The Battle of Arivaca, Arizona: January 5, 1752

Close up on the battle scene between Indigenous forces and Spanish soldiers from a depiction of the 1720 Villasur Expedition of the New Mexico History Museum’s Segesser Hide Paintings.

The Battle of Arivaca, Arizona takes place in the early morning of January 5, 1752, between the Spanish colonial military and O’odham forces under Don Luis Oacpicagigua.

(For further background and context of this battle, see Tumacacori NHP’s synopsis of the 1751 Pima Uprising here.)

One of the primary source documents describing the battle by a participant is the journal of Captain Bernardo de Urrea, the commander of the Spanish cavalry on that day over 200 hundred years ago. Today, that document can be found in Seville, Spain’s Archivo General de Indias. 

The following is an English translation by Don Garate, former historian, and chief of interpretation at Tumacacori National Historical Park of the battle of Arivaca entry:

Aerial view of modern Arivaca, Arizona.

Soldado de Cuera, Jose Cardero, 1791 - Museo de América

January 5, 1752 - The said Don Luis [O’odham military commander], with all his troops, charged with such force and fury and crushing hostility that it was necessary for us to go on the defensive against the enemy. 

Forty-three of the enemy were left dead in their advance and the rest retreated to a hill. We took one prisoner who plead with us not to kill him while, at the same time, he threw down his arms and headdress of feathers. When he was brought forward, it was ordered that he be tied. After he was secured he was placed with the other two [Indians] and left as a forward bulwark with the [enemy's] horses that had been killed in the charge. 

When it got to be daylight the aforementioned Captain General Don Luis Oacpicagigua retreated…..of which there were about two thousand. After the said insurgents had made their retreat to the hill, two of us, Don Bernardo de Urrea and Don Joseph Fontes, accompanied by Don Joseph Moraga, [who is] fluent in the Pima language, went to the foot of the hill.

 

There, after Captain General Don Luis had come down the hill a short distance, we spoke with him and admonished him in the name of the Lord Governor to come down in peace, notwithstanding the fact that His Lordship had already pardoned him. 

Depiction of an O’odham warrior by Wade Cox via Tumacacori NHP.

To this the said Don Luis replied that he did not want to come down in peace. He was given to understand that one of the three [of us] was Don Bernardo de Urrea, godfather at the confirmation of the said Don Luis and his wife. 

He responded that he did not want to come down in peace, that [Urrea] was a liar, and that he was not his godfather. [He said] that he wanted nothing more to do with the Tubutama River [Valley] that already had no Pimas to plant [its farmlands]. [He said] that we would see what there was to eat because already there are neither wheat, corn nor beans being cultivated. In anger he told us that we could do it if we were there. And, he called us mulatos, coyotes, and other indecent things, and then climbed back up to where his people were. 

In sight of him, we returned to our camp, where we met with all our officers and decided to move back to gain better ground and, at the same time, see if the enemy would follow us. After having marched about a half of a league we arrived at a pass that lead into bad terrain with some hills that were incommodious for us but advantageous for the enemy to communicate with each other. When the rearguard, that had taken up their position at the hill where we were before, arrived at this pass, the [rebels] again fought us in a second battle.

1791 Illustration of a soldado de cuera on horseback from the Museo Naval in Madrid.

Notwithstanding the ruggedness of the aforementioned pass which caused a great impediment for managing our horses and arms, in light of which Captain General Don Luis came close to attack us on the road, we killed three of them. Among these was Cipriano, son of the referred to Captain General Don Luis and one of the chiefs of the said rebels. With these deaths they demonstrated immense sorrow, with crying and other signs of sadness, leaving behind at the said place seven horses with their blankets. These were ordered to be gathered into our caballada [horse herd]. 

Our camp attained complete victory, considering the fact that the enemy had not attained as much as the death of any one of us. Nor was there anything left in their power from our camp -- not a hat, cloak, firearm, or any of the least of the things with which the enemy could derive a minimum of pleasure or comfort. In light of this, we gathered the said officers together and conferred as to what was the most profitable [thing to do], considering that we had attained complete victory and broken the pride and haughtiness of the enemy.

Soldados de Cuera on the trail returning to San Ignacio de Caborica.

We returned to this village of San Ignacio, considering the fact that the caballada [horse herd] had been sorely mistreated and the said place is a long way from here. Indeed, it is more than fifty leagues distant from this village. And, had we remained at the said place, the enemy could have fallen on our camp and abused our King's and Lord's army due to our lack of [a fresh] caballada [horse herd]. Furthermore, the loyal Indians had lost [one of their companions], the Indian Nicolás, among the rebels.

Source:

Diary of Bernardo de Urrea

General Archive of the Indies | Guadalajara 419, 3M-20

(Translation by Donald T. Garate)

https://www.nps.gov/tuma/learn/historyculture/bernardo-de-urrea.htm