Where does the name of the state of Florida come from and what does it have to do with the celebration of Holy Week

The first European -of which there is a record- to approach the coast of what is now USA was the Spanish explorer and adventurer Juan Ponce de León.

According to legend, Ponce de León, then governor of Puerto Rico, ventured north in search of the fountain of eternal youth.

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Between April 2 and 8, 1513, the Spanish explorer and his crew forded the coastal waters of the center of what is now the state of Florida, more or less at the height of the current city of Saint Augustine.

In addition to the impressive and flourishing vegetation that he found, the date coincided that year with the celebration of Easter -the end of Holy Week- reasons why it is said that Ponce de León gave it the name of Florida with which that state is known today.

The name was kept despite various exploration and colonization attempts by other powers of the time.

But how true is that story?

Many myths endure around Ponce de León’s expedition to Florida. (GETTY IMAGES)

“Romantic Myth”

It may be partly true, but “it’s a somewhat romantic myth”says Jack Davis, professor of history and director of the Rothman Family Humanities Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

“Our past is decorated with those kinds of legends.”

Although it is not ruled out that other Europeans sighted the coast of present-day Florida, as far as is known, Ponce de León was the first to sail along the east coast of the territory.

But it didn’t go as far as St. Augustine, “although people in that city like to say yes,” says Professor Davis. Rather he went as far as Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral.

florida map

The expedition had also not gone in search of the fountain of eternal youth, a legend that had been circulating for several years among explorers who probably searched for it in different regions of the New World, but there is no evidence that this was the goal of Ponce de Lion.

“The king’s decree was that he should find precious metals – gold and silver – as well as slaves“, says Jack Davis. “Puerto Rico’s enslaved population had decreased significantly due to overwork and diseases brought by the Europeans.”

Something that Florida did have, the academic points out, were sources of fresh water.

“In the center of the state, not far from St. Augustine, we have the largest convergence of freshwater springs in the world and the Spanish found them and called them springs.”

The myth suited the state very well and the city of San Agustín took advantage of it with the arrival of 19th-century tourism to create an archaeological park dedicated to the supposed fountain of eternal youth that attracted Ponce de León.

In 1904, a wealthy Chicago doctor, Luella Day McConnell, purchased the park and continued promoting the place as a site of fantastic medicinal properties.

flowers and greenery

On that first voyage, Ponce de León’s expedition did not land, probably because of the dense mangrove swamps that extended beyond the coast. That territory was undoubtedly vegetative, but there is no evidence that it had the appearance of a great festival of flowers that could inspire the conqueror to baptize the place, says Professor Davis.

“We know that his journey corresponded with the time of Easter and Spanish explorers used to name the places they claimed for Spain after a saint or religious day that coincided with that in the calendar,” explains Davis.

“The chambers of commerce will say otherwise and naturally the school texts indicate that what impressed him were the flowers”, but the name most likely has its origin in Easter and “immediately hit”, being recorded on the maps of the time .

But the connotation of flowers endured and today extends to one of the nicknames by which the state is known in the US: The Flower State or the state of the flowers.

The orange flower emits a sweet and aromatic perfume. (GETTY IMAGES)

During the blooming season of the thousands of orange crops – an agricultural product essential to Florida’s economy – the sweet fragrance floods large regions of the south and center of the state.

The white flower of the orange tree (Citrus sinensislisten)) was adopted by the state Legislative Assembly as the official state flower in 1909.

A decade later and at the suggestion of a Floridian teacher, the date of April 2 was selected to mark Easter Day to commemorate the arrival of Ponce de León.

The date is observed as a state historical day, between March 27 and April 2, with a call to schoolchildren and citizens in general to participate in cultural events and programs.

The Legacy of Ponce de Leon

Ponce de León never realized that he had found a continent or a peninsula connected to a huge continent. He believed that he had discovered a large island and it was several years before it was realized that Florida was part of a large landmass.

In a new expedition, he landed on the southwestern coast of the peninsula, in 1521, with the intention of establishing a settlement, but was attacked by the native population and wounded with a poisoned arrow that caused his death.

The name Florida was adopted almost immediately and registered on the maps of the time. (GETTY IMAGES)

Despite the fact that Florida served as a strategic site to consolidate the Spanish presence in the Caribbean and take advantage of the Gulf Stream to propel galleons loaded with goods and treasures to Europe, the territory was always a burden for the crown.

“It never gave dividends. They always had to subsidize it, contrary to Cuba which, although it did not have precious metals either, did have an agricultural economy and was a self-sufficient territory.”

It was the French incursions that motivated the Spanish to speed up their colonization plans. Over the centuries, after losing control of Florida to the British and then regaining it in the 18th century, the territory was finally ceded to the United States in 1821.

Juan Ponce de León’s expedition arrived in Florida in April 1513. (GETTY IMAGES)

However, the name of Juan Ponce de León is omnipresent in the state. There are countless counties, roads, avenues, parks, schools and beaches named after the Spanish conqueror. “For someone who failed so miserably in Florida, it’s amazing how his name is everywhere,” says Professor Davis.

Countless places in Florida commemorate Ponce de León. (GETTY IMAGES)

But it is not a place that Ponce de León would recognize today. The transformation of Florida, particularly after World War II, has generated a state in continuous urban development and rampant population growth.

Huge engineering projects to manage the flow of water have drained and filled in wetlands, opening huge spaces for agriculture, home construction and beach creation, “the real ‘gold’ of Florida” on which the lucrative oil industry depends. sightseeing.

This expansion has had an enormous ecological cost. In the last half century, the famed Everglades, the subtropical wetlands in South Florida, have shrunk by nearly half.

“We are a paradoxical state,” says Professor Jack Davis.

“Historically, developers have controlled Florida’s growth policy, building more and more, destroying wetlands and forests. But at the same time, Florida also has good land preservation policies, an excellent system of protected parks, and a project to develop an unprecedented continuous statewide wildlife corridor.”

Source: Elcomercio