CALABASAS : Pageant Will Honor Explorer De Anza

His name is everywhere: on a school, a park, even a historic trail. But few know much about Juan de Anza, the Spanish explorer who once camped overnight in what is now Calabasas.

Juliana Gensley has been trying for years to win De Anza his 15 minutes of fame.

To draw attention to the explorer’s accomplishments, she and other history buffs have staged nine annual pageants since 1985 (they skipped 1992 because of heavy rains) at Malibu Creek State Park.

This year’s free pageant will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the park.

For information call 222-7670 or 222-4531.

De Anza, a third-generation Spaniard who grew up in a frontier town in what is now Mexico, led an expedition of 240 settlers from Sinaloa province to what is now San Francisco.

They made the journey between 1775 and 1776, through dangerous, uncharted wilderness.

“You have heard about the Donner party, and how they messed up,” said Gensley. “Well, here is the man, De Anza, taking his settlers with great success, all the way up to San Francisco.”

At the time, California was believed to be an island reachable only by sea, she said. De Anza had heard from Native Americans that California could be reached by land.

The trip is considered an outstanding success in the annals of pioneer history, pageant organizers say. Only one person was lost, a woman who died in childbirth.

De Anza, who kept a diary of the trip, was an organized, precise man who planned ahead, said Rod Bergen, who will play De Anza in this year’s pageant.

“The man was totally prepared,” said Bergen, a businessman who acts as a hobby. “He even had enough ribbons for the girls’ hair.”

He also had a good rapport with Native Americans, which helped make his expedition a success, said Gensley.

“All the way he had this good relationship with the Indians,” she said. “He came as a friend. It was not soldiers marching in and saying, ‘We are going to take over the country.’ ”

Malibu Creek State Park is about three miles from where De Anza’s party camped. The pageant will feature dozens of actors and actresses in period costume.

Audiences are encouraged to use their imaginations to get a sense of what it was like for the De Anza party, said Bergen.

“I try to bring, you, the audience, into this, so that we are all sharing this experience together,” he said. “In the play, I tell the audience: ‘The past is not behind us, it is within us . . . Join with me in a brief moment from the past which we all share.’ ”