Californio (historic and regional Spanish for "Californian") is a term used to identify a Californian of Hispanic—and in some rare cases, of Portuguese, Brazilian, or other non-Hispanic Latin American—descent, regardless of race, during the period that California was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and Mexico.[citation needed] The territory of California was annexed in 1848 by the United States following the Mexican-American War.

Californios included the descendants of agricultural settlers and escort soldiers from Mexico. Most were of mixed backgrounds, usually Mestizo, contrary to popular media representations in books and films in the United States, such as the "Zorro" franchise. Few were of "pure" Spanish (Peninsular or Criollo) ancestry.[1] Spanish, and later, Mexican officials encouraged people from the northern and western provinces of Mexico, as well as people from other parts of Latin America, most notably Peru and Chile, to settle in California, and encouraged them to become Mexican citizens.

Much of Californio society lived in ranchos or agricultural settlements near the many missions, which were established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the start of the nineteenth century, twenty-one missions under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church were located along the royal highway, El Camino Real. The Californio rancho society produced the largest cowhide and tallow business in North America, which provided exports for trading with merchant ships from Boston. Ships put in to San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Pedro, San Buenaventura (Ventura), Monterey and Yerba Buena (San Francisco).



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