The first expat in Tamsui - Pedro Florentino

Pedro Florentino (1815-1884) was a Spanish sailor of the Philippines nationality. Around 1856 when his ship was sailing by the coastline of Tamsui, he had carelessly fallen overboard. Rescued by fishermen from Tamsui, he had no other choice but to stay put in town. He actually soon married 黃春, daughter of another sailor from QuanChou, Hokkien, and their only son was born in 1858 (畢金桂Bi King-guei was his Taiwanese name, more later).

The arrival of Pedro Florentino in Tamsui actually predated that of Dr George Leslie Mackay (in 1872), he therefore can be regarded as the first ever foreign permanent resident of Tamsui, at least in the modern era. His family was also the first of the Catholic faith in Northern Tamsui. The family had purchased a house on 清水街崎仔頂 and converted it into a church (see photo above).

This family has kept Pedro as their surname (and the nationality as well), 畢Bi was a loose phonetic translation of Pedro, chosen and officialized when they were naturalized as Taiwan citizens in 1955.

During the Japanese colonial era, all foreigners including the Pedros must report their whereabouts as a matter of routine. The Pedros, for example, were required to apply for permission from the Foreign Ministry for any and all trips out of Tamsui. The daughter of the third son of 畢金桂 finally adopted her mother's maiden name 馮Feng, just so that at least some family members could move around freely. And 10 years after the war, the entire Pedro clan by then had already lived in Tamsui for 4-5 generations indistinguishable from the locals, finally elected to become Taiwanese. The Pedro/畢 family still reside on 新民街, near Tamsui Foreigners Cemetery, today.

It is unclear if Pedro Florentino had ever gone back to his home country for a visit. For a drifting Spaniard-Filipino, what better place than Tamsui to settle down in? And he indeed had found it.

[Source: 淡水鎮志 Sec 10, Ch 6, p 345, ed 周宗賢教授]