Heritage Series: The Town of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija

San Antonio is so self-sufficient, it even has its own homegrown bus lines, movie theaters, schools (elementary, secondary, and even vocational schools), and a hospital.

Maybe unknown to many, even to its residents, but San Antonio is also home to a number of events and notable persons with historical significance. Take, for example, General Isidoro Torres, whose antique house still stands along Gallego Street, who served as a military officer under President Aguinaldo. Fr. Mariano Gil, the parish priest of Tondo who exposed the Katipunan, was a former parish priest of San Antonio and even rebuilt the church in 1882.

Other events in San Antonio that would have historical value would be the town’s journey towards the creation of a formal school for the youth, initially starting out with holding classes in the ground floor of the town’s old houses, such as the residences of the Lamson, Herrera, Romero/Reyes, Posadas, Odulio, and Torres families. Later on, the classes were organized into the town’s central school.

Speaking of the old heritage houses of San Antonio, I fell in love with these even as a young boy. I can also vividly recall the old municipal park, the posong tumutulo (a free-flowing public aquifer), the old parish church, and, of course, the good-natured citizens and the delicious food.

Also, the founder of the Pangkat Kawayan (formally known as Toledo Musical Arts and Services) is from a musical family in our hometown.

San Antonio is also home to folk stories, passed on by word from the old generation to the youth. A good example would be the patron saint of Barangay Papaya (San Miguel). It was said that San Miguel would visit the rice fields and the waterways to ensure a good harvest and plentiful catch. How did the people know about it? It was said that it was the persistent presence of amorseko flowers (or seeds?) on the cloak of San Miguel that gave away the patron saint. I hope to gather more of these stories so that I can record them in this post.

I remember a conversation I had with some of my childhood friends, who told me that they hope to find a history of San Antonio since the one prominently displayed in the town’s municipal hall was destroyed by fire (along with a large portion of the old building).

That gave me the idea to include it in this post, so here it goes (reference: Wikipedia):

The town of San Antonio used to be a barangay of Gapan and was then known as Barrio Delinquente because of the sinking of a large boat full of palay in the Pampanga River. It was eventually separated from Gapan in 1843, and from then on, it was also renamed San Antonio courtesy of Father Leocadio Luis, the town’s first parish priest. Barrio Delinquente, along with Gapan, Aliaga, and Cabiao, used to be part of the province of Pampanga and was transferred to Nueva Ecija in 1848.

Of course, some of the things that I couldn’t forget from my town are my school (St. Paul School), the town fiesta, Holy Week celebrations, the Pampanga River, the posong tumutulo, my playmates, and the famous town landmarks like the San Antonio High School (one of the oldest secondary schools in our town), Anday’s Refreshment, and the antique houses.

I also like Christmas celebrations in our town because it was always festive and we love decorating our homes with parols and other decors. And who can forget Aling Remy’s famous bibingka? It was something that we looked forward to upon the arrival of the “ber” months.

I keep on mentioning the big antique houses around Poblacion and its immediate vicinity, but I know there are other heritage houses around town that are waiting to be discovered.

My town is like a time capsule, but it is slowly giving way to modernity. The old landmarks are gone, like many of the antique houses, Cine Rusan, MGM Fashion School, Mang Dodoy’s School Supplies Store, and the posong tumutulo is now electronically pumped. The well-known RL Transport, another local bus line, stopped operations around 2020.

On the other hand, new shopping malls have sprung up in San Antonio, like Aiyaph, Topmart, and Super Mercado. We now have 711, O Save, and Alfamart convenience stores, as well as Mr. DIY and Goldilocks branches.

With that, I’d like to preserve as much history of San Antonio as I can, hence, this little project to document my town’s history. I hope to do this with the help of my kababayans from San Antonio so that our town’s legacy will live on for generations, in hopes of kindling pride among our townsfolk.

Similar stories: