[2] In 1776 and 1777, Arizpe was declared a city and made the capital of the Spanish colonial Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas.

[3] The Provincias Internas had jurisdiction over the provinces of: The first commandant general was Teodoro de Croix.

[3] In 1775 an overland expedition, led by Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, of colonial soldiers, missionaries, and settlers was approved by the King of Spain, for a more direct land route to and further colonization of Spanish Alta California.

In 1963, with the participation of delegations from the University of California, Berkeley and UC San Francisco, he was disinterred and reburied in a new marble memorial mausoleum at the same church.

Agriculture is the main economic activity, with farms lying in the valley of the Sonora River.