Juan de Oñate, was the New Spain, born in present-day Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico, first explorer to arrive at the Rio Grande near El Paso (near the current small town of San Elizario, which is about 30 miles downstream of El Paso), where he ordered his expedition party to rest and where a Mass in thanksgiving for reaching the water of the Rio Grande was celebrated, on April 20, 1598.