Show california means hot oven although the name giver had never visited country california is literally translated hot oven but native sons may take comfort the smithsonian institution ution reports that it was so named by a man who had never even been been there writes a washington united press correspondent in the chicago daily news A bare 18 years after the first voyage of columbus the smithsonian nian reports a spanish scribbler mon montalvo t alvo by name seized upon the new world asan as an ideal background for a new yarn his tale the exploits of esplan dion published at madrid in 1510 gave a lurid account of a race of amazons rulers of california an earthly hades lying at the right hand of the indies and very close to that part of the terrestrial paradise spanish conquistadors seem to have read the novel avidly when they discovered lower or mexican california that barren waste at the right hand of the indies as explorers believed they gave it the name of the novelists hell on earth As exploration proceeded the fertile land to the north received the same title by that time the true meaning ol of the word had been forgotten according to dr john P harrington of the smithsonian institution the tha learned montalvo concocted the romantic amazon nation from two latin words callides call idus or hot oven the ia is the common latin and greek feminine ending so often used for names of countries or regions |