Californios are the Spanish-American descendants of Spanish settlers and soldiers who undertook expeditions to the Northern parts of California in order to claim it for Spain. After they did so, they set up Presidios and spread Catholicism.
They were however, quite isolated from the Spanish government in Mexico and so felt very little connection to them. The government for their part, might not have been very interested in the Californios due to the distance from Mexico city and the little resources California brought in at the time.
