13 Facts About Fernando Librado

Fernando Librado was born at Mission San Buenaventura in 1839 as the son of two Chumash parents from the island of Limuw.

Fernando Librado is most notable for his knowledge of Chumash culture and language, Indigenous experiences at Spanish mission in California, particularly in the post-mission period, his work as an informant for John Peabody Harrington, and for his recording of a song of Juana Maria on a wax cylinder.

Fernando Librado's parents, Mamerto Yaguiahuit and Juana Alfonsa, were both born on Limuw, which the Spanish named Santa Cruz Island.

Fernando Librado's father was killed a year after his birth on October 28,1840, from blows to the head by an unknown assailant.

Fernando Librado listened attentively to the stories and knowledge of his elders in the Chumash community, which would later become important to furthering Chumash knowledge to the present.

In 1856, at the age of eighteen, he was listed in a newspaper article as a laborer at La Espada rancho, along with another laborer by the name of Ramon who Fernando Librado referred to as his "uncle" and whom was of Island Chumash descent.

From around 1880 onward, at the age of forty-one, Fernando Librado lived much of his later life at Lompoc and Las Cruces, California, where he lived in a small cave in the local mountains of the Santa Barbara area.

From this cave, Fernando Librado worked at a local ranch as a craftsman, shepherd, midwife, medicine man, and physician.

Fernando Librado was well known by many residents in the area.

That same year, numerous photographs were taken of Fernando Librado demonstrating various acts of crafting and building, which indicates his vast knowledge and expertise as a builder and crafting specialist.

Fernando Librado recorded much knowledge on the craft specialist group Brotherhood of the Canoe and information on Chumash watercraft.

Fernando Librado had learned this song from Melquiades, a Chumash man who had first heard Maria sing the song in 1853.

Fernando Librado died having passed on much knowledge of Chumash culture and lifeways.