In the end, will it be us, the Mexicans and all the other aborigines who are scattered throughout Mexico and down to Central and South America, the ones who in the latter days will have the right to become the greatest because of our birthright for which our forefathers shed so much blood?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
~Margarito Bautista[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is part 12 of a history series in connection with the Mexican Mission Hymns project<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Juana and Margarito Bautista were early converts who moved north to the colonies in northern Mexico and remained there for several years. Juana (1882 – 1984) was a faithful member of the Church and missionary throughout her life. Her older brother, Margarito (1878 – 1961), became an influential member in Mexico, writing the largest single contribution to Latter-day Saint literature by an individual with indigenous ancestry to date. His commitment to Mexican nationalism and Mormon fundamentalism, however, would eventually lead him into conflict with the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n Margarito was the first to come in contact with the Church. Juana recalled that: \u201cThe Elders would go visit him. \u2026 I was delighted that the missionaries visited my brother\u2026 because I could listen to the gospel that they taught him \u2026 from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I felt great joy.\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a> Even though a priesthood blessing from the missionaries healed Margarito from a severe illness, their parents opposed them being baptized. Finally, however, Juana was baptized on November 15, 1901. The rest of their family eventually followed.<\/p>\n Both Juana and Margarito were powerful public speakers. Juana recalled that:<\/p>\n The Mission President [Ammon M. Tenny] said that if any person had a verse from the Bible or the Book of Mormon that they would like to touch upon, to raise their hand. I quickly raised my hand, and I was granted permission to speak. [Thereafter,] I would study the Bible and the Book of Mormon all of the time so that I would be ready to speak again the following Sunday, then again the Sunday after\u2013I spoke every Sunday. It was heard throughout the families [in the community] that I spoke at the meetings. When the Branch was organized, only two families attended [our church]. But soon there was not enough room in the meeting place for all of the people, because they would all come to hear me speak.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ammon Tenney wrote in his journal that when Juana spoke \u201cher face glowed with an unseen Power, her cheeks were crimsoned with red & her eyes sparkled & snapped as under the greatest emotion. \u2026 She seemed wrought upon by some unseen Power to the astonishment of her father & mother.\u201d He added in a later entry that: \u201cThe son & daughter of the man & woman are the foremost in the defense of the Gospell and never loose an opportunity \u2026 to bear a faithful Testimony. Their names are Margarito & Juana Bautista.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Juana married Jos\u00e9 Medina Z\u00fa\u00f1iga in 1903, then moved north to the colonies to join Margarito, who had moved there previously. Jos\u00e9 had been among the saints who had participated in the attempt at gathering in the north. Together, they were instrumental in establishing a Spanish-speaking branch in Colonia Dubl\u00e1n. When the Mexican Revolution erupted in 1910, however, Jos\u00e9 was conscripted by Pancho Villa\u2019s men and both he and Margarito fled the country to avoid fighting the Villistas\u2019 battles. Their families followed after and they settled first in Mesa, Arizona and then in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jos\u00e9 found steady employment for three decades there as a janitor at the Salt Lake City Z.C.M.I. store and Juana and Margarito worked together to share the gospel with the Mexican diaspora in Utah.<\/p>\n The way that they did their missionary work was to prepare meals that they shared at Pioneer Park. Simon Z\u00fa\u00f1iga (Juana\u2019s son) noted that when they started, the park was a popular destination \u201cwhere many Mexican families would go on their weekends and enjoy their picnics with their families.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a> After the meals, they held an informal worship service. The idea caught on, and the group grew. As a result, the Church organized the \u201cLocal Mexican Mission\u201d and called Margarito as the mission president.[6]<\/sup><\/a> Later, in recalling his missionary efforts, Margarito wrote that:<\/p>\n In [1901], when for the first time I heard of God \u2026 I [began] to preach the gospel. We establish[ed] a mission in my own State, M\u00e9xico [D.F.]. In 1905, we establish[ed] a mission in the State of Chihuahua. In Colonia Dubl\u00e1n there was no meeting house for the Mexican people, until we establish[ed] the Mission. In 1910\u201313, I establish[ed] a Branch at Mesa, Aerizona. \u2026 In 1915 I establish[ed] the [Mexican] mission in the State of Utah, from Provo to Garland. There is a meeting house for the Mexican people there now.[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In 1922, however, Margarito was called as a family history missionary to central Mexico. Juana and her family stayed in Salt Lake City until 1946, when they moved back to Mexico, then to Texas.<\/p>\n During his time as a genealogical missionary in Mexico in 1922-1924, Margarito was deeply impressed with the changes that had come about as a result of the Mexican Revolution in freeing Mexicans to run their own lives and institutions. As he would later write: \u201cMy surprise can be illustrated this way: As soon as I boarded the train in Ciudad Juar\u00e9z, I immediately noticed something unusual\u2013A Mexican conductor was in charge of the train. I soon found others carrying out different responsibilities, all of them of Mexican nationality.\u201d[8]<\/sup><\/a> He imbibed the atmosphere of nationalism and began to fuse that Mexican nationalism with his understanding of Lamanite identity. He started preaching this doctrinal fusion, visiting the various wards and branches of central Mexico to do so, until he was released in 1924. Euro-American Church leaders had become concerned about what he was saying and doing (including some sermons where he preached about polygamy), and so did not give him any further callings in the Church. In order to continue to share his ideas, though, Margarito wrote and published a 600-page tome called La evoluci\u00f3n de Mexico: sus verdaderos progenitores y su origen: el destino de America y Europa<\/em>. We\u2019ll talk more about Margarito later, but his ideas about Lamanites are important to understand in connection with the previous two posts.<\/p>\n La evoluci\u00f3n de Mexico <\/em>is a complicated work that interprets the spiritual history, present condition, and destiny of Mexico in light of Mormonism. The interpretation fuses sacred history from the Book of Mormon and Bible, Joseph Smith\u2019s revelations, Mexican history texts, and Aztec legends in an effort to \u201ccreatively coalesce their mythical, historical, and spiritual perceptions in an attempt to address present suffering.\u201d[9]<\/sup><\/a> Margarito\u2019s goal seems to have been to influence Mexicans to come together and reform in preparation for a larger role in world history. As such, he doesn\u2019t identify the Mormon influences explicitly, only referring to the Book of Mormon as Mexico\u2019s \u201cancient annals\u201d, despite quoting over 1100 verses from it. It is a long read, but a significant one.<\/p>\n In interpreting Mexican history in light of the Book of Mormon, Margarito identifies indigenous Mexican ancestors as Lamanites. He even went as far as connecting individuals in the Book of Mormon with figures in the histories and legends of Mesoamerica, linking King Mosiah with the Guatemalan king Votan, Lamanites with Chichimecas, and Nephites with Nahuas and Toltecs. He also stated that Netzahualcoyotl and Cuauht\u00e9moc were direct descendants of Laman. Margarito accepted negative stereotypes of Lamanites in the Book of Mormon as part of his belief in the Book of Mormon, using the narrative as an explanation for European colonization of Mexico and the resulting marginalization, poverty, illiteracy, oppression, and prejudice against indigenous peoples in their own ancestral lands. Due to the colonialism from European conquest, however, he believed that the mestizaje <\/em>meant that Mexicans were able to claim both Israelite ancestry through Nephite and Lamanite ancestors and inheritance of the new covenant of Christianity through Spanish ancestry. As such, Mexicans were among the most chosen of peoples in the world, destined for a leading role in both The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and on the world stage.<\/p>\n Bautista looked to the future as being bright for Mexicans due to the promises made about the descendants of Lehi in the Book of Mormon. As Elisa Eastwood Pulido suggested, \u201cIn La evoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, the future prosperity and spiritual development of Mexico was the bedrock of all of Bautista\u2019s other concerns.\u201d[10]<\/sup><\/a> The core of his program for achieving that, based on his interpretation of the Book of Mormon, was to \u201cserve God and prosper.\u201d He believed that Mexico had paid the \u201cspiritual debt\u201d they had incurred due to the sins of their ancestors and that they had been able to throw off the yolk of European rule as a result, beginning in 1810. He also believed that Europeans would \u201chave to be held up to the same ruler, the same balance\u201d in the Americas and if they shirked the laws of God, \u201cthey would suffer the same consequences [as the Mexicans].\u201d[11]<\/sup><\/a> He suggested that part of this would require restitution to colonized peoples around the world by European and Euro-American countries, writing that: \u201cIn order for the Gentile nations to establish peace on the earth \u2026 they must \u2026 first compensate the conquered of everything that has been taken away, returning all that belongs to them.\u201d[12]<\/sup><\/a> Bautista believed that Euro-Americans would have to also repent or be oppressed.<\/p>\n Based on the Book of Mormon, Bautista believed that there would be a time when the descendants of Lehi would build a new Jerusalem. As he wrote:<\/p>\n Perhaps, with the passage of time, when the domain of the Gentiles has come to an end, and their opportunity has disappeared, it will be possible for our sovereignty to be restored in all its fullness. That Divinity, Whom we have spoken of, personally offered to return and again and live among our people; not to teach the working of metals and precious stones, but to exalt and glorify that \u201cHoly City\u201d in the flesh, which will be built by the aboriginal people and those who shall be numbered among my people [3 Nephi 16: 13].<\/p>\n A city that will be the \u201cSUPREME CAPITAL OF THE WORLD,\u201d where the powers of heaven shall rest, serving as a connection between heaven and earth. That city will be called \u201cTHE NEW JERUSALEM.\u201d Blessed are those who will be worthy to take part in that place.[13]<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n He described a time in the future when European (Gentile) colonialism would end and the Mexican people would establish the world capital from which Jesus would reign.<\/p>\n Margarito\u2019s book proved to be popular among Mexican Latter-day Saints in the 1930s, and he was asked to read and discuss the book frequently in meetings among the members in Mexico.[14]<\/sup><\/a> His work marks one of the first and most extensive efforts to transform Lamanite identity into an indigenous-affirming paradigm. The concepts articulated by Margarito Bautista remain influential today, as Ignacio M. Garc\u00eda explained: \u201cToday\u2019s Latinos still believe that they will \u2018blossom\u2019 like a rose and become the heirs of Mormonism\u2019s better days, while most white Mormons today downplay the notion of a \u2018Lamanite take over\u2019 as their numbers have declined.\u201d[15]<\/sup><\/a> Seeing as the concepts are derived from the Book of Mormon and the demographic realities of conversions and de-conversions in the Church (as Garc\u00eda pointed out), there may be some truth to the ideas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/a> Margarito Bautista, La evoluci\u00f3n de Mexico: sus verdaderos progenitores y su origen: el destino de America y Europa <\/em>(Districto Federal: Arzate Brothers, 1935), 388. See also Margarito Bautista, The Evolution of Mexico: Its True Progenitors and Its Origin: The Destiny of America and Europe<\/em>, translated by Brett Morrison and Fernando Gomez (Provo: Museum of Mormon Mexican History, 2014).<\/p>\n [2]<\/sup><\/a> Juana Bautista Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, interview by Irene Z\u00fa\u00f1iga [Cruz], December 23, 1976, \u201cInterview number 253,\u201d Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso, trans. Eduardo B. Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, cited in Elizabeth Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Ontiveros Vigil, \u201cShowing Forth the Light,\u201d in Women of Faith in the Latter-days: Volume Four, 1871 – 1900 <\/em>(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 295.<\/p>\n [3]<\/sup><\/a> Z\u00fa\u00f1iga interview by Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, in Elizabeth Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Ontiveros Vigil, \u201cShowing Forth the Light,\u201d 296.<\/p>\n [4]<\/sup><\/a> Ammon M. Tenney diaries, 1887 – 1890 and 1901-1921, vol. 1, pp. 161, 163-65, 172, microfilm of holograph, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.<\/p>\n [5]<\/sup><\/a> Sim\u00f3n B. Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, From the House of Joseph to the Land of Restoration <\/em>(Denver, CO: Bilingual Publications, 2010), 26.<\/p>\n [6]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Elizabeth Z\u00fa\u00f1iga Ontiveros Vigil, \u201cShowing Forth the Light,\u201d 303.<\/p>\n [7]<\/sup><\/a> Margarito Bautista, A Decree, Covenants, and Promises Taken from the Earth: Also a Correspondence between Noel B. Pratt and M. Bautista <\/em>(Ozumba: Colonia Agricola industrial Mexicana, 1959), 25.<\/p>\n [8]<\/sup><\/a> Bautista, La evoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, 70.<\/p>\n [9]<\/sup><\/a> Elisa Eastwood Pulido, The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista: Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, and Utopian Founder, 1878\u20131961 <\/em>(New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 109.<\/p>\n [10]<\/sup><\/a> Pulido, The Spiritual Evolution<\/em>, 122.<\/p>\n [11]<\/sup><\/a> Bautista, La evoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, 368.<\/p>\n [12]<\/sup><\/a> Bautista, La evoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, 26.<\/p>\n [13]<\/sup><\/a> Bautista, La evoluci\u00f3n<\/em>, 20; Bautista, Morrison, and Gomez The Evolution of Mexico<\/em>, 20.<\/p>\n
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