On 29 July 1776, Franciscan friars Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestro Velez de Escalante embarked on an expedition to seek an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California.
The tradition of home shrines first began evolving in the American Southwest during the Mexican colonial period, when priests often traveled to homes to perform mass, novenas, baptisms, and marriages,
