‘Crazy Mariana’ predicted end of the world

In case you haven’t heard, doomsday is currently scheduled for
Dec. 21, 2012. According to some forecasters of the apocalypse, the
ancient Mayans set down this date in their
”
Long Count
”
calendar to mark the collapse of the cosmos at the end of a
5,126-year cycle.
In case you haven’t heard, doomsday is currently scheduled for Dec. 21, 2012. According to some forecasters of the apocalypse, the ancient Mayans set down this date in their “Long Count” calendar to mark the collapse of the cosmos at the end of a 5,126-year cycle.

Considering the track record of folks who have predicted Earth’s end, I’m not worried. No one has yet nailed the exact date for the “end times.” And I include on this list of apocalyptic forecast failures the South Valley’s “Crazy Mariana.”

Born in Mexico, Mariana Andrada came to California around 1853 when she was 22 years old. She settled in the San Benito County mercury mining town of New Idria where she found work as a dance-hall girl and spun a fanciful fairytale that she was the widow of the bandit Joaquín Murrieta. Her beauty fading around the age of 40, Andrada left New Idria and began to work as a housekeeper for the sheepherders in the hills near Coalinga and Avenal.

Around the year 1879, Andrada began a new career as a revival preacher to the uneducated sheepherders. By 1883, she had developed quite a following of believers. She told the folks who put faith in her that the world would come to an end “soon.” To be saved, she declared, they must gather at a prominent triple peak known as the “Three Rocks” on the San Joaquin Valley’s western mountain range.

Andrada also told her followers she had ongoing communication with the spirit of Father Magin Catala, a priest of California’s mission period who died in 1830 and whose ghost, according o Andrada, dwelt among the Three Rocks. She claimed Catala could provide her with instructions on how to survive the world’s end.

In the spring of 1883, Priestess Andrada proclaimed Father Catala had informed her the world would end in three years time – on May 16, 1886. On that day, God would turn the Three Rocks into a great cathedral and inside a festival would be held. Everyone who participated in this celebration would be saved.

The prophesied date came. More than 500 men, women and children encamped around the Three Rocks to witness Earth’s end. No doubt, many of them were disappointed when the world continued on much as usual.

The next morning Andrada claimed the predicted annihilation had been postponed. Too many unbelievers, she said, had been present. She also told her followers God had called her to heaven. The throngs begged her not to leave them.

One Fresno newspaper reporter who witnessed the event wrote: “When I left she was still there, waiting for her wings to grow so she could fly to heaven. But I am afraid she will never get there. She is better suited for the Stockton Asylum than heaven.” The Archbishop of San Francisco wrote a letter printed in various California newspapers stating that Priestess Andrada was “a fraud.” Followers, however, still continued to believe her teachings. But as more people questioned her prophecies, the charlatan priestess lost her influence.

Andrada started drinking heavily. Eventually, people called her “Mariana la Loca,” or “Crazy Mariana,” for her wild ranting. On April 12, 1902, the intoxicated former priestess – now about 70 years old – was crossing railroad tracks near the town of Kingston. The Santa Fe train hit her, killing her instantly.

Perhaps the Mayan forecast of the world’s end on Dec. 21, 2012 might come true. I predict, however, that that doomsday prophecy will most likely turn out the same way as the apocalyptic forecast made by the South Valley’s “Crazy Mariana” back in the 1880s. The world will continue on.