Oquitoa is a small town surrounded by Oquitoa Municipality in the northwest of the Mexican

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

Etymology

One theory is that the name Oquitoa means "white woman" in the Piman language. Another, taken from the 1910 publication "New Trails in Mexico" by Karl Lumholtz is that the name Oquitoa is taken from the O'odham or Piman Phrase, Hukit'o, "next to" or "nearby"(Lumholtz, p. 391, 1990) in reference to the nearby San Ignacio river. Louis Alphonse Pinart's Vocabulario de la Lengua Papaga, 1897, collected in Pitiquito Sonora Mexico from Trinidad Peralta and the Papago governor, Mattias Parra of the Papago community of Pitiquito corroborates Lumholtz's definition of Oquitoa as "hukit'o" Oks Toha, or Oquitoa as defined by the first theory as white woman, literally means 'woman white' that even in the structure of Piman grammar is awkward and is therefore highly unlikely.

History

Mission San Antonio Paduano de Oquitoa was founded in 1689 by the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary

Eusebio Kino Eusebio Francisco Kino, Jesuits, SJ (, ; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was an Italian Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer, mathematician and astronomer born in the Prince-Bishopric of Tre ...

. As a Jesuit mission, it was at various times a of Tubutama or

Átil Atil (also Átil) is a small town in Atil Municipality in the northwest of the List of states of Mexico, Mexican state of Sonora. The total area is 400.43 km² and the population of the municipality was 734 in 2005, of whom 699 lived in the ...

; later, under the Franciscans, it was an independent mission. The church apparently had a facelift by the Franciscans between 1788 and 1797, and was restored in 1920.Tumacacori NHP: Mission Oquitoa
/ref> Today, it is the only still-used church in the region of Jesuit (pre-1767) construction. Oquitoa is considered by many to be the gem of the Kino missions. This simple adobe hall church stands atop a small hill in the midst of the village cemetery

Missionaries stationed at Oquitoa included Francisco Moyano (1795–?), Matías Creo (1813–?), and Juan Maldonado (1831).

Health and education

There were only two primary schools and one doctor in a small health clinic in 2000

Economic activity

Agriculture covered 901 hectares (2000), most of which were not irrigated. Main crops are alfalfa, beans, corn and the production of fodder for the cattle industry

Cattle raising was carried out by most of the work force (2000).

References

Enciclopedia de los Municipios de Mexico

INEGI

External links

{{coord, 30, 44, N, 111, 44, W, type:city, display=title Missions in Sonora Populated places established in 1689 Populated places in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico 1689 establishments in New Spain Jesuit history in North America