What’s in a name?
“Puerto Galera is not the Port of the Galleon.”
The name is essential when studying the history of a place. It provides a clue, an insight of the times gone by in an area.
I have read many literatures about the name Puerto Galera and how it came to be. It’s been published in countless brochures, copied in many websites and quoted in newspapers, speeches and even in a recent historical account on the island of Mindoro.
Puerto Galera they say came from the Spanish Puerto de Galeon which in English means Port of the Galleon. However, as much as we want it to be true, it is rendered false by an old Spanish map made in 1871.
Before we re-write history let me first attempt to tell how we got stuck with the concept of the “port of the galleon.” Firstly, it is a wonderful catch-phrase, romantically enticing, exuding images of the medieval past, and a convenient commercial tag line for the tourist industry. Secondly, there were indeed galleons that sought refuge inside Puerto Galera Bay. An early account to support this claim was in a letter to Spanish King Felipe III in July 15, 1604 by then Philippine Governor Pedro Acuña who made mention that the Almiranta 2, a galleon, was moored in Puerto Galera. But the galleon was not the first Spanish ship that sailed into Puerto Galera.
On May 12, 1570, Martin de Goite and Juan de Salcedo conquered Puerto Galera onboard the San Miguel, a galera (or in English a galley). A galley is a large, usually single-decked medieval ship of shallow draft, propelled by sails and oars and used as a merchant ship or warship.
A galleon was a big ship and was used when the Spaniards needed to cross oceans. It was a transatlantic carrier, ferrying passengers and cargoes across the ocean.
Galleys, on the other hand, were the inter-island vessels of the Spanish Conquistadores. When they needed to conquer and explore nearby islands and rivers they used the galera. It carried 20 to 50 soldiers which also had to man the sweeps (oars); it had multiple sails.
The big Spanish ships at the time of the conquest of Mindoro were moored in Panay Island where the Governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, waited for news from Goite and Salcedo who were off to conquer the whole Luzon and Manila using galleys including the indigenous galley-type vessels which were commandeered by the Spaniards. Together with the San Miguel and La Tortuga, a small frigate, the Spaniards brought to Puerto Galera 15 paraos manned by more than 400 native conscripts. A parao was an outrigger boat with sail and carried 20 to 100 people. The big paraos were called balangay which is the root of the word barangay.
There is an article in Filipiniana.net about an old map entitled in Spanish Plano [inédito] del Puerto de Galera y Enseriada del Varadero en la Isla de Mindoro printed in Madrid, Spain in 1871. Translated into English it means: Map (unpublished) of the Port of the Galley and the cove of the drydock in the Island of Mindoro. This clearly proves that the origin of the name Puerto Galera came from Puerto de Galera and not Puerto de Galeon as is popularly believed.
The etymology of other Spanish words named after places in Puerto Galera reveals a glimpse of history and how the Spaniards of yore saw such places in the context of time.
Boquete means a gap which would best describe “the gap”, a small water canal between Boquete Isand and mainland Puerto Galera which existed until the late 70’s. The gap is now a sandbar.
Medio Island – medio means half. It is the “other half” of Boquete Island.
Ensenada means cove. This cove was used as a drydocking facility inside Varadero (drydock) Bay. The Spaniards used Varadero Bay because of its nearness to Baco where the cabisera (seat of government) was later situated.
Muelle means wharf. In this wharf was built a warehouse that stored sacks of palay and other foodstuff which were collected by ships departing to Nueva España (Mexico). This warehouse burned to the ground along with the palays which became the “Black Rice of Muelle.”
(Source: Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas, H. Riquel, The Phil. Islands, Blair and Robertson)
