Californios

Californios

Flag of California
Total population
500,000+
Languages
Californian Spanish, American Spanish, English, California English, Spanglish, Indigenous languages of California, Indigenous languages of Mexico
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Other Spanish Americans and Mexican Americans of the United States: Floridanos, Tejanos, Nuevomexicanos Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Mexicans, Spaniards, Indigenous Mexican American, Louisiana Isleños Basque Californians

Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Nuevomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger group of descendants of Spaniards in the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century.

The term Californio (historical, regional Spanish for 'Californian') was originally applied by and to the Spanish-speaking residents of Las Californias during the periods of Spanish California and Mexican California, between 1683 and 1848. The first Californios were the children of the early Spanish military expeditions into northern reaches of the Californias. Many of their fathers were soldiers who established the presidios of California and guarded the California mission system.^[1]

Later, the primary cultural focus of the Californio population became the Vaquero tradition practiced by the landed gentry, who received large land grants and created the Rancho system.^[2] In the 1820s–40s, American and European settlers increasingly migrated to Mexican California. Many married Californio women and became Mexican citizens, learning Spanish and often converting to Catholicism, the state religion. They are often also considered Californios, for their adherence to Californio language and culture.

In 2004 studies estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 state inhabitants have Spanish ancestry from the colonial and Mexican eras of California.^[3]