Californios are Hispanic Californians, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683 and is made up of varying Spanish and Mexican origins, including criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous Californian peoples, and small numbers of Mulatos. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Neomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger Spanish-American/Mexican-American/Hispano community of the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century. Some may also identify as Chicanos, a term that came about in the 1960s.
Gaspar de Portolá led the 1769 Portolá expedition and served as the first Governor of the Californias.
Juan Bautista de Anza led the 1775–76 Anza expedition.
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, established in 1770, was the headquarters of the Californian mission system from 1797 until 1833.
The founding of Los Angeles by the Felipe de Neve and the Los Angeles Pobladores in 1781.
In Hispanic America, criollo is a term used originally to describe people of full Spanish descent born in the viceroyalties. In different Latin American countries, the word has come to have different meanings, mostly referring to the local-born majority.
Guatemalan Criollos rejoice upon learning about the declaration of independence from Spain on September 15, 1821.
Image shows Venezuelan musicians performing Música llanera (música criolla).
The Fagoga Arozqueta family. A colonial Mexican criollo couple of Spanish [basque] ancestry with their ten children in Mexico City, New Spain, anonymous painter, ca. 1735. Museo Nacional de San Carlos of Mexico City.
A Spanish Creole family portrait in New Orleans, Spanish Louisiana, 1790, painted by José Francisco de Salazar.