Antonio María Osio, The History of Alta California: A Memoir of Mexican California (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996). A history of Mexican California written by a Mexican Californian.

David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982). A very comprehensive overview of all of the Southwest in this period.

Don Pío Pico's Historical Narrative, trans. Arthur P. Botello (Glendale: The Arthur Clark Co., 1973). Pico, the last Mexican governor, grew up in San Diego.