There's a tiny street in Topanga Canyon that ends in a dirt road called Santa Maria Road. Artist J. Michael Walker researched Santa Maria for his exhibition "All the Saints of the City of the Angels," now on display at the Autry Museum. Walker says Santa Maria is named for a real person, Jesus Santa Maria, who moved to Topanga in 1875.

"He and his wife Maria Elena made a living by chopping down manzanita and other firewood trees."

Unfortunately, their customers were all in el pueblo de Los Angeles, where most of the trees had already been chopped down.

Walker says, "he was able to make a living by carting it with his mule up to what's now Ventura Boulevard, El Camino Real, and taking it 30 miles into downtown Los Angeles."

Walker says the name Santa Maria indicates they were descendants of the "conversos" – Jews given ultra Catholic names, before they were expelled from Spain during the Inquisition in 1492.

(Airdate: 3/30/2008)