Baler & Casiguran were part of La Provincia de La Pampanga, which also included Pampanga, Bulacan, and Tarlac, and in 1591, the towns became part of Kalilayan, which included Nueva Ecija, until Kalilayan changed its name to Tayabas in 1749, taken from the town of the same name.

[4][5][6][7] In the early days of the Spanish colonial period, Aurora was ecclesiastically linked to Infanta, which today rests further south, in northern Quezon.

It included huge swathes of Central Luzon, the Contracosta towns, as well as the Kalilayan area and Polillo Islands, however Nueva Ecija was still part of La Pampanga province at that time.

In 1858, Binangonan de Lampon and the Polillo Islands were separated from Nueva Ecija to form part of Infanta.

[5] The early history of Aurora is linked to Quezon province, of which it formed a part, and Nueva Ecija, under which the area was governed as the District of El Príncipe.

[citation needed] During the postwar years, there were several attempts to make Aurora independent from the rest of Quezon Province.

Luis S. Etcubañez filed a Parliamentary Bill for the establishment of Aurora at the Interim Batasang Pambansa, leveraging his political ties with the various Assemblymen of Region IV.

[28][29] During his bid to be the first Philippine president to be re-elected for a second term, Ferdinand Marcos launched an unprecedented number of foreign debt-funded public works projects.

[39] One significant impact on the residents of Aurora, especially its farmers, was the administration's practice of hamletting to achieve military control of the area.

[40] Things took a more violent turn in the town of Dinalungan during the early 1980s, after farmers organized a rally against a landowner who attempted to claim their farms, seeking help and support from the nuns at the Carmelite mission that had been established there.

[40] Young men started disappearing from the farms,[40] and rumors begun to spread that they had been victims of extrajudicial killings by Marcos' forces.

[40] Much of the male population of Dinalungan began to disappear altogether, with some believed to be victims of the extrajudicial killings, and the rest forced to join the NPA because of the circumstances.

[43][44][45] The provinces south of Aurora were reformed as Calabarzon and Mimaropa, and Southern Tagalog was limited to being a cultural-geographic region.

[48] Aurora is a coastal province covering an area of 3,147.32 square kilometres (1,215.19 sq mi)[49] in east-central Luzon.

To the north, it is bordered by the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park of Isabela, to the west by the central range of the Sierra Madre which contains the Casecnan Protected Landscape and Aurora Memorial National Park, to the south by the Umiray River, and to the east by the Philippine Sea which opens to the Pacific Ocean.

The San Ildefonso Peninsula lies in the province's northern portion between the Philippine Sea and the Casiguran Sound.

Dilasag and Casiguran form the northern part of the province, while Dinalungan, Dipaculao, Maria Aurora, and Baler (the capital) make up the central portion.

The 8 municipalities of the province comprise a total of 151 barangays, with Suclayin in Baler as the most populous in 2010, and Dibalo in San Luis as the least.

[54] On the 2010 census survey, Tagalogs numbered 91,219, Ilocanos 67,861, Bicolano 14,250, Kankanaey 4,494, Bisaya 4,786, Umiray Dumagat 1,267, and Cebuano 1,777.

During this period, Baler can only be access by sea though the town saw increase migration from other parts of Luzon such as Laguna, Tayabas, and Bicol from the south.

The opening of the Baler-Bongabon Road allowed easier migration of people from Ilocos and Isabela areas from the north.

[56][59][60][61] Other ethnic groups who came and stayed in Aurora include Christianized Gaddang and Isinai settlers who settled the surrounding lowlands of Baler Bay.

[62] These ethnic groups who lived for several centuries & left cultural influences & legacies made Aurora the melting pot of the Central Luzon, next to Tarlac & Nueva Ecija.

Some other Christian believers are also present, which includes Members Church of God International (MCGI), Methodists, Aglipayan Church 2-3%, Baptists, Born Again Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, Iglesia ni Cristo 4% and Seventh-day Adventist while Muslims are also found which presence is traced to migration by some people from some parts of Mindanao.