THE DARING AND ADVENTUROUS PEPAS OF ALL THE WORLD

(with special emphasis on the Philippine bloodline)

One basic premise that introduces my theory of the origin of the Pepa family/clan as it is found in the Philippines is that the family name is so unique there are very few who have it—very much unlike the more common Spanish-sounding family names in the Philippines like Cruz, Reyes, Martinez, Gonzales, and Rodriguez among others. Philippine history tells us that during the early days of Spanish colonization in this archipelago which later became known as Las Islas Filipinas, the Spanish colonial government inaugurated a massive Hispanization program to make the archipelago a full-fledged Spanish colonial territory. One aspect of the said program was the introduction of lists of common Spanish-sounding family names from which the islanders were supposed to choose and assume the family names they decided to have. On this basis, my initial hypothesis is that “Pepa” was not included in any of those lists released archipelago-wide. And this hypothesis introduces my next premise.

“Spanish” family names not widespread in the Philippines—being not included in the lists previously mentioned—are genuinely of peninsular origin, i.e., actually carried over to the archipelago by Spaniards who came all the way from the mother country, Spain, and decided to stay and live and raise families in the archipelago for good. Through time, offspring of these Spaniards—if not actually they themselves—later cohabited or intermarried with the local Malay residents producing half-breeds known as “mestizos”.

Now what about the Pepa family name in Spain? Is it originally Spanish? Taking a very feasible cue from the celebrated world-class Canadian violinist and composer, Michael Pepa (whose family migrated from Romania to Canada), the original Pepa family came all the way from southern Europe among adventurous itinerant merchants whose roots were Greek. They traveled all throughout southern and eastern Europe initially to Albania. This explains why there are so many Pepas in Albania. As time went on, some of them traveled further north to Kosovo while others traversed the Adriatic Sea and settled in Italy. Generations passed until the emergence of the powerful Spanish Empire which lured some of the “Italian” Pepas to migrate to Spain. By way of either France or by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, a fresh generation of Pepas who saw wealth and opportunities in the newly-emerged powerful empire migrated, settled and established roots in Spain.

From Spain, some of these Pepas who never lost the adventurous spirit of their Greek ancestors decided to join hordes of Spanish colonialists to try their fortune in a newly discovered Pacific islands later named Las Islas Filipinas. Meanwhile, those who earlier decided to go northward later spread in countries like Romania, Bulgaria and what is now known as Czech Republic. The more adventurous ones went further onward to Germany and even to England. The discovery of the New World—the Americas—lured the perennially adventurous of them to go to the US, Canada and Argentina among others.

A very significant aspect of this theory is the explicitation of the collective unconscious that characterizes the daring and adventurous spirit of our Greek ancestors.


© Ruel F.Pepa 01 January 2010