I happened to see your comment dated June 7, 2009, when I followed Josh Santana’s recent comment to Carlin’s article. I note that you may soon have some proficiency in Chavacano based on what you have stated in your post, i.e., “…I think Chavacano might be a fairly easy language for me to learn because of my fluency in 2 languages that have much in common with it.”

I don’t know where in the U.S. you live, or what your status in life is, but if you think you’d be interested in working as a Chavacano language specialist that pays $60+ an hour, there is a private company based in Northern Virginia that does contractual work for the U.S. government in the national security field, but is having a hard time filling the position of Chavacano linguist with good knowledge of Philippine geography and familiarity with Filipino culture.

Note that this position requires a very high security clearance. If you’ve had trouble with the law at any time in your life, or have a bad credit record, you can disregard this post. Further, if you don’t think your Chavacano is adequate enough to translate transcripts from Chavacano to English and vice-versa, the more reason you should ignore this post.

The company is MVM, Inc., based in Vienna, VA. See: http://www.hoovers.com/mvm/–ID__41271–/free-co-profile.xhtml

Contact point is: Kevin Reyes at reyesk@mvminc.com

Que tal? Acabo de encontrar tu sitio hoy. Soy Filipino, y te digo, me fascino mucho sobre hispanismo en mi pais. Como el libro que presentas dice, “Can you handle the culture of the Philippines?” es realidad. Que hay muchos misterios en la herencia filipina que fue mezclada con espanol. Mi madre es chabacana y yo conozco el lugar donde estas ahora. me hace feliz que te encanta tambien lo que ves alli y de todo mi pais. Gracias por apoyar la herencia fil-hispana. Que viva Filipinas y su hispanidad!

I’m looking forward to reading your posts. I’m half pinoy, have chicano (mexican-american for those who don’t know what that means!) & am fluent in tagalog & spanish. I’ve been to the Philippines a couple times pero nunca he ido a la isla de Mindanao. Only recently did I realize how alive Chavacano is nowadays. I have relatives in Cavite pero hoy en dia casi nadie habla chavacano en esta parte del pais. En youtube, hay muy pocos links with spoken Chavacano. Encontre una que era una segmento de TV Patrol Chavacano. I’m dying to see a full broadcast of the news in Chavacano. I have ABS-CBN here in the states, but obviously it’s all from Manila. Quiza, puedes poner mas video clips alla con el idioma Chavacano? I think Chavacano might be a fairly easy language for me to learn because of my fluency in 2 languages that have much in common with it. Espero que te quedes en Zamboanga. Maybe I’ll visit in 2010 or 2011. Now everything about the culture there is truly fascinating to me after reading all of this stuff on the internet.

Dito sa stados unidos, nahihirapan ang mga tao saakin because I’m a mutt like you, but it’s actually amazing how similar my backgrounds are. Have the readers of these blogs checked out this website?

http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html

Yes, there is actually a “Parque Reyna Maganda” outside of Acapulco in Mexico. I travel in Mexico frequently (I actually live by the U.S. border) but I can’t say I’ve been to this park. It’s another place I would like to visit soon, like Mindanao & Zamboanga. I have been to Acapulco, however, (before I started looking up any of this stuff on-line), y vi mucha gente con caras filipinas. En Mexico, como una broma, muchos llaman a esas personas “chinitos.” Obviously, I think their background is more deeply rooted in the Philippines than China. Not to say that there are not any Chinese in Mexico, but many of them are near the U.S. border, in Mexicali.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8hk1uxOLkw

As noted by the historian Ken above, Acapulco was a Spanish port city like Zamboanga & obviously there were some interracial children there after hundreds of years of trade between the two nations.

I’m glad I found this website!

Sr. Bob,
First of all thanks for having this website up. I never caught where in the U.S. you are from or if you care to share that information? One thing I noticed on-line is that Zamboanga is underrepresented. I am a big internet fan and listen to radio stations from all over the world. Bakit walang estasyon taga Zamboanga? I know your from Davao which is way on the other side of the island but with your background, it seems like something you could potentially help set up – an on-line Zamboanga radio station. I know you are already busy. LOL. There is a huge Hispanic population in the world & also a huge tourist market potential. If the Hispanic world could hear spoken Chavacano, it would really help sell Zamboanga as Asia’s Latin City. Why do you think Mexico City is such a big tourist destination for Madrilenos? They feel comfortable because there is no language barrier. Estas de acuerdo, Carlin? I loved seeing Carlin’s post that he instantly could communicate in Zamboanga with Spanish as his native tongue.

Okay guys as you see I can ramble on forever & maybe I’m not even that interesting. Who knows if you will even choose to post this Bob? LOL. Maybe I should write for this column also. I’m young too pero mas gwapo si Carlin.

Natapos din ako!