California Latinos Today

Today, Latinos make up the fastest-growing population group in the U.S. and California. One out of every three Californians is of Hispanic heritage, which translates to over 14 million people.

You’ll find the largest communities and evidence of their long history in California’s major cities, near Olvera Street in L.A., and in San Francisco’s Mission District, for example. However, Latinos comprise a greater share of the total population in the Central Valley, the heart of the state’s agricultural economy. By 2020, Latinos are expected to outnumber non-Hispanic whites in the state.      

El Movimento, The Chicano Movement

During the 1960s and 70s, California served as a major hub of the Chicano Movement for civil rights. You can see reminders of this exciting time in Sacramento’s Southside Park, San Diego’s Chicano Park, and Latino cultural centers throughout the state including:

• Centro Cultural de la Raza (San Diego)
• Galleria de la Raza (San Francisco)
• Mexican Cultural Center of Northern California (Sacramento)
• Plaza de la Raza (Los Angeles)   

Rancheros and the Gold Rush

Powerful ranchero families ruled California from 1834-1848 in a feudal system. Settlers from the United States began to trickle in during this time, and in 1846, when the U.S. won the Mexican-American war, California became a territory, complicating things for the racheros.

Two years later, the California Gold Rush began, signaling the beginning of California’s cultural diversity. Prospectors flooded in from all over the world, the largest group from Latin America.

California joined the Union as the 31st state in 1850. Many ranchero families went bankrupt while trying to re-establish their ownership rights under U.S. law. Today, you can see some remains of an old rancho at Descanso Gardens, near Los Angeles.    

The Spanish Empire

Part of the Spanish empire, California received its first wave of Spanish-speaking peoples as part of a colonization effort that began in 1769. Spain gave land to Spaniards willing to relocate to its New World territories and established 21 Franciscan missions and a string of coastal trading posts from San Diego to Sonoma.

When Mexico achieved independence in 1821, California was part of the agreement. Mexican administrators "secularized" the missions, dividing their lands and assets among wealthy Californians who became known as "rancheros."