An Attempt at Finding the Inspiration for Noli Me Tangere's "Town of San Diego"
As learners of Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, we have often been told that the town featured in the story was fictional.
TLDR = YES IT IS FICTIONAL BUT I STILL TRIED.
Here is what we know about San Diego.
Ch 6 Tiago
Se le consideraba uno de los más ricos propietarios de Binondo y uno de los más importantes cosecheros de azúcar por sus terrenos en la Pampanga y en la laguna de Bay[34], principalmente en el pueblo de San Diego, cuyo canon o arriendo cada año subía. San Diego era el pueblo favorito suyo por sus agradables baños, famosa gallera[35] y los recuerdos que de él conserva; allí pasaba, cuando menos, dos meses del año
Casose con una hermosa joven de Santa Cruz que le ayudó a hacer su fortuna y le dio su posición social. Doña Pía Alba no se contentó con comprar azúcar, café y añil: quiso sembrar y cosechar, y compró el nuevo matrimonio terrenos en San Diego, datando de ahí sus amistades con el padre Dámaso y don Rafael Ibarra, el más rico capitalista del pueblo
Ch 10 The Town of San Diego
CH 21 Light and Shadows
Notable Land Features of San Diego
is a town located on the Shores of Laguna Lake. It must be a lakeshore town.
Tracks of arable land and ricefields
Has many baths
A monstrous crystal snake-like River that widens and meanders
The riverbed stretches between two elevated banks
A peninsula of forest in that sea of cultivated land.
A stream passes thru this "peninsula of ancient forest"
Pero lo que siempre llama la atención es una que diríamos península de bosque en aquel mar de terrenos labrados. But what always catches the eye is what we might call a peninsula of forest in that sea of cultivated land.
Here are other real places mentioned in NMT that are near and within Laguna province
Murillo Velarde Map 1734
Sta. Cruz - Provincial Capital of Laguna
Antipolo - Province on the northern part of Laguna Lake
Mt. Makiling - Mountain near Laguna
Bay - Town in Laguna
Calamba - Town in Laguna
Sto. Tomas - Barangay in Binan, Laguna
Binangonan - Town on the Northern Part of Laguna Lake
Talim Island - Island in the Middle of Laguna Lake
Where could San Diego be based from?
GUESS 1 Brgy. San Diego, San Pablo City, Laguna.
This town bears the same name, and it's also located in the Laguna. It is surrounded by many minor lakes. However no river passes through it.
It is also does not have a shore facing Laguna Lake. It is way too inland.
Even if it has the same name as the featured town of the novel, San Diego is not the inspiration for book San Diego
GUESS 2 Los Banos
This town has numerous baths and hot springs, which the Dominicans encouraged for medicinal purposes (remember that Capitan Tiago loved San Diego for its baths). Los Banos also has 5 tributaries to the Laguna Lake.
Los Banos also has Tadlac Lake / Alligator Lake! It's the round as fck maar lake that you can see in the map. The Molawin River even runs in the foot of Mt. Makiling
.
CH 10 The Town of San Diego Un sombrío sendero franquea trabajosamente la espesura y conduce a un arroyo formado de varias fuentes termales, como muchas de las faldas del Makiling. A gloomy path laboriously crosses the thicket and leads to a stream formed from several hot springs, like many on the slopes of Makiling.
*this might also imply that San Diego is not Los Banos.
^Los Banos view to the East, you can see the Dampalit Creek
&Los Banos view to the West. There are 2 more creeks and the Maahas river beyond it.
GUESS 3 Calamba
This place is Rizal's hometown. He grew up here. This place does have lots of agricultural lands and fields. It also has 2 major rivers which are the San Juan River and the San Cristobal River. It also has many creeks.
This aerial view kind of matches a bit of the description in the book.
CH 10 The Town of San Diego Cuando en un día sereno los muchachos se suben al último cuerpo de la torre de la iglesia, que el musgo y las plantas viajeras adornan, entonces prorrumpen en alegres exclamaciones, provocadas por la hermosura del panorama que se ofrece a su vista... Allá está el río, monstruosa serpiente de cristal, dormida en la verde alfombra; de distancia en distancia rizan su corriente pedazos de roca esparcidos en el arenoso lecho; allá el cauce se estrecha entre dos elevadas orillas, a las que se agarran haciendo contorsiones árboles de raíces desnudas; aquí se forma una suave pendiente y el río se ensancha y remansa. When on a clear day the boys climb to the top of the church tower, adorned with moss and migratory plants, they burst into joyful exclamations, moved by the beauty of the panorama before them... There is the river, a monstrous serpent of crystal, asleep on the green carpet; from distance to distance, its current ripples with pieces of rock scattered on the sandy bed; There the riverbed narrows between two high banks, to which trees with bare roots cling, contorting themselves; here a gentle slope forms and the river widens and slows.
And it would make sense that Rizal would base his fictional town from his hometown, in fact it would have been easier for us if that had been the case.
However, in Ch. 51 The Family of Elias, Elias also mentions Calamba multiple times
«Eso pudo exclamar mi padre —continuó Elías fríamente —. Los hombres habían descuartizado al salteador y enterrado el tronco, pero los miembros fueron esparcidos y colgados en diferentes pueblos. Si vais alguna vez de Calamba a Santo Tomás, encontraréis todavía un miserable árbol de lomboy donde colgó pudriéndose una pierna de mi tío: la Naturaleza lo ha maldecido y el árbol ni crece ni da fruto. Lo mismo hicieron con los otros miembros, pero la cabeza, la cabeza, como lo mejor del individuo, como lo que más fácilmente se reconoce, ¡la colgaron delante de la cabaña de la madre!». “That’s what my father might have exclaimed,” Elias continued coldly. “The men had dismembered the bandit and buried his torso, but the limbs were scattered and hung up in different villages. If you ever travel from Calamba to Santo Tomás, you’ll still find a wretched lomboy tree where one of my uncle’s legs hung rotting: Nature has cursed it, and the tree neither grows nor bears fruit. They did the same with the other limbs, but the head—the head, the best part of the individual, the part most easily recognizable—they hung it up in front of his mother’s hut!” Un día desapareció; en vano la busqué por todas partes, en vano pregunté por ella, hasta que seis meses después supe que por aquella época, después de una crecida del lago, se había encontrado en la playa de Calamba, entre unos arrozales, el cadáver de una joven ahogada o asesinada; tenía, según dicen, un cuchillo clavado en el pecho. Las autoridades de aquel pueblo hicieron publicar el hecho en los pueblos vecinos; nadie se presentó a reclamar el cadáver; ninguna joven había desaparecido. One day she disappeared; I searched everywhere for her in vain, I asked about her in vain, until six months later I learned that around that time, after a flood of the lake, the body of a young woman, either drowned or murdered, had been found on the beach of Calamba, among some rice paddies; she had, they say, a knife stuck in her chest. The authorities of that town publicized the fact in the neighboring towns; no one came forward to claim the body; no young woman had disappeared.
Calamba being mentioned in the novel means that it's a totally different town from San Diego.
GUESS 4 Cabuyao
Like other Laguna lakeside tows, Cabuyao also boasts a big river, the Cabuyao River. It runs through town like a snake and probably was pretty majestic during the Spanish Colonial Period
The Cabuyao river also passes between a patch of forest near the town. They have many creeks as well.
This is the aerial view from their spanish era church, the St. Polycarp Parish Church
GUESS 5 Sta. Rosa
Sta. Rosa also boasts of a great big river. It also opens between two wide riverbanks.
This is an areal view from their spanish era church which is the Santa Rosa de Lima Church.
...so
The fictional San Diego town has features that almost all Laguna lakeshore towns have. I feel like San Diego is a mixture of both Calamba and Los Banos. It is safe to say that Rizal took inspiration from these towns and the others.
I have to admit that I bit off more than I could chew in this research. I realized that all I've done was examine the Laguna lakeshore towns that are near Talim Island.
Why Talim Island? Coz it's where Elias and Ibarra were separated after the Chase on the Lake. Therefore, if Elias had to swim from Talim Island to somwhere, then it has gotta be a town within that yellow box, because those are the nearest to the island and the most prosperous.
Well... my takeaway from this whole endeavor is that Laguna is frkn pretty. They have lots of history. They have so many rivers and creeks, no wonder the land is fertile. They also have amazing baroque churches. They are places worth visiting in the future.
I might never find the town of San Diego in a real map but I guess, the real treasure is learning about the many towns and the province that Rizal held dear in his heart.
echoz
