Cabrilho and Beyond:
Portuguese Navigators in Alta California and the Pacific
San Diego State University, California, USA, 26-28 September 2024
It has been 30 years since a conference on the topic of navigations by Portuguese sailors in the coast of California and in the Pacific was organized.
Given recent scholarship not only about João Rodrigues Cabrilho and the maritime discovery of California, but also about other Portuguese sailors and pilots mapping and exploring both the West and East Pacific (often, but not exclusively, in expeditions under the Crown of Spain), it is time to bring together different scholars addressing these topics, presenting new findings, and establishing further dialogues stemming from different perspectives. Among these different perspectives, our conference will discuss the great merits of less known histories, as those of the Luso-African pilot Lope Martim de Lagos' voyages, or the life and navigations of the Portuguese Isabel Barreto, the first woman-admiral of the Pacific.
A letter written in 1550 by Pablo de Torres, the Bishop of Panama, stated that half the sailors and pilots in Mar del Sur (the Eastern Pacific) were Portuguese. This means that the participation of Portuguese navigators in the exploration of the East Pacific Ocean went clearly beyond the pioneer discoveries made by Cabrilho, who first mapped the coast of Alta California in 1542-1543, just fifty years after Columbus reached the Caribbean.
Cabrilho’s exploring happened 37 years before Drake landed in Nova Albion, 43 years before the first English colonization attempt at Roanoke Island (North Carolina), or 78 years before the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth. Thus, it deserves a highlight in the United States’ formation history.
While the maritime discovery of Alta California is a central topic of this conference, it seeks to gather further findings related to the navigations of other Portuguese sailors and pilots as well in the early exploration of Baja California and trans-Pacific voyages.
We expect the conference will be held in a fully in person (possibly with a few exceptions for remote participants).
For more information, contact Ricardo Vasconcelos at [email protected].
Organizing Committee
- Ricardo Vasconcelos, San Diego State University
- Paulo Afonso, American River College
- Idalmiro da Rosa, Honorary Consul of Portugal in San Diego
- Duarte Pinheiro, University of California, Berkeley
Scientific Committee
- Prof. Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, Brown University
- Prof. Jeroen Dewulf, University of California, Berkeley
- Prof. João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Faculdade Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
- Prof. Paulo Afonso, American River College
- Prof. Maria Graça Ventura, Universidade de Lisboa
- Comandante Jorge Semedo de Matos, Escola Naval, Universidade de Lisboa
- Prof. Fernando Ciaramitaro, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de Mexico
Conference Support
Help support the conference by making a donation today.
Land Acknowledgement
For millennia, the Kumeyaay people have been a part of this land. This land has nourished,
healed, protected and embraced them for many generations in a relationship of balance
and harmony. As members of the San Diego State community we acknowledge this legacy.
We promote this balance and harmony. We find inspiration from this land; the land
of the Kumeyaay.