Black Queen Calafia Inspires Exploration of California
BISLA Series #1
By Randal Henry
Hello readers.
Welcome to the Born in South LA (BISLA) series. My name is Randal Henry. I’m the author of Born in South LA, a book that profiles more than 100 remarkable, but often unheralded, Black men and women—including several fictional characters like Easy Rawlins, Black Belt Jones and Queen Calafia—who were born, raised, lived or died in South Los Angeles, California and provides essential details on a range of their remarkable achievements across a number of fields including Architecture, Murals & Sculpting; Business; Classical Music, Dance & Opera; Education; Film & Television; Funk & Soul; Health, Public Safety & Science; Jazz & Blues; Journalism & Literature; Jurisprudence; Mythology & Fiction; Politics; Radio; Social Justice; Spirituality; and, Sports. Reading this series will help you learn more about their stories, struggles, accomplishments and events of significance which, despite their importance, are overlooked, not included in school books, nor taught in classrooms. This month’s article describes Calafia, the Black Queen of California.
Did you know that California was named after an island inhabited by strong, brave and beautiful Black women with robust bodies and ruled by an amazing Black Queen named Calafia? Did you know that, inspired by tales of such an island paradise, European explorers—like Hernan Cortes in 1535 and Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542—set sail for California? Well…I didn’t either until I found the information hiding in plain sight.
An influential 15th century Spanish novel, Las Sergas de Esplandián by Rodríguez de Montalvo, described a fictional island named California ruled by Black Queen Calafia. The author writes:
“Know, then, that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise, and it was peopled by Black women, without any man among them, for they lived in the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardy bodies, of ardent courage and great force. Their island was the strongest in all the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shores. Their arms were all of gold, and so was the harness of the wild beasts which they tamed and rode. For, in the whole island, there was no metal but gold. Queen Calafia was a regal Black woman, strikingly gorgeous, courageous, strong of limb and large of person, adorned with lavish jewelry and a crown of feathers and jewels, wore a robe decorated with images of the animals that roamed through her domain. Full in the bloom of womanhood, Calafia was the most beautiful of a long line of queens who ruled over the mythical island realm of California. Desirous of achieving great things, Calafia wanted to see the world and plunder a portion of it with superior fighting ability, using her army of women warriors. Calafia commanded a fleet of ships with which she demanded tribute from surrounding lands, and she kept an aerial defense force of griffins, fabulous animals which were trained to kill any man they found.”
In 1535, upon landing on the Pacific coast peninsula, Cortes proclaimed the land to be ‘California’ after Calafia’s mythical island. A mural of Queen Calafia can be found in the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.
Thanks for reading.
See you next month,
Randy
Born in South LA can be purchased through all major online booksellers as well as many independents. To learn more about Randal Henry’s articles, books and publications, visit gocrenshaw.com and follow his Amazon Author Page.
To contact Randal email gocrenshawpublications@gmail.com
