User:JohnFrum1441/Mormon colonies in Mexico

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Evacuation and return

The anti-foreign sentiment of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 made life there for the Latter-day Saint colonists difficult, with many threats to their lives and property; the colonists returned to the United States. With the absence of American LDS leaders, many indigenous Mexicans, who were proselytized during the Revolution, assumed leadership duties until the violence ceased around 1920. When it was decided it was safe, less than one-quarter of the previous LDS population re-settled to Mexico; most of the refugees returned to their Utah and Arizona colonies of origin. Upon returning to Mexico, the American LDS leaders arrived to find that the Mormon church was still intact and operating in Mexico. The Mexican Latter-day Saints' colonies did not return to their previous success due to the poor living conditions and farming land. Only two colonies remain: Colonia Dublán and Colonia Juárez.

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Fundamentalist Indigenous Leaders

While there were many excommunicated Mormons who fled to Mexico for practicing plurality, there were also groups in Mexico, led by indigenous religious leaders, who were also excommunicated for practicing plurality. Margarito Bautista is one such example who was excommunicated and founded his own polygamist commune in Ozumba named The Colonia Industrial Mexicana Nueva Jerusalen which still has over one thousand members.

Mexican Mormon contributions to Mexico

An important facet, for practicing Latter Day Saints, of their religion is literacy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believed it paramount that its members were able to read and understand the texts they were following. Prior to the establishment and development of the public education system in Mexico, the Church of Latter-day Saints began to establish schools in their Anglo-American colonies in Mexico while Indigenous led educational initiatives in Central Mexico existed before direct Church intervention. Bernabe Parra of San Marcos, Hidalgo established the first school for LDS Mexicans in Central Mexico in 1944 which grew to 211 students in 1959.

Bernabe Parra and the Héroes de Chapúltepec School

Bernabe Parra built a sizeable community of Mormons in his home town of San Marcos, located in Hidalgo, Mexico. Bernabe Parra recognized the need for local education for families in his area, as not many had the resources to send their children to schools in other established Mormon colonies and many were functionally illiterate. The first school Parra established was confined to the walls of his personal home and taught a class of six students in 1944. By December of 1944, the school would grow to eighteen students. Parra recognized the need for more space and petitioned the Church of Latter Day Saints for them to be brought into the fold of their school system. The Church denied this request, so Parra purchased a plot of land and donated it to be used as the site of the official school building. The school would continue to see growth, in both students and teachers, until 1957 when they would officially rename the school to the "Héroes de Chapúltepec". The "Héroes de Chapúltepec" would become the school model that the Church of Latter Day Saints would follow for their new educational initiatives in Mexico.