California - Portugal - Old World Originals on Waymarking.com

To most people, Portuguese included, California represents the El Dorado. What most people doesn't know, is that the word California has a Portuguese origin. California was first explored by a portuguese navigator, sailing for the Spanish Empire, in 1542. His name was João Rodrigues Cabrilho, and he tought California was an island. Cabrilho was looking for a northern passage between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and he explored the coast, more or less, till the place where San Francisco is located nowadays. In the USA, Cabrilho is known as Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, obviously to the natives, every discovery must have been done by a Spanish. But in San Diego, there is a statue of him, with the date of 1913, where his name is written in Portuguese.

California's name has origin in a beach in Sesimbra with the same name, and the California stream, in Palmela, both older than 1542.

You can also visit my geocache (GC1BTTJ), about the same subject.

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