Sea la Luz interior
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Samples pages of a title that I performed the layout and design on. Published by the University of North Texas Press. Contact me through my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeparenteau1
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Sea la Luz interior
- 1. Sea la Luz THE MAKING OF MEXICAN PROTESTANTISM IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, 1829–1900 Juan Francisco Martínez Number 4 in the Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series University of North Texas Press Denton, Texas Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page iii
- 2. Contents List of Illustrations viii List of Abbreviations ix Preface x Introduction 1 1 “Planting the Institutions of Freedom” Protestant Attitudes Toward the Conquest of the Southwest 6 2 “Unfit for the Duties and Privileges of Citizens” Anglo American Protestant Attitudes Toward the Mexicans of the Southwest 16 3 “Making Good Citizens Out of the Mexicans” Motivations for Protestant Mission Work Among Mexican Americans 27 4 “Yet Many Do Not Declare Themselves for Fear” Protestant Mission Efforts Prior to the Civil War 50 5 “Teaching Them to Be Law-abiding, Industrious and Thrifty Citizens” Mexican American Protestantism in Texas 61 6 “A Slumbering People” Mexican American Protestantism in the Territory of New Mexico 80 7 “Doing What He Could” Mexican American Protestantism in Colorado, the Territory of Arizona, and California 110 8 “A Power for the Uplifting of the Mexican Race” Characteristics of the Nineteenth-Century Mexican American Protestant Community 125 Conclusion: Beginnings of a New Subculture 145 Appendix 150 Notes 152 Bibliography 176 Index 188 Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page vii
- 3. 27 3 “Making Good Citizens Out of the Mexicans” MOTIVATIONS FOR PROTESTANT MISSION WORK AMONG MEXICAN AMERICANS We hold the key to Mexico’s evangelization and to the re- demption of the whole Southwestern frontier of the United States . . . [because] Methodism appears first on the field in most of this territory. Texas Christian Advocate (1885) The work of educating these people in the knowledge of Christ Jesus is a great work. The Spanish speaking people know more about saints and images than they know about Christ. Nothing but the Spirit of God can lead them to see that God is to be worshipped without an image, and that they can pray to Christ without the aid of a saint. John Menaul (1891) [P]atriotism and home missions are inseparably united. Neither can stand, in the mind of the Christian citizen, without the other. Sherman H. Doyle (1905) Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page 27
- 4. THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER DESCRIBED THE “PROBLEM” AS PERCEIVED by American Protestant mission agencies: Mexican Catholics had been accepted as U.S. citizens and these people were not fit for the privilege. This situation served, in turn, as the chief mo- tivator for Protestant mission work among the Mexicans of the Southwest. The Mexican population needed to hear the Protes- tant message to be freed from Catholicism. Closely tied to this message was Anglo American culture, perceived by Protestant leaders to be the logical result of living out the Protestant mes- sage. To preach a Protestant understanding of the gospel was also to promote the best of Anglo American cultural, social, po- litical, and economic values. Both theological and cultural un- derstandings of Anglo American Protestantism motivated mis- sionaries to evangelize Mexican American Catholics. Doubts about Evangelizing Mexican Americans The rhetoric used to justify the conquest of the Southwest did not translate into a strong missionary enterprise, however. Many Protestants questioned whether there should even be a missionary effort among the Mexican American population. Many home missions leaders were convinced that mission agen- cies should focus their energies on the Anglo American immi- grants entering the newly conquered Southwest. When Melinda Rankin visited churches in the eastern United States to raise funds for her missionary efforts in Texas, she found that many Protestant leaders and members were not interested in reaching the Mexican American population. She reported that “the prej- udices existing against the Mexicans, engendered during the late war, often proved great barriers to my success.” One Pres- byterian leader told her that “the Mexicans were a people just fit to be exterminated from the earth.” Another person, a Pres- byterian minister, even stated, “We had better send bullets and gunpowder to Mexico than Bibles.”1 Sea la Luz28 Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page 28
- 5. titution of its own people, Spanish-speaking and otherwise. But the missionaries were also necessary because Providence had pointed out “Texas as an agent to operate upon the Papal power in Mexico.”23 The relationship between reaching tejanos in southwest Texas and the evangelization of Mexico was also an important consideration for the Blanco Baptist Association. They recog- nized the importance of reaching the Mexican Americans of their area because it “would be an important step toward evan- gelizing the border states of Mexico.”24 If there were enough money to support missionaries there might soon be Baptist churches among tejanos, which “would honor and advance the cause of truth even beyond our borders.”25 Presbyterians in Texas viewed their ministry among Mexi- can Americans in the same light. The first Presbyterian Church formed in San Antonio in the 1840s transmitted the following resolution to its Foreign (Mission) Board: Whereas the town of San Antonio, in Western Texas, contains a population of more than two thousand Mexicans, and whereas this town carries on consid- erable trade with Eastern Mexico and affords facili- ties for distributing Bibles, etc., among that deluded people, Therefore, Resolved that, should Texas be transferred to the Domestic Board, that town be rec- ommended to the Foreign Board to be continued un- der their care as a suitable station for operating upon the population there and also for introducing the gospel into Mexico.26 Walter Scott, called the “Father of Spanish-speaking Presby- terianism” in Texas, approached ministry among the Spanish- speaking communities of that state from a similar perspective. For him, the presbytery of western Texas had “no western boundary—it can take in the entire republic of Mexico.” Be- cause of the constant comings and goings of Mexicans across the international border, evangelizing both tejanos and Mexi- “Making Good Citizens Out of the Mexicans” 35 Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page 35
- 6. From 1887 to 1892 the San Marcos congregation, with sixty-seven members, was the only existing Spanish-language PCUS church in central Texas. After Scott’s ordination to min- istry, new churches were organized in Martindale and Uvalde in 1893. Scott was the official pastor of all three congregations be- cause he was the only ordained pastor, and all organized PCUS churches had to have an ordained minister as titular pastor. Nonetheless, Scott had valuable assistance: Juan Hernández, originally licensed to work with the San Marcos congregation, served in Uvalde, and Julio Avila was licensed to serve in Mar- tindale.13 In 1896 new congregations were also organized in Corpus Christi and Laredo. The Presbytery assigned Hernández to Laredo, and Scott continued as the principal worker in the Central Texas congregations. Henry Pratt, former missionary to Colombia, joined the work in Laredo in 1896.14 Under these leaders, new congregations were established in Reedville Sea la Luz68 Walter Scott and Mexican PCUS pastors and leaders. Seated, left to right: Salinas, Scott, Cárdenas; standing, left to right: García, Alba, Samaniego, Pérez. Picture first appeared in The Texas Presbyterian, March 5, 1896. Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page 68
- 7. work among Mexican Americans in Texas grew more rapidly than in New Mexico from 1894, and by 1900 there were almost as many Mexican American Protestants in Texas as in New Mexico. The overwhelming majority (87.9 percent) of all Mex- ican American Protestants lived in New Mexico and Texas. Col- orado accounted for 8.3 percent of Mexican American Protes- tant church members. California and Arizona together had less than 4 percent of the total (Graph 4). Mexican American Protestant membership growth was most consistent in New Mexico. It was not rapid, but it was steady throughout the nineteenth century.38 Texas, on the other hand, went through spurts. From 1870 to 1880 the tejano Prot- estant population boomed, and by 1880 there were twice as many Spanish-speaking Protestants in Texas as in New Mexico. But there was little growth during the 1880s in Texas and by 1887 there were, once again, more Mexican American Protes- tants in New Mexico. From 1888 to 1895 growth was roughly parallel in both areas. After 1895 it leveled off in New Mexico while growth continued in Texas, so that by the beginning of Sea la Luz142 Texas 2438 New Mexico 2521 Colorado 462 California 115 Arizona 96 1.7% 2.0% 8.2% 44.6% 43.3% Graph 4 Mexican American Protestants by States, 1900 Southwestern United States Sea la Luz INT 5/18/06 1:46 PM Page 142