Ternate is an old town in Cavite, Philippines. I learned about
it as a child listening to family members talking while having
dinner at home. My grandmother, according to my grandfather came
from Tarnate, Cavite. He used to tell us also that people in
Tarnate spoke way back then a language not quite Tagalog and not
quite Spanish or Portuguese. A friend of mine who was from another
town in Cavite describe the language as strange and could not
understand it. My grandfather had an explanation for that. He said
that the original people of Ternate migrated from a place in the
Moluccas (the spice islands) which was settled by Portuguese
centuries ago and that my grandmother was a decendant of the
portuguese-native islanders mestosos. In fact I learned much later
in life that there is also an island in the moluccas called
Ternate. My grandmother must have come from that island.
