Juan de Ugarte

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Juan de Ugarte (1662-1730) was a Jesuit missionary-explorer in Baja California Sur, Mexico, and the successor to Juan María de Salvatierra as head of the peninsula's missions.

Ugarte was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His younger brother, Pedro de Ugarte, was also a Jesuit missionary in Baja California.

Juan de Ugarte was initially the procurador for the newly established California missions in 1697-1700. As such, he was stationed in Mexico City, administering the Pious Fund of private donations that supported the missions and seeing to the logistical support necessary to sustain them.

In 1701, Ugarte went to the peninsula as its third missionary, following in the footsteps of Salvatierra and Francisco María Piccolo. First at Loreto and then at San Javier (1702-1730), among the Cochimí Indians, Ugarte was an able and energetic leader in the expansion and development of the mission system. He served as visitador or superior for the missions in Salvatierra's absence and after the latter's death in 1717.

Ugarte led several expeditions of overland exploration to seek out mission or visita sites in the region surrounding San Javier. More spectacularly, he oversaw the construction of a ship, "El Triunfo de la Cruz", from locally harvested lumber. In 1720, Ugarte sailed his new ship from Loreto to La Paz to help found a new mission there. In the following year, he sailed to the head of the Gulf of California, trying to resolve the longstanding question of whether California was an island or a peninsula.

[edit] References

• Crosby, Harry W. 1994. Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697-1768. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
• Dunne, Peter Masten. 1952. Black Robes in Lower California. University of California Press, Berkeley.
• León-Portilla, Miguel. 1970. Testimonios sudcalifornianos: nueva entrada y establicimiento en el puerto de la Paz, 1720. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.
• Ramos, Roberto. 1958. Tres documentos sobre el descubrimiento y exploración de Baja California por Francisco María Píccolo, Juan de Ugarte, y Guillermo Stratford. Editorial Jus, Mexico City.