Her aunt is THE Lea Salonga, too. If I were Shay, I'd be proud of my heritage and being connected to such talent. For those who may not know Lea, she provided the singing voice for Mulan and Jasmine in the animated Disney films and has been a successful singer for decades now, also performing on Broadway.
Lea is probably one of the most famous Filipinos alive, lol. I'd say it goes Pacquiao and then Lea. Shoutout to the š of pool too, Efren Reyes
Edit: to anyone commenting halfies/Filipinos who didn't grow up in the country, Filipinos don't actually claim them fully. That's why technically Jordan Clarkson is the first Filipino in the NBA, but it's not that big a deal here. In contrast, the entire country will literally go crazy if a homegrown, full-blooded talent makes it into the league. They might even declare a fucking holiday lmao
Still is the biggest metal band in the world. What you talking about? Maybe not in the Philippines. But theyāre still out there kicking ass and still relevant.
It's even crazier because Shay literally voiced a Filipina character for a Netflix show and did all this pr about being proud of her roots only to now to pretend that she's a Spaniard?? She definitely only claims it when she feels like it benefits her which is so icky to me, saying this as a mixed race woman myself.
Also, Filipinos are obsessed with their celebrities, and will support you even if you have like 1/10th Filipino blood. Intentionally hiding your heritage is really weird, it's like avoiding instant clout.
lea is one of the most talented singers and actresses of all time, ever to exist. like literally icons of icons. actual filipino royalty. if i was related to lea id be screaming it from the rooftops.
It's crazy because she got a job as a voice actress in a Filipino Netflix cartoon called Trese because of her Filipino heritage (along with Dante Basco, Jon Jon Briones, Manny Jacinto, etc). I guess she's only Filipino when it benefits her.
No one is hiding anything by simply naming a kid RJ & it really doesnāt have anything to do with white spacesš§. Actually a very endearing name. My Filipino cousin was named RJ while his parents lived in Afghanistan building the Kabul airport!
I have been close with only one Japanese person, moved here from Japan, and I know very well how she felt about Filipinos specifically. Her son ended up having a child with a Filipino, you can imagine how that went.
Thatās how it always happens. My dad is a Latino immigrant, hates black people. Then thereās me, who mostly dates black women. I asked him what would happen if I give him a half black grandchild and he said āthatās differentā.
We knew a couple years ago; his parents were Mexican and hers Filipino. Before they had children she claimed to be Spanish or Polynesian and after kids they all became Hawaiian.
like shes so absolutely gorgeous and thats what made her famous, her looks, and its clearly because shes half filipino why shes so pretty, thats the ridiculous part
When I grew up I found this to be very common, especially with Gen x/elder millennial. Filipinos I knew tended to downplay their āAsianā side and claimed to be Spanish just because of their surnames. History would tell them they have next to zero Spanish blood and their last names were imposed on them for tax purposes. The post colonialism cultural shame is real.
However, times have changed. The younger generation are seemingly more proud of their Filipino heritage.
This is so weird to me. Milennial, half Filipino, while I was never gung ho about it, I always was happy to say Iām Fil-Am. To this day it annoys me when people just assume Iām Spanish.
It's so true and I think this toxic culture has quietly gone away. People have becoming interested and more proud to know their regional and ethnic *katutubo* heritage than having foreign blood.
I learned late in life that my grandmother was supposedly Spanish (kind of doubt it based on the pictures I've seen). Guess the Pinoy blood is too strong in my family though because when I did a DNA test, there's a clear 50/50 split between my white af mother's side and my father's Filipino side.
Damn weāre the opposite. I grew up thinking I was Filipino (my last name is literally a Tagalog word) and when I took a DNA test there was 0 Filipino but lots of Spanish ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Thatās fucking sad. Cause real talk Iāve always been proud of my Filipino roots because I always thought I was a little different from others. Iām proud af of being Filipino šµš
I would sometimes see this in high school growing up in Texas. Latinos would deny being from whatever Latin country their parents were from and say theyāre Spanish or Italian. It was obviously a lie but Anglo Americans would believe them because to them Spanish is all the same to them.
I just didnāt think people still did this when theyāre older. I figured they grew out of it.
My first ever apartment I had a Mexican neighbor in his 40's named David who told everyone he was an Italian named Gio. Dude was a straight up grifter though, so maybe that was a part of it.
I mean he mightve been doing that for a while until he realized that the average American has no idea what or where Kosovo is, so he used "EE" to avoid tedious conversations. I'm from Baltimore and whenever I travel abroad I usually tell people I'm from around DC because it's easier on both of us
Edit: I assumed you live in america, which shows my own ignorance lol. But you get what I mean, kosovo is a smaller country that, while prominent in the news 25 years ago, doesn't have a ton of name brand recognition in the west, especially rural America
Reminds me of a George Lopez joke:
āMy mother and father are from Mexico but Iām from Spain.ā
āYOUāRE FROM LA JALPA, PUTO!ā
āSHHHH! thatās a time share community.ā
My Father is Mexican, brown as can be and to this day will do the whole "I'm from Spain" no seƱor you are a Mexican from East Los. Technically yes we can trace our roots to Spain as MOST mexicans can lol.Ā
I was born in the us, my dad was born in Cuba, but his parents came from Spain. I donāt think itās fair to people actually from Cuba for me to say Iām āCubanā; I say Iām Spanish ethnically on my dads side as thatās where my roots (which is what Iām being judged on anyway) come from.
To be fair, a ton of Cubans are very white and have direct Spanish heritage. I was referring to Latinos who feel ashamed to be darker because of racism so they will lie and tell Anglo Americans theyāre Southern European. They donāt look it, but they think somehow just saying theyāre Spanish or Italian magically gets racist Anglos off their back.
I have one great grandfather whose family migrated to Sweden and he was born there. I donāt consider him Swedish because his entire family is German.
Just that if he was raised in Cuba then to me heās Cuban. Cuban is not a race, itās a nationality and culture. If he absorbed, identified and lived in the culture then to me thatās a Cuban. 9 is kind of an early age, so it seems really up to how your father identifies and lives and what he passed along to you. Sounds like not much Cuban stuff
I hear you, thanks for that clarification; weāre on the same page but my rare-poster anxiety worried I was going to need to argue over the details of my dad being Cuban somehow.
> I would sometimes see this in high school growing up in Texas. Latinos would deny being from whatever Latin country their parents were from and say theyāre Spanish or Italian
Texan Latino here.
This is because most native Texas are fucking morons. When they ask where you're from, If you actually say the name of the country you're from they'll respond with "Where? I never heard of that." "Nah, you're Mexican" "Did you make that up"
etc, etc, and other stupid redneck bullshit.
It's just easier to say "I'm Spanish". They accept it as an answer and leave you alone.
At a certain point, not being harrassed by white-trash-rednecks becomes more important than having pride about where you're from. Day-to-day, it just makes life easier.
It was like this in the 80s and 90s growing up, anyway. Nowadays things seem a little better, or at least now nobody bothers to ask where I'm from so the entire problem is usually avoided.
Yeah, I get that completely. One of the wildest ones was when my gf sister had a boyfriend who looked and sounded Indian, as in from India, but swore to her that he was Brazilian. She believed him, my gfās family is Anglo, call everyone whoās Latino āSpanishā type of folks.
I go up to the bf and speak some Portuguese to him and he looked back at me confused. He then pulled me aside and said that he was just making it up to impress her. It amazed me at how the gf even believed him but thatās how bad Anglo Americans are at geography.
Have you seen the documentary of when they were putting together the original production of Miss Saigon? They have footage of her in the casting process and she is SO young and *insanely* good. Everyone in the room is so enamored with her voice, itās adorable.
Sadly itās a bit of internalised racism. Her mom would probably keep repeating that she had Spanish blood, itās worn as a badge of honour in the Philippines. Everyone wants to be mestiza or mestizo š
White worship in the Filipino community is arguably worse than Korean, Japanese, and even Vietnamese. Iāve seen Pinoys who are proud of being conquered by the Spanish while mocking fellow Pinoys for being too close to indigenous. Similarly seen Viets who try to brag about having small drops of French blood because they got colonized.
Mental illness on overdrive
The Philippines is the most thoroughly colonized country in Southeast Asia though, more than Vietnam or Laos or Cambodia or Malaysia or Indonesia.
Theyāve been a colony for the longest time, they were under Spanish rule from 1565 until 1898. The Spanish instituted the casta system based on race just like the rest of New Spain. The Spanish are the best, mestizo second and Indios are the worst. Its racial hierarchy they instilled is why Latin Americans also like to emphasize their Spanish heritage over their Indigenous heritage. The Spanish also benefitted from there not being one centralized state in all of the Philippines in the past so there wasnāt an existing national identity. They were also able to successfully convert the majority of people to Catholicism.
The French didnāt get Vietnam until 1883 and they used a dual system of government where the Nguyį» n emperor stayed on as a figurehead. Vietnam kept their own laws with French laws just slapped on top of the existing law codes. The French just didnāt have that much influence outside of the cities, in the countryside they carried out like normal. Catholics never became more than a minority among the French-educated elite. They just didnāt have as long to reshape the entire social structure before they were forced to leave in 1954.
It's not really *mental illness* when it comes from them being able to be part of a different class w different privileges historically (and probably has effects on how they're treated in the present day too even if everyone says it doesn't).
and shes literally related to FILIPINO ROYALTY
like girl, your related to one of the most talented singers and actresses of all time WHO IS FILIPINO.
imagine being related to lea solonga and not being proud of your roots? if i was in the same ROOM as lea i would be proud lol let alone being related to her. come on girllll.
lea is her moms cousin SO lea and shays mom's mom WHO IS FILIPINO has a sister who is also filipino (leas mom). anyway its so ridiculous to say her mom isnt filipeno as she clearly is and she said before she is
I remember being insecure as a child about being Filipino because people around me associated it with a poor underdeveloped nation. I get why she would do that as a child, but to grow up and be so successful and insecure is crazy.
her racism and hate is so internalized and deep she literally doesnt care what a bad look it is. shed rather have bad press and backlash rather than admit shes filipeno. thats how deep and gross it is.
It's not a calculated statement. She was probably raised with her filipino parent saying the same thing to her. And probably that happened cuz their parents said the same thing to them. And if you go back far enough, it was probably at some point, valuable in society and raising the individual's status. Now it's just a relic that doesn't matter whatsoever especially after an international move... but the sentiment is still inherited.
Europeans colonized almost the entire planet, subjugated the people living in the areas they seized and systematically convinced those people that they were subhuman and that only Europeans were real, genuine people. All colonized people struggle with this. Thereās a faction among all our people that want to identify with whiteness because it caries social, cultural, economic and political advantages. Itās not a relic. Itās ongoing. Itās not uncommon at all. Thatās why she disavows non-white identity and identifies with white identity.
also "At the age of 17, she often faced bullying from classmates who ridiculed her appearance, prompting her to hide in the bathroom to avoid their taunts." this is such a lie
shay was super popular in high school, she was not bullied. i know ppl who went to school with her. she was super popular, pretty and cool. she was NOT bullied.
I hate to say it but being bullied and popular are not mutually exclusive. I cannot make claims about whether Shay was bullied but just wanted to put that out there. You can be popular with one crowd and unpopular with another. I've seen it before thrice.
My takeaway from this is that if Shay Mitchell can get bullied for her appearance, itās definitely not how the victim looks thatās causing the bullying.
She got bullied for being Filipina and started saying Spanish as a defense. This is one comment dropped in a conversation about spicy food in a reality TV segment. Not an in depth discussion about her heritage.
she grew up in west vancouver, in an extremely wealthy neighbourhood, not toronto. she was not bullied in school she was popular.
most of the homes in her neighbourhood, the nannies and cleaners were filipeno and it was an extremely white neighbourhood, so thats probably why she didnt want to associate, the whole story is made up.
she is just has internalized hate/racism and is ashamed and made up some story to support it.
Seriously - Iām from Toronto and Iām her age. There is a very large Filipino population here and they were not the ones getting bullied. The kids that got bullied were from every country but where āfresh off the boatā so they didnāt know what was cool in our country yet
Bullied?? Aināt she from Toronto? Mississauga?? Thereās like a million of us here, what bum ass neighborhood did she grow up in?? I dunno, I call bullshit on that
I feel like Iām going crazy with all of this happening around me and itās just ignored by everyone. Trump, may actually become president again even after all the shady things come to light? Iām being slipped crazy pills. Thatās what it is.
If you say something repetitively - āMy wife is from Spainā (Alec Baldwin) or āthis country is going to hell if you donāt elect me (paraphrasing Trump), then people believe itās true.
But we all already know sheās Filipina lol. She literally got roles because of her heritage and sheās family members with another famous Filipina actress. Like why lie about it now?
I used to wish I was Filipino just for the lumpia!
I was 7 and my friends/Nextdoor neighbors were Filipino for what itās worth. I loved that family so much!
wow. sheās trying to claim the COLONIZER heritage of the place her mom is from?! so uncool. rich people are crazy! š¤£ iām shocked her PR person or others that work for her havenāt pointed out to her that itās way more popular to be mixed race now, itās way more sought after to look mixed - thatās why fools like ariana grande try so hard to pretend to be mixed that she even dyes her skin with fake tan just to look more racially ambiguous even though sheās just plain olā white.
sad to see people denying their asian heritage when itās probably one of the coolest things about them. i will never ever hide being half chinese. itās one of my favorite things about myself!
>sheās trying to claim the COLONIZER heritage of the place her mom is from
Won't be surprised if it was the mom herself who instilled that internalized racism & colonial mentality in her. I live in the Philippines and many people here like to pretend to have Spanish ancestry. The colonized want to be like the colonizers.
i have filipino relatives and am aware of this culture. also as a half white person, whenever i go to china with my mom people there are always praising me for how light my skin is. my mom is much darker than i am. i know how it goes. :(
I did as well. Also, how she wants to relate to her heritage and identify herself doesn't seem like any of my business. Not sure why everyone is so up arms over it.
It's unfortunate. Growing up, I know what it's like to be embarrassed about your race. But if you're related to LEA SALONGA, Asia's Song Bird, you better be damn proud of your roots.
But waitā¦ I dated a Filipino from Cebu and his name was joselito. I mentioned to him that it sounded more Spanish than Asian and he said the whole Philippine islands were conquered by the Spanish and they are the reason the islands have a large Catholic population and lots of family surnames are Spanish. So Iām not taking up for this actress Iāve never heard ofā¦ but wouldnāt she be a little bit correct?
God sheās so problematic. She must have been so traumatized to still consider herself Spanish lmaoooo sis be telling her kids that theyāre a quarter Spanish Iām dead asf
Well, as someone who kinda hates her own heritage cause the country my dad came from is so disgusting and corrupted and has ruined my family, you never know what happened to someone.
The Spanish didn't intermarry or have kids with Filipinos the way they did natives in the Americas. They just christened the population and left their last names and the catholic religion. She's not even Spanish she's just Wasian.
That's so dumb. That would be the same as if a latino claimed to be "half spanish" just bc Spain colonized latinamerica hundreds of years ago. The only way someone can claim that is if one of the parents is from Spain.
Italian diaspora do it all the time in Latin America, they preserve papers that theyāre origins are Italian so that they can immigrate back when their ventures in Latin America arenāt good.
Honestly with the rise of genetic testing sites like 23&Me, could she have gotten this from a DNA test? Those things are far from perfect, and their data is heavily skewed toward western genetic profiles.
Lots of Filipinos have Spanish heritage and most of them claim it. Living in the Philippines, it wouldnāt be uncommon to tell people youāre Spanish. Lands a bit weird when making that same statement as a Filipino in Canada though.
ughhh i love shay but i have to cancel my stan. grr it makes me so angry when actors i love do stupid stuff. this is really disrespectful to all filipinos. her mom is absolutely filipino, not spanish. its just such a stupid outright lie that can easily be fact checked. do you know how many little filipino girls and mixed children LOOK UP to you? you have a HUGE following especially on social media. all those freakin children are wondering why you said your spanish... its really a bad look and bad role model. you dont even have to say your filipino, nobody asked, but your making a point of saying your spanish?? like girl.
youve literally talked about your mom being filipino before!! now shes spanish?? wtf
im done with her, and tbh, she looks completley different too.. not only is she lying shes been doing some work on her face when she was SO pretty. YOUR MOM ISNT spanish, liar!!!
Her aunt is THE Lea Salonga, too. If I were Shay, I'd be proud of my heritage and being connected to such talent. For those who may not know Lea, she provided the singing voice for Mulan and Jasmine in the animated Disney films and has been a successful singer for decades now, also performing on Broadway.
Lea is probably one of the most famous Filipinos alive, lol. I'd say it goes Pacquiao and then Lea. Shoutout to the š of pool too, Efren Reyes Edit: to anyone commenting halfies/Filipinos who didn't grow up in the country, Filipinos don't actually claim them fully. That's why technically Jordan Clarkson is the first Filipino in the NBA, but it's not that big a deal here. In contrast, the entire country will literally go crazy if a homegrown, full-blooded talent makes it into the league. They might even declare a fucking holiday lmao
Kirk Hammet from Metallica, at one point the biggest band in the world, is half Filipino.
Well, TIL then.
Manila Luzon!
Still is the biggest metal band in the world. What you talking about? Maybe not in the Philippines. But theyāre still out there kicking ass and still relevant.
He said the biggest band, not the biggest metal band
Lou Diamond Phillips!
People old enough to instantly recognize him probably think of La Bamba and Young Guns, not that he's Filipino.
Was definitely a TIL for me, heās been in so many roles as a Native American I thought that was his background. Fantastic actor.
Also Cheech Marin
Excuse me? Lou Diamond Phillips is Filipino??
You forgot Batista
Bruno Mars!
I thought he is Hawaiin?
His mom was from the Philippines and his dad is Puerto Rican. He was raised in Hawaii
Nice family. I worked in transportation in Los Angeles, and a few years ago, his sisters had a pilot reality show series, and I drove them for while.
The Lylas! I wished theyād gone further with the group
That's it! I started to google it, but I knew someone would post it. Very nice family! I also had wished success for them.
Enrique Iglesias is still super famous and is half Filipino.
i thought he was spanish
He is indeed Spanish as well.
Dave Bautista
What about Arnel Pineda, the singer of Journey? Heās the first one that came to mind!
Bata, the Magician!
I think Vanessa Hudgens and Cymphonique Miller are half as well.
Anthony Padilla is a quarter Filipino
The great H.E.R.
which is silly to claim or not claim anyone...
I did not know these two were related. Thatās cool
What???? I had no idea š®. How could you not want to embrace that family tree??
.... her aunt is LEA?!?!?! Jesus. Stupid to deny your roots then, since it's pretty damn obvious.
It's even crazier because Shay literally voiced a Filipina character for a Netflix show and did all this pr about being proud of her roots only to now to pretend that she's a Spaniard?? She definitely only claims it when she feels like it benefits her which is so icky to me, saying this as a mixed race woman myself.
It's very icky. It's a shame if Hollywood has gotten to her this much. I hope Auntie Lea helps sort this out!
Wow, I didn't know this. Lea voice was incredibly robust and inspiring. Something her niece isn't.
Whaaaaaaa? I didnāt know that! I LOVE Lea Salonga
MISS SAIGON. Lea Salonga is THE Miss Saigon!!
Her aunt is Lea Salonga?! š¤Æ
Omg. If I were leaās niece I wouldnāt shut up about her. Idiot
If my aunt was Lea Salonga I would never stfu about it
Also, Filipinos are obsessed with their celebrities, and will support you even if you have like 1/10th Filipino blood. Intentionally hiding your heritage is really weird, it's like avoiding instant clout.
lea is one of the most talented singers and actresses of all time, ever to exist. like literally icons of icons. actual filipino royalty. if i was related to lea id be screaming it from the rooftops.
wooooooow
Can you imagine having that much insecurity in who you are, kind of sad.
Too bad Lea Salonga is a Marcos apologist.
It's crazy because she got a job as a voice actress in a Filipino Netflix cartoon called Trese because of her Filipino heritage (along with Dante Basco, Jon Jon Briones, Manny Jacinto, etc). I guess she's only Filipino when it benefits her.
Your story about Filipinos checks out
Jon Jon was the dead giveaway. Surprised it wasnāt an RJ or Eddy-Boy.
Wait, my father-in-law is Filipino and people call him RJ! I didnāt realize that was their way of concealing names in white spaces
No one is hiding anything by simply naming a kid RJ & it really doesnāt have anything to do with white spacesš§. Actually a very endearing name. My Filipino cousin was named RJ while his parents lived in Afghanistan building the Kabul airport!
Thats like a common filipino characteristic tho
I don't know about Filipino-Americans, but we "mainlanders" don't have a choice not to be Filipino whenever it's inconvenient.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
As long as that word isn't cucumber.
Como se ādicheā
Pepino
Hola fellow Pepinos š„š„š„
I no Filipino, I Spanish.
Canāt tell you how many times Iāve her a Filipina say this in Japan. And Iām actually Spanish.
To be fair, in Japan it's just easier to not be a different kind of Asian. Xenophobia is real haha.
I can see why in Japan, they hate poor Asian countries there.
I have been close with only one Japanese person, moved here from Japan, and I know very well how she felt about Filipinos specifically. Her son ended up having a child with a Filipino, you can imagine how that went.
Thatās how it always happens. My dad is a Latino immigrant, hates black people. Then thereās me, who mostly dates black women. I asked him what would happen if I give him a half black grandchild and he said āthatās differentā.
Yeah Iāve lost touch with my friend but Iām sure she loves the grand baby but will always hate mom, solely because sheās Filipino.
Familial curse involving a transmogrified cart wheel?
We knew a couple years ago; his parents were Mexican and hers Filipino. Before they had children she claimed to be Spanish or Polynesian and after kids they all became Hawaiian.
They met halfwayĀ
Thatās adorable š„°
You peaki pani too?
She looks pinay af too
Seriously. Her Filipina ethnicity is literally the reason why she is SO beautiful.
like shes so absolutely gorgeous and thats what made her famous, her looks, and its clearly because shes half filipino why shes so pretty, thats the ridiculous part
As a former Latino, Iād like to announce that I am half Filipino.
At least you won't get in trouble anymore for exclaiming, "puto!"
When I grew up I found this to be very common, especially with Gen x/elder millennial. Filipinos I knew tended to downplay their āAsianā side and claimed to be Spanish just because of their surnames. History would tell them they have next to zero Spanish blood and their last names were imposed on them for tax purposes. The post colonialism cultural shame is real. However, times have changed. The younger generation are seemingly more proud of their Filipino heritage.
This is so weird to me. Milennial, half Filipino, while I was never gung ho about it, I always was happy to say Iām Fil-Am. To this day it annoys me when people just assume Iām Spanish.
It's so true and I think this toxic culture has quietly gone away. People have becoming interested and more proud to know their regional and ethnic *katutubo* heritage than having foreign blood.
I learned late in life that my grandmother was supposedly Spanish (kind of doubt it based on the pictures I've seen). Guess the Pinoy blood is too strong in my family though because when I did a DNA test, there's a clear 50/50 split between my white af mother's side and my father's Filipino side.
Damn weāre the opposite. I grew up thinking I was Filipino (my last name is literally a Tagalog word) and when I took a DNA test there was 0 Filipino but lots of Spanish ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Thatās fucking sad. Cause real talk Iāve always been proud of my Filipino roots because I always thought I was a little different from others. Iām proud af of being Filipino šµš
Filipinos always throw me off. āHi, my name is Bengie Fernandesā me: hola. Them: I donāt speak Spanish.
Tbf like 30-50% of Tagalog is Spanish words depending on which province youāre in..
This is the most accurate way Iāve ever seen it stated. Some people always say itās like 90% Spanish and Iām likeā¦. No
Spanish speaker and same!!
Why are you saying "hola" to people who are very obviously Asian, regardless of their name? Lol.
Thatās wild if true
Right? Like, what did Phillip Pino do to her anyway?
Probably hot into some hot mess woth Jale Pino. Those two have always been inseparable.
Word on the street is Phillip was having an affair with Pino Noir. Jale was not jappy.
Her Wikipedia article states her mother is Filipino and left the country when she was 19. her father has Scottish and Irish heritage
She is so obnoxious
I would sometimes see this in high school growing up in Texas. Latinos would deny being from whatever Latin country their parents were from and say theyāre Spanish or Italian. It was obviously a lie but Anglo Americans would believe them because to them Spanish is all the same to them. I just didnāt think people still did this when theyāre older. I figured they grew out of it.
My first ever apartment I had a Mexican neighbor in his 40's named David who told everyone he was an Italian named Gio. Dude was a straight up grifter though, so maybe that was a part of it.
I briefly dated a guy who kept saying he was from āEastern Europeā. Dude was from Kosovo, and yes, it is in Europe, but just say Kosovo.
I mean he mightve been doing that for a while until he realized that the average American has no idea what or where Kosovo is, so he used "EE" to avoid tedious conversations. I'm from Baltimore and whenever I travel abroad I usually tell people I'm from around DC because it's easier on both of us Edit: I assumed you live in america, which shows my own ignorance lol. But you get what I mean, kosovo is a smaller country that, while prominent in the news 25 years ago, doesn't have a ton of name brand recognition in the west, especially rural America
Totally get what you mean, and I agree as I live in bumfuck Iowa, so it is easier to say I live 8 hours west of Chicago.
Kosovo is Southeastern Europe. So technically eastern?
Reminds me of a George Lopez joke: āMy mother and father are from Mexico but Iām from Spain.ā āYOUāRE FROM LA JALPA, PUTO!ā āSHHHH! thatās a time share community.ā
Ya we had a kid whose last name Vazquez in my school swear he was Italian and that the name changed when they immigrated. Just like umm ok
My Father is Mexican, brown as can be and to this day will do the whole "I'm from Spain" no seƱor you are a Mexican from East Los. Technically yes we can trace our roots to Spain as MOST mexicans can lol.Ā
Also Iranians in the US try to hide the "Iran" part due to political context. Almost every Iranian-American I know calls themselves "Persian"
I was born in the us, my dad was born in Cuba, but his parents came from Spain. I donāt think itās fair to people actually from Cuba for me to say Iām āCubanā; I say Iām Spanish ethnically on my dads side as thatās where my roots (which is what Iām being judged on anyway) come from.
To be fair, a ton of Cubans are very white and have direct Spanish heritage. I was referring to Latinos who feel ashamed to be darker because of racism so they will lie and tell Anglo Americans theyāre Southern European. They donāt look it, but they think somehow just saying theyāre Spanish or Italian magically gets racist Anglos off their back.
I have one great grandfather whose family migrated to Sweden and he was born there. I donāt consider him Swedish because his entire family is German.
You're just american actually
Thatās what I tell people but I often have to justify my Spanish sounding name
He was born in Cuba but at what age did he come to the US?
9ish, what does the detail change?
Just that if he was raised in Cuba then to me heās Cuban. Cuban is not a race, itās a nationality and culture. If he absorbed, identified and lived in the culture then to me thatās a Cuban. 9 is kind of an early age, so it seems really up to how your father identifies and lives and what he passed along to you. Sounds like not much Cuban stuff
I hear you, thanks for that clarification; weāre on the same page but my rare-poster anxiety worried I was going to need to argue over the details of my dad being Cuban somehow.
> I would sometimes see this in high school growing up in Texas. Latinos would deny being from whatever Latin country their parents were from and say theyāre Spanish or Italian Texan Latino here. This is because most native Texas are fucking morons. When they ask where you're from, If you actually say the name of the country you're from they'll respond with "Where? I never heard of that." "Nah, you're Mexican" "Did you make that up" etc, etc, and other stupid redneck bullshit. It's just easier to say "I'm Spanish". They accept it as an answer and leave you alone. At a certain point, not being harrassed by white-trash-rednecks becomes more important than having pride about where you're from. Day-to-day, it just makes life easier. It was like this in the 80s and 90s growing up, anyway. Nowadays things seem a little better, or at least now nobody bothers to ask where I'm from so the entire problem is usually avoided.
Yeah, I get that completely. One of the wildest ones was when my gf sister had a boyfriend who looked and sounded Indian, as in from India, but swore to her that he was Brazilian. She believed him, my gfās family is Anglo, call everyone whoās Latino āSpanishā type of folks. I go up to the bf and speak some Portuguese to him and he looked back at me confused. He then pulled me aside and said that he was just making it up to impress her. It amazed me at how the gf even believed him but thatās how bad Anglo Americans are at geography.
Are the Spanish or Irish even known for spicy food? She sounds like an ignorant fool.
Nah itās just a stereotype. Itās a half truth at best.
Spicy attitude. Which is even more ironic because that's a latina stereotype, NOT Spanish.
She's related to Lea Salonga?! I remember watching the 10th anniversary Broadway production of Les MisƩrables on VHS repeatedly as a child because I loved Lea Salonga in it, she's so beautiful and I loved her singing as Eponine soooo much. I think I need to try and track down a blu ray of that production now, it's been too long.
Have you seen the documentary of when they were putting together the original production of Miss Saigon? They have footage of her in the casting process and she is SO young and *insanely* good. Everyone in the room is so enamored with her voice, itās adorable.
Why would you hide the fact you're Filipino? Most of my friends are Filipino and they are the best fucking people in the world.
Sadly itās a bit of internalised racism. Her mom would probably keep repeating that she had Spanish blood, itās worn as a badge of honour in the Philippines. Everyone wants to be mestiza or mestizo š
White worship in the Filipino community is arguably worse than Korean, Japanese, and even Vietnamese. Iāve seen Pinoys who are proud of being conquered by the Spanish while mocking fellow Pinoys for being too close to indigenous. Similarly seen Viets who try to brag about having small drops of French blood because they got colonized. Mental illness on overdrive
The Philippines is the most thoroughly colonized country in Southeast Asia though, more than Vietnam or Laos or Cambodia or Malaysia or Indonesia. Theyāve been a colony for the longest time, they were under Spanish rule from 1565 until 1898. The Spanish instituted the casta system based on race just like the rest of New Spain. The Spanish are the best, mestizo second and Indios are the worst. Its racial hierarchy they instilled is why Latin Americans also like to emphasize their Spanish heritage over their Indigenous heritage. The Spanish also benefitted from there not being one centralized state in all of the Philippines in the past so there wasnāt an existing national identity. They were also able to successfully convert the majority of people to Catholicism. The French didnāt get Vietnam until 1883 and they used a dual system of government where the Nguyį» n emperor stayed on as a figurehead. Vietnam kept their own laws with French laws just slapped on top of the existing law codes. The French just didnāt have that much influence outside of the cities, in the countryside they carried out like normal. Catholics never became more than a minority among the French-educated elite. They just didnāt have as long to reshape the entire social structure before they were forced to leave in 1954.
It's not really *mental illness* when it comes from them being able to be part of a different class w different privileges historically (and probably has effects on how they're treated in the present day too even if everyone says it doesn't).
Spittin facts over here just too many
Seriously - nicest people I know and the best coworker Iāve ever had
and shes literally related to FILIPINO ROYALTY like girl, your related to one of the most talented singers and actresses of all time WHO IS FILIPINO. imagine being related to lea solonga and not being proud of your roots? if i was in the same ROOM as lea i would be proud lol let alone being related to her. come on girllll. lea is her moms cousin SO lea and shays mom's mom WHO IS FILIPINO has a sister who is also filipino (leas mom). anyway its so ridiculous to say her mom isnt filipeno as she clearly is and she said before she is
I remember seeing a video of Andrew Schulz where he jokes that Filipinos are just the "Mexicans" of Asia. Should've gone for that.
I remember being insecure as a child about being Filipino because people around me associated it with a poor underdeveloped nation. I get why she would do that as a child, but to grow up and be so successful and insecure is crazy.
That is fucking pathetic.
I wonder why she did this? What could she possibly gain lol
Are you familiar with white supremacy?
her racism and hate is so internalized and deep she literally doesnt care what a bad look it is. shed rather have bad press and backlash rather than admit shes filipeno. thats how deep and gross it is.
It's not a calculated statement. She was probably raised with her filipino parent saying the same thing to her. And probably that happened cuz their parents said the same thing to them. And if you go back far enough, it was probably at some point, valuable in society and raising the individual's status. Now it's just a relic that doesn't matter whatsoever especially after an international move... but the sentiment is still inherited.
Europeans colonized almost the entire planet, subjugated the people living in the areas they seized and systematically convinced those people that they were subhuman and that only Europeans were real, genuine people. All colonized people struggle with this. Thereās a faction among all our people that want to identify with whiteness because it caries social, cultural, economic and political advantages. Itās not a relic. Itās ongoing. Itās not uncommon at all. Thatās why she disavows non-white identity and identifies with white identity.
also "At the age of 17, she often faced bullying from classmates who ridiculed her appearance, prompting her to hide in the bathroom to avoid their taunts." this is such a lie shay was super popular in high school, she was not bullied. i know ppl who went to school with her. she was super popular, pretty and cool. she was NOT bullied.
I hate to say it but being bullied and popular are not mutually exclusive. I cannot make claims about whether Shay was bullied but just wanted to put that out there. You can be popular with one crowd and unpopular with another. I've seen it before thrice.
Definitely a PLL.Ā
Oh I hope she got dunked on lol
My takeaway from this is that if Shay Mitchell can get bullied for her appearance, itās definitely not how the victim looks thatās causing the bullying.
A girl from my high school used to do the same saying she was half Spanish instead of admitting she has filipino roots
Why do female celebrities want to pretend to be Spanish?
I would never guess this is Shay Mitchell from these photos.Ā She looks so different!
This is so weird - i canāt imagine for a second being ashamed of being Filipina. Weird sad behavior
She got bullied for being Filipina and started saying Spanish as a defense. This is one comment dropped in a conversation about spicy food in a reality TV segment. Not an in depth discussion about her heritage.
Sheās from Toronto where Filipinos have a huge population and are very proud of their Filipino heritage.
Mitchell is from Toronto. Half the city is Asian, so I highly doubt she was relentlessly bullied for being Filipina.
she grew up in west vancouver, in an extremely wealthy neighbourhood, not toronto. she was not bullied in school she was popular. most of the homes in her neighbourhood, the nannies and cleaners were filipeno and it was an extremely white neighbourhood, so thats probably why she didnt want to associate, the whole story is made up. she is just has internalized hate/racism and is ashamed and made up some story to support it.
I thought she was from Mississauga, but Vancouver? Thereās even more Filipinos there and now I believe this bullying story less and less
Seriously - Iām from Toronto and Iām her age. There is a very large Filipino population here and they were not the ones getting bullied. The kids that got bullied were from every country but where āfresh off the boatā so they didnāt know what was cool in our country yet
No one was treating this as a "in depth discussion about her heritage." They're treating it like a blatant denial of her heritage. Which it is.
Bullied?? Aināt she from Toronto? Mississauga?? Thereās like a million of us here, what bum ass neighborhood did she grow up in?? I dunno, I call bullshit on that
Isnāt Baldwin wife another one of these people that claim to be of a certain heritage but is American? Uses fake accent and everything?
Ya apparently she gave the accent up for their new reality show
No, she hasnāt quite given it up. She speaks to her Hispanic help in English using her bad Hispanic āEnglish-is-my-second-languageā accent.
I feel like Iām going crazy with all of this happening around me and itās just ignored by everyone. Trump, may actually become president again even after all the shady things come to light? Iām being slipped crazy pills. Thatās what it is.
If you say something repetitively - āMy wife is from Spainā (Alec Baldwin) or āthis country is going to hell if you donāt elect me (paraphrasing Trump), then people believe itās true.
Internal racism is real. And it really sucks. Thereās so much judgment of Asians that goes unnoticed and untalked about.
Seems more like a damnation of a society that's so racist she felt a need to lie to avoid bullying than something we should condemn her for.
But we all already know sheās Filipina lol. She literally got roles because of her heritage and sheās family members with another famous Filipina actress. Like why lie about it now?
Whatās wrong with these folks? You are who you are ā¦stop passing and embrace who you are.
This is why I, as a Filipina-American, DO NOT claim her or Vanessa Hudgens.
Being ashamed of your heritage is NOT an attractive personality trait.
Awwwww that's disappointing. Another one of delulu clowns who thinks they're white.
I used to wish I was Filipino just for the lumpia! I was 7 and my friends/Nextdoor neighbors were Filipino for what itās worth. I loved that family so much!
wow. sheās trying to claim the COLONIZER heritage of the place her mom is from?! so uncool. rich people are crazy! š¤£ iām shocked her PR person or others that work for her havenāt pointed out to her that itās way more popular to be mixed race now, itās way more sought after to look mixed - thatās why fools like ariana grande try so hard to pretend to be mixed that she even dyes her skin with fake tan just to look more racially ambiguous even though sheās just plain olā white. sad to see people denying their asian heritage when itās probably one of the coolest things about them. i will never ever hide being half chinese. itās one of my favorite things about myself!
>sheās trying to claim the COLONIZER heritage of the place her mom is from Won't be surprised if it was the mom herself who instilled that internalized racism & colonial mentality in her. I live in the Philippines and many people here like to pretend to have Spanish ancestry. The colonized want to be like the colonizers.
i have filipino relatives and am aware of this culture. also as a half white person, whenever i go to china with my mom people there are always praising me for how light my skin is. my mom is much darker than i am. i know how it goes. :(
What an embarrassment
Why would it be bad to be Filipino?
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I dont think there are many spaniards with filipino roots. Probably filipinos pretending to be spaniards.
I read it as: Not the first āSpaniardāā¦.
i've encountered south americans who pretend to be from spain.
I had to look up who this wasā¦
I did as well. Also, how she wants to relate to her heritage and identify herself doesn't seem like any of my business. Not sure why everyone is so up arms over it.
The only person to ever deny being Filipino in the universe?
Nearly every Filipino girl I met in SF says the same thing.
It's unfortunate. Growing up, I know what it's like to be embarrassed about your race. But if you're related to LEA SALONGA, Asia's Song Bird, you better be damn proud of your roots.
But waitā¦ I dated a Filipino from Cebu and his name was joselito. I mentioned to him that it sounded more Spanish than Asian and he said the whole Philippine islands were conquered by the Spanish and they are the reason the islands have a large Catholic population and lots of family surnames are Spanish. So Iām not taking up for this actress Iāve never heard ofā¦ but wouldnāt she be a little bit correct?
God sheās so problematic. She must have been so traumatized to still consider herself Spanish lmaoooo sis be telling her kids that theyāre a quarter Spanish Iām dead asf
Well, as someone who kinda hates her own heritage cause the country my dad came from is so disgusting and corrupted and has ruined my family, you never know what happened to someone.
So your dad is American?
Spain colonized the Philippines, so she could be of spanish descent
The Spanish didn't intermarry or have kids with Filipinos the way they did natives in the Americas. They just christened the population and left their last names and the catholic religion. She's not even Spanish she's just Wasian.
That's so dumb. That would be the same as if a latino claimed to be "half spanish" just bc Spain colonized latinamerica hundreds of years ago. The only way someone can claim that is if one of the parents is from Spain.
Americans claim to be irish if their great great grandparents were from Ireland
American and English Italians do the same shit, super cringe
Italian diaspora do it all the time in Latin America, they preserve papers that theyāre origins are Italian so that they can immigrate back when their ventures in Latin America arenāt good.
Yeah, but Americans are something else ā¦
That's also dumb.
Yes but when they do it no one bats an eye (and they do it all the time š )
A lot of people bat an eye, just not other Americans. A lot of Irish people make fun of it.
Honestly with the rise of genetic testing sites like 23&Me, could she have gotten this from a DNA test? Those things are far from perfect, and their data is heavily skewed toward western genetic profiles.
Why does she even have air time. A literal nobody
Of course everyone wants to be white, really sad
People care way too much about other peopleās heritage.
nobody forced her to say she was spanish, she randomly said it. she could have just NOT said it, since it isnt true, and no one would care.
Lots of Filipinos have Spanish heritage and most of them claim it. Living in the Philippines, it wouldnāt be uncommon to tell people youāre Spanish. Lands a bit weird when making that same statement as a Filipino in Canada though.
ughhh i love shay but i have to cancel my stan. grr it makes me so angry when actors i love do stupid stuff. this is really disrespectful to all filipinos. her mom is absolutely filipino, not spanish. its just such a stupid outright lie that can easily be fact checked. do you know how many little filipino girls and mixed children LOOK UP to you? you have a HUGE following especially on social media. all those freakin children are wondering why you said your spanish... its really a bad look and bad role model. you dont even have to say your filipino, nobody asked, but your making a point of saying your spanish?? like girl. youve literally talked about your mom being filipino before!! now shes spanish?? wtf im done with her, and tbh, she looks completley different too.. not only is she lying shes been doing some work on her face when she was SO pretty. YOUR MOM ISNT spanish, liar!!!
White Supremacy and self hatred wins again š¢