There is no official record that shows how my town,
Asturias, got its name, nor is there any living person here who can tell why
this town was named Asturias. It is only known that prior to 1877 part of this town
up to Guinabasan River, was only a barrio belonging to the town of Balamban
under the name of Visita Naghalin (immigrants) as its inhabitants came from different
places of the country. In 1877, the Visita Naghalin and the Visita Baga cawa,
now Santa Lucia, then a barrio belonging to the town of Tuburan, agreed to
separate from their respective mother towns and joined to form a new town which
is now the town of Asturias.
It so happened that the separation movement was led by Don
Eugenio Alonso, the most prominent and most respective person in the community.
Señor Genio, as he was commonly known, had many close friends of the Spanish
community in the capital; foremost among them was the Provincial Governor
himself. These Spaniards often came to visit Señor Genio and spent a couple
days in his hacienda, now the well known Hacienda Doña Pipang of Sergio Osmeña.
It is presumed therefore that some of these Spaniards came from the province of
Asturias, Spain, and it was their suggestion to Señor Genio to name this town
Asturias in memory of the place from which they came. The same thing might have
happened to Granada, a sitio of barrio San Isidro, Asturias, inside his
hacienda where Señor Genio constructed his big country house, Granada being a
historical city of Spain.
My sister saw this bit of essay in our grandma's old papers. The essay was written in her handwriting long before her handwriting became corrugated. She must have written this in her younger years. To honor her, I'm sharing this essay with everyone, to help Asturiasnons out there who don't know how his/her hometown got its name, and those who would be inspired to know how their towns got their names.
