Based on a wide range of archival sources, this study presents a detailed ethnohistory of the dynamic Chinese Mestizo community of Cebu City from the middle of the 18th century to the end of the next. In tracing the origins of this community from its Chinese and Cebuano roots in the city's Parian district, the book documents the remarkable transformation of these Mestizos Sangleyes through three critical periods: their commercial and socio-political empowerment during a decline in Spanish hegemony (1750s to 1820s); their bitter and unsuccessful struggle with Spanish Augustinians and resurgent colonial officials (1820s-1850), culminating in the suppression of the Parian parish and municipality; and the post-1850 roles that many played in the ascendancy of Cebu City as the archipelago's second most important administrative, judicial, educational, religious, and commercial urban center.