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.
These ranchers were known as Californios, members of great land-holding families.
Mariano Vallejo stated: We were the pioneers of the Pacific coast, building towns and Missions while General Washington was carrying on the War of the Revolution.
But most Californios were poor ranch hands who maintained herds of cattle.
Californio Style Horsemanship is how a rider might express the skills of the caballeros that came to the New World.
A Californio is generally accepted to be a person born in the region now known as the State of California (Alta California of old) in the period following discovery and exploration and ending when the United States wrested control from Mexico.
The Californio discussion group, hosted at Yahoo groups and moderated by Bob Sagely, and this web site, will try to educate folks about the Old Californio traditions, particularly the equestrian ways of the vaqueros, amansadores and the arreindadores.
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