In an attempt to earn my keep around here <g>, this is the first of a series of posts on the Church in Mexico and South Texas.

In 1901 the First Presidency reopened the Mexican Mission for proselytizing after about 12 years.  In the early decades of the 20th century, American missionary activities in Mexico sputtered due largely to political instability.  In 1912-1913, because of hostilities attending the Mexican Revolution, American Mormon missionaries in Central Mexico as well as Mormon colonists in Northern Mexico fled to the United States.  In 1915 mission president Rey L. Pratt set up his headquarters in Colorado and began working with Spanish-speaking people in the United States.  In 1921 the Church began again to send American missionaries to Mexico until 1926 when the Mexican government passed a law prohibiting non-native missionaries.  The Americans were forced to retreat once more.  In the meantime, however, work with Spanish-speaking people in the United States was highly successful. With the departure of American leadership, Pratt set apart Isaias Juarez as district president with Abel Paez and Bernabe Parra as counselors.  These men became the principle church leadership in Mexico.Rey Pratt kept up correspondence with local leaders of the Church in Mexico and shepherded them from a far.  On occasion, Pratt even visited the saints in Mexico, taking care not to conduct meetings or officiate in any way so as to avoid trouble with Mexican law.  When Pratt died suddenly in 1931, the First Presidency called Antoine R. Ivins, son of Apostle Anthony W. Ivins, as president of the Mexican Mission.  Unlike Pratt, it seems that Ivins did not correspond with the Mexican saints and did not visit.  Concerned about the gap in communication, the dearth of Spanish-language materials, and other matters, some of the Mexican Saints came together in what have been called the First and Second Conventions.  In these Conventions, Mexican leaders wrote two letters or petitions to Church authorities.  Amongst other things, these members asked for a native Mexican mission president that could act legally in the country.  Their first letter was met with silence and the second brought no less than a visit from Apostle Melvin J. Ballard and President Antoine R. Ivins who chastised the saints for failing to understand Church order.  Ivins encouraged the saints to support the decisions of their file leaders and that in due time the Lord would provide answers for their concerns.  For the next three years the district presidency effectively ran Church affairs in Mexico while Ivins directed missionary efforts among Spanish speaking peoples in the United States.

In 1934 Harold Pratt became the new president of the Mexican Mission.  Pratt had been born in the Mormon Colonies and used his Mexican citizenship to register with government authorities as a minister.  Pratt set out to regulate the affairs of the Church in Mexico.  Pratt’s eagerness to throw himself into the work actually seemed to have a detrimental effect on his relationship with local church leaders.  Having grown accustomed to effectively running the Church, Pratt’s close management style felt intrusive.  On top of that, Pratt was still not one of them, not a Mexican, that is. [More on this point in a future post]. Pratt soon realized that there was work enough between Mexico and the United States for two missions and put in a request that the mission be divided between Mexico and the United States.  The Mexican Saints hoped that the division would lead to the calling of their hoped-for native Mission President.  The mission was divided in 1936.  North of the border it became the Spanish-American Mission. South it remained the Mexican Mission and Harold Pratt remained as President.

I think it’s important to note that this traditional chronology is highly Anglo-centric and by no means did the Church in Mexico shut down because there were no Americans.  Lamond Tullis’ Mormons in Mexico: The Dynamics of Faith and Culture has provided a good start toward understanding the experience of the Church in Mexico from the perspective of the Mexican Saints including during times when American missionaries were absent.  As my academic work progresses, I hope to expand on his work and provide fresh perspectives on the history and culture of Mexican Latter-day Saints within larger national and cultural trends. In my next post, I will share some recently discovered information about the beginnings of the Church in the small town of San Benito in South Texas–then part of the Spanish-American Mission.

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This is a summary of information found in Jessie L. Embry, “In His Own Language”: Mormon Spanish Speaking Congregations in the United States; Lamond Tullis, Mormons in Mexico: The Dynamics of Faith and Culture; and the Manuscript History of the Mexican Mission, LDS Church Archives.