2.1. List

3.1. Overview

Some autonomous communities, provinces, islands and capitals of Spain do not appear in the list: Álava, Albacete, Almería, Baleares, Cantabria, Ceuta, Ciudad Real, Coruña, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Guipúzcoa, Huesca, Jaén, Hierro, Lanzarote, León, Logroño, Melilla, Oviedo, País Vasco, Palencia, Palma, Palmas, San Sebastián, Tenerife, Valladolid, Vitoria, Menorca.

It must be noted that the administrative division of Spain by the time of the end of the Spanish rule in the Philippines was slightly different. That can explain the absence of some of the previous names, like Cantabria, País Vasco or its basque name, Euskadi. For the latter, we do not find its common name at that time, Vascongadas. The different Spanish administrative division also explains the place names Dos Castillas and Castilla instead of Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, although we do find La Mancha owing to Don Quixote of La Mancha.

On the other hand, most of the previous ignored names can be found in private small recent entities —e. g. stores— of Metro Manila, mainly associated to family names, as well as in other cities, towns and streets of the rest of the Philippines. Sometimes they are found in the bordering provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna, which constitute the National Capital Region urban extension.

There are many place names called Hierro, León, Palma and Palmas. However, they do not refer to the Spanish place names but to the common nouns Iron, Lion, Palm Tree(s), or to family names with no link with the previous Spanish cities, provinces and islands. San Sebastián is found five times in Metro Manila but referring to the saint and not to the city. There are also six Granada referring to Pomegranate and not to the Spanish city and many Canary pointing to the bird and not to the islands. In the case of Palmas, there is a Paseo de las Palmas in Tunasan Muntinlupa (14.3768, 121.0376), an area of major place names of Spain, but it connects with Paseo de las Acacias (Promenade of the Acacias). It is not clear if Palmas refer to the Spanish insular city or to the palm tree. I requested such information to the local authorities but they did not have it.

Some of the names do not directly point to the major toponyms of Spain but to saints related to those places —e.g. [Ávila] Santa Teresa de Ávila— or to other places in the Philippines or in the world that took their names from Spanish places: Cadiz [Cádiz], Cuenca and Toledo in the Philippines; Guadalajara in México. We also find Spanish major toponyms of other countries —e. g. Buenos Aires— and other Spanished toponyms —e. g. Tetuán.

Finally, eponyms are isolated while place names directly referring to major toponyms in Spain are usually bound together. Among the eponyms, historical figures like Padre Zamora and Padre Burgos are preeminent.

3.2. Geographical distribution

Manila's place names directly pointing to major toponyms in Spain are usually grouped in specific districts and neighborhoods: Bagong Silangan Quezon City, Caloocan, Circulo Verde —[Círculo Verde] a recent condominium or set of buildings—, Cupang Muntinlupa, Nangka Marikina, Tunasan Muntinlupa, Sampaloc, San Antonio Parañaque, Talon Dos Las Piñas —two different areas—, Valencia.

Most of these areas have been recently built and none of them is historical. For those cases, major place names in Spain are the fashion to coin these new place names, as well as there are some French names —e.g. Almanza Dos Las Piñas (14.3984, 121)— or Italian names —e.g. Pulang Lupa Dos Las Piñas (14.4577, 120.99)— for other recently built areas. Spanish new place names are more numerous than other international languages place names, although most of the areas established in the last decades in Metro Manila have Tagalog or English names.

Some areas have adopted place names of international popular cities, regions and countries with no classification in terms of nationality. I call them International Areas. The most popular toponyms of Spain in these zones are Madrid and Barcelona, but we can also find Aragon, Canary, Cordova, Guadalajara (Mexican city), La Mancha, Malaga, Seville and Toledo.

Isolated major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila usually refer to eponyms, although there are some exceptions, like Caceres [Cáceres] and Badajoz [Badajos] in Poblacion Makati.

3.3. Historical comment

Some of the names are already listed in Manila's map of 1898 (De Gamoneda, 1898). Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla are still found in the district of San Nicolás, while Bilbao is still found in Tondo. Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla are also found in Tondo as natural extensions of the former streets in San Nicolás. They do not appear in 1898's map as that area was still covered by Manila Bay's waters, but when Tondo gained ground and extended into the sea, the new streets inherited San Nicolas street names as extensions. There is also Calle Tetuan [Tetuán] in Santa Cruz next to Binondo, which is still in use. For all these cases, the defining word Calle has changed into Street.

It must be noted that some new major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila not listed in 1898's map appear in Manila's map of 1920 (Bach, 1920), in the area of Sampaloc. Most of these names are preserved although Andalucia [Andalucía] and Cataluña have changed in the last years. The former street is now officially called Alfonso Mendoza while the latter is called Tolentino. Both Andalucia [Andalucía] and Cataluña place names are still recognized in some public facilities —[Andalucía] Andalucia Court—, buildings —[Cataluña] Lotus de Cataluna—, stores and even in road signals, but they are in disuse. In any case, substitution of major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila is not as common as substitution of place names referring to historical and political personalities.

3.4. Linguistic notes

Most of the place names referring to major Spanish place names in Metro Manila are written in Spanish language. There are also Catalan names for Girona, Lleida and Majorca — both Lleida and Majorca correspond to new buildings inside Circulo Verde [Círculo Verde] condominium. English names pointing to place names in Spain can be found in Canary and Seville. Most of the Canary place names refer to the bird and not to the islands, although the case listed here refers to the latter and it is found in an international area (14.4031, 121.0371). The English word Seville is found in recently built residential areas and in one international area.

Diacritical marks are eluded and most of the times ñ is too —e. g. Lotus de Cataluna. This is common for all Spanish place names in the Philippines, where accents are not written and there is a vacillation between ñ and n —e. g. niño/nino, doña/dona. In the case of España it preserves ñ except for Villa Espana Subdivision. Sometimes letters c and z are written as s — Badajos; Zaragosa and Barselona in some private recent entities or public transportation signals. In general, major toponyms of Spain in Metro Manila tend to better preserve original Spanish graphic solutions than other place names.

Finally, the listed items use English descriptives, mainly Street. That is the common solution in Manila's place names, although sometimes we can find Tagalized Spanish formula like Kalye or even the original Spanish words. In this sense, the second area in Talon Dos Las Piñas comprises Calle Segovia, Calle Valencia and Calle Zaragoza.