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Historical Vignettes from Rincon Publishing

Ever wonder where the name California came from?

Ever wonder where the name California came from? It started back in 1510 when Spanish writer Garci Ordôñez de Montalvo penned a bestselling romance novel titled Las Sergas de Esplandián. The story was based on a an earlier Portuguese narrative, in turn based on a French story. The hero, Esplandián fought at the siege of Constantinople and among his fictitious allies were the Californians, led by the beautiful queen Calafia.

She and her band of black Amazon women, according to Montalvo, came from the island of California, "an island on the right hand of the Indies…very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise." California abounded with gold and precious stones, Montalvo wrote, and the women fought with golden weapons.

Califia and her fleet sailed to Constantinople for the siege. When the novel ends, Califia and her Amazon women have become Christians and given up their promiscuous ways and the disturbing habit of eating their male children. From that time on into the Eighteenth Century, California was thought to be an island. Cartographers of the day showed it floating peacefully west of the North American mainland, separated by a narrow straight of water.

A Person of Interest: Brigida Briones

Likely you've never heard of Brigida Briones, but she adds a great deal to our understanding of life in early California. Her parents are unclear but she might have been the young daughter of a soldier who settled in San Jose. She was sixteen years old in 1827 and later in her life wrote about her life.

Being a young woman she was very interested in the fashions of the day. She wrote: "For home wear and for company we had many expensive dresses, some of silk, or of velvet, others of lace, often of our own making, which were very much liked. The rivalry between beauties of high rank was as great as it could be in any country and much of it turned on attire, so that those who had small means often underwent many privations in order to equal the splendor of the rich."

Brigida wrote that women's dress was more subdued when they went to mass, something they did every morning. "The dresses worn in the mornings at church were not very becoming; the rebozo and the petticoat being black, always of cheap stuff and made up in much the same way. One mass was celebrated before sunrise, for those whose duties compelled them to be at work early; later masses took place every hour of the morning. Every woman in Monterey went daily to church, but the men were content to go once a week."

She adds, "The ladies of Monterey were rarely seen on the street, except very early in the morning on their way to church. We used to go there attended by our servants, who carried small mats for us to kneel upon as there were no seats. A tasteful little rug was considered an indispensable part of our belongings, and every young lady embroidered her own."

In 1829, at the age of 18, Brigida attended her first ball. Traveling to Monterey, "We met numbers of the persons going to the party, all on horseback and full of gaiety and youthfulness. Everyone could ride perfectly, and could pick up a leaf or a flower from the ground as he galloped past. On this occasion they all had red, black and green paint and cascarones filled with finely cut gold and silver paper. It was the great sport to ride against each other, endeavoring to stain his opponent's face while himself escaping."

Brigida goes on to say that the paints all washed off easily and when they arrived at the ball they changed into their finest clothes and conducted themselves as proper ladies and gentlemen.

She concludes by saying, "Some of my playmates could speak English well, and quite a number knew something of French. The ladies of the province were born and educated here, here they lived and died, in complete ignorance of the world outside. We were, in many ways, like grown-up children."

I think I would have liked to know Brigida Briones. How about you?

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