Envoys bare little-known historical trivia about PH

Ambassadors from Mexico, Israel and Australia turned into historians on Thursday as they offered little-known trivia and milestones on their countries’ ties with the Philippines during the opening of the four-day History Con at the World Trade Center in Manila.

Addressing the crowd at the event, Mexico’s Ambassador to the Philippines Julio Camarena-Villaseñor said 30 percent of Tagalog was derived from Spanish, while 10 percent was actually from the Aztec language, Nahuatl.

Villaseñor cited several Tagalog words that are actually Aztec terms, among them kamote (sweet potato), sayote (chayote), tiangge (flea market) and palengke (market).

“The Philippines and Mexico have been connected for 500 years,” the ambassador said, adding that the country was not connected to the crown of Spain, but to the vice kingdom of New Spain, Mexico.

The country’s first governor general, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, was mayor of Mexico, he added.

No. 1 investor

Those ties have endured, Villaseñor said, with Mexico being “the number one direct foreign investor of the Philippines in 2013, 2014 and 2015, with investments of close to $6 billion.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the Philippines Effie Ben Matityau cited the country’s role in sheltering Jewish refugees escaping from “certain death in Europe” during World War II.

Organizing History Con 2016, Matityau said, was a “magnificent achievement” in that it removed the boredom in studying history. “Learning from the past is one thing and studying the past is most boring,” he said.

Australia’s deputy head of mission, Mat Kimberley, said his country was currently celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations with the Philippines.

According to Kimberley, trade between Australia and the Philippines actually started in the 1800s. “There are 10,000 (Filipino) students staying in Australia and 250,000 people of Filipino descent who call Australia home,” he said.

Virtual reality

The four-day entertainment convention also features virtual reality experiences through its “Alone” and “Titans of Space” booths; exhibitions of cars, motorcycles, outdoor gear, and high-tech gadgets; as well as sports tournaments including arm wrestling, boxing and archery.

Easily, the head turners were cosplayers clad in World War II military uniforms, who mingled with the crowd and reenacted skirmishes in the Battles of Manila and Bataan. Classic cars on exhibit seemed to have been been magically transported from another era.

History Con 2016 features as well the stars of History Channel Asia’s shows: Giorgio Tsoukalos of “Ancient Aliens,” Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz of “Storage Wars,” Damon Runyan and Ian Matthews of “Gangland Undercover,” Justin Mott of “Photo Face Off,” as well as Bobby Tonelli, KC Montero, Joey Mead-King, Marc Nelson and Gaby dela Merced of “Celebrity Car Wars.”