If Domitila, Agustina and Dolores Rivera could see the LDS Conference Center downtown Sunday night, they would not only turn over in their graves — they'd likely jump right out and join in what is believed will be the largest-ever gathering of Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints in Utah.
The three sisters were the first Hispanic members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to settle in the Salt Lake Valley back in late 1919, after converting to their new faith in Chimalhuacan, Mexico, a year earlier. The girls' father feared once they joined the LDS Church they would not only be ostracized by family, friends and neighbors but would be targets for reprisal as the Mexican revolution was under way.
He scraped together enough money to send them to safety in Salt Lake City.
According to historian Jorge Iber, they were approached early on by an LDS bishop and asked to spread their faith among Hispanic sugar beet workers returning to the city from southern Idaho and Garland, Utah. They were soon joined in their quest by three men: Juan Ramon Martinez, Francisco Solano and Margarito Bautista, and by the end of 1920, there were more than 100 people attending services at Martinez's west-side restaurant — the city's first meeting place for Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints.
The story is chronicled in Iber's recent book, "Hispanics in the Mormon Zion."
Now, little more than 80 years later, upwards of 20,000 Hispanics are expected to share what many believe will become a watershed moment not only for locals, but for Spanish-speaking members in many parts of the world. An all-Spanish Christmas devotional, featuring speeches in Spanish by two men church members believe to be Jesus Christ's modern-day apostles, and music by a 500-voice Hispanic choir, will fill the largest indoor religious auditorium in the world Sunday night.
Similar events have happened several times in Central and South America, as LDS membership has skyrocketed in the region during the past few decades. But such a gathering in the faith's heartland will send an unmistakable signal to Hispanic Latter-day Saints everywhere about the LDS Church's rekindled commitment to inclusion for them in what many have long perceived as a mostly white, American church.
So says Ignacio Garcia, associate professor of history at church-owned Brigham Young University, who greeted the announcement of the devotional last week with a measure of thanksgiving and relief. "That's fantastic — and long due coming," he said last week when the devotional was then scheduled to be held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.
"The next real step of commitment is the Conference Center. There are enough Hispanics that you would have them coming from St. George if this is open and (the venue is) big enough." His prediction was made good this week, when local church leaders announced Wednesday that more than 15,000 tickets had been distributed, necessitating a change in venue.
Though the meeting is hosted by area leaders of the church rather than the top tier First Presidency, he believes the meeting will be historic in many respects, particularly because "most major church functions begin that way . . . on a regional level. It always comes from one area that's focusing on an issue and being creative about it." Once the idea has gained acceptance and is seen as beneficial, "then we will see its adoption at a higher level."
Jorge Becerra, organizer of the event and a stake president in Draper, wouldn't venture a guess on how the meeting will affect those outside the Utah North Area, or whether it is symbolic outside the region. He did say it has generated "enough excitement that I think many are calling friends and relatives. It may include a larger area than Utah North, but we've not purposely included other areas than that."
Yet Garcia's work as a former LDS bishop who presided over two different Spanish-speaking wards, has brought him first-hand contact with the challenges inherent in being a minority member among the white LDS majority in the United States. Inclusion has been a major issue for many, he said.
Hispanics represent a "huge, growing membership that needs to feel it's very close to the top in the hearts and minds of the brethren. Symbolism, especially in our community, is very important, and this is very symbolic. It's both an emotional and intellectual sort of commitment that this is a large group that needs to feel close to the top."
Historically, many have felt anything but included, Iber said. Now an assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University, Iber traced the history of the state's Hispanic population during several years as a graduate student at the University of Utah. His book is seen by several local scholars as the most complete work available on the topic.
Iber and other historians say Hispanics have often faced discrimination from some fellow church members, whether overt or more covert. This despite the fact that being members of the church has historically provided them distinct economic advantages regarding job placement and advancement.
A member of Rama Mexicana, the first Spanish-speaking LDS branch in Salt Lake City, recalled for Iber that prejudice often came "from 'those who held high positions in the church' . . . some Mormons (were) reluctant to trust Mexicans . . . (and) refused to work with Mexicans, insisting that they were dirty.' "
While widespread racial stereotyping was not unique to Utah or the LDS Church before the civil rights movement began, Garcia said, "identity and cultural alienation are still legitimate issues to discuss. If you're not exposed to them, as much as you care you are not profoundly alerted to them."
Catholicism has traditionally provided a cultural home for Hispanics, he said, and those who have converted to other faiths — including the LDS Church — are seeking to carve out their own cultural niche within the new denomination.
But Latino wards "are always seen as transitional" in the United States, with young leaders "who are growing up to be leaders in the traditional stake system. The debate between having Latino stakes and not having them still goes on in the church," even though there are many Latino leaders who understand their members are "not only LDS, but Latinos as well."
Anthropologist David Knowlton at Utah Valley State College agrees.
In professional settings where LDS scholars converge, he said he hears "lamenting over the fact that there are few major (Latino) leaders in the church" and a "real ambivalence in the U.S." among LDS leadership "about having Latino congregations."
He noted "significant pressure" within the past few years for Salt Lake City's Lucero ward to be closed, yet there are now several Latino wards in the area. "The idea is that people should assimilate and become part of ordinary Anglo culture." But pushing too hard for such assimilation has backfired in the past, he said, noting his experience in a Hispanic ward in Texas. "When they closed down that congregation and forced everyone to go English, almost the entire congregation disappeared."
Retaining their own cultural identity — and being supported by top leadership in that retention — is vital to Spanish-speakers, according to both Garcia and Knowlton, though they agree few will talk openly with outsiders about such concerns.
Having moved to Utah from Texas seven years ago, Garcia has observed "you have better leadership and more resources in Latino wards in Utah than anywhere else, with so much more priesthood and members. Yet why do they struggle so much? Part of it is that they haven't found their niche."
Thus the importance of the Sunday devotional, he said, at a time when Hispanics have become a sizable population in Utah.
Though numbers are nearly impossible to come by, LDS missionary work in Latin America has had a large impact on Latino immigration to the state, Solorzano believes, with a recent survey showing 85 percent of new immigrants from South America are Latter-day Saints. Though the LDS Church does not track membership by ethnicity, and the U.S. Census doesn't track the population by denomination, the decade of the 1990s saw a huge spike in the number of Latinos in Utah, from 84,597 in 1990 to 213,535 in 2000.
Most have come for economic reasons, and some to escape political persecution, Solorzano said, adding "the willingness of Latino LDS converts to live in 'Zion' " is another reason for the rapid immigration trends.
Bertha Alcazar, a teacher in West Jordan who is LDS, told Solorzano she came to Utah for a distinctly religious purpose. "I was single at the time I moved here . . . and I felt very strongly that I should marry an LDS person. But at the time I was 29 years old (and) there were no eligible men, my age, that were LDS . . . So I prayed. And I felt I received the answer of coming to Salt Lake City."
Louis Barraza told Solorzano many Latinos "want to be close to the seed of the religious center, the religious head, which is the president of the LDS Church or the prophet." Yet LDS leaders emphasized in recent years the importance of having converts remain in their native lands, rather than believing they should come to Utah as 19th century converts were encouraged to do.
Because so many converts come to Utah and the U.S. for education, President Gordon B. Hinckley organized the Perpetual Education Fund in 2001, which channels significant funding into Central and South America in particular. Young Latter-day Saints receive loans from the fund for education in their own countries, with the promise that they will remain at home to build up the church there.
Mike Martinez, a local attorney who is not LDS but watches political trends and writes a column for the Deseret News, says he doesn't understand the internal dynamics of the LDS power structure, but he does see Hispanic Latter-day Saints as a growing political force in Utah.
The local Republican party has taken notice, he said, since the group had a significant impact on a key legislative race during the past election and Hispanic Latter-day Saints are "overwhelmingly Republican" he said.
They have revived the so-called Hispanic Assembly within the party, which of composed of political leadership that is "much more cognizant of Latin Americans in Utah."
Martinez believes the "upper levels of the political spectrum transfer onto the religious spectrum. I think Republican leadership is noticing, and the LDS Church leadership will notice it also.
"Politically that's where we're going. The more you can bring them in to show they are mainstream Mormons, I think it's that much better for Utah politics."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com