Why do all of California's major cities have spanish names but not Texas'?

[Tritone]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

Weren't they both under Mexican rule until about the same time?

Texas has been under six different flags and it was only Mexico for a short period.

Timeline:
Pre-Columbian Texas
Early Spanish explorations 1519–
French Texas 1684–1689
Spanish Texas 1690–1821
Mexican Texas 1821–1836
Republic of Texas 1836–1845
Statehood 1845–1860
Civil War Era 1861–1865
Reconstruction 1865–1899

Just 15 years.


The Mexican occupation is a very small part of Texas history. It's greatly over-stated today - and mostly with a political agenda behind it, e.g "This was all part of Mexico! We are the natives!"

[Tritone]

Originally Posted by sub

It’s just the way history played out. How many current major cities in Texas existed under Spanish rule versus California? Places like Houston and Dallas weren’t founded until it became part of the U.S.

This is what people don't understand.

There was almost no development whatsoever in the South West before it was acquired by the United States. It was just some land.

[Steve McDonald]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

California's 6 largest cities:
Los Angeles
San Diego
San Jose
San Francisco
Sacramento
Fresno

Texas' 6 largest cities:
Houston
San Antonio
Dallas
Austin
Fort Worth
El Paso

Weren't they both under Mexican rule until about the same time? Besides that all of Texas' 6 largest cities are located further south than any of California's 6 largest cities with the exception of San Diego and Dallas/Fort Worth which are both at 32 degrees latitude. Are Spanish names less popular further from the West Coast?

Another slow, holiday-season day at C-D.

[Danbo1957]

Hello from San Angelo, Texas. And the name Texas is the Mexican spelling of the Spanish Tejas, which comes from the Caddoan word for friendly. San Jacinto was the name of the place before the name of Houston.

Draw a line from Portales, New Mexico on the Texas border to San Angelo, to Austin, to Navasota, to Galveston. South of that line was Spanish and Mexican influenced.

[gunslinger256]

i spent a few days in LA and I thought some of the older architecture looked incredibly 'non american'. I surmised that the cities were established before california became part of the US.

[ComeCloser]

Texas = Tejas = Colonial Spanish-style roof tiles.

San Antonio = Saint Anthony.

El Paso = the pass.

Amarillo = yellow.

Alamo = cottonwood.

Waco and Caddo are tribal names for the original inhabitants of certain areas. Waco is said to mean Water serpent. the only translation I can find for Caddo is 'a member of any of a group of North American Indian peoples formerly living in Louisiana'. It is a language formed from a confederacy of displaced tribes. The cities are both not awfully far from Dallas.

On the flip side, California has plenty of Anglo named cities -

Redding, Bakersfield, Oxnard, Oakland, Hollywood, Palm Springs, and so on.

There are tons of Spanish names throughout Texas, as well as the rest of America (Florida and Montana). England, Spain and France were the 'big 3' when it came to European colonization.

Even Mexico is a Spanish colonial country that won its independence from Spain just like the US did with England. 'Mexico' in colonial Spanish is the place where Christ is worshiped, making 'Mexicans' = Christians. You gotta love Spain - stealing gold and saving souls.

I don't get the point of this line of questioning other than maybe "my colony is better than yours", LOL!

If we want to get all territorial over place names, shouldn't both countries be using all tribal names?

California is a mythical Island in Spanish folklore. I bet Puff the magic dragon still lives there.