Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s discovery of “a very good enclosed port,” now known as San Diego, will be celebrated Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 29 and 30, as the 44th annual Cabrillo Festival again brings history to life.
The festival commemorates the Portuguese conquistador, who under the Spanish flag anchored his flagship San Salvador at Ballast Point on Point Loma’s eastern shore Sept. 28, 1542, claiming the land for Spain. Cabrillo commanded three vessels from Navidad, Mexico, and was greeted by Kumeyaay natives upon his arrival, uniting four nations.
The Cabrillo Festival events include traditional dress, dance, art and food representative of Portugal, Spain, Mexico and the Kumeyaay Indians, beginning with a 16th-century Spanish Soldier’s Living History Encampment on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. at San Diego’s National Park, Cabrillo National Monument. A 30-minute National Park Service film, “In Search of Cabrillo,” will be presented in the Cabrillo National Monument auditorium at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Festival president Mary Correia said that “because Sept. 29 is National Public Lands Day “” a fee-free day “” no entrance fee will be charged at Cabrillo National Monument, and all activities at the park will be free of charge.”
Karl Pierce, Cabrillo National Monument’s public information officer, pointed to the importance of Cabrillo and his discovery.
“The Cabrillo episode, together with the other explorers and conquistadors, represents the beginnings of globalization and a global economy,” Pierce said.
“Although the process of conquest and colonization often had negative impacts on the conquered and colonized peoples, one of the major outcomes of this has been that all of the peoples and lands of the world have forevermore been linked,” he said.
The “Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and the Age of Exploration” exhibit will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the visitor center and offers added information not only about the man who was an explorer but also an entrepreneur, soldier, master shipbuilder, miner, farmer and owner of large estates.
Pierce said another special exhibit, “Tengo Casi 500 Aãos: Africa’s Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America” by photographer Tony Gleaton, will be on display in the monument auditorium through Oct. 15. Gleaton will be at the monument for this weekend’s festival to offer a PowerPoint presentation at noon on Saturday to lecture and expand the understanding of Northern New Spain from the1600s through 1834.
The exhibit features select images from the Southwest Collection/Special Collection Archives at Texas Tech University.
Also on display are the artworks of local fourth-graders who, after studying about Cabrillo, are invited each year to enter a contest sponsored by the festival. This year’s theme is, “Where Culture Comes Together and History Comes Alive!”
“The contest is open to all fourth-graders throughout San Diego County,” said Correia. “We get a lot of ships and a lot of pirates. It’s very cute,” she said.
The winner, Makinah Gill from the Barona Indian Charter School, will receive a $100 U.S. Savings Bond and is invited to sail on the San Salvador (actually The Californian, from the San Diego Maritime Museum) with re-enactors playing Cabrillo and his crew. Correia added that the winner’s teacher also receives $100 for classroom supplies.
Saturday’s daytime festivities wrap up at 4 p.m., with a concert by Navy Band Southwest, Kumeyaay bird songs and a commemorative ceremony and wreath laying at the statue of Cabrillo. H. Paul Cuero Jr., chairman of the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, (one of 12 bands of Kumeyaay-Diegueão Indians whose ancestors met Cabrillo when he landed), will give the keynote address.
The focus of the festival shifts from Cabrillo National Monument on Saturday evening for the Cabrillo Discovery Celebration Dinner-Dance, sponsored by the Cabrillo Civic Club #16. The event begins at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour and dinner at 7 p.m., followed by dancing at the Portuguese SES Hall, 2818 Avenida de Portugal, in Point Loma.
Tickets, still available at press time, are $40 per person and may be purchased by calling (619) 426-0769 or (619) 221-8084.
“In past years,” said Correia, “the dinner-dance was more formal. This year we’re trying to make it more enjoyable by making it a bit more casual.”
“The main event of the festival is the Open House on Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” said Pierce.
“The two days each have a different flavor. Saturday is more of an educational focus, while Sunday is more festive. Together, it’s a wonderful opportunity for all cultures.”
The Cabrillo Festival Open House will take place at Ballast Point, believed to be the actual location where Cabrillo landed. Ballast Point is located on Naval Base Point Loma at the south end of Rosecrans Street. Admission is free.
This is the second year that the open house will be held at Naval Base Point Loma, affording visitors an up-close view of the historical re-enactment that takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday
The open house features colorful dancing, storytelling, music and traditional foods from Mexico, Native America, Portugal and Spain; Kumeyaay basketweaving; flint knapping and acorn grinding demonstrations; a living history encampment, where 16th-century Spanish soldiers demonstrate the arms, armor, implements, and daily life; children’s activities; and 2007 Miss Cabrillo Festival, featuring Felicia Coito, a student at the Academy of Our Lady of Peace in Mission Hills.
“The re-enactment of Cabrillo’s historic landing at Ballast Point at 1 p.m., is always a highlight of the festival,” said Pierce.
Narrated by San Diego television personality Jack White, re-enactors dressed as Cabrillo and crew will sail into San Diego Bay aboard the San Salvador, landing at Ballast Point and “claiming the land” for the King of Spain.
Ocean Beach resident Dee McMillen, who attended last year’s re-enactment said, “It was well-done and really a lot of fun to watch. It truly did bring history alive.”
Pierce said staff and volunteers from the Barona Cultural Center and Museum will be on hand throughout the day to tell about their programs and the peoples who inhabited the San Diego area before Cabrillo’s arrival. The Portuguese Historical Center presents an exhibit on Portuguese history and geography, and Point Loma’s High Tech High School will have a display of maps, photos and books from their research about San Diego Bay and its peoples, past and present.
“As Kumeyaay elder Jane Dumas, a longtime friend of Cabrillo National Monument and the Cabrillo Festival, says, ‘This festival represents a wonderful opportunity for us to walk forward, joined arm in arm, out of that past “” into the future “” together,'” said Pierce.
Cabrillo National Monument, located on Point Loma at the south end of Catalina Boulevard, is open daily from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Public transportation (#28 bus) is available from the Old Town Transit Center to both Naval Base Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument.
For more information, call (619) 557-5450, or visit www.cabrillofestival.org, or www.nps.gov/cabr/.