The Zamboangueño people (Chavacano: Pueblo Zamboangueño), are a creole ethnolinguistic people of the Philippines originating in Zamboanga City. Like most lowland people in the Philippines, the Zamboangueño people are a hispanized people. They are Subanon people who were hispanized and had relationships with other ethnic groups brought in Zamboanga city during the Spanish colonial period. Unlike the hispanized groups in Luzon and the Visayas who retained their indigenous languages, the Zamboangueño were not able to teach their indigenous Subanon language to the younger generation, resulting to the absorption of Spanish as their first language under colonial rule, which eventually led to the development of a creole language called Chavacano. Some places who were heavily hispanized during Spanish rule also speak Chavacano such as Iloilo City, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Cebu City, and Cavite City, although the language most spoken in those cities are the original native languages of the natives, rather than a colonial language. In many cases, the number of people who speak the colonial language of Chavacano in those cities have fallen as the people have gradually re-embraced the language of their indigenous ancestors. The Zamboangueño people constitute a distinct ethnolinguistic identity under a cultural and historical heritage based mostly on Spanish colonialism and influence, most notably Chavacano, that distinguishes them from neighboring ethnolinguistic groups. Spanish censuses records previously claimed that about a third of the inhabitants of Zamboanga City has some Iberian and Hispanic-American admixture by 1870. This question on genetics was later clarified in 2021. As a result of Spanish colonization, according to a recent genetic study, "4 out of 10 individuals tested among Chavacanos" had large "West Eurasian ancestry" admixture.

History

The present-day location was Zamboanga city was historically part of the Subanon people's ancestral lands. Under Spanish colonial rule, the colonial official subjugated the indigenous Subanons and instructed the building of Fort Pilar using native people for labor. People from other regions were afterwards sent to the colony. The main purpose of the fort was to expand Spain's colonial rule in the region and to guard the Spanish forces from the Moros (Muslims) who mostly came from the Sulu archipelago. Native laborers from Iloilo City, Cavite City, Cebu City, Bohol, Negros and other islands were brought to the city to build the fort through the polo y servicio, a colonial system which forced natives to become laborers of the Spanish colonizers without any form of compensation. Eventually, these people settled in the city and lived alongside and intermarried with other ethnic groups, primarily the indigenous peoples of Zamboanga, the Subanon. A few Spanish personnel from Spain and Peru were brought to Zamboanga. It is not known if they stayed and intermixed in the city. Later, the people of the city were called Chavacanos or Zamboangueños, who gradually developed a colonial language called Chavacano, a creole which became the city's lingua franca and the official language of the short-lived Republic of Zamboanga during the Philippine Revolution.

Culture

The Zamboangueño or Chavacano people have their own kinship family system, cultural heritage including fiestas and siestas culture, which are hispanized in nature due to colonialism. There are still Subanon traits in their heritage, which is the basis for their ancestral roots. Their social lives usually revolve around religious practices and traditions such as the bantayanon and fondas, including their bailes, the vals, regodon and paso doble. They are mostly Roman Catholics. The Zamboangueños or Chavacanos in Basilan, who have Yakan and Subanon roots, have developed their own sub-culture.

Language

Chavacano is the lingua franca utilized by the Zamboangueño or Chavacano people due to Spanish colonialism. The original language of the original inhabitsnts is the Subanon language. Nevertheless current inhabitants have a large % of the people from Ternate, Molucas, when the spanish army rescued the christian portuguese speakers of Ternate from the muslim pirates, these guys or their descendants eventually adopted a creole form of spanish.

Courtship etiquette

Zamboangueño courtship traditions are elaborate and regulated by a long list of required social graces. For example, a perfectly respectable Zamboangueño gentleman (caballero) would not sit unless permitted to do so by the woman's parents, he then had to endure questions pertaining to his family, credentials and occupation. Finally, the courtship curfew and the need to cultivate the goodwill of all the members of the woman's family were paramount considerations before any headway could be made in pursuing the hand of a Zamboangueño/Chavacano woman (señorita’) in marriage.

Dance

Zamboangueño songs and dances are derived primarily from Iberian performances. Specifically, the jota zamboangueña, a Zamboangueño version of the quick-stepping flamenco with bamboo clappers in lieu of Spanish castanets, are regularly presented during fiestas and formal tertulias or other Zamboangueño festivities.

Clothing

Likewise, Zamboangueño traditional costumes are closely associated with Spanish formal dress. Men wear close-necked jackets as they called camiseta Zamboangueña, de bastón pants, and European style shoes, complete with the de-rigueur bigotillos (mustache). Zamboangueño women claim ownership of the mascota, a formal gown with a fitting bodice, her shoulders draped demurely by a luxuriously embroidered, though stiff, pañuelo and fastened at the breast by a brooch or a medal. The skirt tapers down from the waist but continues on to an extended trail called the cola. The cola may be held on one hand as the lady walks around, or it may likewise by pinned on the waist or slipped up a cord (belt) that holds the dainty abanico or purse. The traditional Zamboangueño dress has been limited to formal functions, replaced by the more common shirt, denim jeans, and sneakers for men, and shirts, blouses, skirts or pants, and heeled shoes for women.

Festivals

There are several important events of the festival that can be witnessed during Holy Week (Chavacano/Spanish: Semana Santa). These include watching films (magá película) about Jesus and his teachings, visitaiglesias, processions, novenas and the climbing and praying of the Stations of the Cross (Estaciones de la Cruz) in Mt. Pulong Bato, Fiesta de Pilar (Spanish: Fiesta del Pilar), a festivity in honour of Our Lady of the Pillar (Zamboangueño: Nuestro Señora de Pilar; Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Pilar) and Zamboanga Day (Día de Zamboanga) and Day of the Zamboangueños (Día del magá Zamboangueño) which is celebrated every August 15 every year for the foundation of Zamboanga city on August 15, 1635. Zamboangueño celebrate Christmas in so many unique ways such as the villancicos/aguinaldos o pastores this also includes the Día de Navideña and Pascua, Nochebuena, fiestas, vísperas, Diana, Misa, magá juego, processions and feasting.

Cuisine

Zamboangueño cuisine includes in its repertoire curacha, calamares, tamales, locón, cangrejos, paella, estofado, arroz a la valenciana, caldo de vaca/cerdo/pollo, puchero, caldo de arroz, lechón, jamonadas, endulzados, embutido, adobo, afritadas, menudo, caldereta, jumbá, Leche Flan and many more.

Notable persons

There are Zamboangueños who are famous for their fields of endeavor, especially in music, entertainment, sports, and politics. These are the following: (NOTE: Keep in mind that some of these persons here in this list are only Zamboangueños by their place of birth, place of origin, or their demonym, or by being born from, originated from, affiliated with, or living or residing some to most of their lives in Zamboanga City, rather than actually being Zamboangueños by their ethnicity or by their ethnic or ethnolinguistic group, and they are better included in the list of notable personalities from or of Zamboanga City, instead of this list of notable persons of Zamboangueño ethnicity.)