Cabeza de Santa Rosa

On Saturday I joined my brother and cousin, who are two different people, for our weekly bicycle ride. This would take us to the eastern reaches of Santa Rosa, California.  My cousin unfolded a map to check out the road, and the map was so old it listed Santa Rosa as Cabeza de Santa Rosa. My brother and cousin had moved to the area 40 years before, but the term was unfamiliar to them and, of course, to me.

From what I have since read, this is the story. As you may know, the Spanish never issued a single land grant, but in 1841 the governor of California issued a Mexican land grant of about 9,000 acres to a woman whose three daughters later married (1) a Pacheco of Pacheco Pass fame,  (2) a Fitch of Fitch Mountain fame and (3) Gen. M. Vallejo of Bear Flag revolt fame. The land grant was named for St. Rose of Lima, Peru, the first American to achieve sainthood. Her cabeza (head) figures in the story because Rose (originally named Isobel) wore a painful crown of metal spikes covered with roses. She slept on a bed of broken glass, drank the juice from bitter herbs, etc. Naturally Rose did not live long, but on her death she became the patron saint of the Americas, which she is to this day.