2.6: Summary

The Spanish colonization of California left its imprint for subsequent generations. Beginning in 1769, the Spanish-speaking colonists struggled to survive in the midst of hundreds of thousands of native Indians. While Spanish in the political sense, the first California settlers were mostly mestizos, various mixtures of European, Indian, and African ethnicities. They transplanted their culture to this remote corner of empire. To protect themselves and control the Indians, they built military outposts, presidios, and constructed missions. In this they were marginally successful while assimilating tens of thousands of natives. But their colonial strategies also provoked periodic uprisings, many runaways, and the spread of deadly diseases. The California settlers were more successful in transplanting their political and material culture, the first town governments, cattle ranching, and agriculture.

The Spanish era lasted less than 60 years, but it forged a path that Californians can still see. During the next few decades, the surplus of cattle in California’s economy and the reliance on Indian labor were the very foundations of the Mexican and early American eras. The importance of family loyalty and Catholic piety, community life, and the ethic of gracious hospitality all continued without interruption among the Spanish-speaking residents. The most visible remnants of Spain in California today are the rebuilt and reconstructed missions, most of which still serve as houses of worship. As symbols of a distant era, they have been romanticized in novels and movies. Most are tourist attractions whose tranquil atmosphere suggests a peaceful, pastoral past. For some, however, they stand as symbols of an oppressive regime that began the destruction of a way of life. Spain succeeded in transferring her language and culture to Alta California. Place names echo this heritage: La Jolla, Santa Ana, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco, and many more. The layout of towns, Spanish-style architecture, the patio, the plaza, the rancho, all survive in altered forms as elements in California’s built environment. The Spanish settlers introduced European plants and animals that forever changed the flora and fauna of California.

Some elements of Spanish town government and statutory law survive to this day. The lands owned by the municipalities of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San José are based on the generous Spanish government grants to the pueblos. The Spanish law concerning water rights as a communal rather than a private resource continues to influence California’s legal history. So too does the Spanish legal doctrine of community property.

Increasingly, the Spanish language is an important second language in California, as Latinos—whose roots extend into Mexico and Latin America— continue with a second chapter in the Spanish colonization project. The language spoken by Father Serra, the presidio soldiers and settlers, as well as many mission Indians, can be heard in the streets and fields of California in the 21st century. Thus the profound changes begun in 1769 continue to echo into the present.