Philippine History: Chapter 22 - Victorias City was almost Toreno City

Chapter 22 - Victorias City was almost Toreno City

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.

                           (Old Negros map)


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)

Philippine History: Chapter 10 - History of Guinpana-an

Chapter 10. The legend of Guinpanâ-an

Since the first mention of Hacienda Guinpanâ-an in the Jalandoni memoirs, I was curious as to where this place was and why it was called 'guinpana-an'.

Fortunately for us, a story written by Mr. Serafin Lazalita and Miss Gilda Villegas in the 1953 compilation features Guinapanâ-an's legend as to how it got its name.

According to Mr. Lazalita and Miss Villegas, in the area called Guinpanâ-an, there existed a brook whose course included a passage next to the Victorias Public Cemetery. 

And upon checking with Google Maps, I found out that this brook still exists today and is on the left side (southern side) of the Victorias Public Cemetery. The public cemetery is on your left side on the northern end of Victorias that you pass on your way to Manapla. 

The brook has its source at the east, traversing an area that, I was told, is Hacienda Guinpanâ-an. When it reaches the national highway, there's a small bridge built over it. I tried to trace the length of the brook, and if this one flows into the sea, it's about 4 kilometers from its source. 

The story starts with a family of aetas or ati that was out roaming the forest on a nice day, walking barefoot under the sun and tracing the brook with the younger ones playing along as they went.

In the olden times, Victorias was a forest full of trees and lush greenery, rich with wildlife of wild boars, bears, rats, and fowls just running around the woodlands where the natives simply had to hunt or catch one for their meal of the day. 

Eagles, parrots, maya, kingfishers, and other avian creatures were freely flying around from the mountains near and around the area what is now Gawahon and down the plains of northern Negros. 

Monkeys were just swinging from one tall tree to another while big snakes slithered around the bushes in hunt for their prey.  

The Magnanud and Malihao rivers were still unpolluted, alive and full of different kinds of fresh-water fish, turtles, frogs, snakes, and other marine animals that were endemic to Negros island, an island of volcanic origin as proven by the existence of three volcanoes in the island: Silay, Mandalagan and Kanla-on.

And on that day, when the ati family was passing that area what is now called Guinapanâ-an and picking wild berries and other edible fruits along the brook, they heard sounds from farther down the path. The father, seeing a creature from afar, thought he saw a wild bear stooping down and digging for some roots on the ground. 

Believing the bear was both food and threat to his family, he prepared and raised his bow and arrow to shoot it. Since the aetas used these tools everyday, they were expert huntsmen. They could accurately hit a target even while running using these tools made from the sturdy wood of anahaw. 

With his bow now stretched, he waited for the perfect moment, considering the wind direction and the movement of his target. And then, he let go of his sharp arrow.

And with one shot, his arrow hit the bear, pierced its back with its arrowhead coming out on its chest. 😱

The hunter thought he had a prize.

But as the family came closer to the bear, they realized it was not an animal; it was a fellow ati!

Guinpanâ ang utod nga ati! A brother aeta was shot with an arrow! 😢

His wound was fatal as the arrow pierced his hapless target who now lie bleeding on the brook with the family gathering around him and expressing sorrow with loud cries with their wailing mixing with the calming sounds of the Negros breezes, the rustling of the leaves, and the music of the birds in the air. 

Instead of being another bountiful day along the brook and hunting for food, it was a day of tragedy! A fellow ati was killed by a brother's own arrow. 😢

This is how Guinpanâ-an got its name. From panâ, meaning 'arrow'. A place named after a tragedy.

And as the elders have said, if one follows the brook's path, you will still hear the cries of the aetas that day as they mourned the tragic death of one native whose blood was spilled on that brook and had flowed with the waters that gave life to the earliest inhabitants of our land, but has since become one with the legend that is called Guinpanâ-an.

(A member of the native Aeta tribe in Negros island posing with his tools for survival: a bow and arrow. The ati tribes did not use these to hurt other people but only to hunt for food. They were called 'Negritos' by the Spanish colonizers because they were black- skinned and short. 'Negro' is the Spanish word for black.)  

Photo credit: The Inhabitants of the Philippines (1900) by Frederic H. Sawyer

Chapter 11. Victoriahanons stage two plays to raise funds for the casa-municipal

Complete history blog: "Ang Kasaysayan sang                                                   Victorias"