He was born in Unión de San Antonio, Jalisco and trained at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (National School of Fine Arts) in Mexico City where he studied with Miguel Noreña.[1] Significant monumental sculptures by Guerra include Torture of Cuauhtémoc (1886), which was one of a group of bronze reliefs by various artists cast for the Monument to Cuauhtémoc in Mexico City, and General Carlos Pacheco on commission for the state of Morelos.[1] The former depicts Cuauhtémoc's encounter with Hernán Cortés, and was opened to the public on 21 August 1887 at a total cost of over 97,000 pesos and a total weight of over 11,000 kilograms of bronze.[1] Guerra's work in secular subjects marked a departure from the Biblical themes that had dominated Mexican sculpture of the mid-nineteenth century.[1][4] Guerra's interest in portraying Mexican historic subjects from the perspective of the country's indigenous inhabitants marked him as part of a politically significant liberal artistic movement that was active late in the century.