National Hispanic Heritage Month – Pedro Aguirre, Jr. Transportation Pioneer

Pedro Aguirre, Jr., was one of the most influential and important Hispanic-American transportation pioneers in the southwestern United States during the 19^th century. He was born in 1835 in the Mexican city of Chihuahua. Aguirre became heavily involved in transportation services after he moved with his family to Las Cruces in what was then the U.S. territory of New Mexico in 1852. It was there that Pedro Aguirre, Sr., made arrangements for Pedro, Jr., and his brothers Epifanio, Conrado, and Yjinio to jointly run a freighting business along the Santa Fe Trail. For a few years, they used stagecoaches to deliver various goods on that pivotal transportation route between New Mexico and Missouri. 

Sometime around 1859, the Aguirres ended up further west in the section of the New Mexico Territory. (This section of the New Mexico territory became part of the Arizona Territory in 1863.) It was in that part of the world that the Aguirres established a new freighting business between the vicinity of Tucson and points south.

As the region grew in population and prosperity in the ensuing years due in large part to local mining operations, Pedro Aguirre, Jr., sought to further enhance transportation options. In the 1870s, he launched the Arizona & Sonora Stage Line to carry mail and other goods as well as passengers to settlements and mining areas between Tucson and the town of Altar in the northwestern Mexico state of Sonora. Aguirre, who provided that stagecoach service until selling it in 1886, ultimately left a strong and far-reaching freight operations legacy in what is now the Grand Canyon State.     For more information on Pedro Aguirre, Jr., and other Hispanic-American pioneers in the southwestern United States during the 19^th century, please check out  http://www.ringbrothershistory.com/bobsprojects/azstar/84%20%20July%2018,%202013%20%20Tucson%27s%20Mexican%20Pioneers.pdf.