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CLASSIC: California Was Named for a Fictional Island Ruled by a Black Amazon Queen · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we have an absolute banger of a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: classic episode for you today. No fooling California doesn't just
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: know how to party. It was also named in a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: really ridiculous way.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Do you think Anthony Ketis knows about this? I hope
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: he does. He really likes California. Yeah, we gotta check
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the bridge he's under there somewhere. California was in fact
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: admitted to the United States as the thirty first date
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of eighteen fifty, but it acquired its own unique name
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: a lot earlier. And the provenance of this name is
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: a little more ridiculous than you might think, and it
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: comes from the realms of fiction.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And we'll tell you the facts behind it.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Let's jump in.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Hellow Ridiculous Historians.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in. My name is Ben.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I have a question for you as well as my compatriots.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Lay it honest brother, all right, Noel super producer Casey
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Pegrim here's the question. I noticed recently that we have
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: been doing a lot of cool stuff with US states,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and today we're going to look at another US state,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a large one, a big one. And it inspired me
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to pitch the following idea. I propose that we Ridiculous
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: History endeavor to do an episode at least one about
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: every US.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: State, like Sufi Stephens style.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but we'll actually do You think we will though, Yeah,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: because we're not making a whole album.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: That's true, and we do kind of have to do
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the show until we keel over. So it's in our contract.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: That's the language which we signed in blood. Yeah, I'm okay, Ben,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I'll raise you one. Let's do one on every state
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and territory, every state and territory. Yeah, historical territories are
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: current territory. You got me, Ben, I don't know what
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the difference is. You know what. We'll be there. I
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: bet you will.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We'll wrap up our fiftieth state episode and then we'll
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: say we want to do more territories. It'll be a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: learning adventure. It will be, and we're off to the races.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: We are traveling today in spirit, in mind to place
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that both of us love the state of California.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I'm a huge fan of California. Yeah, I love it
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: despite the traffic, am I right? Bumper to bumper? The one,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the five, the four five, the five oh one. You
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: know what, that's not real? You know yours what's real?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, though, Los Angeles makes me tired.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Well, it's such sprawl that it's like it takes forever
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to get anywhere. I mean, not that we're not used
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to that here in Atlanta. The traffic's quite bad, but
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the geography of Los Angeles very spread out. And yeah,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: it's a bit of a slog to get anywhere. But
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: boy do I enjoy it when I find a cool
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: area that I dig. Like. I've got a friend who
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: was in Highland Park really like that whole area and
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: like Silver Lake and all that stuff. And we actually
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: have a studio there with our comedy division that's right
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: in the heart of Hollywood Boulevard.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's headed by our pal Jack O'Brien, who
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was a founder of Cracked dot com.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I wonder if Jack O'Brien knows the mythical history of
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: California the name at least he might.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: He's one smart hostess, Cupcake, but he if he knows
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: this history, he is an exceptional person. Because this was
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: new a hazard to both of us.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Hazard away because you're right.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So one thing that I think occurs to many
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: school children here in the States, is this moment of
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: epiphany where you're looking around at the name of the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: state in which you reside, or the names of other states,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and you go, hey, that's.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: A weird word.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: You know Oklahoma, for instance, that's.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: A weird word.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, California we just all accept as normal. Sure,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: but it's a strange word.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: It is. And I think there's this overarching notion that
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: most of the weird word states come from Native American words, right,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: But that's not entirely true, especially not in today's case.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, today we are exploring the strange story of how
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: California became, you know, California, California, California. Yeah, I love
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that sketch.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good sketch.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, So right now it's used by the The term
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: California is used by three different places. It's used here
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: in the US. It's the name of the state of California.
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  Speaker 1: In Mexico, there are two states. One is called Baja
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  Speaker 1: California and then Baja California, sir, So like South Baja California.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. I think originally California was called Las California's
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: province of the Vice Royalty of New Spain.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a mouthful doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
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  Speaker 2: No it doesn't. But where did all this California business
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: come from? Then?
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  Speaker 1: We were startled to find There were several explanations, but
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  Speaker 1: one of the strongest, and the one we want to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: focus on today, is the idea that the name California
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: came from a work of fiction.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: It's right, a work of fiction by a gentleman by
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: the name of Garcie Rodriguez de Montevallo. I think that's okay, Casees, Now,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: we're not gonna consult. He's a Francophone. Yeah, he's not
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: a spania phone. Is that a word? Doesn't matter? Mark
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Tavallo and he wrote a novel, a romantic, swashbuckling kind
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: of epic, part of a series called Las Sergas Esplandion,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: which means the Exploits or Adventures of Esplandion.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. This was around the turn of the sixteenth century
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and largely thought to be inspired by real life stories
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of explorers traveling to what they called the New World
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: in the fourteen hundreds. Noel, as you said, this is
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: part of a five part series. This was the final
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: book and it featured a specific land. We can go
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: ahead and let's see.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: You want to hear a quote. We got a little
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: quote about this from the book. Quote away, my man,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: all right.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Know that on the right hand from the Indies exist
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: in islands called California, very close to a side of
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the earthly Paradise, and it was populated by black women
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: without any man existing there because they lived in the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and were brave and very strong. Their island was the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: strongest in the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Their weapons were golden, and so were the harnesses of
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the wild beast that they were accustomed to taming, so
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that they could be ridden, because there was no other
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  Speaker 1: metal in the island than gold.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: That, my friend, was a summary of the recent DC
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Comics film A Wonder Woman.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Right, there are some there are some clear parallels.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: That is from the Exploits of Esplandian, which, as we said,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: turn in the century. He published it in Severe in
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: fifteen ten.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: In fact, it's actually it predates Don Quixote by Cervantes,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: and it's cited in that work as a list of
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: one of the books in Don Quixote's library. So it
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: was a very popular work and folk like, uh oh,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Hernan Cortes, the famous conquistador, would have
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: been intimately familiar with this story, right.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Hernan Cortes, who was a conquistador who led the expedition
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: that brought about the fall of the Aztec Empire and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: brought lots of what is modern day Mexico under the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: rule of Spain, he would have been aware of this book.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: And when the Spanish forces were exploring California, they originally
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: thought that southern peninsula that they ran into, Aha, right,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: they thought it was an island exactly.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I think it was. It was quite a long time
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  Speaker 2: before they realized there was more.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a long time. And you can you
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: can see maps from the mid sixteen hundreds and so
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  Speaker 1: that depict it as an island. A sort of just
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  Speaker 1: imagine the peninsula as if the rest of the.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Top of California it doesn't exist exactly. And Cortes was
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  Speaker 2: in fact the governor of Mexico at the time, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: he sent an expedition to the western coast of California.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Pilot Fortune Jimenez actually there was a mutiny too, involving
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: the murder of the expedition leader, Diego Bessera. But this
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: was the first European to sail near what you just described,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Ben Baja, California. This was in the year fifteen thirty four,
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  Speaker 2: and as you said, mistook it for an island and
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: decided to call it California. Why why Ben, We talked
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: about this story a minute ago. Did we name the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: character the Queen Ah? Yes, the queen We mentioned her
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: in the quotation Khalifa Khalifa. And the island is called California,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and it is ruled by this badass Amazonian type woman
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  Speaker 2: with weaponized griffins and all kinds of crazy golden armor
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  Speaker 2: and spears. And I think there was a there was
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: a note about they only allowed to come to the
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: island one day a year so they could procreate, and
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  Speaker 2: if ever an offspring was a male, they would they
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: would give it the axe or the spear right or
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: drowning in the sea. I don't know. They would cut
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the kid's life off very early. Take time.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And here's one of the fascinating things. This was a
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: work of fiction, right, that's we know clearly it was
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a work of fiction, but it still inspired Cortes enough
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  Speaker 1: to think of this later as California. Now, it's not
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: clear if California had already been named at the time
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: when Cortes led that expedition, but we do know that
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: he had. Originally he had also thought it was an island.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: He named it Santa Cruz, but the historical records pretty
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: soon after that referred to it as California, named after
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the fictional land Rodriguez's book. And there's another weird part here.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: For a long time afterward, it would appear that the
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  Speaker 1: connection between this fictional novel and the state what would
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  Speaker 1: become the state of California, was lost to history. The
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: novel languish, it was obscure, nobody connected it with the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: name of California until around eighteen sixty four.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: That's what I read as well. Yeah, interesting, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: A guy named Edward Everett Hale was translating this novel
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: for the Antiquarian Society, and this translation they did was
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: printed in The Atlantic, and so Hale was trying to
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: figure out how this caliph entered the author's mind at all,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: and he was thinking, well, maybe it was he was
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: taken a term for a leader of an Islamic community.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, you mean like a caliph. Yeah, that's right. There's
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: actually two different ways you'll see it spelled. One is
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: klafia s c A l a fia. Sometimes you'll see
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: it Khalifia. But it does date back to that term caliph,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: which the Arabic is spelled kh a l I f
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: a h. And then we mangle it up to be
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: c a l iph here in English, but that would
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: be the leader of an Islamic religion or a group
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: or a state, which is interesting. A lot of times
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: religious leaders end up being political leaders as well in
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: that culture.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you can read in depth about the Conquistador
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in California in a book by W. Michael Mathis called
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: The Conquistador in California. This strange relationship between fiction and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: fact reminds me a little bit of the inspirations we've
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: seen in earlier episodes. But let's stick with Cortes for
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a second, because he did not have the happiest of live.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: This is not at all and just a quick aside.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Spain does have a big relationship with the Islamic culture.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: The Iberian Peninsula was actually invaded by Muslim forces in
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: the year seven eleven and eventually conquered the peninsula. So
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: it would make sense that that language would be floating
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: around in the ether there.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And there would be what are called loan words, right,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that came from Arabic and were incorporated into Spanish. Absolutely,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And you know, I really appreciate you bringing up that
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  Speaker 1: point because for a long time from what seven eleven, well,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: at various times between seven eleven and fourteen ninety two,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: there was a caliphate of Cordoba, right, and Islamic Iberia's
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: another name you'll hear thrown around. This was not a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: solidly Spanish place.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Now, and fourteen ninety two, as it turns out, was
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: when a Montevallo wrote the book in question. So give
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: us Cortes, my friend.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Ah Cortes, unhappy life.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: So this expedition to California is one of his last
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: big plays. This in the fifteen thirties. You'll hear anywhere
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: between fifteen thirty four to fifteen thirty six. He was
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: not super popular in Spain. He returned a few years later.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And this is just an aside because I just want
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to show that it wasn't all trumpets and angel farts
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: for this guy. When he returned to Spain in fifteen
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: forty one. He kept trying to get the Emperor to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: meet with him, means like, I've won so much land
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: for Spain, I've conquered so much territory for you, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: no one would talk to him. And it got so
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: bad that he had to follow the Emperor's carriage through
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: town one day and there was a crowd surrounding him.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: He forced himself through the crowd. He jumped up on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the carriage, which you know, imagine a presidential motorcade and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and seeing someone run up and try to jump in
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the car It's essentially what he did. And the Emperor said,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: who is this man? Who is this incredibly, I guess,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: rude audacious fellow, and Cortes, according to the record, said,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: I am a man who has giving you more provinces
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: than your ancestors left you cities. He spent a lot
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: of his own money to finance his expeditions. He was heavily, heavily,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: heavily in debt, and when he died in fifteen forty seven,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: his body would later be moved multiple times after his burial,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: around eight times ugh insult to injury, and when Mexico
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: became independent, it was thought that his body might be desecrated.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Just a couple of Cortes facts here. The strangest thing, though,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: is that when we think of this idea of an
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: island that's so close to the Garden of e right,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: and it's full of gold, we know the Spanish expeditions
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: were very, very focused on finding those material riches, right.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: It seems strange though that they would name this island
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: after something that they had to know to be fictional, right, Yeah.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: I mean it's sort of the way. We recently went
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: to a wrestling match out in kind of a rural
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: part of Georgia, and I really got the sense that
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: some of the folks there did not know that it
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: wasn't real, and they were acting accordingly. So you got
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: to wonder, back in these days, even if something was
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: a quote unquote work of fiction, was there maybe a
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: sense that it was written from a place of real
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: discovery and this was like a mythical land they could find,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Because that's certainly what I'm seeing that they saw this
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: island and they were like, surely this is the place
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: of note from this the story.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, Because it's not as if they could hop
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: on snopes dot com or something and check whether this
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: was real. And we know that the idea of an
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Amazonian legend would have been very familiar to people. We
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: also have to remember that at this time it was
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: much much more difficult to differentiate fiction from fact, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of allegorical works of antiquity that
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: were taken to be literal truths.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Tell you what else is interesting about the book, it's
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: actually pretty radical. Montevallo really injected this story with a
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: lot of characteristics that kind of mirrored the experience of
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: conquered indigenous people and colonized indigenous people throughout the Americas.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Later in the novel, Calafia actually converts to Christianity, coming
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: from much more of a pagan tradition. It's hard to
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: say if he was doing this the writer in in
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: protest or as like satire in some way, or if
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: it was sort of meant to be almost that's the
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: word propaganda, right, because that was certainly what the Spanish
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: conquistadors were all about when they found these indigenous people,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: was setting up all these missions, you know, all the
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: missions that are in California and the presidios and the like,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: all about converting the native people to Catholicism, So pretty
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: interesting trajectory the story has, yeah, and we.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Also can see how this would have been seen as
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: inspirational to Spanish explorers because they had expelled at the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: time the dominant Muslim forces that were ruling Spain and
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: there was nothing left to conquer unless they set out
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to find a western route to India. But no, why
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: don't we learn a little bit more about Montalvo's book,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: because he's a relatively obscure author himself in real life,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: but we know a little bit about his care.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: We do, and I have not read it myself, but
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: I learned a lot of really cool stuff from an
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: article on Miss Magazine's blog from a Beanie Morino entitled
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Klafia Reappropriating the Amazon Queen. And there's a pretty incredible
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: quote here. So apparently later in the story, Klafia gets
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: married and she gives her title of queen to one
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: of her bodyguards, and then this is what she says
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: to her. She says, you shall be my signor, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: you shall rule over my state. On account of you,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: the island will change the style of living. Whereas the
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: island has been isolated from men for many ages. Henceforth
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: it will adopt the practice of natural generation of men
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and women. So this idea of being outside of the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: patriarchy and kind of there was even like when they
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: were in battle, they would take men as their prisoners
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: and execute them or keep them around for approcreation purposes.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Now they're kind of opening up their borders to allow
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: men to live amongst them. And there's this sense that
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: a lot of this had to do with Montevalo's need
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: to kind of tame the character. So it is I
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: think less, I think unfortunately, it is less of a
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: satire and a little more of the propaganda vibe that
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I was talking about earlier, where he kind of has
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: this strong female character that don't need men and turns
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: it to the point where they kind of become more
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: beholden to men and also more Christian ideology.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, in speaking of appropriation, very important point here. Montalvo
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: did not write all of the books in that series.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: The first three books were written by an unknown author.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: He picked it up, wrote the fourth book and the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: fifth book, which would be The Exploits or the Adventures,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and then after him. The saga continued that there was
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: a sixth novel, a seventh novel, an eighth, and a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: ninth novel that we know of. Jeez, and it's strange
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: when we think of it alternating between different authors, you know,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: especially when those first three books are unknown today.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Could you even get away with it?
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: All? Right?
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: My my dyslexia is showing. I don't really have dyslexia.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: But I've been mispronouncing this man's last name entirely and
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: correctly for the entire episode, which is fine. When we
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: need to correct it. I'm just gonna go ahead and
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: say it right now. I said, I'm Manta Valo and
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: it's Montalvo. But I just I switched up the the
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: V and the and the A. It's fine, it's fine.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to put it out there now and
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: then fix it from here on out. But just don't
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: email us about it. I didn't, you know, I think
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: you're beating yourself up. I did not, for my part, notice.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: But what I did notice, no, is that there were
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a couple of other competing theories about the etymology of
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: California's name.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's one of like a a poem, I think, yes,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the song of Rolling Yeah, give it to us.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Also, the inspiration in part for Stephen King's The Dark
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Tower series or a thing based on that child.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Into the Doug Dunslinger. Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Song of Roland is an eleventh century
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: old French epic poem, and people who believe that it
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: inspired the name California.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: I can't not say a California in the set, Stuart.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Sorry, Please do check out the Californians on Saturday Night Live.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: You heard it? Great show? Yeah right, you should really
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: check it out.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a weekly sketch show in case anybody
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: somehow doesn't know.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Been running since like the seventies at the least, right.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: So this poem, the Song of Roland, is about the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: defeat of Charlemagne's army by the Muslim army and a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: battle in the Pyrenees in seven seventy eight. And in
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: if let's get specific, in line tw twenty four of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the poem again it's an epic poem. In verse two
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: o nine, the word Califerne c A l I f
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: E r n e is one of the lands that's mentioned,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: but they don't say in the poem where it is.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: They don't tell you what it's next to or you
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: know it's named after a reference to what people believe
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: is Africa. Cool, So people are saying, maybe Montalvo found
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that somewhere, and maybe that's where he found the name California.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: And then there's the other idea that the term could
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: derive from a Spanish phrase, an old Spanish phrase call
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: it fournee, an alteration of the old Latin term kalida fornax,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: which means hot furnace.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I don't you know what.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I think we stick with the novel. I think that's
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the most interesting answer.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the thing two is it really is
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: kind of up in the air. It's not clear when
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: California was named, and there was no like documentation of
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I hear my name this land California, right, you know,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: like like like the way you get in other foundings.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: You know, it's much more of a thing like that
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Mitchell and websketch that we keep referencing ad nauseum. Go
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: to Ridiculous Historians and join our Facebook group and you
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: can see it for yourself, or you know, just google it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: It's not ad nauseum yet, No, it's ad nausium.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: If I think if we do it four times, oh no,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's it applies, because it
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: really is. It's very much like I will call this
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: the West Indies, like why it makes sense, or this
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: shall be named henceforth New Connecticut.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Or of no, not North Wales, no South Wales.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: But yeah.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: This what's interesting here is that it's also a story
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: of cartography, because maps were bibles of geography right at
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: this time, and they didn't agree nearly as often as
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: maps do nowadays. And maps don't agree here as often
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: as you might think even in the modern day.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: For sure. I want to backtick it a little bit
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to Montalvo. I got it right there, I go, I'm
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: on the right track. He absolutely eroticized and exoticized this
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: woman and other people and her her body and her
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: strength and the like, in almost a fetishistic kind of way.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: There's a quote in this fabulous article from a blog
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: called afro dot com that that reads as such, and
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: this is a little rough language, but I just want
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: to it also is it's quite racist? He was quite racist? Yes,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: So here here it goes. He describes Queen Califia as
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: such as a queen quote queen of majestic proportions, more
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: beautiful than all others and in the very vigor of
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: her womanhood. She was not petite, nor blonde, nor golden haired.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: She was large and black as the ace of clubs. Oof.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: That's rough. That's a hard that's a big oof. And
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying I think it, really it makes sense
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: that this would have been written in such a way
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: as to take these characters and twist them to this
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: particular kind of worldview of the Spanish at the time.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: He would have been around during like the Spanish Inquisition
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: and a lot of the kind of medieval thinking around
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: some of this stuff, and it shows.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it calls to mind the person for whom both
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: New World continents are named after. America is named after
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Amerigo Vespucci. Not a good guy, not the best, not
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the best one. But luckily, California as a modern state
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: has moved well beyond the othering racist descriptions found in
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: ma Tavo's novel It's true, and become not only one
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: of the most progressive states in the United States, but
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: also the largest economy I believe.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, for sure. Here's a one more thing
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: from this afro dot com piece. It talks about there's
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: a woman that's interviewed for this piece, whose name is
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Tamra El Dickis, and she is actually mounting, or at
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: least at the time of this article, was mounting a
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: campaign to change the seal of California to include an
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: image of Califia as opposed to Minerva, who was the
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Roman goddess of wisdom, and also in the Greek tradition
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: she would have been Athena exactly. And so she is
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: featured on the seal that was designed by a Confederate
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: soldier who just kind of made the seal on his
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: own and then he even used, according to the article,
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: a false name and it just kind of stuck. And
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: this woman, Tamara al Dickas Is mounted a campaign called
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Cali is Me to quote right the wrong and put
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Califia on the seal, to you know, have this beautiful
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: black woman featured and to show kind of the history
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: of the naming. But again all of the stuff that
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: we've just discussed about that history, right nah exactly on
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: shall we say yeah?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And speaking the name One quick correction here, I believe
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it was me who said that once. By a time
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Cortes tried to name the island quote unquote island Santa
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Cruz no, no, no, no, no no. He went back
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: and tried to rename it Santa Cruz and everybody said, sorry, buddy,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: you took your shot. It's California, gotcha. And that's how
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it's always been, So think about it. Things went a
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: little bit differently in history. We would not have the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: fine state of California. We'd have the fine state of
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Santa Cruz.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: It's very true. And Khalifia is actually featured in a
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: kind of a multimedia exhibition that ended in two thousand
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: and eight at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, where
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Whoopi Goldberg actually plays her in sort of projection mapped form,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: where there are these busts, these statues of the goddess,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: well really a goddess. I guess she was more of
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: a warrior queen, sure, and she narrates kind of this
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: history of California with all these you know, Disney bells
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: and whistles and stuff. But they retired that in eight,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: but it was kind of the centerpiece of the whole production,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: so they clearly felt pretty good about having that heritage there.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: And we feel pretty good about the name California overall,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: despite its dodgy beginnings. We hope this has been as
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: fascinating and strange for you all as it is for us.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: And this concludes our episode today. But we have a
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: couple of questions for you. First, have you ever seen
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: a griffin in real life?
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: That they're not real? No? Cool? Okay, just make sure
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: it's not like you know how I feel about birds.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I don't really keep up with them, so maybe I
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: figure out maybe I missed. But you, like, you know,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: what isn't a griffin like a like a bird lion
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: or something like that. That's what it is.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: They're super cool too, So yeah, surprise us if you
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: have actually seen a griffin.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Let us know. We will be astounded.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Also, let us know what states you think we should
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: cover next in an upcoming episode of Ridiculous History.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Now we got to keep track. Well, we we're good
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: so far. Yeah. Yeah, we haven't doubled up, have we? No?
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Not yet? Are you certain? Yes? Okay?
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: And we are going to uh, we're going to have
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: so much fun with this.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: It's going to be so strange.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to have fun with us, then check
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: out our community page on Facebook Ridiculous Historians, where you
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: can hang out with your fellow listeners and learn some
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: very strange facts. You can also give us topics suggestinen
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: who knows they might appear on the air. You can
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: find us on Instagram and Twitter as well.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: You can also write to us at ridiculous at HowStuffWorks
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: dot com and we might even read one of your
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: letters on the show.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: But we have one last thing to do. We hope
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: you will join us in doing this. Wherever you're listening
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: to this podcast, say it out loud with us. We
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: are going to, on the count of three, bid our
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram bon voyage. All right, one, two, three.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: A bon voyage Casey.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: He will return very soon. We have a cavalcade of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: super producers who will be sitting in.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: A cadre, a cadre stable of them, yes, a roster
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: of battalion. And again Twist and Casey's arm hopefully is
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: going to send us some cool audio postcards from a Perry.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna make eye contact real quick with him. You
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: already said, yes, he's nodding. Okay, We'll see you next time.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,