Acaponeta

Acaponeta stands near the river of the same name on the Pacific coastal plain of northwestern Mexico. Before the Spanish conquest, the lower river country contained Indigenous settlements connected to the rich coastal region of Aztatlán. Nuño de Guzmán’s expedition reached this coast in 1530 during its violent advance northward. By the later sixteenth century a mission had been established at Acaponeta, linking the river valley to the neighbouring mission of Huajicori in the mountains.