The huasteca region in northeastern Mexico covers sections of the six states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Querétaro. Its boundaries are approximately the following: to the north the river Soto la Marina, known in the sixteenth century as the Rio de las Palmas; to the south the Rio Cazones; to the east the Gulf of Mexico and to the west the mountainous section of the eastern Sierra Madre.The Christian conversion of the Huasteca began, no doubt, in 1518 with the expedition of Juan de Grijalva, who actually sailed as far north as Tuxpan and Tamiahua in the Huastec region of the state of Veracruz. John Diaz, a priest, accompanied this expedition. In 1519 Francisco de Garay, then in Jamaica, sent Alonso Alvarez de Pineda to Tampico and the Río Panuco, where he stayed some time and made contact with the Huastecs who belong to the great Maya family.
