The first time I heard 'Toreno' as a name of an area in Victorias City (in the Philippines) was years ago when someone I knew moved there.
I thought then that the correct spelling was 'Torino', an Italian city which I visited as a Bosconian pilgrim to the magnificent Basilica de Maria Ausiliatrice or the Basilica of Mary the Help of Christians located at Torino's Don Bosco Valdocco area.
Why did I think it was 'Torino'? Because Negrenses, as Hiligaynon speakers, would pronounce a hard 'e' as soft 'e', thereby turning 'to-ree-no' into 'to-reh-no'.
But it turned out it was indeed 'Toreno' afte I did a little digging for Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 of this Victorias history blog.
Toreno was the name of the hacienda owned by Don Teodoro Benedicto way back in the latter part of the 19th century when one of his heirs, Don Leon Montinola, threatened to uproot the houses of the people who built them on his hacienda and who sued the town officials in 1906 for creating roads on the same land. This hacienda is now Toreno Heights Subdivision and is part of Barangay 9 of Victorias City.
But do you know that 'Toreno' was Victorias City's old name after 'Malihao'? And it was named so sometime in 1849?
According to Negrense historian, Mr. Modesto Sa-onoy, it was the alcalde-mayor of the Negros island in 1849 who gave it this name.
On May 5, 1837, Negros island, still a poor backwater, was elevated to an alcaldia-mayor by a royal decree as part of the reforms decided by the Spanish government for their colony, Islas Filipinas.
Before that time, Negros island was classified as 'corregimiento' and its leader a 'corregidor', which probably was the origin of the Hiligaynon word 'koridor' that means a person collecting bets for small-town lottery gambling.
But in 1849, when Bacolod became the new capital of the province, taking over Himamaylan, a new alcalde-mayor arrived from Spain.
He was Don Manuel Valdivieso y Morcheso, a Spanish lawyer who arrived in May 1849. Had he not been sick, Don Manuel would have had settled in the island two years earlier. His doctor did not give him the go-signal to travel for months at sea to the Philippines in 1847. Imagine, he was sick, and sailing across the oceans feasting only on jamón iberico and other preserved meat and fish would not have been a healthy diet for a not-so-healthy person.
As some names of towns in the Philippines were named after places in Spain, these were given by the Spanish alcáldes and governors as an homage to their hometowns and to probably alleviate some of their homesickness being thousands of miles from home.
And as a governor, Don Manuel certainly exercised such privilege.
One of his legacies was naming one settlement, a very familiar one, after his hometown in Spain, Cadiz. Yes, Cadiz is now Cadiz City because of him.
Although it was just a barangay then, Cadiz City was named Valdivieso and later on, Cadiz.
Saravia, the old name of E. B.Magalona, was named after Emilio Saravia, the governor of Negros from 1855 to 1857. Saravia, who turned out to be a ruthless governor, was Don Manuel's successor.
Other than naming Cadiz after his hometown, Don Manuel, during his six-year term as governor, created the towns of Valladolid in 1850 and in 1854, Murcia and Granada; all named after cities in Spain.
After Cadiz, he also named Madrigal (now San Enrique), Simancas (now La Carlota), Isabela (formerly Tinungan), Nueva Valencia (now Escalante), Magallanes (now Sagay), and what do you know, Toreno, which is now Victorias City!
Except for Isabela, the queen's name, and Magellan, these are all places in Spain.
Yes, who would have thought my hometown had an early Spanish name before it was christened 'Victorias', the approved shortened version of 'Nuestra Señora de Las Victorias', after the apparition of the Virgin in the old Victorias during the late 19th century.
And while I was looking these places up in the map of Spain, I found out that I was actually about 10 kilometers off from the municipality of Toreno when my Renfe train passed through the province of León on my way to Santiago de Compostela.
Well, had I known then that my hometown of Victorias was formerly named Toreno, I could have made a side trip to find out what was so interesting about that place that made Don Manuel name this settlement by the Malihao River.
And so, it turned out Hacienda Toreno in Daan Banwa of Victorias City is the remaining witness to one of the city's early names, a legacy of a Spanish governor who replaced the name of 'Malihao' until the town was renamed 'Victorias' in the 1880s. The next time I pass by that area, I should remember this piece of Victorias history.
Well, could our city have been called Toreno City if it were not for the apparition of the Virgin accompanied by Archangel Michael? 😏
Chapter 23 - The First Victoriahanons Casualties of WWII
Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang Victorias"
(Map credit: Murillo-Velarde map of 1734)
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