Okay, the first time I ever heard of this chocolate delight was from my Aunt Venus who had just returned from a trip out to Spain. This was a year or so ago. She walked into a local Barcelona market or bakery and noticed chocolate covered cookies labeled with the name Filipinos. Apparently, they come in different flavors (white chocolate, too) and sizes. Upon hearing of this and knowing a little of Spain’s history with the Philippines, I was at first really offended and in disbelief– WHAT THE #%#%!. I’ve heard in the past that the term filipino in some western dictionary was defined as ‘house servant’. WHAT THE #%#%! So I’ve googled the term filipinos and got a blastful of blogs doing as I am now. Like Ivan Man Dy’s Street Walker Tales- Manila and Beyond and Market Manila. What’s interesting are the responses to the posts. Some are clearly outraged and many are quite ok with it, often times many find it pretty amusing.

I can’t help but wonder, at the birth of these chocolate treats, why name it filipinos? Is the answer lying deep in our centuries old history with Spain? Did they prefer the philippine variety over others? Or was it simply the astonishing parallels between a sun-kissed filipino person and a chocolate covered cookie, smooth and creamy on the outside, crispy on the inside? Some have argued that plaguing a population with this type food association is nothing new; there are other foodstuffs out there that bear the name of a group of people, take for example the frankfurter.

So, I’ve never bitten into one myself. My aunt didn’t get a chance to stuff her duffel with a dozen or so of these Spanish souvenirs… But do I need to in order to have an opinion? Even if every last morsel was pure ecstasy, I’d still be wonderin’ WHAT THE #%#%#.

If you feel strongly enough that this brand name of cookies, Filipinos, should be changed to a more acceptable name, then check out Go Petition, Changing the World. Someone’s got a petition going to wipe it off the face of this planet.

Also, if you are in the mood to intellectualize this topic a bit, then you might want to read Nathan Gilbert Quimpo’s Colonial Name, Colonial Mentality, Ethnocentrism. Interesting stuff.

Oh yeah, if you read my post on champurado, you know that I myself am a filipina, born in the Philippines and everything, moved to Philadelphia area when I was six months and I now sport a Polish/Catalan/Mexican husband and four very mixed kids…just thought I’d add that to help clarify what I’m trying to say in this post…hee, hee.

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