Juan de Ugarte

Ugarte was born in Tegucigalpa, then in the Kingdom of Guatemala, part of New Spain, today Honduras.

His younger brother, Pedro de Ugarte, was also a Jesuit missionary in Baja California.

It was there that he came to know two fellow Jesuits coming from Europe who were headed to the missions on the frontier of the Spanish Empire, the Italian Salvatierra and the Italo-German Eusebio Kino.

Ugarte led several expeditions of overland exploration to seek out mission or visita sites in the region surrounding San Javier.

[citation needed] In September 1720, Ugarte sailed his new ship from Loreto to La Paz to help found a new mission there.