In the early 1700s, a series of Christian missions collectively known as the San Juan Bautista missions were founded in and around Guerrero, primarily as a means of converting indigenous peoples, including the Ervipiame, to Christianity.[2] The first was Mission San Juan Bautista. Originally founded in 1699 at a site 25 miles north of Lampazos in Nuevo León on the Sabinas River, it was relocated to Guerrero on January 1, 1700. The second was Mission San Francisco Solano, founded 1700, and the third, Mission San Bernardo, was founded in spring 1702. The ruins of these missions remain as sites of archaeological interest.[3][4] The mission complex was designated a Pueblos Mágicos site in 2015.[5]
In 1703 a presidio, or fort, was established at San Juan Bautista.
^Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), p. 117
