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Monday, 5 January
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Cabrillo Day
Cabrillo Day is celebrated mainly by expatriate Portuguese living on the West Coast of the US on 25th September each year.
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to explore what is now the West coast of the United States. He departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico, on 27th June 1542, arriving three months later at "a very good enclosed port" - known today as San Diego Bay.
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (in Portuguese: João Rodrigues Cabrilho) (about 1499 – 3rd January 1543) is believed to have been of humble origins, but, in reality, little is known of his early life. He is said to be Portuguese, but there are indications he may have been Spanish. He was certainly sailing "for Spain" on this, his last voyage.
Records do show that on 23rd November 1542, the little fleet which had "discovered" California limped back to "San Salvador" (Santa Catalina Island) to overwinter and make repairs. There Cabrillo stepped out of his boat and splintered his shin when he stumbled on a jagged rock. The injury developed gangrene and he died on 3rd January.
Cabrillo National Monument, established in 1913, commemorates Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's voyage of discovery. A heroic statue of Cabrillo looks out over the bay that he first sailed into on 28th September 1542 and offering views of both San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma's East shore, near where the Cabrillo National Monument now stands.
Although his discoveries went largely unnoticed at the time, none of his place names were permanently adopted, and he founded no settlements on the well-populated coast, Cabrillo is now remembered as the first European to travel the California coast, and many streets and buildings in California bear his name. One such example is Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, another is the portion of the Pacific Coast Highway that runs through Big Sur, which is also called the Cabrillo Highway.
In Santa Barbara, scenic Cabrillo Boulevard runs parallel with the coast through the Rastern part of the city. There are also two high schools, one in Lompoc, California and the other in Long Beach, California, as well as a school in Malibu, California named for him. In Northern California, the Point Cabrillo Light is also named after Cabrillo.
In 1992, the United States Postal Service issued a 29 cent stamp in honor of Cabrillo.
This holiday is celebrated most commonly by Portuguese on the West Coast of the US, as opposed to his native country. There is an active Portuguese community in California who keep Cabrillo’s name to the fore with a variety of activities named in his honour.
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