History of

Guimba

By:
Glenn Jhubert G. Ubaldo
( BSED – MATH III )

February 2021

WORLD CITI COLLEGES HISTORY OF GUIMBA / College of Education Page 1 of 2

Glenn Jhubert G. Ubaldo
BSED – III MATH

Guimba came from the Ilocano term 'Gebba' which was the process of heating molded clay pots in a pit
until they turn reddish and durable. Tree stumps were made into large pieces of charcoal. The live
charcoals were placed underneath the clay pots. After a few hours these were hardened and ready to
bring out from the pit and ready for use.
The story goes, once a Spanish visited the place where most of the residents are engaged in pottery
making. The foreigner stopped and asked the earth-bakers this question in a nasalized manner, 'Que
lugar este?'. The foreigner asked what this place was. The natives misunderstood the question and were
asked what they were doing, so they answered “GEBBA” pointing to the ground. The Spaniard repeated
the word as they left the place “GHEBHA” after years have gone by the name of the place was
hispanized into Guimba when the Spaniard founded the town as Pueblo en la provincia de Nueva Ecija.
This pottery-making tradition is prevalent even in other barangays outside the central area of the town.
An example is Barangay Pasong Intsik, which was named after 'old jars containing Chinese remains' were
once found beneath a bridge.
The early Ilocano settlers brought with them the wonder image of Apo San Juan so they called the place
San Juan de Guimba. In the American period, a resolution on the town separated the term 'Guimba'
from 'Apo San Juan', thus its present name. But Apo San Juan remains as its Patron Saint. The pottery
traditions of the indigenous settlers were later disintegrated and lost due to population influx from the
Ilocos region and other areas in the south.

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