How It Was Made

~Blog post #1~

April 12, 2015

By: Alec Robinson

Kain Tayo! Lets eat! The words that will move a whole village of Filipinos.  I find these words hit home to me because they are not only an invitation to eat, but are the words my I would hear my grandparents say before every meal.  Without hesitation they are the reason why I want to learn about my Filipino culture. Form all the stories that they told me at the dinner table I have become fairly familiar with the way the Philippines was formed. So now its time for a little history lesson, a Portuguese explorer named Ferdinand Magellan had arrived in the Philippines in 1521. During his time on the islands Magellan stared friendly relationship with the local chieftains. Later he would be killed which in turn started the Spanish invasion in the 1560s. Many years’ latter things started to heat up between the Spanish and the U.S., and in 1896 the Philippine Revolution had begun. This put the U.S. and the locals against the Spanish which turned out to be to much for them and caused the rule of Spain to end in 1898. Now a colony of the U.S. everything was peachy. The U.S. helped them to set up a government, once done with this they promised to stay out of Filipino diplomatic endeavors. Now you might be asking why is any of this important. Well I’ll tell you, with both the U.S. and Spain being major parts of the history in the Philippines, their influence on the food have played a dramatic role on the culture. Also in you look at the geography of the area, they are surrounded by ocean and have beautiful mountains at the heart of the land. This geography plays a large part in what is eaten, most dishes include fish or a pig of some sort. With the history of the Philippines and the geogerphy of the land, I am excited to learn more about my culture but more importantly share it with you!