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

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