Velarde was born in Valladolid, Spain on August 25, 1677, and entered the Society of Jesus on April 20, 1697.
[2] By 1708, Velarde was serving at Mission La Purísima Concepción de Caborca.
[1] Anthropologist Thomas Sheridan describes Velarde as "tall, deaf, and prone to heat stroke ... not much of an explorer.
[4] He described their practice of raising scarlet macaws:[5] There are also birds of almost every kind or species as in the rest of New Spain.
At San Xavier del Bac and neighboring rancherías there are many macaws that the Pimas raise for their beautiful red feathers — and other colors, similar to those of the peacock — which they pluck during the spring for their adornment.Velarde wrote that between 1725 and 1729,[6] 57 marriages have been celebrated in facie ecclesiae for the natives from the villages of Santa María and Guevavi and their adjacent rancherías.