Californio

American  

[ka-li-fawrn-yoh] / ˌkæ lɪˈfɔrn yoʊ /

noun

Californios plural

1. History/Historical. one of the Spanish-speaking colonists who settled California before it was annexed by the United States of America, or a descendant of one of these colonists.

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Other Word Forms

• non-Californio
  noun

Example Sentences

As someone once pointed out, the great Californio families were uncommonly blessed with daughters, and these daughters sometimes married ambitious Yankees and took family land with them.

From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2021

The Greek Revivals and Georgian Colonials of Lexington and Concord were re-created on the streets of L.A., where they stood defiantly apart, wood amidst adobe, Anglo among Californio.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2021

The clapboard walls of a Monterey house scream “Cape Cod,” yet the long, airy verandas are so, so Californio.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2021

The reenactment lasted only about 15 minutes; most of the actors representing the Californio soldiers traced their roots to Mexico.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2020

He had just learned that a Christian Indian, named Raymundo el Californio, had left the mission at the head of about 30 or 40 other Indians in pursuit of fugitive Christians on the other shore.

From The Aboriginal Population of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, California by Cook, Sherburne Friend