A publication of the University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim Copyright 2006 Volume VI · Number 1 15 May · 2006 Special Issue: PHILIPPINE STUDIES AND THE CENTENNIAL OF THE DIASPORA Editors Joaquin Gonzalez John Nelson Philippine Studies and the Centennial of the Diaspora: An Introduction Graduate Student >>......Joaquin L. Gonzalez III and Evelyn I. Rodriguez 1 Editor Patricia Moras Primerang Bituin: Philippines-Mexico Relations at the Dawn of the Pacific Rim Century >>........................................................Evelyn I. Rodriguez 4 Editorial Consultants Barbara K. Bundy Hartmut Fischer Mail-Order Brides: A Closer Look at U.S. & Philippine Relations Patrick L. Hatcher >>..................................................Marie Lorraine Mallare 13 Richard J. Kozicki Stephen Uhalley, Jr. Apathy to Activism through Filipino American Churches Xiaoxin Wu >>....Claudine del Rosario and Joaquin L. Gonzalez III 21 Editorial Board Yoko Arisaka The Quest for Power: The Military in Philippine Politics, 1965-2002 Bih-hsya Hsieh >>........................................................Erwin S. Fernandez 38 Uldis Kruze Man-lui Lau Mark Mir Corporate-Community Engagement in Upland Cebu City, Philippines Noriko Nagata >>........................................................Francisco A. Magno 48 Stephen Roddy Kyoko Suda Worlds in Collision Bruce Wydick >>...................................Carlos Villa and Andrew Venell 56 Poems from Diaspora >>..................................................................Rofel G. Brion 57 Reflections on Philip Vera Cruz and the Filipino Diaspora >>..................................................Joaquin L. Gonzalez III 59 An Interview with Philip Vera Cruz, Spring 1971 >>.....................................................................Sid Valledor 61 Yuchengco Media Fellowship Announcement, Spring 2007 >>........................................................................................... 64 Asia-Pacific Social Science Review Call for Papers >>........................................................................................... 65 USF Centennial Conference Announcement >>........................................................................................... 66 Asia Pacific: Perspectives is a peer-reviewed journal published at least once a year, usually in April/May. It Asia Pacific: Perspectives welcomes submissions from all fields of the social sciences and the humanities with relevance to the Asia Pacific Center for the Pacific Rim region.* In keeping with the Jesuit traditions of the University of San Francisco, Asia Pacific: Perspectives com- 2130 Fulton St, LM202 San Francisco, CA mits itself to the highest standards of learning and scholarship. 94117-1080 Our task is to inform public opinion by a broad hospitality to divergent views and ideas that promote cross-cul- Tel: (415) 422-6357 tural understanding, tolerance, and the dissemination of knowledge unreservedly. Papers adopting a compara- Fax: (415) 422-5933 tive, interdisciplinary approach will be especially welcome. Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit [email protected] their work for consideration. * ‘Asia Pacific region’ as used here includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania, and the Russian Far East. Downloaded from http://www.pacificrim.usfca.edu/research/perspectives USF Center for the Pacific Rim Asia Pacific: Perspectives · May 2006 The Conventional History of the Pacific Rim Today, the Pacific-bordering countries of East Asia and Primerang Bituin: Russia; Southeast Asia, the Southwest Pacific, and the Americas are popularly and institutionally, through organiza- Philippines-Mexico Relations tions like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), recog- at the Dawn of the Pacific nized as constituting “the Pacific Rim”. The significance of Rim Century this region has generally been traced back to 1854, after USN Commodore Matthew C. Perry negotiated the Treaty of by Evelyn I. Rodriguez, Ph.D. Kanagawa, “opening Japan” to the West after two centuries of seclusion (Gibney 1992). But the geopolitical and geoeco- nomic importance of this zone did not really come into pub- Abstract lic consciousness until after World War II, after it began to Since the end of WWII, the region of countries bordering, and various undergo “spectacular growth in production and international island nations within, the Pacific Ocean, has drawn much attention, and been subject to a variety of institutional arrangements intended to pro- trade” (Linder 1986:1). mote certain political, economic, and environmental interests. Because of As a result, most contemporary studies of the Pacific Rim this, the mid-twentieth century is widely held as the starting point for have concentrated on the region’s economic expansion, and Pacific Rim relations, and studies of Pan-Pacific interactions almost its dynamic political relationships and institutions, and its strictly concentrate on examining or trying to forecast their political, eco- security architecture, including the positions and character of nomic, and environmental outcomes. This study, however, proposes that the earliest and longest Pacific Rim relationship was actually that each nation’s military. For instance, in their volume outlining between Manila, Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico, and was sustained a post-Cold War agenda for the Pacific Rim, Bundy, Burns, by the Manila Galleon Trade, between 1565 and 1815. Furthermore, it and Weichel emphasize restructuring “regional relations argues that the most significant result of this 250 year relationship was along more cooperative, transnational lines,” strengthening the profound cultural exchange which occurred between the Mexico and “collective security agreements that emphasize nonprolifera- the Philippines. tion of nuclear weapons and demilitarization,” and protect- The study sketches the prevalent discourse regarding the origins and ing “the environment and human rights”—all “in the search effects of Pacific Rim dealings, and then it describes the history of the Manila Galleon Trade. Finally, it highlights some of the deep ways for continued [economic] growth” (1994: 4-5, 8). Mexican and Filipino pre-twentieth century societies were influenced by This article aims to revise the traditional history and foci their trade with each other, and argues that this calls for more scholarly of Pacific Rim studies by proposing that the Mexico- consideration of how contemporary Pacific Rim relations can have a sig- Philippines relationship created and managed by Spain from nificant bearing on culture, as well as socioeconomic and environmental the 1500s to the 1800s was the first Pacific Rim association, matters. especially to demonstrate that the cultural byproducts of the transcontinental ties deserve as much attention as their eco- One of the earliest memories I have of San Diego, nomic, political, and military counterparts. California, where I grew up, is of my Filipina mother holding an animated conversation with our Mexican neighbor: They Ang Umpisa/ La Empieza are seated on lawn chairs, in our neighbor’s garage. In The relationship between the Philippines and Mexico between studying for their US citizenship class, they are mar- began with almost a cosmic coincidence nearly 500 years ago. veling at various words they have discovered we share: civic In March 1521, Ferdinand Magellan “discovered” a group of words like “gobierno”, “presidente”, and “libre”; and everyday unrelated islands in the western Pacific, which would later be terms like the days of the week, numbers, time, and, of named and claimed Las Filipinas, for King Felipe II of Spain. course, “tsismis/ chismis”. Their inventory seems endless, and That same year, only five months later, the heart of the each time one mentions something that the other recognizes, Mexica1 empire, Tenochtitlán, was surrendered to a Spanish peals of delighted laughter and astonishment ensue and fill armada led by Hernán Cortés, marking the creation of “New the garage. Spain” in the southern region of North America. Many years later, I have come to realize that this scene Cortés and his Spanish expedition’s conquista of the was just one outcome of the extensive historical connections Mexica kingdom began in the spring of 1519. By November which commenced between the Philippines and Mexico dur- of that year, the Spanish armada, along with about 6,000 ing the 16th century. In this article, I recount the three-centu- Tlaxcalans (a tribe that had been conquered by the Mexica), ry relationship fostered between Mexico and the Philippines had ventured from the eastern coast of present-day Veracruz under Spanish rule, and highlight some of the enduring lega- to the enormous capital city of Tenochtitlán, in central Mexico cies which have resulted from this pan-Pacific association. In (Hassig 1994). Shortly after, Cortés seized the Mexican doing so, I hope to illustrate that the transnational relation- emperor, Moctezuma II,2 despite what is acknowledged by ships which existed, and continue to be created, within the records from both sides to have been a hospitable reception. region we now call the “Pacific Rim” produced durable and Numerous humiliations, the murder of two Mexica monarchs, lasting cultural effects, as well as political, economic, and the deaths of 450 Spanish men and 4,000 Tlaxcalan soldiers, environmental ones. and a three-month siege involving the cruel obstruction of www.pacificrim.usfca.edu/research/perspectives