‘Born in the country under the noble Spanish flag’. The uses of race in controlling local power in late nineteenthcentury Philippines

Abstract

The article traces the use and exploitation of race and racial mixing in access to and control of local authorities in the Philippines during Spanish colonial rule, the only level of government available to native people. It analyzes how race determined the position of each individual in the colonial power pyramid—racial categories that were subsequently shaped by and enshrined in law and served to appraise privileges and exceptions. It explores the dichotomous strategies used by native elites in relation to local power during the second half of the nineteenth century. Those Principalías who did not wish to be in local government, or considered them onerous, used racial categories to shirk these responsibilities. By contrast, in the case of Principalías which were interested in occupying these local positions, the elites resorted to a defensive strategy which used the racial system to their advantage to prevent these posts being illegally usurped by Spaniards and Spanish mestizos.