Philippine History: Chapter 13 - Where can we find today the old streets created in 1906?

Chapter 13. Where can we find today the old streets created in 1906?

Remember those street names that were created in 1906 (Chapter 11) when the officials decided to move the town across the Magnanud River?

(This is a typical dirt street in the 1900s where houses were made of nipa thatchings and bamboos while bananas, coconuts, and fruit-bearing trees were either at the back or by the side of the huts)

(Photo credit: George W. Griffith & Griffith) 

They were Embarcadero, Calle Real, Buen Retiro, Yap Quiña (Sr. Yap-Quiña already had a street to his name in 1906 but looking at the map below, 'his' street was way off from the Embarcadero area), Catinal, Comercio, Aurora, and Progreso.

I tried to locate the new names of those old streets and using a screenshot of Google Maps, here's what I found:

         (Old street names written in red. 

The present-day Casañares St. was Calle de Embarcadero, named so because 
it was the closest street to the wharf. 
Up to this day, that area is still called Embarcadero, the Spanish word for 'wharf'.)

Upon locating those old street names in the present-day map, one thing was obvious: the earliest streets were close to the river, which just shows that in the early days when land transport was limited to riding carabaos, horses, or carts pulled by these animals, having a house next to a river gave one another convenient, accessible transport - boats. 

In those times, going to the province's capital, Bacolod, it was more convenient and faster by taking a boat instead of riding a horse as the paths were still unpaved and full of obstructions such as big trees and swamps, and challenges presented by rivers with weak bridges, wandering wild animals, and the absence of shelters and settlements along the way in case of downpours or medical emergencies.

Even in ancient times, great civilizations were founded next to a river, although we would have hoped that the Magnanud River was the Nile and that we'd also have pharaohs and pyramids in Victorias.

Instead, we ended up having fake pharaohs and fake pyramids.😀

I blame the river.😂

Chapter 14. Victorias Milling Company and the migration of Ilonggos to Victorias (1919)

Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang                                                       Victorias"