Pitic

Pitic stands near the meeting of the Sonora and San Miguel rivers in the dry interior of Sonora. Its name has been interpreted as “where two rivers meet.” Indigenous communities lived in this river country before Spanish military and missionary settlements changed the balance of power in the region.

In 1741 Governor Agustín de Vildósola established the presidio of San Pedro de la Conquista del Pitic. It formed part of the Spanish response to conflict with the Seri, whose homeland extended west toward the coast. In 1771 Seri people who had resisted Spanish forces at Cerro Prieto settled near Pitic, where a mission and irrigation ditch were built. The settlement later grew into Hermosillo, briefly the capital of Sonora after Mexican independence.