California had Spanish settlers mostly ignored by a corrupt Mexican government that claimed a large part of Central America too.
Oh those pesky facts...can’t have that!
Yes. California had mostly native Americans (Indians), with a sprinkling of Spanish and European settlers. There were far more Europeans here than Mexicans. The Russians had large outposts nearly all the way down California to San Francisco. The Spaniards pretty much stopped at the north end of SF Bay, near where the Russians were camped. Russians and Europeans were here hunting animal skins, and traded with the Spaniards. Very few Mexicans until the Americans took over. And even then, few Mexicans until the mid-twentieth century. The Spaniards were glad when the U.S. government took over, many making deals in support of the U.S. instead of Mexico.
One of the most famous was Mariano Vallejo, the governor of Spanish California. The Russians offered to sell Fort Ross to the new Mexican government, but Mexico delayed. Vallejo helped broker the sale to an American, John Sutter (a wheeler-dealer con artist who later discovered gold). Vallejo and other Spaniards saw that the Mexican government was corrupt, and sided with Americans. City of Vallejo is named for him, nearby Benicia for his wife. Back in the 1950s and 1960s I visited nearly every Mission in California, lots of very interesting history, little having to do with Mexicans who briefly held control of California.