Cebuano

The Cebuano are the largest Visayan subgroup, native to Cebu and spread across Bohol, western Leyte and much of Mindanao. Chinese records of 1225 mention their island port as Suwu, and Visayan tradition traces its rajahnate to Sri Lumay, a half-Malay, half-Tamil settler from Sumatra; the name Sugbu, later rendered Cebu, refers to scorched-earth fires against slave raiders.

Under Rajah Humabon the port traded with Japan, Siam and China, and in 1521 Magellan's expedition arrived; Magellan was killed at the Battle of Mactan by Lapulapu's forces. Humabon's household became the first Filipinos baptized as Christians; the Spanish called these tattooed islanders pintados.

In 1565 Legazpi overthrew Rajah Tupas and made Cebu the first Spanish settlement in the archipelago, and Cebuano auxiliaries marched with the Spaniards at Manila's conquest in 1571. Native and Catholic devotion met in the Sinulog festival of Cebu.