Review
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Title: Just South of Zion: The Mormons in Mexico and Its Borderlands
Author: Jason H. Dormady and Jared M. Tamez
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Genre: Mormons; Mexico
Year Published: 2015
Number of Pages: 232
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-8263-5181-4
Price: $55.00
Reviewed by Kris Wray for the Association for Mormon Letters
As the LDS Church continues to expand in Latin America, studies in the field of the origins and growth of Mormonism in those areas are becoming more and more important. “Just South of Zion” is certainly not lacking in new and exciting research. This volume consists of an introduction, eight chapters, and an afterward, each written by various authors. A glossary is also included for readers unfamiliar with the material. It began as a round-table presentation at the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies conference in Park City, Utah, in 2012.
Jason H. Dormady’s introduction on Mormons in Mexico provides a useful summary on the experience of Latter-day Saints from 1846 to the present, along with a brief explanation of the structure and purpose of this book.
In chapter one, Barbara Jones Brown explores the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the rise and demise of polygamy in the Mormon colonies there, using the popular story of the Anson Bowen Call family as a case study. Brown’s rendition of this time period south of the border highlights the slower pace in which the Saints there turned to monogamy, compared to their fellow members of the Church in the United States who embraced the Manifesto much more quickly. In the end, the several exoduses of Mormons that the Mexican Revolution caused proved to be more effective at snuffing out plural marriage than the edicts coming out of headquarters in Utah.
Chapter two addresses the participation, or lack-thereof, of Mormon colonists in the Mexican Civil Registration, which required the recording of all births, marriages, and deaths. George Ryskamp explains how the registration worked, and the ways in which Mormons living in Mexico seemed to react to the law. Those LDS Anglo-Americans who did provide stats to the authorities created a database which, while incomplete and therefore somewhat limited in scope, gives current historians vital statistics to use in future research for better understanding the lifestyles of Mormons in Mexico.
Bill Smith and Jared Tamez tell the story of Plotino Costantino Rhodakanaty, the first person baptized into the Mormon Church in Mexico. Rhodakanaty was born in Greece to a Greek father and Austrian mother around 1828, and immigrated to Mexico in 1861. By the time he was baptized in 1879, Rhodakanaty was a zealous socialist seeking to create a utopian community of people committed to non-violent, social change. Mormonism seemed to go hand-in-hand with his goal of radically reforming society, and he let the Church leaders in Salt Lake City know he was ready to go to work towards that end. The hierarchy’s opinion on how the gospel was to be spread was at variance with Rhodakanaty’s plans, at least in their understanding of it. Tension between the two parties led to the socialist’s disillusionment of his new faith; he resigned his position as branch president and went his own way. Mostly forgotten within the pages of LDS history, his memory is resurrected in this great chapter by Smith and Tamez.
Tamez keeps the ball rolling in chapter four, writing on the establishment of the women’s Relief Society in the Mexican Mission from 1901 to 1903. Much has been published on the Relief Society founded under the tutelage of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, and reinstated by Brigham Young in Utah, but, by comparison, very little has been printed on Relief Societies in other countries. When a mission to the Mexican people was inaugurated for the second time in 1901 by Ammon Tenney, among other things, a Relief Society was organized for the women, whose spirituality and devotion contributed in large part to the success of the mission.
The Third Convention of the Mexican Saints has been explored in various works over the years, but details of why and how it occurred continue to be unearthed. Considered apostates by the mainstream LDS Church, those Mexican Saints who took the side of the Convention simply saw themselves as striving to have more indigenous representation within their leadership, and therefore preferred less control by Anglo-Americans from Utah over their affairs. Chapter five by Elisa Pulido, buttressed by interviews of witnesses, focuses on the willingness to listen by both sides of the schism, particularly the women, as the reason for reconciliation.
Stuart Parker tackles the sociological context of Margarito Bautista, an intellectual and religious leader in Mexican Mormonism, who went from the mainstream LDS Church, to the Third Convention, and ended up as a leader in the 1950s Fundamentalist movement. Parker takes a new look at Bautista by comparing his experience with one of his contemporaries, the politician and philosopher José Vasconcelos. Their careers shed light on issues which interested Mexican citizens of the time, and the different ways in which those topics were viewed, and how two intelligent individuals of that era believed they should be addressed.
My favorite section of “Just South of Zion” is chapter seven on the interaction between Mormons and Mexicans in Arizona during the 1880s by Daniel Herman. The stress and violence that brewed among Latter-day Saints, non-Mormons, Mexicans, and Native Americans in Arizona during this time is reminiscent of the struggles Mormons found themselves in earlier decades, especially in 1850-1860s Utah. Herman’s writing is thought-provoking and is a great addition to Western Americana literature. I hope he expands this work into a book, as there appears to be much more he could say on this complicated subject. This is the kind of history you just can’t make up, and need to read to get a taste of the head-butting that arose as the West was colonized by people with different visions of the future.
Chapter eight looks at the railroad that many in the Mormon colonies in Northern Mexico hoped would be built to Deming, New Mexico, but was abandoned when the project went belly up. It details the socioeconomics that prevailed, and in the process, highlights some of the personalities who had guided the business side of the Saints. The failure of the railroad stunted the growth that could have occurred, and therefore dashed the hopes of some who had anticipated a healthy expansion of opportunities in those areas. When the boom never materialized, members of the LDS Church managed with the cards they were dealt, having forged ties with Deming that facilitated a steady improvement of their lifestyle. Brandon Morgan’s study provides another important piece of the puzzle to placing the Mexican Saints in context.
Matthew Butler’s afterword considers Mormonism’s place in the history of other groups in modern Mexico, contrasting the similarities and differences which Latter-day Saints and their neighbors had with one another. Butler aptly sums up the conclusion of “Just South of Zion” by stating that the volume “reveals Mexican Mormonism in much hitherto unknown complexity, as a surprisingly diverse religious community that was articulated in a complex social and religious field and so quickly pulled in different directions by the interactions of state, popular cultures, geography, and local religion.”
I agree with Butler, and look forward to the authors of these chapters continuing their research and sharing more of this fascinating history with the public. “Just South of Zion” is a worthy addition to the emerging story of Mormonism in Mexico. The authors unveil new avenues to pursue, pushing the frontier of scholarship in this field to new heights, and writing in a way that keeps the attention of the reader. This is a great volume!