California existed as a land of dreams for hundreds of years before becoming America’s 31st state.

The origin of the name traces to the Age of Discovery, when the voyages of European explorers kindled fantasies about a paradise abounding in gold at the edge of the known world.

A Spanish writer, Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo, imagined such a place in his novel “Las Sergas de Esplandián,” published around 1510, that followed the exploits of the elegant prince Esplandián.

The book mentioned a mythical island named California that was populated by beautiful black women who kept man-killing griffins as pets.

Their queen was Calafia, a buxom warrior who was “desirous of achieving great things.”

No one knows for certain why Montalvo chose the names, but some historians believe he was inspired by the Arabic word caliph, or ruler.

The novel was popular around the time that Spanish explorers were landing upon the shores of present-day Baja California. The name began to appear on maps by the mid-1500s.

A mural of Queen Calafia at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. (Wikimedia Commons)

Little was known about the territory, which the Spaniards believed to be an island.

The choice of the name California has thus been seen, as the historian Nellie van de Grift Sanchez put it, as an act of “hopeful anticipation, almost in a spirit of prophecy of the riches and wonders to be found there.”

California has stood for dreams ever since, from the great upheaval of the Gold Rush to the triumphs of farmers, movie makers, and the inventors of the digital age.

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