History has a funny way of erasing the folks who don’t fit neatly into mainstream boxes. If you open a standard textbook, the story of the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) is usually told through a singular lens. But look a little closer at the edge of the frame, and you’ll find a deep, deeply embedded Asian American connection — or more accurately, an Asian-Latino connection — that has been swept under the rug for far too long.
We’re talking about the Filipino Mexicans who fought, bled, and rose to leadership to kick Spain out of North America.
To understand how they got there, you have to look back at the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. For 250 years, the Spanish Empire essentially used Mexico and the Philippines as two cogs in the same colonial machine.
Because the Philippines was actually governed through the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), thousands of Filipinos made the perilous journey across the Pacific. Many were sailors and laborers who, upon docking in Acapulco, decided they’d had enough of Spanish cruelty. They jumped ship, settled in the coastal regions of Guerrero, and integrated into local society.
In the colonial caste system, they were collectively labeled "Chinos"—a lazy catch-all term for anyone of Asian descent.
When the revolution sparked in 1810, these marginalized communities didn’t sit on the sidelines.
The original subversives: The Tondo conspiracy of 1587
The seed of this anti-colonial defiance wasn’t planted in 1810—it was planted over two centuries earlier by the very first documented Filipino settlers in Mexico.
In 1587, a secret alliance of pre-colonial Tagalog royalty orchestrated the Tondo Conspiracy (also known as the Revolt of the Lakans). Led by noblemen Don Agustin de Legazpi and Martin Pangan, these native leaders plotted a massive, highly sophisticated geopolitical coup to completely overthrow Spanish rule in the Philippines. They secured an agreement with a Japanese sea captain for weapons and allied with the Sultan of Brunei for naval support. But after 15 months of planning, a single betrayal shattered the plot.
The Spanish response was swift and merciless. While the main ringleaders were publicly executed, Spain stripped several remaining high-ranking noblemen—including Pedro Balinguit (Chief of Pandacan), Felipe Salonga (Chief of Polo), Pitongatan, Calao, and Agustin Manuguit—of their property and exiled them across the Pacific to Mexico.
Arriving in Acapulco in July 1589, these royal political exiles became the historic cornerstone of the Filipino Mexican diaspora. They weren't just random travelers; they were a lineage of deposed freedom fighters. For generations, Spain continued to use Mexico as a dumping ground for Manila’s political subversives, effectively exporting a continuous supply of anti-colonial resentment straight into the Mexican bloodstream.
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| General Isidoro Montes de Oca |
By the time the 19th century rolled around, those generations of mixed heritage were ready to finish what the exiles started.
Take a look at General Isidoro Montes de Oca. Born in Mexico in 1789 to a family of Philippine heritage, Montes de Oca wasn’t an indentured sailor. He was a free man who chose to put his life on the line for liberation. Genealogists have tracked his lineage directly to the prominent Montes de Oca family of Makati, Philippines. In fact, his relative, Juan Montes de Oca, was the Prior Administrator of the famous Guadalupe Church in Makati.
This deep-rooted Catholic connection explains why Montes de Oca and his fellow rebels fiercely marched under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe—a symbol of resistance that bridged both sides of the ocean.
Montes de Oca quickly became a trusted lieutenant commander under legendary revolutionary leaders José María Morelos and Vicente Guerrero (who would later become Mexico's first president of African descent). Today, his bravery is so deeply woven into Mexican history that a municipality in Guerrero bears his name: La Unión de Isidoro Montes de Oca.
Then there’s Francisco Mongoy. Like Montes de Oca, Mongoy was a brilliant military commander of Philippine descent. He rose through the ranks to become a brigade commander under General Morelos, specializing in ruthless, high-stakes guerrilla warfare in the rugged mountains of Guerrero.
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| Mexicanos are beginning to uncover and honor the Filipino immigrants' impact on their culture. |
But Montes de Oca and Mongoy weren’t lone actors. When Father Miguel Hidalgo first called for revolution, the insurgent leadership actively recruited an entire contingent of roughly 200 Filipino Mexican revolutionaries from the coastal areas of Guerrero.
These 200 men became the secret weapon of the southern insurgency. Because their families had worked the docks and regional trade routes, they knew every hidden path, valley, and escape route surrounding the heavily fortified Spanish port of Acapulco. Under the direct leadership of Vicente Guerrero, this fierce cohort consistently outmaneuvered and humiliated elite royalist Spanish forces sent to crush them.
The historical irony is delicious: Spain built a maritime global empire by forcing these two cultures together and exiling Filipino rebels to the Americas, only for the human bonds forged by that empire to dismantle it from the inside out.
A lasting footprint
The legacy of these 200 fighters didn’t vanish when the Treaty of Córdoba was signed in 1821. It completely rewrote the cultural and genetic landscape of Mexico's Pacific coast.
- The genetic proof: A 2018 genetic mapping project of the population in Guerrero revealed an astonishing truth — roughly one-third of the modern-day coastal residents carry about 10% Filipino ancestry. That is a direct line of blood tracing right back to the Chino immigrant communities that fought for the nation's freedom.
- The cultural blend: The descendants of these revolutionaries permanently introduced Filipino traditions into mainstream Mexican culture. If you’ve ever enjoyed a glass of coastal Mexican tuba (coconut wine) or seen someone rocking a traditional guayabera shirt, you are looking at living Philippine heritage.
Following independence, General Vicente Guerrero was so moved by the bravery of his Filipino troops that he actively pushed for Mexico to use its new freedom to send a military squadron to help liberate the Philippines from Spain, citing the "intimate relations" and shared blood of the two lands.
Asian Americans and Latinos have a history together. From the first hunters who crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America to the Mexicans and Filipinos marching together for farmworker rights giving birth to the United Farmworkers union, we need to acknowledge that shared history this Hispanic Heritage Month.
History might try to keep these stories on the cutting room floor, but the receipts are there. From the exiled datus of Tondo to the battle-hardened soldiers of Guerrero, Filipino Mexicans didn't just witness the birth of a free Mexico—they fought on the front lines to build it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.
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