Angeles (, ), officially the City of Angeles (; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 462,928 people. While Angeles City is politically independent from the province of Pampanga, it is usually grouped with it for statistical purposes. Angeles City is one of the proposed metropolitan areas in the Philippines. Metro Angeles is proposed to include the component cities of Mabalacat and San Fernando, as well as the towns of Bacolor, Floridablanca, Guagua, Lubao, Mexico, Porac and Santa Rita. Etymology The name Ángeles is derived from the Spanish El Pueblo de los Ángeles ("The Town of the Angels") in honour of its patron saints, Los Santos Ángeles Custodios (Holy Guardian Angels), and the name of its founder, Don Ángel Pantaleón de Miranda. History Spanish period In 1796, the gobernadorcillo or town head of San Fernando, Don Ángel Pantaleón de Miranda, and his wife, Doña Rosalía de Jesús, along with some followers, staked out a new settlement, which they named Culiát because of the abundance of vines (Gnetum indicum) of that name in the area. The new settlers cleared the woodland and cultivated the area for rice and sugar farming. Don Ángel built his first house with light materials at the northwest corner of the intersection of Sapang Balen and the road going towards the town of Porac. It was later donated to the Catholic Church and became a cemetery called "Campo Santong Matua" (today the site of Nepomuceno Coliseum). On May 12, 1812, the new settlers tried to make Culiat a self-governing town but the friars resisted the move, led by Fray José Pometa. Ten years later, on February 11, 1822, Don Ángel filed a petition for the township of Culiat to secede from San Fernando, but it was denied. This was followed by another petition within the same year, jointly signed by Don Ángel, his son-in-law, Mariano Henson, and the latter's father, Severino Henson. He donated 35 hectares for the construction of the first Catholic church, a convent and a primary school while Doña Agustina Henson de Nepomuceno, the niece of who would become the first of Angeles in 1830, Don Ciriaco de Miranda, gave land for the new public market. Don Ángel paid the complete amount required by law just for the secession of Culiat from San Fernando. There