THE CHRONICLE OF MARIVELES
How Bloodlines, Revolution, and Leadership Shaped Barangay San Carlos
By Pocholo De Leon Gonzales
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| Esteban De Leon Gonzales - The First Mayor of Mariveles during American Period and The First Judge |
History often survives not through grand monuments, but through quiet records. A baptism written in fading ink. A name carried across water. A command shouted at the precise moment when a town chooses its future.
The story of Mariveles, Bataan, and of Barangay San Carlos, is one such history. It is a story shaped by two names… Agatona De Leon and Victorino Gonzales… whose descendants would help lead a revolution, govern a town, and leave their mark on the land itself.
Roots Across Manila Bay
In 1820, in the parish of Tanza, Cavite, a child was baptized. Her name was Agatona De Leon, daughter of Valentín De Leon and Benita Guevarra. Soon after came her younger brother, Ignacio De Leon. Tanza was a stable, well-documented town, yet the destiny of this family lay elsewhere.
Across Manila Bay stood Pasac, a coastal barrio of Mariveles, Bataan. Pasac was a frontier community shaped by the sea. Indigenous families lived alongside Spanish friars and local leaders, bound together by trade, survival, and proximity to the water.
On June 17, 1829, a fragile newborn was baptized there. His name was Victorino Gonzales. The parish record notes a private baptism performed due to danger of death. The child was nine days old. His parents were unnamed.
Victorino survived.
Years later, he married Agatona De Leon, uniting Cavite and Bataan, record and uncertainty, established lineage and anonymous beginnings. From this marriage emerged a family that would play a defining role in Mariveles’ history.
From Family to Revolution
Agatona and Victorino raised their children in Pasac. They had two sons, Esteban Gonzales and Melchor Gonzales, who came of age as revolutionary ideas spread across the archipelago.
Victorino died young, leaving Agatona widowed. Yet her role in history was far from over.
She later married Julian Sarreal, the Gobernadorcillo of Imus, Cavite, linking her revolutionary family to colonial governance. Their son, Jose De Leon Sarreal, would later become one of Mariveles’ earliest mayors.
But it was her sons from her first marriage who would step directly into the struggle for independence.
The Araw ng Kupuhan
By 1898, Spanish colonial rule was collapsing. In Mariveles, the Katipunan gathered in secrecy. Among its members were Esteban Gonzales and Melchor Gonzales, who signed the Acta ng Katipunan with their own blood, an oath that bound them irrevocably to the revolution.
On May 31, 1898, the uprising began. The third strike of the bombo echoed across Mariveles. The people would remember the day as the Araw ng Kupuhan.
At the center of the uprising stood Agatona De Leon, known to her people as Cabesang Tonang. In a time when revolutions were led almost exclusively by men, Mariveles followed a woman.
Her command was brief and decisive.
“Salakay, mga Kapatid!”
Spanish forces were overthrown swiftly and without bloodshed in what became known as the Copo de Mariveles. In that moment, Agatona De Leon entered history as the Mother of the Katipunan of Mariveles.
From Revolution to Governance
Independence demanded leadership.
Esteban Gonzales, once a Katipunero, later served as Judge and Mayor of Mariveles during the American period. In 1908, he founded the town’s first elementary school, anchoring education at the center of civic life.
Jose De Leon Sarreal Sr., son of Agatona and Julian Sarreal, became the 13th Mayor of Mariveles from 1898 to 1904. His name endures in Jose Sarreal Street in Barangay San Carlos.
Decades later, Carlos “Carling” Lara Sarreal, Agatona’s grandson, served as 17th Mayor from 1968 to 1979. Under his leadership, Mariveles rose from a fifth-class to a third-class municipality. He established the Mariveles Water District, built the public market, and in 1969, formally created Barangay San Carlos.
Leadership followed bloodline, but progress followed vision.
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| Carlos Sarreal - The Man Who founded San Carlos Village |
Pasac and the Shape of Memory
Pasac no longer appears on modern maps. Yet its presence endures.
It was where Victorino Gonzales was baptized.
Where revolution was planned in whispers.
Where the foundations of Barangay San Carlos were laid.
San Carlos stands today as Pasac’s successor, carrying its spirit forward under a new name.
A Living Lineage
The bloodlines of Gonzales, De Leon, and Sarreal converge in the present. They tell a story not only of family, but of place… of how revolution becomes governance, and how memory becomes identity.
This history is not confined to archives. It lives in streets, schools, barangays, and in the people who continue to speak these names.
Victorino Gonzales.
Agatona De Leon.
Esteban Gonzales.
Jose De Leon Sarreal.
Carlos Lara Sarreal.
They are not merely ancestors. They are architects of Mariveles.
In remembering them, we remember how a town was born… not only from land and law, but from courage, continuity, and voice.
Mabuhay ang Barangay San Carlos.
Mabuhay ang Bayan ng Mariveles.
Mabuhay ang ating Kasaysayan.
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