Juan de Ugarte, S.J., (1662–1730) was a Jesuit missionary and explorer in Baja California Sur, New Spain, and the successor to Juan María de Salvatierra as head of the peninsula's missions. Ugarte was born in Tegucigalpa, then in the Kingdom of Guatemala, part of New Spain, today Honduras. He went to Mexico to enter the Society of Jesus in 1679. His younger brother, Pedro de Ugarte, was also a Jesuit missionary in Baja California. After his ordination, he was assigned to teach philosophy at the Colegio Máximo de San Pedro y San Pablo in Mexico City. It was there that he came to know two fellow Jesuits coming from Europe who were headed to the missions on the frontier of the Spanish Empire, the Italian Salvatierra and the Italo-German Eusebio Kino. Through conversing with them, Ugarte chose