CHAMORRO SOLDIERS 1786

Spanish uniforms in the Philippines in the late 1700s

In 1786, the list of soldiers on Guam was still described as the Compañía de Infantería Española y de la Pampanga; the Spanish Infantry Company and that of Pampanga, a province in the Philippines.

But the soldiers who made up these two companies were, for the most part, not born in Spain or the Philippines. They were born on Guam, specifically Hagåtña, of ancestors who had come from Spain, Latin America and the Philippines and who had (again, in large part but not necessarily all) married Chamorro women. Even those who had just a little pre-contact Chamorro blood were Chamorro by culture and language if they were born and grew up on Guam. Of course, it was a culture and language strongly influenced by both Spanish and Catholic cultures. Still, this new culture and the language spoken in the home was not Spanish nor Filipino.

There are a few indigenous surnames (Taitano, Achuga, Anungui, Materne). Some are Filipino in origin (Manibusan, Pangelinan, Demapan). We see that San Nicolas is already a surname here. The Augustinian missionaries arrived 17 years prior to this list and were probably the ones who began naming some babies San Nicolas, as evidenced by baptismal records as late as the 1850s and 60s.

So a good many of these men would have been born and baptized during the Jesuit era. We can see Jesuit names of saints, such as Juan (John) Regis, a Jesuit saint, and many Ignacios (Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits).

Most of the surnames we see in this list of soldiers are recognizable. Some never took root here or vanished after a while for lack of male descendants.

Many names on the list were unintelligible due to ink smudges and/or tears in the paper. I have also given them the modern, recognizable spelling though some names were spelled in old, obsolete ways.

ACHUGA, Rafael

ANUNGUI, Francisco

ARCEO, Félix

BAZA, Remigio

BORJA, Enrique de

CALDERÓN, Pedro

CAMACHO, Francisco

CÁRDENAS, (first name unintelligible)

CASTRO, Ignacio
CASTRO, Nicolás de

COTINO, Pedro

CRUZ, Félix de la
CRUZ, Francisco de la

DEMAPÁN, Ignacio (some of the Demapan family later moved to Saipan where they grew in number, whereas the Demapan on Guam grew smaller)

DÍAZ, Pedro

DUEÑAS, (first name unintelligible)
DUEÑAS, Feliciano

FLORES, Juan Crisóstomo (Crisóstomo here is not a last name, but the full name of John Chrysostom, a saint)
FLORES, Rosario (yes, Rosario could be used as a man's name, though not as often as a woman's. The name simply refers to the Rosary.)

FRÁNQUEZ, Florentino
FRÁNQUEZ, Rufino

GARRIDO, José
GARRIDO, Manuel Tiburcio (he became a government clerk whose name appears in a good number of Spanish era documents)

LEÓN, Luís de

LIMA, Joaquín de (some people on Guam in the 1800s had, as their middle name, de Lima)

LIZAMA, José
LIZAMA, Nicolás

MANIBUSAN, Gregorio
MANIBUSAN, Juan
MANIBUSAN, Martín

MATERNE, José

MENDIOLA, Tomás
MENDIOLA, Vicente

PABLO, Juan Regis (again, the complete name of John Regis, a Jesuit saint)

PALOMO, Antonio

PANGELINAN, Gaspar

PASCUAL, Andrés (there was still a Pascual family on Guam in the 1800s)
PASCUAL, Francisco

QUINTANILLA, Nicolás de

RIVERA, Marcos de

RODRÍGUEZ, Joaquín

ROSA, Domingo de la

ROSARIO, Remigio del

SABLÁN, Agustin Roque (interesting, because Sablan does not appear in the 1759 Census. So this Sablan may be of the first generation of Sablans on Guam since this list is from 1786.)

SAN NICOLÁS, Dámaso de

SANTOS, Antonio de los
SANTOS, Mariano de los

SARMIENTO, Juan

SIGÜENZA, Ignacio

TAITANO, Juan

TELLO JIMÉNEZ, Andrés (the Tello family lasted on Guam into the late 1800s)

VEGA, Antonio de la