Voting on an Identity: El Toro or Lake Forest?

The March 5 cityhood election here is about more than just municipal self-rule: It will also renew a 100-year-old debate over the name of the community.

Three proposed city names are on the ballot: El Toro, Lake Forest or Rancho Canada.

Recent surveys show about half the people favoring El Toro and the other half Lake Forest. Few apparently want to call it Rancho Canada, the original name given to the community after a Spanish land grant of nearly 11,000 acres was awarded to Don Jose Serrano in the 1840s.

Mary Denecour, head librarian at the El Toro Library, said the debate pits traditionalists, who favor El Toro as the name, and newcomers who think Lake Forest sounds more chic.

Denecour said some people simply do not want to be associated with the nearby Marine Corps Air Station while others do not like the literal Spanish translation of El Toro-- the bull.

Just where the name El Toro came from is in dispute. One popular local legend has it that a Spanish padre prayed for divine intervention to stop a charging bull from attacking him. Another version contends it was named after bellowing bulls kept by Don Jose.

The community underwent a name change in 1889 when a New England developer bought most of the land and called it Aliso City. He was denied a post office permit because of the similarity to Alviso, a small town near San Jose. The name then reverted to El Toro.

In the 1960s, El Toro residents successfully fought a move by postal authorities to change the community’s name to Laguna North.