Thursday, September 28, 2006

Stealing from Cabrillo's Pad

Today is the 564th anniversary of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo first encountering California, which as yet had no name, let alone streets named after Cabrillo, so at least those of us in Santa Barbara only had to worry about Castillo, Carrillo, and "that road down by the beach." I write "encountering" because there is still a dispute as to what happened that night between the "explorer" and the "virgin land." While sailing into San Diego Bay he uttered the famous words, "Don't put an airport right downtown," but his crew just laughed for they didn't know what an airport was, let alone why he was speaking English. Upon landing he was met by Chumash Minutebraves who told him to go back to his own country, which only made Cabrillo confused as he was Portuguese but sailing under the Spanish flag, mostly because he thought the Spanish banner more attractive and its color scheme matched the way he had his ship painted.

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