Founded on October 10, 1750, the city of Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Mexico, was originally named Villa de Señor San Ignacio de Loyola de Revillagigedo.  Conscious of the two most powerful institutions of eighteenth-century Spain--church and state, Don Vicente Guerra and the other forty-three founding families not only named the town after the Spanish founder of the Jesuit order (Ignacio de Loyola), but also in honor of the current viceroy of Nueva España, Juan Francisco Guemez y Horcasitas, First Count of Revillagigedo (1746-1755).  Mercifully shortened to Revilla, the settlement's name remained until 1827 when the town's leaders decided to rename it in honor of Mexico's second democratically-elected president, Vicente Guerrero.

In order to ward off foreign intrusion into New Spain's far northern frontier, the Crown authorized José de Escandón to organize the settlement of the Seno Mexicano, which consisted of the Rio Grande plains and much of the present-day state of Tamaulipas.  One of twenty-two settlements established by Escandón between 1748 and 1755, Revilla was relocated two more times until its founders were satisfied with its new location in 1753 near the confluence of the Rio Salado and the Rio Grande.

In return for royal land grants, called porciones, Revilla's citizens braved numerous hardships such as heat and drought to Lipan Indian raids.  Their source of livelihood  centered on the raising of livestock--principally sheep , goats, mules, horses, and cattle--which allowed them to engage in the hide and tallow trade.  In the nineteenth century, Guerrero's population reached approximately 10,000 as it became one of the principal cultural and trade centers of northern Mexico and southern Texas.  Texas revolutionary Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara was one of Guerrero's most prominent citizens.

Guerrero Viejo's influence began to wane after the railroad bypassed it in favor of Nuevo Laredo in the late 1880s.  The violence, bloodshed, and dislocations associated with the Mexican Revolution (1911-1917) further weakened the integrity of the town.  Many prominent families fled to the United States in an attempt to flee the disorder.  Guerrero managed to survive until 1954 when the United States and Mexico finished the construction of Falcon Dam across the Rio Grande.  The rising waters forced the remaining residents of that proud community to relocate to Guerrero Nuevo.  Others moved to Nuevo Laredo, Laredo, and Zapata.  Today, the ghost of a former vibrant community still stands on the banks of a dried-up Rio Salado as a mute testimony to the remarkable resilience of a proud, pioneering people.