CORRESPONDING SUBJECT PAGE LINKS: Click on the links set out below to the corresponding subject pages that present the annual Kino trail rides by Por Los Caminos de Kino. The corresponding page links are Cabalgatas Section Page, Cabalgatas Page 01 and Cabalgatas Page 02

Cabalgantes of Por Los Caminos de Kino
Sonoita, Arizona

"He explained the cabalgatas [by Por Los Caminos de Kino] as a veneration of Father Kino by retracing his journeys, showing respect for his accomplishments, and continuing their devotion to his cause for sainthood. … These journeys were not just horseback adventures but deeply religious acts, uniting them in a personal way with their exemplary Jesuit in those exact places where he wrought so many extraordinary achievements. To them, Father Kino's legacy was not an abstraction or an academic curiosity but embedded in their everyday lives."

Richard C. Collins
Riding Behind the Padre: Horseback Views from Both Sides of the Border 2014

Por Los Caminos de Kino
Kino Cabalgantes

Por Los Caminos de Kino Multimedia

For video on history of the cabalgatas with pictures of the Kino Missions by Jesus Enrique Salgado, click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmjfgk-2pQE

For information about the Funcación Kino Association and Kino, click http://fundacionkino.blogspot.com/

For other online Kino multimedia  on the website, click Kino Multimedia Online page.

What Por Los Caminos de Kino Signifies
Richard C. Collins 

n 1984, three Salgado brothers from Hermosillo, Sonora—Enrique, Arturo, and José Luis—decided to ride the 150 miles from Hermosillo to Caborca where the family patriarch lived.  Enrique, the oldest, said “we had grown apart, so we made this first ride to become brothers again.”  The next year, the three brothers rode from Father Kino’s home mission of Delores on the San Miguel River to Cerro el Nazareno, overlooking the Sea of Cortes.  Afterward Enrique, an aficionado of Sonora’s colonial history, came up with ingenious idea of annual rides (cabalgatas) to highlight the remarkable accomplishments of pioneering Jesuit priest, Eusebio Francisco Kino, promoting the cause of his sainthood.  And every year since, they have retraced a section Kino’s trails that meander over a vast tract of the Sonoran Desert he called the Pimería Alta after the Pima speaking native people who inhabited the land for thousands of years prior.  

Kino entered the region in 1687, and during the next 24 years the energetic and affable Jesuit established eight missions, ranging from Delores in the east, to Caborca in the west, and San Xavier del Bac (Tucson) in the north.  But Kino was much more than an apostle to the native Pima-speaking people.  He introduced cattle, horses, and wheat.   He discovered a new land route to the Pacific Ocean; he proved that Baja California was a peninsula and not an island; he made maps of the region that guided travelers for the next two hundred years. He was the first large-scale rancher of the southwest.  By 1701, Kino was running 4200 head of cattle and several hundred horses and mules on his mission-based ranches.  Kino was the cowboy missionary, a horseman par excellence, often riding 30 miles a day and more for weeks at a time.  In fact, Cowboy Kino rode so long and hard that his followers had to tie themselves in the saddle to keep from falling from exhaustion.

For several years, my friends Oscar and Lea Ward had invited me to ride, but work on my own ranch, horses, and borderland violence kept getting in the way.  When I finally was able to go I was delighted with the landscapes and the people, as well as the well-mannered, sturdy horses we were given to ride.  I found that the cabalgata was truly a family-based enterprise devoted to the principles of self-reliance, generosity, and compassion as exemplified by Father Kino.  And though not a Catholic, I whole-heartedly endorsed these values.  To a Mexican, family is their most important institution (perhaps even ahead of the church).  Often, family is the only institution they can trust, as I had learned decades ago while working in southern Mexico and Central America.

For decades, Por Los Caminos de Kino has championed the cause of Father Kino’s beatification.  In 1987, they rode the Camino de Diablo over the scorched landscape of the Cabeza Prieta wilderness in order to say midnight mass at the Aguaje de la Luna (Moon Springs) discovered by Kino in 1699.  On another adventure, they retraced Father Kino's ride over the Sierra de la Giganta by crossing the Sea of Cortes on a ferry boat and then rode borrowed mules and horses over the Baja peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. In 2006, they delivered the volumes of research required for beatification to the Vatican and were rewarded by the Church’s naming Kino a Servant of God, the first step in the very long process of canonization. The recent selection of a fellow Jesuit as Pope Frances, a humble servant of the people like Father Kino was, has boosted their hopes. But Saint or no Saint, Father Kino is not an abstraction or an academic curiosity to the Por Los Caminos riders.  Instead, his legacy is deeply embedded into their everyday lives.  

Richard C. Collins
From His Website
Author of "Riding Behind the Padre: Horseback Views from Both Sides of the Border"

Richard's book has been acclaimed as the newest addition tto the classic literature of the Southwest. its was awarded "Topic Pick" by the Southwest Books of the Year for 2014.

For a preview Richard's book and its prolouge and first chapter, click Preview and scroll down.

Following Kino's Trails
Annual Cabalgatas List
1987-2023

Editor Note: References to Expedition Numbers in the last line of each cabalgata are to Bolton's Map Key that identifies Kino's journeys by Expedition Number in last line of each cabalgata ride entry. For expeditions, click Explorer page.

Cabalgata 1
Route: From Dolores to summit of El Nazareno Peak near Gulf of California coast
Ride Date: December 26 - 30, 1987
Comment: Kino's sees mountains of Baja across Gulf of California since leaving Baja
Bolton Map Reference: Expedition 7

Cabalgata 2
From Dolores to Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, Arizona
December 27 - 31, 1988
Santa Cruz River is Kino's superhighway and San Xavier is his northern base of operations
Expedition 2, 4, 5,6, 12, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 34

Cabalgata 3
Through the El Camino de Diablo (The Devil's Highway) from Sonoyta to Yuma, Arizona
December 11 - 15, 1989
Traveling through Camino del Diablo is shortest route to the Colorado River
Expedition 22, 23, 26, 28, 29

Cabalgata 4
Through the Pinacate Volcanic Fields to U.S. - Mexico border
December 15 - 20, 1990
Kino's use old "remote sensing" by viewing the Colorado River delta from mountain peaks
Expedition 22, 27, 29, 35

Cabalgata 5
From Dolores to Bacerac
February 2 - 8, 1992
Trips to superior's missions with Native People asking for missionaries
Expedition 18, 36

Cabalgata 6
Across the Baja Peninsula: Sail to Gulf coast; across Sierra de La Giganta to Pacific coast
December 19 - 23, 1992
Kino among first Europeans to cross the Baja.
Expedition see

Cabalgata 7
Through The Papaguería from Magdalena to Sonoyta along U.S. - Mexico Border
January 11 - 15, 1995
Kino's journey start explorations towards Colorado River
Expedition 22

Cabalgata 8
From Dolores to San José de Guaymas
February 10 - 17, 1996
Kino blazes cattle trail to new port Guaymas to supply the missions in Baja
Expedition 31

Cabalgata 9
Anza Trail from Hermosillo to San Francisco, California
October 12 - December 2, 1996
Kino advocated in reports for a Pacific sea port in California
Expedition: Kino's vision fulfilled

Cabalgata 10
From Pitiquito to Pozo Coyote
January 2 - 6, 1997
Kino discovers Angel Island and that Tiburon is an island
Expedition 32

Cabalgata 11
From Granados to Bacadéhuachi
May 28, 1997
Kino ride to Mexico City: 1,200 miles in 30 days.
Expedition 15

Cabalgata 12
From Moctezuma to Huépac
March 12 - 14, 1998
Kino to the Pimería Alta
Expedition 1

Cabalgata 13
Through the Great Sand Dunes to Colorado River and San Luis
From March 1 - 5, 1999
Kino dream fullfiled. The dunes caused Kino to turn back with Salvatierra from Sonoyta and Father Gonzales from the Colorado River
Expedition 27, 29

Cabalgata 14
From El Fuerte by Alamos to Quiriego
January 17 - 23, 2001
Kino to the Pimería Alta
Expedition 1

Cabalgata 15
From Quiriego to Rebeico
February  4 - 9, 2003
Sonora's Camino Real
Expedition 1, 15

Cabalgata 16
From Dolores to Cocóspera
December 16 - 17, 2004
Part of Kino's mission circuit
Cabalgata celebrated 300th anniversary of dedication of churches at Cocóspera and Remedios.
Expedition: 4, 5, 33, and numerous journeys to Santa Cruz and San Pedro River Valleys

Cabalgata 17
From Rebeico to Mátape
February  9 - 13, 2005
Kino to the Pimería Alta
Expedition 1

Cabalgata 18
From Bacerac to Huásabas
February 9 - 13, 2006
Kino to the Pimería Alta
Expedition 1

Cabalgata 19
Flight from Hermosillo to Italy: Vatican in Rome, Trento and Segno
May 3 - 7, 2006
Expedition: Sainthood for Kino is the dream of every Kino aficianado

Cabalgata 20
From Óputo to San Pedro de la Cueva
December 26 - 30, 2006
Expedition 1, 15

Cabalgata 21
From Sonoyta to Caborca
January 31- February 4, 2008
Expedition 22, 23,24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34
Kino's return trips to and from the Pincate and Colorado River
Account of Cabalgata 21 in Part 1 of "Riding Behind the Padre.. " by Richard Collins.

Cabalgata 22
From Huépac to Hermosillo
January 28 -  February 1, 2009
Expedition 31
Account of Cabalgata 22 in Part 2 of "Riding Behind the Padre.. " by Richard Collins.

Cabalgata 23
San Pedro River from U.S. - Mexico Border to north of Benson
April 6 - 10, 2010
Kino journeys to the Eastern Sobaípuri
Expedition 6, 12, 16, 17, 19, 21
Account of Cabalgata 23 in Part 3 of "Riding Behind the Padre.. " by Richard Collins.

Cabalgata 24
February 4 - February 6, 2011
Gulf of California (Estero Los Tanques) to Caborca
300th Anniversary Year of Kino's Death
Kino begins Caborca mission along with starting to build a ship in the desert.
Expeditions 7, 8, 10 and many trips to Caborca. 
Account of Cabalgata 24 in Part 4 of "Riding Behind the Padre.. " by Richard Collins.

Cabalgata 25
Border Wall in Mexico at San Pedro River to Cocóspera
Kino's major route
March 2012

Cabalgata 26
Tumacácori to San Ignacio & Kino's tomb in Magdalena
December 27, 2013 - December 30, 2103
Kino rides 70 miles / 20 hour save man from execution
Expeditions 26, 5, 6, 12, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 34

Por Los Caminos de Kino Appreciation Day
Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors' Proclamation
December 27, 2013

Riding Behind the Padre
Horseback Views from Both Sides of the Border
Editor Book Review

"Riding Behind the Padre - Horseback Views From Both Sides of the Border" is written by author Richard C. Collins. Richard is a Borderland rancher, PhD scientist and a member of Por Los Caminos de Kino.

In 2008 Richard joined the members of Por Los Caminos de Kino. This group for over a quarter century has retraced on horseback the trails that Padre Kino rode as a missionary, scientist and explorer. These annual rides called cabalgatas are ridden as pilgrimages on horseback to honor Padre Kino.

Richard's lively book engagingly details the many facets of life in the Borderlands of Arizona and Sonora as only one with Richard's love for the land and its people could. His  descriptions, thoughts and musings about the beautiful and sometimes desolate Borderlands are expressed eloquently as he and his cabalgatan compadres take on the adventures of the trail.

As a scientist, Richard worked for an international public health agency in Central America for over 10 years while he and his family lived in the region during its bloody civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s. And, of course, you can tell by Richard's humor and fascinating explanations of ranching life that he has been on a horse rounding up cattle since birth.

As an author, Richard's articles have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Science and Spirit, and SN Review magazines. His essays on ranch land conservation have been twice received recognition by the Environmental Writing Institute at the University of Montana.

This is a must read for those who want to take a personal tour of the Borderlands and get to know its ecology, history and culture - past and present. It is also for those who believe that the legacy of Padre Kino can once more unite the the people of the Borderlands with sensible approaches to border issues.

In 2015 the New Mexico Book Co-Op with its 1,500 authors and publishers voted Richard's book best in the category of political, social and current event writing.

Richard's book also was awarded "Topic Pick" by the Southwest Books of the Year for 2014.

The book's website, like Richard's book itself, is a feast for those who are interested in the vibrant and enchanting Borderlands. For more information, click Richard C. Collins. 

For a preview of Richard's book and its prolouge and first chapter, click Preview and scroll down. 

Mark O'Hare
Website Editor
Kino Historical Society

Update October 2023
If you want to know about the real life and work of today's ranchers in the American West, do not miss Richard Collins 2019 book  "Cowboy is a Verb: Notes from a Modern-Day Rancher." It is a fun and enlightening read.

Jesús Enrique Salgado Bojórquez (1946-2022)
Beginning of First Ride at Site of Mission Dolores (top photo)

Jesus Enrique Salgado Bojórquez (1946-2022)
April 3, 2020
Facebook Post

JESUS ENRIQUE SALGADO BOJÓRQUEZ (1946-2022). The Kino Community Mourns This Great Man's Death and Remembers His Life - Key Promoter of Kino's Sainthood, Founder of Kino Cabalgatas, Community and Business Leader of Sonora. "Si se pudiera describir a Enrique Salgado en una sola palabra, yo dijera INTEGRIDAD." (If you could described Enrique Salgado in one word, it would be INTEGRITY). On the news of his death last week after a long illness, many more people would write in similar way describing Enrique and how he lived his life.

Like Padre Kino, Enrique was a man of great moral and physical courage. He also was a man of generosity, hope and vision who stroved to better Sonora and its people that he loved and sacrificed so much for. Enrique's funeral Mass was on the anniversary of Kino's death as determined by the Catholic liturgical calendar. Kino died on the movable calendar Sunday of Laetare Sunday (4th Sunday of Lent). The theme of Laetare Sunday is hope and joy - a very different emphasis than the season of Lent's general observance as a time reflection and repentance. Laetare Sunday was an appropriate time for both Enrique and Padre Kino to depart from us since they were men with great hope and joy for life.

The Kino Community living outside of Mexico primarily knew Enrique for his Kino activities and as a devoted family man. Of course there was much more to his life that you can read below in this post.  

Enrique in 1987 founded and led the Kino Cabalgatas. For 30 years Enrique's family, friends and Kino aficionados would annually ride for over 30 years the trails of Kino on a pilgrimage on horseback in honor of our heroic padre. These "living history" Kino Cabalgatas by Los Caminos de Kino were physically grueling 3 to 4 day trips on horseback through some of the harshest of mountain and desert environments in the states of Sonora, the Baja Californias, Sinaloa and Arizona. Most of the rides would average 20 miles per day on rugged trails.

Enrique and his brother wrote about the cabalgatas from 1987 to 2010 in their book "Por Los Caminos de Kino." Also Enrique is interviewed in 2011 on an online video with route maps and pictures at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmjfgk-2pQE

The Kino Cabalgatas after 2010 are written about in the book by Southern Arizona rancher and environmental scientist Richard C. Collins in "Riding Behind The Padre: Horseback Views From Both Sides of the Border." Richard's book, originally written in English, is translated in Italian and Spanish with a dedication to Enrique. More about the book at https://www.richardccollins.com/riding-index

More about the Kino Cabalgatas online with maps of the routes at https://padrekino.com/index.php/khs_home/kino-heritage/kino-cabalgatas-section-page-caminos-de-kino

Enrique also was a key person in the promoting the sainthood cause of Padre Kino and its reaching the second sainthood stage by Kino being name venerable in August 2020. Enrique with others collected and delivered to the Vatican in 2006 over 150 pounds of documentation in support of Padre Kino's sainthood cause. Enrique's leadership in the early 2000s made this happened after 20 years of stops and starts. Kino's sainthood cause was begun when Kino's skeletal remains were found in Magdalena in 1967.  More about Enrique and Kino's sainthood cause at http://padrekino.com/index.php/khs_home/kino-heritage/sainthood-cause

You can read about Enrique's life as a devoted family man, successful business man and runner up candidate in the 1997 election for the governor of Sonora at the blog of María Antonieta Mendívil at https://quidsonora.com/fallece-jesus-enrique-salgado.../

Also read the twitter comments describing Enrique's life on the twitter account of Roberto F. Salmon C. at https://twitter.com/robertosalmon

I hope in this small way I give some justice to the memory of the life and work of this great man - Jesus Enrique Salgado Bojórquez.

"Dear Enrique, 'May the angels lead you into paradise ... may you have eternal rest' as you join Padre Kino on the trail. You will always remain in our hearts."
April 3, 2020
#padrekino

Links updated October 2024
Additional link: For 2011 video interview of Enrique Salgado on the history of the Por Los Caminos de Kino cabalgatas with pictures of the Kino Missions click, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmjfgk-2pQE