Sigismundo Taraval was a pioneering Jesuit missionary in Baja California

Baja California

Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

 who left important historical accounts of the peninsula.

Born in Lodi, Lombardy, he served initially as missionary at La Purísima

Misión La Purísima Concepción de Cadegomó

Mission La Purísima, was founded about 100 kilometers west of Loreto in Baja California Sur, by the Jesuit missionary Nicolás Tamaral in 1720. By 1735 it had been moved to a new location at the Cochimí ranchería known as Cadegomó, meaning "arroyo of the carrizos", about 30 kilometers south of the...

 (1730–1732) and San Ignacio

San Ignacio, Baja California Sur

San Ignacio is a palm oasis town in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, located between Guerrero Negro and Santa Rosalía. The town had a 2010 census population of 667 inhabitants and grew at the site of the Cochimí settlement of Kadakaamán and the Jesuit Mission San Ignacio founded in 1728 by...

, among the Cochimí

Cochimi

The Cochimí are the aboriginal inhabitants of the central part of the Baja California peninsula, from El Rosario in the north to San Javier in the south....

. While at San Ignacio, he oversaw the bringing of the inhabitants of Cedros Island

Cedros Island

Cedros Island is a Mexican island in the Pacific Ocean....

 to the mission.

In 1733 he was sent south to found the Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas

Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas

Two names were given in succession to the Jesuit mission at Todos Santos in southern Baja California Sur, Mexico: Santa Rosa de las Palmas, and Nuestra Señora del Pilar de la Paz....

 at the modern site of Todos Santos

Todos Santos, Baja California Sur

Todos Santos is a small coastal town at the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, on the Pacific coast side of the Baja California Peninsula, about an hour's drive north of Cabo San Lucas on Highway 19 and an hour's drive southwest from La Paz. Todos Santos is located very near the Tropic...

. The following year, the local Pericú

Pericúes

The Pericú were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Cape Region, the southernmost portion of Baja California Sur, Mexico...

 and Guaycura

Guaycura

The Guaycura were a native people of Baja California Sur, Mexico, occupying an area extending south from south of Loreto to Todos Santos. They contested the area around La Paz with the Pericú....

 Indians staged a serious revolt against Jesuit rule, and Taraval was forced to flee, first to La Paz

La Paz, Baja California Sur

La Paz is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur and an important regional commercial center. The city had a 2010 census population of 215,178 persons, but its metropolitan population is somewhat larger because of surrounding towns like el Centenario, el Zacatal and San Pedro...

 and then to the island of Espíritu Santo. He wrote a detailed if partisan account of the revolt and its subsequent suppression.

Subsequently Taraval later served at the southern missions of San José del Cabo

Misión Estero de las Palmas de San José del Cabo Añuití

Mission San José del Cabo was the southernmost of the Jesuit missions on the Baja California peninsula, located near the modern city of San José del Cabo in Baja California Sur, Mexico....

 (1736–1746) and Santiago

Misión Santiago de Los Coras

Mission Santiago was founded by the Italian Jesuit Ignacio María Nápoli in 1724 at the native settlement of Aiñiní, about 40 kilometers north of San José del Cabo in the Cape Region of Baja California Sur, Mexico....

 (1747–1750) before leaving the peninsula.

Taraval Street in San Francisco is named after him.