Margarito Bautista facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margarito Bautista
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Bautista c. 1920
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| Born | June 10, 1878 San Miguel, Atlautla, State of Mexico, Mexico
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| Died | August 4, 1961 (aged 83) Colonia Industrial de la Nueva Jerusalén, Ozumba, State of Mexico, Mexico
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Margarito Bautista (born June 10, 1878 – died August 4, 1961) was an important Mexican preacher and religious leader. He wrote and taught for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often called the LDS Church).
After joining the church in 1901, Bautista preached and wrote for about 30 years. He lived in both Mexico and Utah, USA. During this time, he developed unique ideas that mixed teachings from the Book of Mormon with Mexican pride. He believed that Mexicans had a special right to lead the church and, one day, the world. The church's leaders, who were mostly from the United States, often thought his ideas were different from official teachings. However, many Mexican Latter-day Saints loved his interpretations.
Later, Bautista helped lead a meeting of Mexican Latter-day Saints to protest. They were upset that an American leader was chosen to be a mission president in Mexico. Because of this, the church removed Bautista from membership. He then helped lead a group that broke away, called the Third Convention. Bautista also wanted to bring back old church practices, like sharing property and a practice where a man could have more than one wife. Other leaders in the Third Convention did not agree with these ideas and asked him to leave their group.
Most of the Third Convention group rejoined the main church in 1946, but Bautista did not. Instead, in 1947, he started his own community called Colonia Industrial de la Nueva Jerusalén. He also created and led his own Mormon church there. In this new church, he brought back the practices of sharing property and plural marriage. Bautista passed away in 1961, but his church and community are still active today.
Contents
Margarito's Early Life
Margarito Bautista was born in San Miguel de Atlautla, Mexico State, Mexico, on June 10, 1878. His family and village spoke both Nahuatl and Spanish. Bautista grew up Catholic, but he also knew about a Mexican Methodist minister nearby. He didn't find either religion fully satisfying. Still, his mother, Petra Candelaria Valencia, was very spiritual, and she taught him to be committed to God.
We don't know much about Margarito Bautista's childhood or his brothers and sisters. Before his mother died, she asked him to work to help the people of Mexico spiritually.
Joining the Church
In 1901, a Latter-day Saint missionary named Ammon Tenney visited Bautista and his family. Bautista became interested in joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His father, Luz, did not approve and asked Bautista to leave their home.
A few months later, Bautista became very sick. He was welcomed back home, where Tenney visited him and gave him a special blessing. After this, Bautista got better. This experience led him to learn more about the church, and he was soon baptized. After his baptism, Bautista worked closely with Tenney to preach and help other Mexicans join the church. He received special leadership roles, becoming an elder by December 1901. Bautista was offered jobs by other religions because he was known as a good preacher, but he chose to preach for the LDS Church.
Around the time Bautista joined, many Latter-day Saints lived in special settlements in Mexico. Church leaders had encouraged members to move to Mexico to avoid legal problems in the United States. This was because they practiced plural marriage, which was against U.S. laws. Mexican president Porfirio Díaz welcomed these settlers. In the early 1900s, the church was changing its stance on plural marriage, so many American Latter-day Saints still lived in these "Mormon colonies" in Mexico.
Bautista lived in these Latter-day Saint settlements. He learned about the practice of plural marriage and even participated in it to keep his role as a teacher. While living in these communities, Bautista became even more involved in the church. He wrote about his spiritual journey, and his writings were published in the church's magazine for young men, the Improvement Era.
Bautista later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where the LDS Church headquarters are located. He was at the center of church activities. In Salt Lake City, Bautista continued to study family history and church teachings. He also studied plural marriage and other topics that were sometimes debated. The church also asked Bautista to be the first leader of a special group called the Temporary Lamanite Branch, which was later renamed Lucero Ward.
From 1922 to 1924, Bautista served as a missionary in Mexico, focusing on family history. He loved this work. He taught Mexican Latter-day Saints about doing special work for their ancestors in temples. He also helped create local family history groups. During this time, Bautista began teaching his ideas about the Book of Mormon and church teachings more openly. These ideas were inspired by Mexican nationalism. When he trained leaders for family history groups, he encouraged them to believe that Mexicans had the potential to lead the church over Americans and Europeans.
However, the church's American leaders did not like Bautista's nationalist ideas. Rey L. Pratt, a mission president, even gave two sermons against Bautista's views in 1923 and 1925. In 1924, Bautista finished his mission and returned to Utah. Because of his controversial teachings, the church stopped giving him official leadership roles from 1925 onward.
Bautista's Book: La Evolución de Mexico
After Bautista finished his mission in Mexico, he no longer had an official church role to preach. Still wanting to share his message with Mexicans, Bautista wrote a book called La evolución de Mexico: sus verdaderos progenitores y su origen: el destino de America y Europa. He wrote it while living in Utah between 1930 and 1935. This 500-page book explored the origins of Mexicans and predicted their future.
Who are the Lamanites?
To explain Mexican origins, Bautista used the Book of Mormon, which is a main religious book for Latter-day Saints. This book suggests that the native peoples of the Americas are descendants of a group called the Lamanites, who were themselves descendants of ancient Israelites. Church leaders in the late 1800s and early 1900s often used the word "Lamanite" to refer to native peoples in North and South America. Sometimes, the Book of Mormon described Lamanites in a negative way. However, church leaders and missionaries also used the idea of Lamanites to connect with native peoples and Latin Americans. They focused on promises in the Book of Mormon that said Lamanites would receive special blessings.
Bautista's Ideas in La Evolución
Bautista also believed strongly in the idea of Lamanite ancestry. He even called himself "a Descendant of Father Lehi" (a prophet in the Book of Mormon). But Bautista did not use the term "Lamanite" negatively. Instead, he focused on the promised blessings and the idea that these people had been Christian before Europeans arrived. In La Evolución, Bautista combined the idea of Lamanite identity with Mexican nationalism. He claimed that Mexicans were direct descendants of Abraham, Israelites, and Lamanites. He believed they had a special right to the Book of Mormon's greatest blessings. This meant Mexicans would one day lead the church religiously, and Mexico would lead the world politically. Bautista even suggested that the United States should return land in the American West, including Utah, to Mexico. He based this idea on Mexico's religious and political destiny.
Bautista's book challenged the American church leaders' control over Mexican Latter-day Saints. At the same time, Bautista encouraged all Mexicans to join the LDS Church and fulfill their divine destiny as Lamanites.
Because Bautista argued for all Mexicans to join the church, he hoped church leaders would praise him for his book and help him publish it. However, when Bautista spoke to church leaders in Utah, they rejected La Evolución. They said it made claims that were beyond the official teachings of the church and refused to help publish it.
A New Path: Schism and Leadership
Feeling disappointed by the church's rejection of his book, Bautista moved back to Mexico with his family. There, local Latter-day Saints supported him in publishing La Evolución between 1935 and 1936. Among Mexican Latter-day Saints, Bautista's book became very popular and important. It connected with their national pride, which was strong in Mexico after the Mexican Revolution.
By chance, in 1936, the church announced it would divide its Spanish-American Mission into two parts, creating a new Mexican Mission. This meant a new mission president would be chosen. Mexican Latter-day Saints had already asked twice for a native Mexican to lead their mission. Bautista's book gave them hope that the church would finally choose a Mexican leader.
The Third Convention
In April 1936, the church instead appointed Harold Pratt, an American citizen who was of European descent. The church also publicly spoke against La Evolución. This upset many Mexican Latter-day Saints. About 120 church members, inspired by Bautista's book, gathered in an unofficial meeting in Mexico City. This meeting was called the Third Convention. Bautista was one of the leaders of this group. The people at the Convention asked for their mission president to be Mexican by "race and blood." They thought church leaders might not know how qualified Mexican Latter-day Saints were. The Convention even suggested possible Mexican candidates for mission president, and Pratt agreed to deliver their request. At one point, the Convention suggested Bautista himself, but he declined. Instead, they named Bautista's nephew, Abel Páez, as their preferred new mission president.
Pratt delivered the request, but church leaders reacted strongly. The First Presidency (the highest leaders of the church) said the Third Convention and similar meetings were not proper. They stated that church-appointed leaders represented the church to its members, not the other way around. Church leaders also rejected Bautista's claim in La Evolución that Mexicans had a special religious right as descendants of Lamanites and Abraham. The church even tried to stop La Evolución from being shared among Mexican members.
Bautista tried to deny his role as a leader in the Third Convention. However, Ester Ontiveros, a Mexican missionary, showed Pratt a letter Bautista had sent her, which proved his involvement. The church then removed Bautista and other Convention leaders, like his nephew Páez, from membership for rebellion. Within a year, almost one-third of the 3,000 Latter-day Saints in Mexico left the church to follow Bautista and other leaders of the Third Convention movement. Bautista and the other members decided to continue meeting and worshipping as Latter-day Saints. They formed their own independent Mormon group, led by Mexicans.
Starting a New Community
At first, the new group mainly focused on having native Mexican leaders. They didn't differ much from the main church's teachings, except for accepting La Evolución. However, a few weeks into the split, Bautista began suggesting more significant changes. Bautista knew about earlier church practices like the United Order (sharing property) and plural marriage (a man having more than one wife). He believed that while the main church had stopped these practices, the Mexican group should bring them back. Most other members of the group were not as excited about these older practices. Many actually hoped to rejoin the main church someday. By the end of 1937, the group asked Bautista to leave their movement, though he stayed in contact with them. For the next few years, Bautista wrote and published pamphlets encouraging Mexican Latter-day Saints to leave the main church and join his group.
In 1942, Bautista moved to Ozumba, Mexico. He began talking to bankers, Mexican lawmakers, and even President Lázaro Cárdenas. He wanted to gather land and resources to start his own community.
In 1946, the Third Convention movement rejoined the main church, ending their split. Bautista, however, stayed separate from the church. He strongly criticized the others, calling them "devils" who gave in to the "ambition of the white man." To Bautista, by rejoining the American-led church, the Third Convention had abandoned Mexico's special right as inheritors of Lamanite and Israelite prophecies.
Colonia Industrial de la Nueva Jerusalén
Bautista was not the only Mexican-Mormon who was unhappy with the 1946 reunion of the LDS Church and the Third Convention. In August 1947, 59 members of the Third Convention and four leaders who also did not rejoin the main church joined Bautista in the town of Ozumba. There, Bautista founded Colonia Industrial de la Nueva Jerusalén (Industrial Colony of the New Jerusalem). This was their own independent community, named after the idea of a New Jerusalem. Most of the first members of Colonia Industrial left because they couldn't find jobs. But Bautista stayed, and enough of the community remained for it to continue.
Under Bautista's leadership, Colonia Industrial practiced a system of sharing resources, inspired by the early church's United Order. Private property was put into a community trust, and land was given back to families based on their needs. Colonia Industrial also practiced plural marriage. Bautista created strict rules for this practice, including 37 instructions on how to approach a second wife. For example, only men already married to one woman could enter plural marriage. After choosing a second wife, a man had to prove his loyalty to his first wife for five years without trying to marry the second woman before he could qualify.
Colonia Industrial sometimes faced problems. Historian Jason Dormady wrote, "Like most ideal communities, it was a train wreck." Shared property and plural marriage caused some disagreements. A food warehouse was even burned down on purpose. Despite these difficulties, Colonia Industrial continued, and under Bautista's leadership, it eventually did well.
Bautista passed away on August 4, 1961, at 83 years old.
Margarito Bautista's Legacy
His Influence on Latter-day Saints
Bautista's work as a family history missionary greatly increased Mexican Latter-day Saints' interest in their ancestors. Before the LDS Church and its communities were established in Mexico, most people didn't know much about their family history.
Some historians, like F. Lamond Tullis, have described Bautista as someone who often challenged leaders and caused some members to leave the church. His disagreements with church leaders and his removal from the church are often remembered.
However, Bautista's teachings left a strong mark on Mormons in Mexico, including those in the main LDS Church. In the 1900s, Bautista's La Evolución might have been even more popular than the Book of Mormon in Mexico. Bautista's ideas about Lamanite identity continued to be very important, even long after he was removed from the church. For example, Agrícol Lozano Herrera, a well-known Mexican Latter-day Saint writer and poet, believed in Lamanite identity just like Bautista. He also said that Mexicans had a special role as descendants of the House of Israel. This shows that some of Bautista's ideas are still present among Mexican Latter-day Saints today.
Brigham Young University, a university connected to the LDS Church, has a collection of Margarito Bautista's papers in its library.
Colonia Industrial and El Reino de Dios en su Plenitud
In the mid-to-late 1900s, most Latter-day Saints and scholars believed Bautista's church and Colonia Industrial had disappeared after his death. They thought it had almost collapsed by 1983, based on a claim from Lozano. However, in 1996, anthropologist Thomas W. Murphy visited Ozumba. He discovered that the Colonia Industrial community still existed, and several hundred people still lived there. The religious group Bautista founded had taken the legal name El Reino de Dios en su Plenitud (The Kingdom of God in its Fulness), though members still called themselves Mormons.
Colonia Industrial and El Reino de Dios still exist today. As recently as 2011, 800 people still lived in Colonia Industrial. They continue to hold property together through a community trust and practice plural marriage, keeping Bautista's teachings alive.
See also
- Anti-clericalism in Mexico
- List of Latter Day Saint Movements
- Religion in Mexico
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico
- Third Convention
