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Ethnic group
Californio
Notable Californios
Pío Pico · Andrés Pico · José Antonio Estudillo · José Antonio Carrillo
Regions with significant populations
Alta California9,000 Total 1850
Flag of Los Angeles, California Los Angeles3,480 pop 1850
Monterey1,853 pop 1850
Napa County405 pop 1850
San Diego757 pop 1850
San Francisco186 pop 1846
335 pop 1850
Santa Barbara1,147 pop 1850
San Jose500 est. pop 1850
Languages
Spanish, indigenous languages
Religion

Roman Catholic

Californio (historic and regional Spanish for "Californian") is a term used to identify a Spanish Catholic, regardless of race, born in California before 1848.

The Spanish, then Mexican territory of Alta California ("Upper California") was nominally controlled by an appointed governor. The governors of California were appointed under the auspices of the Viceroyalty of New Spain nominally under the control of the Spanish Kings and after 1821 by the approximate 40 Mexican Presidents of Mexico from 1821 to 1846—the Mexican governments were notoriously unstable.

The instability of the Mexican government made governing the large area but small population in Alta California difficult, confusing and usually neglected as almost isolated Alta California contributed little if anything to the Mexican tax collectors. The cost of the Alta California government (what little there was) was borne by a roughly 100% import tariff collected at the entry port of Monterey, California. The United States conquered and annexed the territories of Alta California and New Mexico in 1848 during the Mexican-American War and paid $15 million in return.

Californios included the descendants of agricultural settlers and retired escort soldiers from what is today Mexico. Most were of mixed backgrounds, usually Mestizo (Spanish and Native American) or mixed Negro and Indian backgrounds. Despite the depictions of the popular shows like Zorro, very few Californios were of "pure" Spanish (Peninsular or Criollo) ancestry. Most with Spanish ancestry were Franciscan priests and a few officers probably less than 5% pf the population.

As an creation of the Spain's monarchical State Church system, Spanish California society was hierarchical and authoritarian. The governor was appointed by the Viceroy in New Spain (Mexico) or later by Mexican President in Mexico City. The California Governor united in himself the military, executive, legislative and judicial powers common in a monarchical system. Communication time, distance and interest of viceroy, commandante general, audencia or President meant the appointed governor usually had a free hand. Under the governor the captains of presidios and commisonados were under direct control. The alcaldes nominally held local executive and judicial control of the small pueblos (towns).

The other center of power was the Franciscan Missionaries in the Missions under the father president who often resisted the powers of governor. The governor largely gave the approval for the where and when Missions were built. The family was characteristically patriarchal, with the son of whatever age, deferring to his father's wishes. Women had full rights of property ownership and control unless she was married or had a father--the males had almost complete control of all family members. There was no formal education system in California. The few that knew how to read or write had to learn from hired private tutors or their parents. Since few of their parents knew how to read or write the number that knew how to read and write was only a few hundred. The military, religious and civil components of California society were embodied in the thinly populated presidios, missions, pueblos and ranchos. The Missions, with their thousands of more or less captive Native Americans, controlled the most (about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km) per Mission) and best land, had large numbers of workers, grew the most crops and had the most sheep, cattle and horses.

The Spanish colonial government, and later, Mexican officials encouraged people from the northern and western provinces of Mexico like Sonora to settle in California; but the lack of support and California's isolation were severe barriers to colonization. Many of the wives of officers considered California to be a cultural wasteland and a hardship assignment. Most of California's early settlers were retired soldiers with a few settlers from Mexico. As a frontier society the initial ranchos built were characterized as rude and crude--little more than mud huts with thatched roofs. As the rancho owners, after several years occupancy, got further ahead these residents were often upgraded to bigger, adobe structures with tiled roofs. Today, when they are "restored" they are, in most cases, much grander than they ever were during the Californio period.

Before Alta California became a part of the Mexican state in 1821, about 30 Spanish land grants had already been granted (at little or no cost) in all of Alta California nearly all to a few friends and family of the Alta California Governors. The 1824 Mexican General Colonization Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California; and by 1828, the rules for establishing land grants were codified in the Mexican Reglamento (Regulation). The Acts sought to break the monopoly of the Catholic Franciscan missions while paving the way for additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain. When the Missions were secularized in 1834-1836 the Mission property and cattle were supposed to be mostly allocated to the Missions Indians.

In practice nearly all Mission property and livestock were taken over by the about 455 large Ranchos (See: Ranchos of California) of Californios granted by the Californio authorities—mostly to friends and family at little or no cost. The Californio rancho owners claimed about 8,600,000 acres (35,000 km) averaging about 18,900 acres (76 km) each. This land was nearly all distributed on former mission land within about 30 miles (48 km) of the coast. The Mexican land grants were provisional for five years until a ranch and herds were started. The ranchos often had very indefinite boundaries and sometimes conflicting ownership claims. The boundaries of each rancho were almost never surveyed and marked and often depended on local landmarks that often changed over time. Some Ranchos were later determined to have been granted after the Californio's surrender in January 1847 and used post dated documents to try and establish an existing ownership.

Since the government (what little there was) depended on import tariffs for its income there was virtually no property tax—the property tax when introduced with U.S. statehood was a big shock. As nominally good Catholics all were expected to pay 10%, the Diezmo, a compulsory payment to the Catholic Church of one tenth of the fruits of agriculture or animal husbandry, business profits or salaries. This tax was collected by the government who took a share of it for their trouble. Priest salaries and Mission expenses were paid out of this money or collected goods. While the Spanish Missions of California were being founded (1769-1821) the Spanish monarchy (state) financed all additional expenses, not covered by the diezmo, till the Diezmo collections were large enough to cover expenses.

After agriculture, cattle, sheep and horses were established, the Ranchoowners tried to live in a grand manner similar to what he believed the rich hidalgos in Spain lived. They expected the rest of the population to support them in their lifestyle. Nearly all males rode to where ever they were going at nearly all times making them excellent riders. They indulged in many fiestas, fandangos, rodeos and roundups as the rancho owners often went from rancho to rancho on a large horse bound party circuit. Weddings, christenings, and funerals were all "celebrated" with large gatherings. There were so many horses that they were often left, after being broken in, to wander around with a rope around their neck for easy capture. It was not unusual for a rider to use one horse till it was wore out and then swap his gear to another horse--letting the first horse free to wander. Horse ownership for all except a few exceptional animals were almost community property. Horses were so common and of so little use that they were often destroyed to keep them form eating the grass needed by the cattle. California Indians later developed a taste for horse flesh as food and helped keep the number of horses under control. An unusual use for horses was found in shucking wheat or barley. The grain with its stems still attached was put into a circular packed earth corral and then a herd or horses were let into the same corral or "threshing field". By keeping the horses moving around the corral their hoofs would, in time, separate the wheat from the chaff. Later the wheat and chaff were collected and then separated by tossing it into the air and letting the wind carry the chaff away. Presumably the wheat was washed before use to remove some of the dirt.

For these very few ranchos owners and their families this was the Californio’s Golden Age; for the vast majority it was not golden. Much of the agriculture, vineyards and orchards established by the Missions were allowed to deteriorate as the rapidly declining Mission Indian population went from over 80,000 in 1800 to only a few thousand by 1846. Less Indians required less food and the Franciscan Friars and soldiers supporting the Missions disappeared after 1834 when the Missions were abolished (secularized). The new Ranchos often gave work to former Mission Indians for room, board and clothing and employed the former Mission Indians to do the majority of the work and agricultural needs of the Californios. The slowly increasing Ranchos and Pueblos at Los Angeles, San Diego, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Jose and Yerba Buena mostly only grew enough food to eat and to trade. The exception were the cattle and horses who grew wild on unfenced range land and were killed for their hide and tallow. Leather, the most common material, was used for a wide variety of products from saddles, chaps, window and door coverings, riatas (leather braided rope), stools, chairs, bed frames, etc. Beef was a common constituent of most Californio meals and since it couldn't be kept long in the days before refrigeration a beef was often slaughtered to get a few steaks or cuts of meat. The hides were kept for later trading purposes. Wheat bread products, corn, beans, peas and squash were common meal items with wine and olive oil when they could find it. The mestizo population probably subsisted mostly on what they were used to: corn or maize, beans, and squash. What the average Native American ate is unknown since they were in transition from a hunter gatherer type society to and agricultural one. Formerly many lived at least part of the year on ground acorns, fish, seeds, wild game, etc.. It is known that many of the ranchers complained about Indians stealing their cattle and horses to eat.

The occasional trading ship or whaler that put in to a California port to trade, get fresh water, replenish their firewood and obtain fresh vegetables became more common after 1824. Prior to 1824, when Mexico liberalized the trade rules, California averaged about 2.5 ships per year with 13 years showing no ships coming to California. As California after about 1821 finally had something to trade, the hide-and-tallow a sailing ship trade developed. The average number of ships from 1825 to 1845 jumped to 25 ships per year versus the 2.5 ships per year earlier. The Californio rancho society produced the largest cowhide and tallow business in North America, which provided exports for trading with merchant ships from Boston, Massachusetts, Britain and other trading ports. Ships put in to San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Pedro, San Buenaventura (Ventura), Monterey and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) after stopping and paying the import tariff at the entry port of Monterey California. California was not alone in using the import duty to pay for government as the U.S. import tariff at this time was also the way the United States paid for its Federal Government. An U.S. average tariff (also called custom duties and ad valorem taxes) of about 25% raised about 89% of the Federal income in 1850.

Early colonization

In 1769, Gaspar de Portolà and his under 200 men expedition founded the Presidio of San Diego (military post), and on July 16, Franciscan friars Junípero Serra, Juan Viscaino and Fernando Parron raised and 'blessed a cross', establishing the first mission in upper Las Californias, Mission San Diego de Alcala. Colonists began arriving in 1774.

Monterey, California was established in 1770 by Father Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolà (governor of Baja and Alta California (1767–1770), explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey). Monterey was settled with about two friars and 40 men and served as the capital of California from 1777 to 1849. The nearby Carmel Mission, in Carmel, California was moved there from Monterey to keep the Mission and its Mission Indians away from the Monterey Presidio's soldiers. It was the headquarters of the original upper Las Californias Province missions headed by Father-President Junípero Serra from 1770 until his death in 1784--he is buried there. Monterey was originally the only port of entry for all taxable goods in California. All ships were supposed to clear through Monterey and pay the roughly 42% tariff (Customs) on imported goods before trading anywhere else in Alta California. The oldest governmental building in the state is the Monterey Custom House and California's Historic Landmark Number One. The Californian, California's oldest newspaper, was first published in Monterey, California on 15 August 1846 after the city's occupation by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Squadron on 7 July 1846.

Late in 1775, Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza led an overland expedition over the Gila River trail he had discovered in 1774 to bring colonists from Sonora New Spain (Mexico) to California to settle two missions, one presidio, and one pueblo (town). Anza led 240 Friars, soldiers and colonists with their families. They started out with 695 horses and mules and 385 Texas Longhorn bulls and cows—starting the cattle and horse industry in California. About 600 horses and mules and 300 cattle survived the trip. In 1776 about 200 leather jacketed soldiers, Friars, and colonists with their families moved to what was called Yerba Buena (San Francisco) to start building a Mission and a presidio there. The leather jackets the soldiers wore consisted of several layers of hardened leather and were strong enough body armor to usually stop an Indian arrow. In California the cattle and horses had few enemies and plentiful grass in all but drought years and essentially grew and multiplied as feral animals--doubling roughly every two years. They partially displaced the Tule Elk and pronghorn antelope who had lived there in large herds previously.

Anza selected the sites of the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís in what is now San Francisco; on his way back to Monterey, he sited Mission Santa Clara de Asís and the pueblo San Jose in the Santa Clara Valley but didn’t initially leave settlers to settle them. Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, the sixth Spanish Mission, was founded on June 29, 1776, by Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Father Francisco Palóu (a companion of Father Junipero Serra), both members of the 1775-1776 de Anza Expedition.

November 29, 1777, El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (The Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe now called simply San Jose) was founded by José Joaquín Moraga on the first pueblo-town not associated with a Mission or a military post (presidio) in Alta California. The original San Jose settlers were part of the original group of 200 settlers and soldiers that had originally settled in Yerba Buena (San Francisco). Mission Santa Clara, founded in 1777, was the eighth mission founded and closest mission to San Jose. Mission Santa Clara was three miles (5 km) from the original San Jose pueblo site in neighboring Santa Clara. Mission San José was not founded until 1797, about 20 miles (30 km) north of San Jose in what is now Fremont.

The Los Angeles Pobladores ("townspeople") is the name given to the 44 original settlers, 22 adults and 22 children, who founded the Pueblo of Los Angeles in 1781. The pobladores were agricultural settler families from Sonora Mexico. They were the last settlers to use the Anza trail as the Quechans (Yumas) closed the trail for the next 40 years shortly after they had passed over it. Almost none of the settlers were españoles (Spanish); the rest had casta (caste) designations such as mestizo, indio, and negro. Some classifications were changed in the California Census of 1790, as often happened in colonial Spanish America.

The settlers and escort soldiers who founded the towns of San José de Guadalupe, Yerba Buena (San Francisco), Monterey, San Diego and La Reina de Los Ángeles were primarily mestizo and of mixed Negro and Indian ancestry from the province of Sonora y Sinaloa in Mexico. Recruiters in Mexico of the Fernando Rivera y Moncada expedition and other expeditions later, who were charged with founding an agricultural community in Alta California, had a difficult time persuading people to emigrate to such a isolated outpost with no agriculture, no towns, no stores or developments of almost any kind. The majority of settlers were recruited from the northwestern parts of Mexico. The only tentative link with Mexico was via ship after the Quechans (Yumas) closed the Colorado River's Yuma Crossing in 1781. For the next 40 years on average of only 2.5 ships per year visited California with 13 years showing no recorded ships arriving.

In a frontier society, casta designations did not carry the same weight as they did in older communities of central Mexico. The significant criterion was the concept of the gente de razón, a term literally meaning “people of reason.” It designated peoples who were culturally Hispanic (that is, they were not living in traditional Indian communities) and had adopted Catholicism. This served to distinguish the Mexican Indio settlers and converted Californian Indios from the barbaro (barbarian) Californian Indians, who had not converted or become part of the Hispanic towns. California’s Governor Pío Pico was descended from mestizo and mulato (mulatto) settlers.

The Mexican-American War

Prior to the Mexican-American War the Californios forced the Mexican appointed governor, Manuel Micheltorena, to flee back to Mexico with most of his troops. Pío Pico, a Californio, was the governor of California during the conflict.

USS Cyane Taking San Diego 1846

The Pacific Squadron, the United States Naval force stationed in the Pacific was instrumental in the capture of Alta California in the Mexican–American War of 1846-1848 after war was declared on 24 April 1846. The American navy with its force 350-400 marines and bluejacket sailors on board several naval ships near California were essentially the only significant United States military force on the Pacific coast in the early months of the Mexican–American War. The British navy ships in the Pacific had more men and were more heavily armed ships available than the Pacific Squadron; but did not have orders to help or hinder the occupation of California--new orders would have taken almost two years to get back to the British ships. U.S. Marines were stationed aboard each ship to assist in close in ship to ship combat as snipers in the rigging and defending against boarders and could be detached for use as armed infantry. In addition there were some bluejacket sailors on each ship that could be detached from each vessel for shore duty as artillery crews and infantry and still leave the ship functional though short handed. The artillery used were often small Naval cannon converted to land use. The Pacific Squadron had orders, in the event of war with Mexico, to seize the ports in Mexican California and elsewhere along the Pacific Coast. The only other United States military force in California was a small exploratory force of Lieutenant Colonel John C. Fremont's 30 topographical, surveying, etc. army troops and about 25 men hired as guides and hunters. His exploratory expedition was part of the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. Under John D. Sloat, Commodore of the Pacific Squadron, the USS Savannah (1842) with USS Cyane (1837) and USS Levant (1837) captured the Alta California capital city of Monterey, California on 7 July 1846. Two days later on 9 July, USS Portsmouth, under Captain John S. Montgomery, lands 70 marines and bluejacket sailors at Clark's Point in San Francisco Bay and captured Yerba Buena (now named San Francisco) without firing a shot. There he meets John C. Fremont and gives him some lead and powder to support the Bear Flag Revolt militia Fremont is now leading. On July 11 the British Royal Navy sloop HMS Juno (1844) enters San Francisco Bay causing Montgomery to man his defenses. The large British ship, 2,600 tons with a crew of 600, man-of-war HMS Collingwood (1841), flagship under Sir George S. Seymour, also shows up about this time outside Monterey Harbor. Both British ships observe, but did not enter the conflict.

Shortly after July 9 when it became clear the US Navy was taking action the short-lived Bear Flag Republic was converted into a United States military conflict for possession of California and the Bear Flag was replaced by the U.S. Flag. Fremont expeditionary forces joined forces with a volunteer force of California residents to form a small volunteer militia. The frigate USS Congress (1841) was the flagship of Commodore Robert F. Stockton when he took over as the senior United States military commander in California in late July 1846. In July 1846 Stockton asked Fremont to muster the troops and volunteers under his command into the California Battalion to help garrison the towns rapidly being captured from the Mexican Californio governments. Most towns surrendered without a shot being fired. Fremont's California Battalion members were sworn in and the volunteers paid the regular US Army salary of $25.00/month for privates with higher pay for officers. The California Battalion varied in size with time from about 160 initially to over 450 by January 1847. Pacific Squadron war ships and storeships served as floating store houses keeping Fremont's volunteer force in the California Battalion supplied with black powder, lead shot and supplies as well as transporting them to different California ports. The USS Cyane (1837) transported Fremont and about 160 of his men to the small port of San Diego which was captured on 29 July 1846 without a shot being fired.

Leaving about forty men to garrison San Diego, Fremont continued on to the Pueblo de Los Angeles where on 13 August, with the United States Navy band playing and colors flying, the combined forces of Stockton and Frémont entered the town without a man killed or gun fired. United States Marine Major Archibald Gillespie, Fremont's second in command, was appointed military commander of Los Angeles, the largest settlement in Alta California with about 3,000 residents. Gillespie had an inadequate force of from thirty to fifty troops stationed there to keep order and garrison the city. The USS Congress (1841) is credited with capturing the Los Angeles harbor and port at San Pedro Bay on 6 August 1846. The USS Congress (1841) later helped capture Mazatlan, Mexico on 11 November 1847.

The revolt of about 200 Californios in Los Angeles forced Gillespie and his troops to depart on about 24 September 1847. Commodore Stockton of the Pacific Squadron used marines and bluejacket sailors with dismounted artillery field pieces from the frigates USS Congress (1841) and USS Savannah (1842) and the sloop USS Portsmouth (1843) in a joint operation with the approximate 70 Calvary troops supplied by US Army Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearny (who had arrived from New Mexico) and two companies of Fremont's California Battalion to peacefully retake Los Angeles on 10 January 1847. The results of the Battle of Providencia was the Californios signing the Treaty of Cahuenga on 13 January 1847—terminating the warfare and disbanding the Californio lancers in Alta California. On January 16, 1847, Commodore Stockton appointed Frémont military governor of U.S. territorial California - a move later contested by General Kearny.

Some Califonios fought on both sides of the conflict (U.S. and Mexico). The battlefield memorials attest to the heroic fight and loss on both sides.

Californio battles

  • 1846

Most cities in California surrendered without a shot being fired on either side. What little fighting that did occur usually involved small groups of disaffected Californios and small groups of soldiers, marines or militia

    • Battle of San Pasqual, 6 December 1846. US Cavalry General Stephen Kearny's dragoons , after a grueling journey across New Mexico and Arizona cross into California with about 100 men and is joined with Kit Carson's 20 scouts and about 40 men under Gillespie north of San Diego. In a poorly thought out and uncoordinated attack with wet powder and worn out mules Kearny loses about 19 of his men in a fight with about 150 Californio lancers led by Andrés Pico--brother of Pio Pico. Californio casualties are unknown. After reinforcements came from U.S. forces in San Diego the Californio forces retreated.
  • 1847
    • 5 January 1847. Fremont near the San Buenaventura Mission with about 400 men and six field pieces disperses a force of 60-70 Californio Lancers.

The war campaign in California ended on January 13, 1847, after the signing of Treaty of Cahuenga and they disband their Californio forces—the war in California is over.

The end of Mexican rule

In the 1830s Californios differentiated themselves from Mexicanos migrants from the Mexican interior, by asserting exclusionary land grant laws after the re-appropriation of the mission lands in 1834 by the new Mexican government. These laws parceled out mission and settlement lands to the highest bidder with the proceeds to go to the government of Mexico's failing treasury. These lands had been worked by the Spanish settlers and the local Native American Kumeyaay peoples for many generations. Few settlers and Kumeyaay were able to assert their rights to and most were forced off their lands to make way for the large ranches that supplanted them. These ranch owners and their hired hands (vaqueros) would make up the bulk of the pro Mexican government Californios forces in California during the Mexican-American war. Many of the refugee settlers and Kumeyaay Californios would fight on the side of the U.S. during the conflict.

Following the discovery of gold in 1848, Congress set up a Board of Land Commissioners to determine the validity of Mexican land grants in California. California Senator William M. Gwin presented a bill that, when approved by the Senate and the House, became the Act of March 3, 1851. It stated that unless grantees presented evidence supporting their title within two years, the property would automatically pass into the public domain. Articles VIII and X of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, guaranteed full protection of all property rights for Mexican citizens—with an unspecified time limit. The Commission eventually confirmed 604 of the 813 claims they received. The cattle "boom" cycle that started in the California Gold Rush when cattle went from being worth $2.00 a hide to about $40.00 for meat went into a "bust" cycle starting in about 1861 when drought decimated the herds. Many of the mostly illiterate rancho owneres were caught with mortgages they had obtained in the "boom" cycle to enlarge or improve their ranch lifestyle that they could not pay when the "bust" cycle of cattle prices occurred--many lost all or parts of their ranchos. The cost of litigation, surveys, taxes and permits to prove rancho ownership forced some of the larger Californio Rancho owners to lose part or all of their property. Since most had paid little or nothing for their ranchos many thought this a form of "crude justice".

The enormous size of many of these ranchos (averaging 18,900 acres (76 km) could not support the California Gold Rush induced population growth. The population went from about 9,000 Californios in 1847 at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War to about 120,000 by the 1850 federal Census (not including the 50,000 to 80,000 surviving California Indians). This size of population required enormous amounts of wheat, vegetables, fruit, etc. of a modern society and not just cattle. California after 1849 changed from a ranching society which required large amounts of grazing land to produce a supply of cows to a largely agriculture producer. Cows were good initially only for their hides and tallow and occasionally for eating . Starting in about 1850 much of California was gradually converted into a state with an extensive irrigation system and a thriving agricultural industry. Much of the available California land was settled under the Homestead Act of 1862 which allowed any man or woman twenty-one years old or the head of a family to have 160 acres of undeveloped land by improving (building a home) and living on it five years and paying eighteen dollars in fees.

Californios after U.S. annexation

Californios did not disappear. Some people in the area still have strong identities as Californios. For instance, numerous people descended from the Sepulveda family meet and keep in contact via the Internet. Thousands of people who are descended from the Californios have well-documented genealogies of their families.

The history of Californios has fueled the politically volatile issues of the La Raza movement by some Chicano activists, who depict Mexican Californios or Hispanics as the state's original people. They discount the claims to this status by the approximate 50,000 to 80,000 indigenous peoples, such as Coast Miwok, Ohlone, Wintun, Yokuts and other Native American ancestors. Many of these tribes ancestors inhabited the California region for thousands of years before European contact.

Other Californio descendants claim they had an integrated society of Mexicans, Indians, Mestizos and American immigrants, which had evolved over 77 years beginning with the founding of Misión San Diego in the Alta California territory in 1769.

The developing agricultural economy of California allowed many Californios to continue living in pueblos alongside Native peoples and Mexicanos well into the 20th century. These settlements grew into modern California cities, including Santa Ana, San Diego, San Fernando, San Jose, Monterey, Los Alamitos, San Juan Capistrano, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Arvin, Mariposa, Hemet and Indio.

Californio identity today

Alexander V. King has estimated that there were between 300,000 and 500,000 descendants of Californios in 2004.

Notable Californios

Californios in literature

  • Richard Henry Dana, Jr., recounted aspects of Californio culture which he saw during his 1834 visit as a sailor in Two Years Before the Mast.
  • Joseph Chapman, a land realtor noted as the first Yankee to reside in the old Pueblo de Los Angeles in 1831, described Southern California as a paradise yet to be developed. He mentions a civilization of Spanish-speaking colonists, "Californios," who thrived in the pueblos, the missions, and ranchos.
  • Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don, a novel set in 1880s California, depicts a very wealthy Californio family's legal struggles with immigrant squatters on their land. The novel was based on the legal struggles of General Mariano G. Vallejo, a friend of the author. The novel depicts the legal process by which Californios were often "relieved" of their land. This process was long (most Californios spent up to 15 years defending their grants before the courts), and the legal fees were enough to make many Californios landless. Californios resented having to pay land taxes to United States officials, because the principle of paying taxes for land ownership did not exist in Mexican law. In some cases Californios had little available capital, because their economy had operated on a barter system; they often lost land because of the inability to pay the taxes. They could not compete economically with the European and Anglo-American immigrants who arrived in the region with large amounts of cash.

A portrayal of Californio culture is depicted in the novel Ramona (1884), written by Helen Hunt Jackson.

The fictional character of Zorro has become the most identifiable Californio due to short stories, motion pictures and the 1950s television series. The historical facts of the era are sometimes lost in the story-telling.

See also

Culture, race and ethnicity

History and government

References

  1. U.S. 1850 California Census asks state of birth of all residents and finds about 7,696 residents who say they were born in California. Adding the approximate 200 Hispanics in San Francisco (1846 directory) whose Census records were burned and an unknown (but small as shown in 1852 CA Census recount) number in Contra Costa and Santa Clara county whose census was lost gives less than 9,000 Hispanics state wide.
  2. Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789 - 1945--Census Bureau Statistical Abstracts Accessed 2 Apr 2011
  3. Mason, The Census of 1790; Gostin, Southern California Vital Records; Haas, Conquests and Historical Identities in California; and Pitt, Decline of the CaliforniosCalifornia Spanish Genealogy - California Census 1790.
  4. Werner, Michael S., Editor; "Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico"; Women's Status and Occupation. p. 886-898; Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers; ISBN 1-57958-337-7
  5. Harrow, Neal; "California Conquered: The Annexation of a Mexican Province, 1846-1850"; p. 14-30; University of California Press; 1989; ISBN 978-0-520-06605-2
  6. Hoffman, Lola B.; "California Beginnings"; California State Department of Education; 1848; p.151
  7. Hoffman, Lola B.; "California Beginnings"; California State Department of Education; 1848; p.195
  8. California Ships to 1774-1848. Seventy-five Years in San Francisco Appendix N San Francisco History - Seventy-five Years in San Francisco, Appendix N. Record of Ships Arriving at California Ports from 1774 to 1847. Accessed 2 Apr 2011
  9. Federal Income 1850 Federal State Local Government Revenue in United States 2011 - Charts Tables Accessed 2apr 2011
  10. Leffingwell, Randy (2005), California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Voyageur Press, Inc., Stillwater, MN. ISBN 0-89658-492-5, p. 17
  11. California State Parks: Custom House
  12. Library of Congress. About This Newspaper: The Californian. Retrieved on July 28, 2009.
  13. "The Census of 1790, California", California Spanish Genealogy. Retrieved on 2008-08-04. Compiled from William Marvin Mason, The Census of 1790: A Demographic History of California, Menlo Park: Ballena Press, 1998, pp. 75–105. Information in parentheses () is from church records.
  14. Rios-Bustamante, Antonio. Mexican Los Ángeles, 43.
  15. Marley, David; "Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the New World, 1492 to Present" [1998); p. 504
  16. Silverstone, Paul, H.; "The Sailing Navy 1775-1854";Naval Institute Press; ISBN 978-0-415-97872-9; p 38
  17. ^ Marley, David; "Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the New World, 1492 to present"; p. 510
  18. Robinson, p. 100
  19. House Executive Document 46, pp. 1116–1117
  20. Article VIII, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Center For Land Grant Studies.
  21. Article X, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Center For Land Grant Studies.
  22. U.S. 1850 California Census counts 92,597 residents but omits the residents of San Francisco (estimated at about 21,000 by Alta California newspaper accounts) whose census records were destroyed by fire. Contra Costa County (estimated at about 2,000 residents) from the 1852 state Census and Santa Clara County (estimated at about 4,000 residents) from the 1852 state Census. Their 1850 U.S. Census records were "lost" and also not included. See: "Historical Statistical Abstracts - U.S. Census Bureau" (gives both 1850 Federal and 1852 state Censuses);
  23. Alexander V. King, "Californio Families, A Brief Overview", San Francisco Genealogy, Society of Hispanic Historical & Ancestral Research, January 2004
  24. Ruiz de Burton, Maria Amparo; Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita (1992). The Squatter and the Don (2nd ed.). Houston: Arte Publico Press
  25. Pitt, Decline of the Californios, 83–102

Bibliography

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