Californios
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| Total population | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (10,000 in 1845, estimated.) | ||||||||||
| Languages | ||||||||||
| Spanish | ||||||||||
| Religion | ||||||||||
| Roman Catholic | ||||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | ||||||||||
| Castilians, Andalusians, other Spanish peoples | ||||||||||
Californio (historical and regional Spanish for "Californian") is a Spanish term for a descendant of a person of Castillian or other Spanish ancestry who was born in what is now the U.S. state of California when the region was under Spanish and later Mexican control. The Californio era was from the first Spanish presence established by the Portolá expedition in 1769 until the region's cession to the United States of America in 1848. Persons of similar characteristics but born on the Baja California peninsula during the same time period may also be considered Californios, since that area (now split into two states of Mexico) was part of the original Spanish Las Californias.
Non-Spanish-speaking immigrants who 1) became naturalized Mexican citizens, 2) married Californios, and 3) converted to Catholicism may be included in a secondary, looser definition of Californio. Such residents, by these actions, became eligible to own land and receive rancho grants from the Mexican government. Most such grants occurred after mission secularization in the 1830s. An even looser definition may include descendants of Californios, especially those who married other Californio descendants.
The much larger population of non-Spanish-speaking indigenous peoples of California who lived in the area prior to and during the Californio era were not Californios. Neither were non-Spanish-speaking resident foreigners. Many Californios, however, were the California-born children of non-Spanish speakers who married Spanish speakers. Such spouses usually also converted to the Catholic faith and, after Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, often became naturalized Mexican citizens.
The military, religious and civil components of pre-1848 Californio society were embodied in the thinly-populated presidios, missions, pueblos and ranchos. Until they were secularized, the twenty-one Spanish missions of California, with their thousands of more-or-less captive native converts, controlled the most (about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km2) per mission) and best land, had large numbers of workers, grew the most crops and had the most sheep, cattle and horses. After secularization, the Mexican authorities divided most of the mission lands into new ranchos and granted them to Mexican citizens (including many Californios) resident in California.
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Wikipedia