The Mexicans never had California.
The Spanish did.
“The Mexicans never had California. The Spanish did.”
The Spanish period ended in 1821 with the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, which officially ended the Mexican War of Independence.
The Mexican period of the U.S. southwest lasted from 1821 until 1848. The First Mexican Republic (1824-1835) had difficulties maintaining control over the region after the Spanish left control. Sparsely populated and far from the economic and political center in Mexico City, the northern territories of Alta California, Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, and Tejas were now free to engage in economic exchange with American traders, a practice which had been barred under the Spanish Empire. This newfound freedom resulted in the development of strong economic and social ties between the economic elites of Tejas, Alta California, and the United States. Mexico’s Constitution of 1824 guaranteed the equality of all Mexicans regardless of race.
In California, residents also fought the American army. In 1847, Californios staged battles throughout Southern California against the American conquest, including the Battle of Los Angeles and the Battle of San Pasqual (present-day San Diego). The United States Navy, believing that cutting off supplies to the Californios would ensure their defeat, implemented blockades along the Pacific Coast and Gulf of Mexico. As a result of these actions, the Navy’s Pacific Squadron subsequently conquered Monterey, San Francisco, and San Diego, virtually guaranteeing victory for the U.S. in California. The U.S. and Mexico soon after entered negotiations for conditions of surrender.
So the Mexicans living in the California area chased the Spanish out of California and were ultimately taken over by the US through another war. The US has remained in control since, (kind of), by making all Mexican people living in the area citizens if white. This is why today Mexican people fall under the caucasian category for census because laws made during the original take over time frame by the US defined it that way. And those laws are specifically for Mexicans as the vast majority of landed Californios were subsistence farmers who based their livelihood on their small plots of land after the Spanish control left. In the southern coastal regions, business-ownership and manual labor were also common occupations for general Californios.
For the Indigenous peoples of California, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo’s failure to ensure full citizenship and protections had dire consequences. They were subjected to a systematic genocide, funded by the state of California. The California Genocide killed around 90% of California’s Native population during the early-American period, clearing the way for full-scale Anglo colonization. That was boosted with the discovery of gold in 1849 and the anglo population exploded and many deaths occurred with lawlessness and Mexican land being taken both legally and illegally.
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