Why do so many cities in California have Hispanic names?
Q. Why do so many cities in California have Hispanic names? A. Because California used to be part of Mexico. Q. When did this happen? A. When the cities were founded. On average, I would say the late 1700’s. Q. Isn’t this just pandering to the immigrants? A. No, because the “immigrants” were the English-speaking persons who came from the rest of the United States during the gold rush. Mexicans were in California first. Q. Why don’t we change the names back to American names? A. Unless you mean whatever the Chumash, Pechanga, etc., called the cities before whites arrived, they had no prior names to which they could change “back”.
