Castillo Palacio de Lujan
Lujan is a Spanish geographical name derived from Luxan, which itself was derived from Aluxan, a very small town in the Ayuntamiento de Muro de Rueda (Huesca), located in northern Spain near the Pyrennes mountain range on the border with France. Since it is located in the province of Aragon, its origin is Aragones.
Familia Lujan: Escudo de Armas (Lujan Family Coat of Arms)
Some data places the origin of Aluxan at the XII or even back to the XI Century. Aluxan still has the castle that started the lineage of the current Lujan family.
This Spanish last name is closely tied to Spanish royalty, it still has a residence in Madrid named Torre Lujan, where at one time the King of France Francisco I was a prisoner after his defeat in the battle of Pavia, a battle won by King Carlos V in 1525. Among those with royal titles were Don Fernando de Lujan Roble Caballero (Count Castroponce) and Don Francisco de Lujan y Gongora (Duke of Almodovar del Valle).
The Lujan name made a mark in the world in Madrid where it established itself in the XII Century, after that it extended from Madrid to Castilla, Andalucia and eventually America, where they established the last name in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. In Argentina, there is a city of 93,000 named Lujan, after Captain Pedro de Lujan who died in 1536 in a hostile battle with native Indians. In Mexico, the Lujan name is concentrated in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango, extending all the way up to the US southwest, in states like New Mexico and Arizona. Likewise, there is a line of Lujan ancestry in the former Spanish colonies of the Philippines and Guam [1].
From the Philippines to Guam
Lujan House (Guam Institute), built in 1911 in Agana by Jose Pangelinan Lujan, one of the historical sites in Guam.
So far, the earliest recorded Lujan born in the Philippines was Ignacio Lujan, whose birthdate was registered as December 14, 1880. He died in Agana, Guam in September 1975. This was followed by Andres Lujan (born in the Philippines on April 17, 1895 and died in Agana, Guam on June 15, 1969) and Tomasa Lujan (born in the Philippines on March 28, 1896 and died in Agana, Guam in September 1977) [2]. Their exact place of birth in the Philippines was never ascertained though.
These indicate that the Lujan name in Guam came from the Philippines. Before the Americans took control of Guam in 1898, it was governed by the Spaniards as part of the Spanish East Indies from the Philippines. Prominent Lujans in Guam include former Senator Pilar Lujan, who served the Guam legislature during the 1990s and now chair of the Guam Democratic Party, and former Senator Jesse Anderson Lujan, who married Vice Mayor Mary Ann Suyao of the municipality of Guimbal, Province of Iloilo in central Philippines.
Lujan/Luhan in the Visayas
The Lujan name and its Philippine variant Luhan are concentrated in Cabatuan town in Iloilo, Buenavista in Guimaras, and Valladolid town and Bago City in Negros Occidental. The earliest recorded family member from the Visayas was Modesta Luhan who was born in 1884 in Jordan, Guimaras and was married in 1903 to Ariston Buendia, also of Jordan [3]. This means there were already Luhans (or Lujans?) in Guimaras before the 1880s .
Doroteo Lujan, patriarch of the Lujan family of Cabatuan, adopted his mother’s surname as he was an illegitimate child. His mother, Felipa Lujan, was from Guimaras while his father, Bernabe Paniza, was from Passi [4].
List of municipal officials of Cabatuan in 1931 found at the base of the monument to Don Tono, the founder and first gobernadorcillo of the town.
Bernabe Paniza had seven other children by Ramona Zaragoza of Cabatuan. They were (by order of birth) Antonio (born 1876, married to Maria Continente on February 26, 1928), Isidro, Ramon (born 1878), Barselisa, Remedios (married to Potenciano Correa), Primitiva (born 1896, married to Feliciano Continente on April 21, 1924) and Presentacion [5].
Doroteo Lujan was engaged in farming and trading, and was listed in the 1937 Panay Directory and Souvenir Book as one of the 18 leading landowners in Cabatuan during the Commonwealth period.
Records also showed that he worked as enumerator for the census conducted by the Philippine Legislature in 1918, and that he served as municipal councilor and later as municipal vice mayor of Cabatuan.
Doroteo Lujan was married to the former Margarita Taras of Barrio Tinio-an, where the Doroteo Lujan Elementary School now stands on a piece of land he donated to the Municipality of Cabatuan.
Doroteo Lujan + Margarita Taras 