The Chinese Mestizos: Intelligent, Active, and Wealthy
Over the course of the 17th to 19th centuries, the treatment of the Chinese improved, largely because of intermarrying with Filipinos, and their indispensable role in the Philippine economy. At the end of the 1800s, there were so many wealthy and mestizo Chinese in the Philippines that they comprised 23 percent of the population of Filipinos and mestizos. According to Corpuz (2007), the Chinese mestizos in the Philippines at that time were “rich, active, and intelligent.”
In the social stratification in the 19th century, the Chinese had significantly improved their status, from being a despised outsider to being an essential economic asset in the Philippines. In that period, the Spanish were still considered the altas – they were at the top, while the Indios were at the base. Meanwhile, the Chinese mestizos became a neutral populace that served as an economic link for the Spaniards and the Indios.
Apart from the Chinese mestizos, newcomer Chinese from the mainland also settled in the Philippines and established their own close-knit communities. They built their own schools, hospitals, and cemeteries, and published their own newspapers. According to Abinales and Amoroso, The Chinese took a very prominent economic role in the 19th century as wholesalers, retailers, and producers, especially of abaca and tobacco. They also became monopoly contractors, which suited the needs of the Spanish colonial government.
Much like many Filipinos at that time, the Chinese who chose to settle in the Philippines in the 17th to 19th centuries proved to be resilient, resourceful, and stubborn in the face of abuse, maltreatment, and racism.