Zamboanga City Is Now Branded As Asia's Latin City

Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City gestures Thursday, 21 Sept 2006 during a gathering with dozens of reporters and editors. (Mindanao Examiner)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MIndanao Examiner / 21 Sept) Mayor Celso Lobregat on Thursday gathered dozens of local journalists and appealed to them to help promote Zamboanga City as "Asia's Latin City."

Lobregat explained that the basis for branding the Zamboanga as a Latin city is the existence of Chavacano, a derivative of the Spanish language that in turn is an outgrowth of Latin, the old Roman tongue.

The local government formally launched last month the branding of Zamboanga as “Asia’s Latin City,” in a simple ceremony held during the opening of the 15th Mindanao Business Conference at the Astoria Regency in Pasonanca Park here.

Chavacano is spoken by a majority of the people here, in Basilan and other parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula.

"We are the only city in Asia that speaks the Chavacano dialect, which is derived from the Spanish language," he told about 50 reporters and editors at the Garden Orchid Hotel.

Nostalgically, Zamboanga has been known as the “City of Flowers,” but Lobregat said other cities have also been planted to flowers and could be more abundant with flowers than Zamboanga nowadays.

“Zamboanga City has been known as the ‘convention capital of the country’ or the ‘sardines’ capital,’ because canning factories here provides about 70 percent of all sardines sold and consumed in the country today,” he said.

Yet, the city has what others may not have at all—Chavacano, where more than 70 percent of its vocabulary is pure Spanish in nature and origin.
The remaining percentage of Chavacano is picked from local dialects, according to the official Philippine News Agency.

The growth of Chavacano in Zamboanga can be traced to a concentration of Spanish nationals in Zamboanga at the height of the Spaniards colonization efforts in Mindanao that lasted for centuries until the late 1800.

“The branding of Zamboanga as Asia’s Latin city is the result of the City Development Strategies program spearheaded by the League of Cities, the World Bank and the involvement of the different local sectors,” Lobregat said.

Local officials said this would give the city a positive shift since it carries an international appeal and anchored on the rich Castilian influence and history of Zamboanga City.

The branding of Zamboanga will provide the city with a competitive global outlook instead of just comparing it with other cities in Mindanao. Call centers, like G-Com, has started recruiting agents from Zamboanga because they could easily be trained to speak Spanish.

Spanish is the second most spoken language after English and call centers need Spanish-speaking agents to serve their clients in Central and South America and Europe.

Lobregat also unveiled on Thursday a theme logo for next month's Christian celebration here of the Fiesta Pilar honoring the Virgin Mary. With the theme, "Alegria! Alegria! Adelante Zamboanga," Lobregat said the weeklong feast, held every October 12, is expected to draw thousands of tourists because of the city's rich cultural past.

Zamboanga City had been under Spanish rule in the past and was also used as a base for American soldiers. The city is also popularly known as "Zamboanga Hermosa."