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Filipino mestizo is a term used in the Philippines, to designate Filipinos of mixed native Filipino (Austronesian or Malay), and foreign ancestry. Mestizo (Portuguese: Mestiço; French: Métis; all from Late Latin Mixticius, meaning "mixed") is a "Spanish term" that was used in the Spanish Empire to designate people of mixed European (Spanish) and Amerindian ancestry living in the colonies. In the Philippines, the term "mestizo" originally bore the connotation of mixed Spaniard and native Filipino. Up to the 1980's, the “Diccionario de Filipinismos” of Wenceslao Retana, mis-leadingly defined the term “mestizo” as individuals who are descendants of Chinese christians and their native Filipino wives.^[1] Many Filipinos are probably mestizos and most likely have Spanish ancestry. This is because some Filipinos have more European blood than others, and often, only those Filipinos are considered by most as mestizos.^[2] There are no credible sources for the percentage of Philippine mestizos residing in the Philippines, at the moment; this is due in part to the lack of government statistical study regarding racial makeup in the Philippines. The Philippine Statistics Department does not account for the racial background or ancestry of an indivdual. The numer of Filipino mestizos that reside outside the Philippines is also unknown. However, due to major historical factors, such as the Spanish colonization, the American occupation, and Chinese immigration after World War II; most Filipino mestizos that reside in the Philippines are now of Spanish, Chinese, and American (Caucasian or otherwise) descent.

The Spanish conquest between 1521 to 1565, prompted the colonization of the Philippine Islands that lasted for more than 377 years.^[3] The Catholic Church played a critical role in allowing Spain to gain a foothold in the Philippines. Spanish missionaries were quick to learn local languages, and Catholic rituals were interpreted in accordance with indigenous Filipino beliefs and values. As a result, a kind of folk Catholicism developed in the Philippines.^[4] As with most of the Spanish colonies, marriage to indigenous Filipino women and Spaniard men was encouraged. However, few Spaniards ventured to the Philippines, which contributed to the dearth of Spanish-Indio marriages. Most of the Spanish-speaking settlers were Hispanics from Latin America and not Spaniards from Europe, including the Mexicans who arrived in the Philippines during the Spanish Galleon era. The voyage from Spain to the islands was considerably long. Before the construction of the Panama Canal, it involved going around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean. According to de Mas, in some Philippine villages the friar and/or the mayor were the only caucasian residents. Whatever the cause, the low incidence of Spanish-Indo race mixing in the Philippines effectively stopped that country from going down the path of Hispanicization. The offspring of Spaniard men and indigenous Filipino women may have adopted the culture of their fathers, a few mixed race families in the Philippines still speak Spanish among themselves^[5], in addition, Chavacano (a Spanish dialect) is widely spoken in the Zamboanga Peninsula. Many Filipinos are mestizos without even realizing it because of the social perception that a person has to look a certain way in order to be considered mestizo, and also because of the historical stigma associated with having Spanish blood out of marriage (las queridas), which was frequent in Spanish colonies. This would've urged many Filipinos to hide their Spanish ancestry in the past to avoid the social negative stereo-type stigma of being labelled as an illegitimate child. It was usually only the officially recognized marriages between Spaniards and native Filipino women that were recognized as mestizos.^[2]

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted Chinese traders from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish colonial period. The Spaniards restricted the activities of the Chinese to trading and confined them to the Parian which was located near Intramuros. With low chances of employment in the civilian professions, and prohibited from owning land and engaging in agriculture, most of the Chinese residents earned their livelihood as petty traders and skilled artisans serving the colonial authorities. Many of the Chinese who arrived during the Spanish period were Cantonese, who worked as stevedores and porters, but there were also Fujianese, who entered the retail trade. Deeply distrusted by the Spanish authorities, the Chinese resident in the islands were encouraged to intermarry with indigenous Filipinos, convert to Catholicism and adopt Hispanic surnames and customs. Those who refused were either expelled or massacred. As a consequence, most Chinese immigrants in the Philippines were left with no other choice but to integrate themselves into the colonial society. Some wealthy merchants married Spanish mestizos while a few married Spanish Filipinos. The children of unions between indigenous Filipinos and Chinese were called Chinese mestizos, while those between Spaniards or Spanish mestizos, and Chinese were called Tornatras and were classified as Spanish mestizos, together with the Spanish Filipinos. There were three massacres conducted by the Spaniards against the Chinese, two of which were successful. During the American colonial period, the Chinese Exclusion Act^[6] of the United States was also applied to the Philippines. After World War II and the fall of the Chinese mainland to communism, many of the Chinese who opposed communism moved from the Fujian province in China to the Philippines. This group formed the bulk of the current population of Chinese Filipinos.^[7] After the Philippines regained its independence in 1946, those Chinese became naturalized Filipino citizens; the children of these new citizens were born and raised in the Philippines and had Filipino citizenship from birth.^[8]

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Philippine Islands and other remaining Spanish colonies were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, for 20 million dollars.^[9] Civil government was established by the Americans in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General of the Philippines. English was declared the official language. Six hundred American teachers were imported aboard the USS Thomas. Also, in order to subdue sporadic uprisings throughout the country, the U.S had to station American Troops on the islands. Many of the American (Caucasian or otherwise) Soldiers stationed on the islands had children with the local women. American culture became the dominant force on the islands, leading to the implementation of the American education system.^[10] While the Philippines was a Commonwealth of America, Filipinos were considered resident-aliens of the U.S., many Filipinos then migrated to the continental U.S. and Hawaii, and some married Americans (Caucasian or otherwise) and had Filipino American children. The bulk of Filipino American mestizos were born from the immigration of Filipinos to the United States of America.