Visions of California

Sunset with the moon at Dana Point with Santa Catalina Island in the distance. As a kid in Southern California, I would look out over the ocean and conjure images of pirates and ships during the early modern period. These images were the products of all of the typical pirate and sailing fodder - rides at Disneyland, pictures in kids' books and magazines, Saturday morning cartoons, and the mysterious model of a sailing ship sitting on the mantle in the "den." And from the bond fire I stood barefoot in the sand and watched the sun set beyond the continuous washing of waves over the rocks and sandy shore, while the rising northwest wind produced its familiar but ever-surprising chill, and thought about the sailors of a time long past, returning back to their anchored vessels and drying out their sandy clothes in the lantern-lit below decks. This post tells what I could find of their story. The story begins with a question; why was California a part of Spain at th...

Way back in 1542, Juan  Rodríguez  Cabrillo led the first European expedition to what is now the coast of California. For context, at about this time Queen Elizabeth I of England was 9 years old, the first contact between Japan and the West occurred when a Portuguese trading vessel that intended to trade with China was blown off course and landed in Japan and Michelangelo had just completed his last fresco in the Sistine Chapel. While sailing along the coast of California, Cabrillo and the men under his command may very well have been the first Europeans to observe what is now Orange County. Cabrillo, who was from Spain , came to North America in 1514 and participated as a conquistador (soldier) with Hernán Cortés in the Spanish wars of conquest over the Aztecs and later with Pedro de Alvarado in the conquest over the indigenous groups living in what is now Guatamala. For his services as a conquistador, his superior made him a encomendero, rewarding him with la...