Why do so many cities in California have Hispanic names?

San Diego, San Juan, San Francisco, Los Angeles - all hispanic names! When did this happen? Isn't this just pandering to the immigrants? Why don't we change the names back to American names?

Public Comments

1. It was part of Mexico before it was California. It was known as Alta California and colonized by the Spanish Empire in 1769. It remained part of Mexico until 1846 and then became The California Republic. In 1850, California was admitted to the union. The names you speak of were around long before California was a state.
2. I really hope you are being sarcastic!!
3. Because this state was part of Mexico at one time and the towns were there under those names, California didn't become a state of the US uuntil 1856! You don't do history?
4. You are kidding, right? What planet were you raised on? Those are the original names.
5. Duh, it was part of Mexico.
6. Because CA used to be a part of Baja. Mexicans who had lived here when CA was a part of Mexico named what is now our counties and cities. They settled all of CA. This was before CA became a state of the US. The names are fine with me. I live here.
7. It once belong to Mexico.
8. Because during the Civil war with the US and Spain, Spain tried to gain control of California, Florida, Arizona and Lousina, that's why some of these cities have "spanish names" by in reality they are named after the latin languange
9. They are American names.
10. Are you serious?? They're hispanic names cuz they were all part of mexico at some point.. You should read hsitory more often
11. They were named by the Spanish colonists, this used to be the "New Spain", and then it was Mexico, and now it's part of the United States, and no we will NEVER CHANGE the names in California, if you don't like it maybe you should move to New England or something. I was born in SAN FRANCISCO and I'm gonna die in SAN FRANCISCO.
12. Someone needs to take history class again. Hell it's actually part of American history.
13. Are you serious?
14. Because the Spaniards conquered Aztlan before the USA expanded to the west. The U.S southwest was part of New Spain and Mexico
15. 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".
16. Because it was once mexico and it still is, or soon will be viva la raza!
17. I'm curious to know what you think the names were to begin with.
18. umm because that used to be Mexico... and Polk stole it...they never have had American names in the 1st place... it seems to me like some one missed out on American history in school...
19. you can't change something back to american names if it was never an american name in the first place, and just a thought to ponder on why does everyone keep calling the everyone born in the u.s. americans and people not born here non american the truth is that anyone born in north america, south american, and central american, are americans as well. considering they have american in the names think about that