What a joy it was, to have a full weekend of camping and nature journaling with 22 other curious nature lovers at Leo Carrillo State Park.
I got to wondering — who was Leo Carrillo (1915–1957)? Turns out he was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, philanthropist, and conservationist. He gained lasting fame when he played the role of Pancho on early television’s “The Cisco Kid.”
Carrillo served on the California Beach and Parks commission for 18 years and played a key role in the state’s acquisition of Hearst Castle at San Simeon, Los Angeles Arboretum, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He was also an ardent historic preservationist and helped to save a number of historic buildings in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
His legacy is not entirely golden, however. During World War II, Carrillo advocated for the removal of all Japanese Americans from the west coast. In a 1944 telegram to Congressman Leland Ford that received extensive coverage, Carrillo wrote: “…it seems that every [Japanese] farmhouse is located on some strategic elevated point. Let‘s get them off the coast and into the interior.”
As for pronunciation of his last name, we now say “Car-reeyo“ with the “y“ for double “l“ as in Mexican Spanish. However, his autobiography* phonetically spelled what his family considered the correct Castilian pronunciation: “Cay-reel-yo” with a liquid Castilian double “l”. *Carrillo, Leo (1961). The California I Love.
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