Samaleños

I’d seen the term used a few times, but really paid no attention until a recent article caught my eye. I actually realized that it’s used quite often to refer to those from Samal Island. I guess I had never really thought about it before. It’s always interesting to see what names are given to those of a particular area. Sometimes it seems to make perfect sense, and other times not so much.

Here in Spokane we are known as Spokanites, similar to Seattle and Seattleites. Those from Davao are known as Dabawenyos. Mindanaoans would be those from the more general area of Mindanao. Of course we also have the terms Filipino (Pilipino) and Filipina (Pilipina). My wife for instance can claim to be all of those with the exception of a Seattleite. I would guess this carries further to barangays and puroks, though I don’t know for sure. Are those from Limao called Limaoans, for instance?

When meeting a Pilipino here in the states, the first thing that everyone does is establish what part of the country each is from. That’s a normal reaction from anyone, anywhere I suppose, but more so with Pilipinos because of the many languages spoken there. We were at the Bay Market (a local asian market) yesterday and there were three pilipina there that were sure my wife was from the Philippines. They quickly established that they were from Cebu, and of course were delighted to know that my wife was from the Davao region. I even made some brownies points because it was mentioned that I’m learning Bisaya, and the other husbands were not interested in such.

I have noted in such situations that I don’t recall anyone referring to themselves as Cebuanos, Dabawenyos or whatever. I wonder why that is.

Maybe the word Samaleño caught my eye because of the similarity to jalapeños (well they aren’t so similar now that I type it), which are a favorite of mine. Whatever the reason, I hope that I can one day use the term for myself.