Colonia Juarez: an Intimate Account of a Mormon Village

By Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Mormon colonists in search of religious liberty came to the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1885. Colonia Juarez was one of the first settlements they established there. In time, it became one of the largest colonies and the ecclesiastical center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in northern Mexico.

From a distance, the town appears to be a green mirage in the middle of a desert. It becomes more amazing upon further inspection. Instead of typical flat-roofed Mexican architecture, the structures look like they belong somewhere in the United States. As out of place as the town seems, what is not visible to the naked eye is of more interest. The history of the colony can be divided into four parts: the sufferings that accompanied Colonia Juarez’s settlement; the revolutionary commotion that uprooted and scattered the town’s inhabitants to all parts of the United States; the hazards which beset the few stalwarts who returned and tenaciously preserved the spirit of the town during searing years of revolution and rehabilitation; and the town that emerged from all that chaos. Most of this book focuses on the first three parts and recounts information gleaned from journals, diaries, letters, and biographies of the early settlers.

MY OPINION

Anyone interested in the history of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico owes a debt of gratitude to Nelle Spilsbury Hatch for all the memories she preserved in this book and in Stalwarts South of the Border, her other one. Colonia Juarez: An Intimate Account of a Mormon Village is one of the first books published about the colonies and is far from a dry history. Mrs. Hatch’s writing style is enjoyable, and every page contains details that bring the experiences of the town’s former occupants to life.