Group	Californio
Poptime	9,000 Californios Listed in the 1850 California U.S. Census population) 20px20px 27px Californios in Alta California
Region1
Pop1	9,000 Total 1850)
Region2
Pop2	3,480 pop 1850
Region3
Pop3	1,853 pop 1850
Region4	Napa County
Pop4	405 pop 1850
Region5
Pop5	757 pop 1850
Region6
Pop6	186 pop 1846
Pop7	335 pop 1850
Region8
Pop8	1,147 pop 1850
Region9	San Jose
Pop9	500 est. pop 1850
Langs	Spanish, indigenous languages|rels Roman Catholic }}

Californio (historic and regional Spanish for "Californian") is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848. The much larger population of California Indians living there are not a ''Californio'' because they didn't speak Spanish and/or were not Catholic.

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 New Spain (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 tax collectors. The cost of the Alta California government (what little there was) was borne by a roughly 40-100% import tariff collected at the entry port of Monterey, California. The United States conquered and annexed the thinly settled territories of Alta California, New Mexico and what later became the territories of several states in 1846-1848 during the Mexican-American War and paid $15 million for the territory.

''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% of the population.

As an creation of the Spain's monarchical State Church system, Spanish California society was joint structure that 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 usually 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 his direct control. The 5-10 soldiers at each of the Spanish Missions of California were nominally under the control of the two (or more) friars there. These soldiers were used to maintain order in the Missions, enforce Mission discipline and run down and recapture runaway Mission Indians. The alcaldes of the small pueblos (towns) nominally held local executive and judicial control in local matters.

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 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 livestock were supposed to be mostly allocated to the Mission Indians.

After agriculture, cattle, sheep and horses were established by the Missions, Friars, soldiers and Mission Indians the Rancho owners dismissed the Friars and the soldiers and took over the Mission land and livestock starting in 1834--the Mission Indians were left to survive however they could. The rancho owners 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.

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--money was a very scare commodity in early California. The Californio rancho owners claimed about averaging about each. This land was nearly all distributed on former mission land within about 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 (also called Custom duties and Ad-valorem taxes) 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. Later, after the Missions began to prosper, many Spanish governments borrowed money from the Catholic Church to support their officials and laws.

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 from 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 wheat and its stems were cut from the gain fields by Indians bearing sickles. The grain with its stems still attached was transported to the harvesting area by solid wheeled ox-cart (about the only wheeled transport in California) and put into a circular packed earth corral. A herd of horses were then driven into the same corral or "threshing field". By keeping the horses moving around the corral their hoofs would, in time, separate the wheat or barley from the chaff. Later the horses would be allowed to escape and the wheat and chaff were collected and then separated by tossing it into the air on a windy day as 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). After the Friars and soldiers disappeared many of the Mission Indians deserted the Missions and returned to other tribes or found work elsewhere. The new Ranchos often gave work to some of the former Mission Indians. The Indians worked for room, board and clothing (and no pay) got the former Mission Indians to do the majority of the work herding cattle and planting and harvesting the Californios crops. 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 usually originally owned by the Missions and were killed for their hide and tallow.

Leather, one of the most common material available, was used for a wide variety of products from saddles, chaps, whips, window and door coverings, riatas (leather braided rope), trousers, hats, stools, chairs, bed frames, etc. Leather was even used for leather "armor" where soldier's jackets were made of several layers of hardened leather sewn together. This stiff leather jacket was sufficient to stop most Indian arrows and worked well when fighting the Indians. 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 property and yards around the ranchos were often marked by the large number of dead cow heads, horns or other animal parts. The cow hides were kept for later trading purposes with Yankee or British traders who started showing up once or twice a year after 1825. Beef, wheat bread products, corn (maize), several types of beans, peas and several types of squash were common meal items with wine and olive oil used when they could be found. The mestizo population probably subsisted mostly on what they were used to: corn or maize, beans, and squash with some beef donated by the rancho owners. 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 all 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.

Mexican Governors of California

The Californios had a succession of Mexican appointed governors who nearly all either died in office or were driven from office. Many of governors appointed by Mexico proved to be mediocre, autocratic and and indifferent to Californio concerns or needs and were driven from office. The native Californio governors were usually self appointed and acted as governor ''pro tempore'' till Mexico heard about the previous Governor's death or ouster and they could appoint a new governor or approve the existing governor--often a slow process. The Californio's had such poor luck with Mexican troops (often unpaid convicts) and Mexican appointed governors that many resented Mexican interference in what they considered their internal affairs.

List of Governors

1822-1825: Luis Antonio Argüello (born in San Francisco, he was the first native-born Californio to govern Alta California)

1825-1831: José María de Echeandía Mexico appointed; first of two terms

1831-1832: Manuel Victoria Mexico appointed; forced from office after one year

1832: Pío Pico native-born Californio, native of San Diego and favored British acquisition of California, moved capital from Monterey to Los Angeles

1832-1833: Agustín V. Zamorano a secretary to Manuel Victoria and was governor ''pro tempore'' of northern California. and José María de Echeandía Echeandía reappointed governor ''pro tempore'' but could only gain control of southern California. Both were only temporary appointments

1833-1835: José Figueroa Mexico appointed; started secularization of Missions; died in office

1835: José Castro Californio; governor ''pro tempore''

1836: Nicolás GutiérrezMexico appointed; governor ''pro tempore''

1836: Mariano Chico Mexican governor expelled from office after three months and exiled to Mexico

1836: Nicolás Gutiérrez Mexico appointed; governor ''pro tempore'' reassumed office

1836-1837: Juan Bautista Alvarado Californio; ousted Gutierrez

1837-1838: Carlos Antonio Carrillo Californio governor ''pro tempore''

1838-1842: Juan Bautista Alvarado Californio, reassumed office

1842-1845: Manuel Micheltorena Mexico appointed governor came in with 300 troops and served from December 30, 1842 until his ouster in 1845 when he and his troops (most unpaid convicts) were driven back to Mexico.

1845-1846: Pío Pico Californio, reassumed office

1846-1847: José Mariá Flores Mexican Army officer, secretary to Micheltorena, fled California when Mexican American War started

1847: Andrés Pico Californio, commanded Californio lancers against General Kearny, provisional governor of rebellion, signed Treaty of Cahuenga 12 January 1847 ceasing strife in California.

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.

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 Dominguez Rancho, 9 October 1846. José Antonio Carrillo, near Los Angeles, leads Californio forces against 350 marines and sailors who retreated.

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.

* Temecula Massacre, December 1846. Californios and Cahuilla Indians combine to wipe out a party of Pauma Band Luiseno Indians responsible for a massacre of eleven Californios, near Temecula.

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.

* Battle of Rio San Gabriel, 8 January 1847. Stephen Kearny's, Fremont's and Stockton's combined force of about 600 men (roughly a battalion equivalent) defeat the about 160 man Californio Lancer force near Los Angeles. Casualties are about one man on each side.

* Battle of La Mesa, 9 January 1847. Kearny, Robert F. Stockton and John Frémont's combined US forces, defeat the Californios in the final battle in California, at present day Montebello, east of Los Angeles. Casualties are about one man on each side.

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 the newly formed Mexican government was experiencing difficulties having gone through several revolts, wars, and internal conflicts and a seemingly never ending string of Mexican Presidents. One of the problems in Mexico was the large amount of land controlled by the Catholic Church (estimated then at about one-third of all settled property) who were continually granted property by many land owners when they died or controlled property supposedly held in trust for the Indians. This land, as it gradually accumulated, was seldom sold as it cost nothing to keep but could be rented out to gain additional income for the Catholic Church to pay its priests, Friars, Bishops etc. and other expenses. The Catholic Church was the largest and richest land owner in Mexico and its provinces. In California the situation was even more pronounced as the Franciscan Friars held over 90% of all settled property supposedly in trust for the Mission Indians.

In 1834 secularization laws were enacted that voided the mission control of lands in the northern settlements under Mexican rule. The Missions controlled over 90% of the settled land in California as well as directing thousands of Indians in herding livestock, growing crops and orchards, weaving cloth, etc. for the Missions and the presidios and pueblo (town) dewellers. The Mission lands and herds formerly controlled by the Missions were usually distributed to the settlers around each Mission. Since most had almost no money the land was distributed or granted free or at very little cost to friends and families (or those who paid the highest bribes) of the government officials.

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, for example, was reputed to be the richest man in California before the California Gold Rush. Vallejo oversaw the secularization of Mission San Francisco Solano and the distributions of its roughly . He founded the town of Sonoma, California and Petaluma, California, owned Mare Island and the future town site of Benicia, California and was granted the Rancho Petaluma, the Rancho Suscol and other properties by Governor José Figueroa in 1834 and later. Vallejo's younger brother, Jose Manuel Salvador Vallejo (1813 - 1876), was granted the Rancho Napa and other additional grants known as Salvador's Ranch. Over the hills of Mariano Vallejo's princely estate of Petaluma roamed ten thousand cattle, four to six thousand horses, and many thousands of sheep. He occupied a baronial castle on the plaza at Sonoma, where he entertained all who came with most royal hospitality and few travelers of note came to California without visiting him. At Petaluma he had a great ranch house called La Hacienda and on his home farm called Lachryma Montis (Tear of the Mountain), he built, about 1849, a modern frame house where he spent the later years of his life.

Vallejo tried to get the California State Capital moved permanently to Benicia, California on land he sold to the state government in December 1851. It was named Benicia for the General's wife, Francisca Benicia Carillo de Vallejo. The General intended that the prospective city be named "Francisca" after his wife, but this name was dropped when the former city of "Yerba Buena" changed its name to "San Francisco" on 30 January 1847. Benicia was the third site selected to serve as the California state capital, and its newly constructed city hall was California's capitol from February 11, 1853 to February 25, 1854. Vallejo gave the Rancho Suscol to his oldest daughter, Epifania Guadalupe Vallejo, April 3, 1851, as a wedding present, when she married U.S. Army General John H. Frisbie. It is unknown what he gave as a wedding present when his two daughters Natalia and Jovita married the brothers Attila Haraszthy and Agoston Haraszthy on the same day--June 1, 1863.

In some cases particular Mission land and livestock were split into parcels and then distributed by drawing lots. In nearly all cases the Mission Indians got very little of the Mission land or livestock. Whether any of the proceeds of these sales made its way back to Mexico City is unknown. These lands had been worked by settlers and the much larger settlements of local Native American Kumeyaay peoples on the Missions for in some cases several generations. When the Missions were secularized or dismantled and the Indians did not have to live under continued Friar and military control they were left essentially to survive on their own. Many of the Native Americans reverted to their former tribal existence and left the Missions while others found they could get room and board and some clothing by working for the large ranches that took over the former Mission lands and livestock. Many natives who had learned to ride horses and had a smattering of Spanish were recruited to be become vaqueros (cowboys or cattle herders) that worked the cattle and horses on the large ranchos and did other work. Some of these rancho owners and their hired hands would make up the bulk of the few hundred Californios forces fighting in the brief Mexican-American war conflicts in California. Some of the Californios and California Indians would fight on the side of the U.S. settlers during the conflict with some even joining the California Battalion.

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 back into the public domain. Ranch owners sited the articles VIII and X of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, wherein it guaranteed full protection of all property rights for Mexican citizens—with an unspecified time limit. Much of the former mission/settlement lands were given back and many ranches were divided up as a result. The tens of thousands of acres of what was once ranch and mission lands making up was is present day California.

Many ranch owners with their thousands of acres and large herds of cattle, sheep and horses went on to live prosperous lives under U.S. rule. Former commander of the California Lancers Andrés Pico became a U.S. citizen after his return to California and acquired the Rancho Ex-Mission San Fernando ranch which makes up large part of what is present day Los Angeles. He went on to become a California State Assemblyman and later a California State Senator. His brother former governor of Alta California (under Mexican rule) Pío Picoalso became a U.S. citizen and a prominent ranch owner/businessman in California after the war. Many others were not so fortunate as droughts decimated their herds in the early 1860s and they could not pay back the high cost mortgages (poorly understood by the mostly illiterate ranchers) they had taken out to improve their lifestyle and subsequently lost much or all of their property when they could not be repaid.

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

José María Alviso, grantee of Rancho Milpitas, Alcalde of San José

Juan Bautista de Anza

Arcadia Bandini, co-founder of Santa Monica, California

Santiago Arguello

Santiago E. Arguello

Juan Bandini

Berreyesa family, various early settlers holding land grants

José Raimundo Carrillo

José Antonio Carrillo

Leo Carrillo

José Castro, general of the Mexican army in Alta California

Manuel Dominguez

José Antonio Estudillo

José María Estudillo

José María Flores

Myrtle Gonzalez

José de la Guerra y Noriega

Antonio Maria de la Guerra

William Edward Petty Hartnell, also known as ''Don Guillermo Arnel''

Robert Livermore, namesake of Livermore, California

Don Antonio Lugo

Eulalia Perez de Guillén Mariné

Joaquin Murietta, basis for fictional hero Zorro

Luís María Peralta, Peralta Adobe in San Jose, recipient of the Rancho San Antonio (Peralta) land grant in the San Francisco East Bay

Andrés Pico

José Maria Pico

Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, namesake of Pico Rivera, California

Louis Robidoux, namesake of Mount Rubidoux, held Rancho Jurupa and Rancho San Jacinto y San Gorgonio

Juan Matias Sanchez, Juan Matias Sanchez Adobe, Rancho La Merced, Montebello, California

Tomas Avila Sanchez

Francisco Xavier Sepulveda

Juan Jose Sepulveda

Francisco Sepulveda

Abel Stearns

Jonathan Temple, early Long Beach rancher

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the namesake of Vallejo, California

Tiburcio Vasquez, bandit

Elena Verdugo

Jose Maria Verdugo, recipient of Rancho San Rafael land grant

Benjamin Davis Wilson, also known as ''Don Benito Wilson''

Bernardo Yorba, major land grant recipient, namesake of Yorba Linda, California

Jose Antonio Yorba, major land grant recipient

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

Hispanic

Casta

Peninsulares

Mestizo

Mulatto

Spanish people

Spanish American

Tejano

History and government

History of California

History of California to 1899

Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas

Las Californias

Alta California

References

Bibliography

Beebe, Rose Marie and Robert M. Senkewicz (2001). ''Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846''. Berkeley: Heyday Books. ISBN 978-1-890771-48-5.

Beebe, Rose Marie and Robert M. Senkewicz (2006). ''Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815–1848''. Berkeley: Heyday Books, The Bancroft Library and the University of California.

Bouvier, Viginia Marie (2001). ''Women and the Conquest of California, 1542–1840: Codes of Silence''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2446-4

Casas, María Raquél (2007). ''Married to a Daughter of the Land: Spanish-Mexican Women and Interethnic Marriage in California, 1820–1880''. Reno: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0-87417-697-1

Chávez-García, Miroslava (2004). ''Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s''. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2378-8

Gostin, Ted (2001). ''Southern California Vital Records, Volume 1: Los Angeles County 1850–1859''. Los Angeles: Generations Press. ISBN 978-0-9707988-0-0

Haas, Lisbeth (1995). ''Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 1769–1936'', Berkeley: University of California. ISBN 978-0-520-08380-6

Heidenreich, Linda (2007). ''"This Land was Mexican Once": Histories of Resistance from Northern California''. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71634-6

Hugues, Charles (1975). ''The decline of the Californios: The Case of San Diego, 1846-1856'', The Journal of San Diego History, Summer 1975, Volume 21, Number 3

Hurtado, Albert L. (1999). ''Intimate Frontiers : Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California''. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1954-8

Mason, William Marvin (1998). ''The Census of 1790: A Demographic History of California'', Menlo Park, California: Ballena Press. ISBN 978-0-295-98083-6

Osio, Antonio Maria; Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz (1996) ''The History of Alta California : A Memoir of Mexican California''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-14974-1

Pitt, Leonard and Ramón A. Guttiérrez (1998). ''Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846–1890'' (New edition), Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-21958-8

Ruiz de Burton, María Amparo; Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita (2001). ''Conflicts of Interest: The Letters of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton''. Houston: Atre Publico Press. ISBN 978-1-55885-328-7

Sánchez, Rosaura (1995). ''Telling Identities: The Californio Testimonios''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-2559-8

The editors of Time-Life Books (1976). ''The Spanish West''. New York: Time-Life Books.

External links

''Californios, a People and a Culture'', a personal website

Pitti, José; Antonia Castaneda and Carlos Cortes (1988). "A History of Mexican Americans in California," in ''Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California''. California Department of Parks and Recreation, Office of Historic Preservation.

Guide to the Amador, Yorba, López, and Cota families correspondence. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

Guide to the Orange County Californio Families Portrait Photograph Album. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.

Category:People of New Spain Category:Lists of people from California Category:New Spain Category:Mexican California Category:Colonial United States (Spanish) Category:Pre-state history of California Category:History of California Category:People in the colonial Southwest of North America

es:Californio (México) fr:Californios nl:Californio's

de Montesinos may refer to:

Luis de Montesinos, a Spanish theologian.

Antonio de Montesinos (Dominican friar), who in 1511 was the first member of the clergy to publicly speak about the human rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Antonio de Montezinos, who in 1644 claimed to have found one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel living in the Ecuadorean jungles.