San Ángel Custodio

The municipality of Batopilas is located in the heart of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with a small portion of its territory bordering the state of Sinaloa. Its municipal seat, also called Batopilas—a name derived from an indigenous term meaning 'narrow or enclosed river'—was founded as a mining settlement in 1708 under the name San Pedro de Acanasiana, following the discovery of silver deposits by Pedro de la Cruz.

Following the course of the river south of the town, a little over a league—about seven kilometers—stands the imposing structure of the former Mission of the Holy Guardian Angel of Satevó, surrounded by a few scattered houses. Jesuit presence in this area predates the mining boom: in 1698, the missionary Martín Benavides, S.J., recorded the existence of the town of Satevó, which had 40 families, although it still lacked a church and a residence for the priest.

It was after the expulsion of the Jesuits that the Franciscans from the Colegio de Propaganda Fide of Guadalupe, in Zacatecas, resumed evangelization. The current church of Satevó, built with clay brick, was constructed in 1781 by this order. It is a Latin cross–plan temple, with a circular apse, chapels at the crossing, a baptistry, and a sacristy. Its sober and symmetrical façade contrasts with the dynamic movement of the vaults and curves of the temple’s structure; a three-story tower stands out. The use of red brick, a local material, reflects ancestral knowledge in its production and the application of construction techniques adapted to the environment. The result is a temple of great uniqueness among the Franciscan missions in the state of Chihuahua, whose monumentality recalls the missions of the Sierra Gorda in Querétaro or even those in Alta California, United States, built by the Franciscans. The temple bears witness to a complex history of evangelization, conflict, abandonment, and perseverance.