But is it ? Absolutely.
In Book IV of Esplandián , Montalvo describes: “ Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to the Terrestrial Paradise, populated by black women without a single man among them, who lived in the manner of Amazons. ” That island — ruled by Queen — was purely fictional. But when Spanish explorers reached Baja California decades later, they remembered the name from the romance novel. And it stuck. Esplandian El Caballero Andante.pdf
But why should you care about a 500-year-old PDF? Because without it, California might have a different name. In short: adventure, faith, monsters, and maidens. But is it