Bolingitboy, thank you for that excellent historical lesson. Yes, you are right, the Spanish influence is, indeed, the uniting factor that link all three together. The cement.
I have a colleague who is a 3rd year medical student, his surname is 'Zamudio' and is a Spaniard, born and grew up in the city of Oviedo, Northern Spain. We always talk about history in our given free time, and we answer each other's question, and one conversation topic piece was his question concerning where I was from. I told him about Bohol, and Cebu as well as the concept of the Visayas etc. He was interested about the Philippines, and I showed him some pictures of the churches in Bohol: St. Joseph's Cathedral, the church in Valencia, the church in Garcia Hernandez etc, as well as the churches in Cebu etc. He commented how amazing it was to see that the old spanish churches have survived almost 200-300 years. The churches built in Cebu are identitical looking to the old churches in Northern Spain.
Now I wonder if the Spanish conquistadores, merchants and priests that came to settle and colonize central visayas, particularly Cebu were from Northern Spain or not. Considering the architectural similarities.
That and the fact that Cebu is also probably the most heavily Spanish influenced province in the entire Republic.
"The Queen City of the South"/ the First Spanish Colony in the Philippines, as it is known, afterall.
Its amazing tho, that in the lush green jungles of an Asian archipelago, the main structures that unites municipalities and regions are the churches.
Truly, the Philippines is the only Europeanized Nation in all of Asia.
We are truly a mixture of European (Spanish) and ethnic Malay and a sprinkle of Chinese.
I love it. Truly Unique.
That is why Filipinos adapt to any foreign environment, particularly in western environments.
Because, we have an innately Europeanized culture, and mentality.
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