Caragan and Laureana: the founding legend of Mabalacat

There is no official document of how Mabalacat began. What the city has is a story, passed down by word of mouth.

A forest and a chieftain

The land was once forest, full of balacat trees, a timber tree known to science as Ziziphus talanai. Ma-balacat means full of balacat in Kapampangan. The first settlers were Aeta, led by a chieftain named Caragan. He married Laureana Tolentino and took her family name, and she became the first cabeza de barangay, the forerunner of today's barangay captain.

One tale links the city fiesta of February 2 to an image of the Virgin and Child that Caragan presented to a priest, Padre Maximo Manuguid.

From barrio to city

Mabalacat was a barrio of Bamban, now in Tarlac, before becoming a town in 1792. In 1853 it had four barangays and 2,611 people. On July 21, 2012, it voted to become Pampanga's third city.

Remembered every February

The Caragan Festival honours the chieftain each February, with cultural dances by local schools in costumes made from indigenous materials.