In 1936, the Federal Art Project partially funded the creation of a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo by sculptor Henry Lion at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. The city provided the funding for the cost of materials, while the Federal Art Project paid for the labor.
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a Spanish (not Portuguese as frequently surmised) explorer and the first European to reach the coast of California in 1542.
Cabrillo’s life story begins when he left Palma del Rio in Andalusia for Seville as a young man to sail to the Americas. He is thought to have served the empire in Panama in 1514 and then traveled to Cuba to become involved with Hernán Cortés as a boat builder. He participated in the conquest of Guatemala, married a Spanish woman in Seville in 1532, had several children, and continued to manage his estates in Guatemala until he was commissioned by its governor, Pedro de Alvarado, to build 13 vessels for an expedition to the Philippines and California.
The fleet embarked in 1542, but soon after, Alvarado’s death left three of the ships under Cabrillo’s command—San Salvador, La Victoria, and San Miguel. While the bulk of the fleet split off to cross the Pacific, Cabrillo sailed north. After landing at Ensenada on September 17, he reached San Diego and anchored at today’s Ballast Point on September 28, remaining for five days.
Cabrillo encouraged his crew to have friendly exchanges with the native people of San Diego and Catalina Island, both for their own safety and in pursuit of his ultimate goal—to find a short trade route to China.
His fleet visited the Channel Islands without remarkable incident until December 1542, when Cabrillo set out in a landing boat to retrieve a group of his crewmen from the rocky shore. “As he began to jump out of the boat,” wrote eyewitness Francisco de Vargas, “one foot struck a rocky ledge, and he splintered a shinbone.” Cabrillo’s condition worsened so quickly that many assume he contracted a bacterial infection from the injury. He died on January 3, 1543 and is likely buried somewhere on Catalina Island, though his final resting place remains unknown.