Sea la Luz: The Making of Mexican Protestantism in the American Southwest, 1829-1900 (Volume 4)

Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series

by Juan Francisco Martinez

Mexican Protestantism was born in the encounter between Mexican Catholics and Anglo American Protestants, after the United States ventured into the Southwest and wrested territory from Mexico in the early nineteenth century. Sea la Luz tells the story of Mexican converts and the churches they developed through the records of Protestant missionaries. Juan Francisco Martinez traces Protestant mission work among the Spanish speaking of the Southwest throughout the nineteenth century. By 1900, about 150 Spanish-speaking Protestant churches with more than five thousand adult members existed in the region. They were rejected by their own people because they were Protestants, but Anglo American Protestants did not readily accept them either because they were Mexican. In spite of the pressures from both their own community and the larger society, they forged a new religious identity in the midst of conquest. “Martinez has rendered an invaluable service to the history of the Southwest.”—Justo L. Gonzalez, Professor of Church History, Emory University

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 24, 2006

Reviews

[Eduardo · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's two and a half stars, while informative it is quite boring, yet there are good stories about Mexican-American Protestants. Martinez gives a clear but dull account of the failures of Anglo-American Protestants in converting newly Mexican Americans. Yet since there are few books about Mexican American Protestants before Pentecostalism, this is a must read.