Guaimas

Guaimas lies near the Gulf of California on the dry coast of Sonora. The name recalls a coastal and island people encountered by early Spanish missionaries, who knew them as Guaymas. Their country formed part of a wider landscape of Indigenous communities living between the sea and the river valleys of northwestern Mexico.

In 1628 the missionary Juan Varela reported that Guaymas people had been gathered into a village and given fields along the Yaqui River by Pedro Méndez. Later Spanish attempts to establish a port on Guaymas Bay met Indigenous resistance. In 1769 José de Gálvez ordered a new settlement there, after a stronger military campaign. The bay became an important harbour for the province of Sonora, connecting its desert coast to maritime routes in the gulf.

The later city of Ciudad Obregón lies here.