Mapimi

Mapimí stands on the edge of the vast arid basin that bears its name, amid the mountains and desert of northern Durango. Toboso and Cocoyome communities lived in the surrounding country before Spanish settlement. Nearby mineral deposits drew newcomers to a frontier where mining camps, missions and Indigenous homelands came into close and often violent contact.

In 1598 the Jesuit Agustín de Espinoza and Captain Antón Martín Zapata founded Santiago de Mapimí. The mining town endured repeated attacks during the long conflicts between Spanish settlements and Indigenous groups of the desert. Raids were recorded in the area in the 1640s and again in later decades. In 1715 inhabitants abandoned the town for Cuencamé, taking with them an image of the crucified Christ known as the Señor de Mapimí, whose devotion spread along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.