Old Spanish Colonial Sword with Inscription

[Ian]

A few years back I posted pictures of a double-edged Spanish Colonial sword with the inscription "Recuerdo Republicano" (In Memory of the Republican) on the blade. That thread is here: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001235.html

Jim McDougall provided an elegant description of Spanish colonial swords in that thread, considering this one to be a Philippine origin, and drew attention to the similarity of the sword to the espada ancha of Mexico.

I found Jim's comments quite persuasive. However, I'm reviving the topic because I received a note from another collector who believes that the sword is more likely Mexican since it does not resemble Filipino sword blades of that period -- notably the triangular cross section of the blade -- while the leather sheath is not of Visayan origin (as suggested on the previous thread). I'm happy to accept the non-Visayan attribution of the sheath -- it could be from many places -- but I'm not so sure about the Mexican claim.

So I thought that I would put the pictures up again and ask our current Forumites for their opinions about likely origins.

And who was the "Republican" likely to have been?

Ian.