It is convenient
to speak of the Filipino people, just as it is convenient to speak
of the Danish people, or of the English; but whereas, when we say
"Danish" or "English" we mean one definite thing that exists as such,
when we say "Filipino" we should understand that the term stands
for a relatively great number of very different things. For example,
confining ourselves for the moment to the Christianized tribes, it
may be asserted that the inhabitants of the great Cagayan Valley, the
tobacco-growing country, are at least as different from those of the
Visayas, the great middle group of Islands, as are the Italians from
the Spanish. Precisely similar differences, increasing, roughly, with
the difference of latitude, may be drawn almost at random between any
other pairs of the elements constituting the Filipino population. The
Ilokanos, to give only one more illustration, have almost nothing more,
in common with the Bicols than the fact that they both probably come
from the same original stock, just as the English and the Germans have
the same ancestors. All these subdivisions speak different languages,
and the vast majority do not speak Spanish at all.
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