Becoming Mexipino: Thwarting the anti-miscegenation laws of the US

The overlapping of Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and Filipino American History Month, October 1-31, has special meaning for Mexipinos, who get a double celebration.

From the 16th century to the present, the union of Mexicans and Filipinos was the result of human nature taking its course. Love conquers man-made laws, even the anti-miscegenation laws that prevented Filipinos from marrying Whites.

Although Filipino sailors who jumped ship in Mexico after a trans-Pacific voyage on Manila galleons in the 16th to 18th centuries were able to form Filipino-Mexican families it wasn't until the 20th century that the term Mexipino was created.

Prof. Rudy P Guevarra, an associate professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University, is a fourth-generation Mexipino. He brought the term into contemporary use through his studies and research in college and as the author of Becoming Mexipino. 

Becoming Mexipino is a social-historical interpretation of two ethnic groups, one Mexican, the other Filipino, whose paths led both groups to San Diego, California. Rudy Guevarra traces the earliest interactions of both groups with Spanish colonialism to illustrate how these historical ties and cultural bonds laid the foundation for what would become close interethnic relationships and communities in 20th century San Diego as well as in other locales throughout California and the Pacific West Coast.

Through racial covenants and other forms of discrimination, both groups, regardless of their differences, were confined to segregated neighborhoods along with African Americans, other Asian groups, and a few European immigrant clusters. 

Rudy P. Guevarra: 'I'm a fourth generation Mexipino.'

An excerpt from Guevarra's Becoming Mexipino illustrates how love overcame the racist law that forbade the marriage of one interracial couple.

When Felipa Castro met Ciriaco “Pablo” Poscablo in San Diego, little did sheknow the impact their marriage would have on their family for generations to come. Born and raised in Baja California, Mexico, 

Felipa migrated with her family to Tijuana, then made her way north to the Otay Mesa area in the South Bay region of San Diego County during the early 1930s. 

Her future husband, Ciriaco, arrived in San Diego in 1924 from his hometown of Calasiao, in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines, via the US Navy. 

Their courtship was brief, and they filed for a marriage license in 1938. What is interesting to note about their marriage is that on their license she indicated she was a “Mexican Indian,” despite the fact she was light enough to be considered white. 

Felipa, however, made sure she was not perceived as white. Rather, Felipa consciously chose to indicate on their marriage license that she was Mexican Indian in order to marry her Filipino husband. In doing so, she resisted the racial restrictions ofthe time that prohibited miscegenation between whites and nonwhites. She had to assert her Mexican Indian identity in order for the marriage to be recognized by the state. Her choice to identify as “Mexican Indian” reveals an ironic twist of following the legal codes that opposed miscegenation between Filipinos and whites; this also affected light-skinned Mexican women after 1933.

Even when the anti-miscegenation laws were abolished as recently as 1967 in Loving v. Virginia,  a world-shaking event not covered in most US history books, the unions between Filipinos and Mexicans began to blossom and continue to this day to create the self-identified Mexipino, a term that is gaining usage as recognition of the interracial unions gains traction in popular culture.

RELATED: Designing a Mexipino wedding, a blending of two cultures

Within these urban multiracial spaces, Mexicans and Filipinos coalesced to build a world of their own through family and kin networks, shared cultural practices, social organizations, and music and other forms of entertainment. Through the common history under Spanish rule, Mexicans and Filipinos shared similar traditions through the interplay of language, cuisine and religion. 

In the US, they shared the same racism that segregated them to outskirts of cities and culture. They occupied the same living spaces, attended the same Catholic churches, and worked together creating labor cultures that reinforced their ties, often fostering marriages. 

Jackie Ramirez and Nico Blitz will do a live podcast from the Mexipino Food fest.

As evidence of the ongoing Mexipino evolution, a Mexipino food festival is being held in San Francisco. Organized in part by Nico Blitz and Jackie Ramirez, hosts of the Mexipino Podcast, the Mexipino Food Fest will be held Oct. 16, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be held at an outdoor venue, District Six, formerly the SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11th Street, where the fest will be held. 

The Mexipino Food Fest will feature Mexican and Filipino food vendors, desserts, clothing brands, creatives and DJs. Additionally Mexipino Podcast will conduct a live podcast and a watch party for the 49ers vs. Falcons will take place. No admission fee for children 12 and under.

Mexipino children, living simultaneously in two cultures, are creating a new identity for themselves. The way they celebrate and claim their dual heritages are the lens through which these two communities are examined, revealing the ways in which Mexicans and Filipinos interacted over generations to produce this distinct  multiethnic experience.

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