Mormon colonies in Mexico

[1]: 215–490  Most of the colonists left for the United States and never returned, although a small group of Latter-day Saints eventually found their way back to homes and farms in the colonies.

In 1877, Young discussed the idea of colonizing parts of northern Mexico, but it was considered unwise due to the considerable danger from Apache raiders in the area.

Taylor continued Young's policy of missionary work in Mexico, and through the early 1880s colonization was considered on several occasions without effort to begin the process.

This was part of the by-then 20-year struggle by the U.S. government to curb the LDS practice of plural marriage in Utah Territory and other locations in the American West.

These people started their own farming colonies and established their settlements in Chihuahua[5] and Sonora, where they focused their labors on sheep, cattle, wheat, row crops, and fruit orchards.

[6] In September 1890, the president of the LDS Church issued the Manifesto which advised ending new plural marriages in the United States, although the practice was permitted to be continued in the colonies of Mexico and Canada.

With the absence of American LDS leaders, many indigenous Mexicans, who were proselytized during the Revolution, assumed leadership duties until the violence ceased around 1920.

[7] When it was decided it was safe, less than one-quarter of the previous LDS population re-settled to Mexico; most of the refugees returned to their Utah and Arizona colonies of origin.

The exception is Salt Lake City itself, which was settled in the summer of 1847 in what was at the time legally a remote part of the Mexican territory of Alta California.

Margarito Bautista is one such example who was excommunicated and founded his own polygamist commune in Ozumba named The Colonia Industrial Mexicana Nueva Jerusalen which still has over one thousand members.

Bernabe Parra of San Marcos, Hidalgo established the first school for LDS Mexicans in Central Mexico in 1944 which grew to 211 students in 1959.

[11] Bernabe Parra built a sizeable community of Mormons in his home town of San Marcos, located in Hidalgo, Mexico.

Bernabe Parra recognized the need for local education for families in his area, as not many had the resources to send their children to schools in other established Mormon colonies and many were functionally illiterate.