[1] He was a supporter of the Centralist Republic of Mexico, and was strongly opposed to the United States, which took control of the northern part of his diocese in 1846, due to its tolerance of faiths other than Catholicism.

Zubiría taught at the seminary of Durango, and many of his pupils went on to become secular priests in New Mexico, including padre Antonio José Martinez of Taos, Manuel Gallegos of Albuquerque and vicar Juan Felipe Ortiz of Santa Fe.

Bishop Zubiria first visited New Mexico, an area that is now the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, in the summer of 1833, travelling with a chaplain, a secretary and a guard.

[5] A (Protestant) observer said of his visit to Santa Fe, ...the streets were swept, the roads and bridges on the route repaired and decorated; and from every window in the city there hung such a profusion of fancy curtains and rich cloths that the imagination was carried back to those glowing descriptions of enchanted worlds which one reads of in the fables of necromancers.

[7] He found that the Pueblo Indians had made their own version of the Catholic faith in which Jesus Christ was just one god among several, and the purpose of the Christmas and Holy week ceremonies was in part to ensure good harvests.

In September 1834 he wrote to Colonel Blas de Hinojos, the military commander of New Mexico, praising him for his decision to support the centralist Plan of Cuernavaca.

However, Juan Felipe Ortiz, who was responsible for administration of the New Mexico church, told Lamy that he and the local clergy remained loyal to Bishop Zubiría, who had visited Santa Fe a few months earlier.