He arrived in Sonora in 1789 as a cadet in the Santa Cruz Company, sponsored by the commandant Brigadier Enrique Grimarest, who was his brother in law.

[1] Lieutenant Antonio Narbona came to New Mexico from Chihuahua province in January 1805 at the head of a troop of soldiers sent to respond to a Navajo raid.

He and Simón Elías Gonzalez secured Arizpe and northeastern Sonora, then marched to Guaymas on the Gulf of California to put down opposition to the independence movement.

As the top political leader refused to take the same attitude, he was forced to resign and Lieutenant Colonel Narbona took over command of the army in the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa.

[citation needed] Colonel Antonio Narbona was appointed géfe político (equivalent to governor) of New Mexico from September 1825 to May 1827.

[8] In 1825 the United States President James Monroe sent three representatives to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to negotiate a "road between nations" and to establish trade routes and define hunting rights.

[10] He died in Arizpe on March 20, 1830, and his namesake son, who was also military and attained the rank of colonel, was killed by Apaches in Cuquiárachi on the threshold of his house on December 23, 1848.