Guajoquilla

Guajoquilla, on the Florido River in northern New Spain, developed through repeated attempts to maintain a settlement amid conflict with Indigenous peoples. In 1643 Diego de Zubia established a hacienda here, but a Toboso uprising brought its abandonment the following year. Andres Bello Montes de Oca restored it in 1652; renewed fighting again emptied the property in 1671. The town that became present-day Jimenez took shape in 1753, when Captain Bernardo Antonio Bustamante y Tagle founded a fortified settlement with forty Spanish families on land belonging to the Hacienda de Dolores. Guajoquilla had previously belonged to the jurisdiction of Allende, but the presidio commander now also exercised political authority. Its administrative role changed again as the northern provinces were reorganized: the HGIS de las Indias records a comandancia, then an alcaldia mayor and, from 1788, a subdelegacion. In 1820 an elected municipal council introduced the local institutions prescribed by the Constitution of Cadiz.