VLVL The Sisterhood

[jbor]

107.6 SP Tracks

Perhaps the "Southern Pacific" railroad tracks?

107.12-3 "Las Hermanas de Nuestra Señora de los Pepinares"

"Pepinares"? Perhaps "followers of Pepin"?

Pepin is remembered not only as the first of the Carolingians but also as a
strong supporter of the Roman Church. The papal claims to territory in Italy
originated with Pepin's campaigns against Aistulf and the latter's pledge to
return the Roman territories. His letters also show him calling for
archbishoprics in Frankish territory, promoting synods of clergy and
layfolk, and as deeply interested in theology.

http://www.mathematical.com/pepin2theshort.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepin_the_Short

The brief faux-historical interruption which opens the chapter, describing
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Followers of Pepin" -- Pepin being "Pepin
the Short", father of Charlemagne -- is comparable in style and tone to
other of the satirical vignettes Pynchon inserts into his narrative, such as
that description of Eula and Jess and their career with the "Wobblies"
(75-6). Irony and poignancy are intermingled: "pepinares" sounds enough like
the Spanish word for "cucumbers" to be vaguely suggestive of somewhat less
than pure motives behind the women's decision to set up shop in the
proximity of the Jesuit missions, and labelling them as a "ladies'
auxiliary" is similarly flippant and dismissive. But they are also described
as having persisted "with grace and stamina there in California for hundreds
of years". 

These references -- to both Pepin the Short and to the Spanish missions of
California -- are two more of Pynchon's secret histories.

http://www.hotel-calafia.com/missions_of_baja_california.htm

http://www.calprov.org/history.html

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