Eusebio Francisco Kino and the Mission San Xavier del Bac

The earliest Europeans came to what is now called Arizona in about 1528. To get a little perspective, that was 79 years before the settlement of the Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony in 1607. The first European was probably Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who traveled by foot from the vicinity of modern day Florida all across the southern part of the continent, ending up in Mexico City. He was followed by Fry Marcos de Niza and later by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. However, the real exploration and settlement of the area began with the efforts of Eusebio Francisco Kino born Eusebio Francesco Chini in what is now Italy on August 10, 1645. Most of these names are very familiar to those of us who have lived in Arizona for a long time because they have been used to name the grade schools, middle schools and high schools around Mesa and Phoenix. But there are very few who know anything about this early history.

Arizona is currently undergoing a huge controversy about "illegal aliens." But to put some things in perspective, what is now called Arizona has had native born Spanish speaking residents since 200 years before there ever was a United States of America.

Here is a short summary of some of Padre Kino's accomplishments from Wikipedia:

A widely known fact about Kino now is that he fought hard for the rights of the various indigenous Sonoran tribes and their individual members. His conviction for his fight came from his humanitarian values and were proscribed by the Spanish Crown in the Laws of the Indies (Leyes de Indias). He opposed the slavery and compulsory hard labor in the silver mines that the Spaniards forced on native people. This also caused great controversy among his co-missionaries, many of whom acted according to the laws imposed by Spain on their territory. Father Kino was also a writer, authoring books on religion, astronomy and maps. He built missions extending from present day states of Mexican Sonora - northeast for 150 miles (240 km) - into U.S. Arizona. There the Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, a popular National Historic Landmark, is still functioning as a Franciscan Catholic parish church. He constructed nineteen rancherías (villages), which supplied cattle to new settlements. He was also instrumental in the return of the Jesuits to Baja California in 1697.