Juan Nepomuceno Machado is considered to be the father of the Mexican community of Mazatlan. He was a merchant from the Philippines who traded in fabric, pearls and silver. He settled on the coast of Sinaloa in 1829 where there were fishing villages and established a business financing pearl divers. He expanded into financing the reopening of mines in two towns Concordia, Sinaloa and San Jose de Copala in the Sierra Madre which had begun over a hundred years before. He left much of his fortune to help build the churches and municipal parks and buildings in the town of Mazatlan.