Sixto López

Sixto López (April 6, 1863 - March 3, 1947) was secretary of the Philippine mission sent to the United States in 1898 to negotiate US recognition of Philippine independence.

Sixto López surrendered to General Arthur MacArthur, Jr. during the Philippine-American War.

López was returned to the United States after the war began. He was the guest of Fiske Warren, an officer of the New England Anti-Imperialist League. López made numerous speaking tours and published numerous articles in the U.S. press urging Philippine independence.

His sister, Clemencia López, arrived in the U.S. in 1902 to secure the services of the famed jurist and future Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis, to aid her brother's fight against deportation to Guam. Miss López told reporters that her brother, General Sixto López, and many others who had surrendered in good faith, had been arbitrarily deported by MacArthur. The general simply ignored the terms of his own amnesty agreement when it suited him and allied himself with other Filipinos, she complained.

Reminding his colleagues that arbitrary deportation of this sort had been a key grievance of the American colonists against the British King, George II, Senator Hoar took up Miss López's cause on the U.S. Senate floor.

Sixto López remained in exile for many years because he refused to take the pledge of allegiance to the United States that was required for entrance into the Philippines.

Sixto Lopez is the eldest son by Natalio's second wife, Senora Maria Castelo. It was on Sixto whose greater part of his father’s responsibility fell, assuming the passion and aspiration to maintain freedom for his beloved country. Hence, he was considered the natural-born and paternally appointed patriot in the family.

Writing Online

Notes

  1. ^ Miller, Stuart Creighton (1982). Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03081-9. p. 165