Fray Garcia de San Francisco, El Paso

The statue of Fray García de San Francisco honors the Franciscan friar who established the first permanent mission in the Paso del Norte region in 1659. Born in Spain, he came to New Spain in 1629 and later moved north. On December 8, 1659, he founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission, located across the Rio Grande in present-day Ciudad Juárez. At the time, the entire area was known simply as Paso del Norte, long before the modern international boundary existed.

The 14-foot bronze sculpture presents Fray García in a traditional Franciscan habit. Instead of a cross, he carries a wooden lintel beam inscribed with the mission’s name and the year 1659, directly referencing its foundation. At his feet rests a basket of grapes, symbolizing the introduction of European crops and viticulture to the region. The larger-than-life scale reflects the sculptor’s intention to emphasize the friar’s lasting influence on settlement and survival in this frontier landscape.

The monument is the first sculpture in the XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest, created by John Sherrill Houser and dedicated in 1996. Set in an open plaza, the statue connects the seventeenth-century mission era with the later development of the borderlands under Spanish rule and, eventually, the United States.