Hispanics and Latinos in California

Hispanos y Latinos en California
Counties of California by percentage of Hispanics and Latinos in the2020 Census:   50% or more   25-49%   15-24%   5-15%
Total population
39.4% (2020)
Regions with significant populations
Imperial County	79.6%
Greater Los Angeles	44.8%
San Diego County	31.6%
San Francisco Bay Area	23%
Languages
American Spanish,American English,Indigenous languages,Spanglish
Religion
PredominantlyRoman Catholicism[1]
Related ethnic groups
Hispanic and Latino Americans

Hispanic and Latino Californians are residents of the state ofCalifornia who are of full or partialHispanic or Latino ancestry. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 39.4% of the state's population,^[2] making it the largest ethnicity in California.

Californios (regionalCalifornian Spanish for "Californians") is a term to refer to the CalifornianHispanic community, which has existed in California since 1683, and which is mainly of varyingSpanish andMexican national origin, and from racially broad groups such asCriollo Spaniards andMestizos, with both European and Amerindian ancestry.^[3] Most would identify asMexican Americans or asChicanos.

The Hispanic presence in California has existed since the earliest European exploration of the region, the first such explorer of the California coast beingIberian explorerJoão Rodrigues Cabrilho (Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo). Cabrillo was commissioned by theViceroy of New Spain (Mexico) and in 1542 he sailed into what is nowSan Diego, California. He continued north as far asPt. Reyes, California.^[4]

California became part of theSpanish trading route, but was not well explored due to its remoteness from Europe and challenging terrain. In the 1700s, it was claimed by Spain which divided California into two parts,Baja California andAlta California, as provinces ofNew Spain (Mexico). Baja or lower California consisted of theBaja Peninsula and terminated roughly atSan Diego, California where Alta California started. After the establishment of Missions in Alta California after 1769, the Spanish treated Baja California and Alta California as a single administrative unit, part of theViceroyalty of New Spain, withMonterey, California, as its capital.

In 1821,Mexico gained its independence from Spain, and Alta California became one of the three interior provinces in theFirst Mexican Empire north of the Rio Grande, along withTexas andNew Mexico. The Mexican government was unable to keep full control of its peripheral provinces, leading to the inundation of American immigrants inside its borders and the subsequent annexation of California by the United States in 1846. During Mexican rule, California was sparsely populated, with only a few thousand Mexican residents, compared to tens of thousands of Native Americans, and a handful of Yankee entrepreneurs. At the time of the annexation, "foreigners already outnumbered Californians of Spanish ancestry 9,000 to 7,500".^[5] The advent of theCalifornia Gold Rush in 1848 led to a massive influx of settlers – including thousands of Mexican miners, but also tens of thousands of Americans from the East. Other substantial immigrant groups includedChileans,Peruvians, andChinese people. TheMexican Revolution also brought many refugees to California, including manyChinese Mexicans who fled Mexico's anti-Chinese sentiment during the war and settled in theImperial Valley.

In the early 1930s, the US began repatriating those of Mexican descent to Mexico, of which 1/5th of California Mexicans were repatriated by 1932.

During the first half of the 20th century, Mexican-American workers formed unions of their own and joined integrated unions. The most significant union struggle involving Mexican Americans was the effort to organize agricultural workers and theUnited Farm Workers' long strike and boycott aimed at grape growers in theSan Joaquin andCoachella valleys in the late 1960s. LeadersCésar Chávez andDolores Huerta gained national prominence as they led a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to an effective union of farmworkers almost overnight. The struggle to protect rights and sustainable wages for migrant workers has continued.

Spanish is the state's second most spoken language. Areas with especially large Spanish speaking populations include theLos Angeles metropolitan area,San Bernardino,Riverside,^[6] theCalifornia-Mexico border counties ofSan Diego andImperial (largest percentage in all of CA), and theSan Joaquin Valley.Mexican American is the largest ethnicity in half the state's 58 counties.

By ethnicity, 38.1% of the total population is Hispanic (of any race).^[7]New Mexico andTexas have higher percentages of Hispanics, but California has the highest total number of Hispanics of any U.S. state. As of July 1, 2013, it is estimated that California's Hispanic population has equaled the population of non-Hispanic whites.^[8] Hispanics, mainlyMexican Americans, form major portions of the population of Southern California, especially inLos Angeles, as well as the San Joaquin Valley. The city of Los Angeles is often said to be the largest Mexican community in the United States. Census records kept track of the growth since 1850, but Hispanos and Mexican Americans have lived in California since the Spanish period. However, the number and percentage population of Hispanics living in California increased rapidly in the late 20th century. The result is that, today, Hispanics are the largest ethnic group inLos Angeles County, at over 40 percent of the county's population. Hispanics are predominantly concentrated in the older eastern and southern suburbs surrounding downtown Los Angeles and northern Long Beach, the southern/easternSan Fernando Valley, and theSan Gabriel/Pomona Valleys. They also comprise sizable communities inArvin, Bakersfield,Delano,El Monte,Fontana, Fresno,Indio,La Puente,Ontario,Oxnard, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San José, Santa Barbara,Santa Maria,Stockton,Vallejo,Watsonville andYuba City. InSanta Ana in Orange County, Hispanics comprise 75 percent of the population. NearbyAnaheim is over half Hispanic, andOrange County's population is 30–35 percent Hispanic.

TheImperial Valley on the U.S.-Mexican border is about 82-87% Hispanic, including many descendants ofChinese Mexican refugees from theMexican Revolution. Communities with many Hispanics can also be found inRiverside County, especially at its eastern end, and theCoachella Valley. TheCentral Valley has many Mexican American migrant farm workers. Hispanics are the majority (and sometimes, plurality) in 14 other counties:Colusa,Fresno,Glenn,Kern,Kings, Los Angeles (the county is 45% Latino),Madera,Merced,Monterey (esp. theSalinas area),San Benito,San Bernardino,Santa Cruz (estimated 30–40% due to migrant labor patterns),Tulare andYolo counties.

Hispanics make up at least 20% of theSan Francisco Bay Area. Many live inSan Mateo,Alameda andSanta Clara counties, as well inSan Francisco. TheNapa Valley andSalinas Valley have predominantly Hispanic communities established by migrant farm workers. San Jose is about 30–35 percent Hispanic, the largest Hispanic community in northern California, while theMission District, San Francisco and Lower/West Oakland hasbarrios established by Mexican and Hispanic American immigrants. The Mexican American communities ofEast Los Angeles andLogan Heights, San Diego, as well theSan Joaquin Valley and Riverside county (almost half the population) are centers of historicChicano and Hispanic cultures.

Most of the state's Hispanics haveMexican ancestry, but there are manyCuban Americans,Puerto Ricans,Guatemalan Americans,Honduran Americans,Salvadoran Americans, andNicaraguan Americans,Chilean Americans,Colombian Americans andPeruvian Americans. Los Angeles has the United States' largest Central American community, as well as the largest Mexican American community since the 1910s and 1920s.

InMariposa County, there is a very small community of Californios or Spanish American people as they identify themselves, that dates back before the U.S. annexation of California.Hornitos is home to an estimated 1,000 people and many are "Californio". The community's "Spanish" Californio culture is closely linked with Mexico and other Hispanic American nations.

As of 2010, 28.46% (9,696,638) of California residents age 5 and older spokeSpanish at home as aprimary language. California has the second highest concentration of Spanish speakers in the United States.

California's first constitution recognized Spanish language rights:

All laws, decrees, regulations, and provisions emanating from any of the three supreme powers of this State, which from their nature require publication, shall be published in English and Spanish.

By 1870, English-speaking Americans were a majority in California; in 1879, the state promulgated a new constitution under which all official proceedings were to be conducted exclusively in English, a clause that remained in effect until 1966. In 1986, California voters added a new constitutional clause, byreferendum, stating that:

English is the official language of the State of California.

Spanish remains widely spoken throughout the state, and many government forms, documents, and services are bilingual, in English and Spanish. And although all official proceedings are to be conducted in English:

A person unable to understand English who is charged with a crime has a right to an interpreter throughout the proceedings.

California	Number of people of Mexican Origin (1910-1930) and of Hispanic/Latino Origin (1940-2020) in California[18][19][20][21][a]	+% of Population of Mexican Origin (1910-1930) and of Hispanic/Latino Origin (1940-2020) in California
1850	15,000[22]	15% of the Non-Amerindian population/[17] 17%[22]
1860	N/A	N/A
1870	22,409	4%[17]
1880	42,311[23]	N/A
1890	48,535	4%[22]
1900	47,112[23]	N/A
1910	49,928 - 82,217[23]	2.1%
1920	126,793 - 155,085[23]	3.7%
1930	386,053 - 419,309[23]	6.8%
1940	415,113	6.0%
1950	762,208	7.2%
1960	1,430,265	9.1%
1970	2,738,513 (15% sample)	13.7%
1980	4,544,331	19.2%
1990	7,687,938	25.8%
2000	10,966,556	32.4%
2010	14,013,719	37.6%
2020	15,579,652	39.4%

• Bibliography of Los Angeles
• Bibliography of California history
• Californio
• Chicano
• History of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles
• History of Central Americans in Los Angeles
• Hispanic and Latino Americans in San Francisco
• Salvadoran diaspora in Los Angeles
• Demographics of California
• Mexifornia
• Hispanics and Latinos in San Diego

• Tomás F. Summers Sandoval, Jr.,Latinos at the Golden Gate: Creating Community and Identity in San Francisco. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHispanics and Latinos in California.

• Hispanics: California's Next Majority,The New York Times
• Low-income California Latinos at higher risk from Parkinson’s-linked weedkiller

• Hispanic and Latino American culture in California
• Hispanic and Latino American history by state

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