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A Californio was a Spanish-speaking inhabitant of Alta California who lived there when it was a part of Mexico, before it was taken by the United States after the Mexican-American War. Californios included both the descendants of European settlers from Spain and Mexico, Mestizos and local Native Americans who adapted Spanish culture, became Christian and lived at or near the many Missions, as did most of the Californios. Some Yankees became honorary Californios because of their early arrival and their accomodation to Spanish customs.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. recorded his 1834 visit as a sailor to California in Two Years Before the Mast. The end of Californio culture is depicted in the novel Ramona, written by Helen Hunt Jackson in 1884. The fictional Zorro is the most famous Californio of all, though the historical truth of the era is sometimes lost in the story-telling.
Notable Californios
- Juan Bautista de Anza
- Arcadia Bandini, co-founder of Santa Monica, California
- Juan Bandini
- Jose Raimundo Carrillo
- Joaquin Murietta
- Jose Maria Pico
- Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California
- The Sepulveda Family
- Abel Stearns
- John Temple, early Long Beach rancher
- Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the name sake of Vallejo, California
- Tiburcio Vasquez, bandit
- Jose Maria Verdugo, recipient of major grant
- Benjamin Wilson, also known as Don Benito Wilson
- Jose Yorba, land grant recipient
- Zorro, fictional hero
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