As a class, those who now called themselves
Filipinos were still Spanish-oriented but at the same time they had already developed a
loyalty to the patria chica. Already the concept, the feeling of being a Filipino was
becoming established. The term Filipino, which before was used to refer only to Spanish
creoles and later to Spanish mestizos who could pass off whites, now was also being
appropriated by the Chinese mestizos and the indios who had Hispanized themselves.
Joining the revolution
Concomitant with Hispanic acculturation was the economic development of their
elite. Those with mean were able to acquire a Castilian education; those who were
educated further enhanced their class position. As early 1842, Sinibaldo de Mas warned
against the Chinese mestizos. He feared a revolt of indios under the leadership of the
Chinese mestizos. Since the mestizos (Chinese and Spanish) were the most articulate class
and the class whose interests clashed with those of the peninsulares and the other colonial
and clerical interests that impeded their growth, they become the leaders of the local
movement that worked for reforms. And when reforms were not granted, they joined the
revolutionary movement of the people and eventually captured the leadership of this
national action. Thus, Filipino nationalism began as a class concept – a concept of the
Hispanized indio and mestizo: the ilustrado. The ilustrado class had wrested the term
Filipino from the Spanish creoles. Through propaganda work, the ilustrados infused the
term with a national meaning which later included the entire people.
Hence, for a time, the Filipino was both a backward and a progressive concept. As
it represented the Hispanized ilustrados it had a class connotation, but as later accepted
by the people as the term signifying their national oneness, it became a truly nationalist
concept.