California was indeed part of the territories that Spain originally claimed when they explored the Americas, then when Mexico became an independent country California used to be part of Mexico. Then the U.S. came and took that land along with most of New Mexico and Texas which also were part of Mexico. Californian residents have not been Spanish since the moment the land was not part of Spain. They were Mexicans first. Now the are Americans. About moving to Spain, I would ask WHY? would they need or have to move to Spain? So many generations have gone by that I don t think people living in California have any kind of feeling of nationalism towards Spain. Mexico is a different case. Many residents in California are either Mexican or people of Mexican descent. I guess they might want to move back to Mexico but I don t think they would want to do that because they probably have better conditions of living in California.
Because Spain no longer owns California.
i m from the uk, am packing my bags for california now!