When speaking of Barrioization in Los Angeles, a theory developed to explain the historical formation and maintenance of ethnically segregated neighborhoods of Chicanos and Latinos in the United States, Richard Griswold del Castillo states that the term barrio was used prior to 1848 in California but that the term took on a new meaning after the city's Anglo-American invasion and occupation.
Scholar Richard Griswold del Castillo states that while there is no evidence that the term barrio was used prior to 1848 in California, that the adjacent village of Yaanga "may have been considered a barrio." 
