The Literary Landscape for Twentieth-Century Spanish-Speaking LDS Poets

Spanish is the second-most spoken language among Latter-day Saints, but relatively little is known about Mormon literature in this language, either its current status or its history. This absence is evident in the key surveys on Mormon literature that have been carried out. For example, when Eugene England considered the prospects of Mormon literature in his landmark essay on its history and future, he looked ahead at a mostly US-centric and fully English-language literary horizon.1 This makes sense in the context in which he was writing. In the English language, and in the United States in particular, Mormon literature had evolved as a relatively small but vibrant tradition that he aptly described in his essay. At the time he could not have foreseen a Mormon literature arising in other languages, or rather, Mormon literatures not in English.There may now be reasons to believe that such literatures can emerge. A number of developments have taken place in the Spanish language that highlight this, including the creation of a small association for Mormon letters known as La Cofradía de Letras Mormonas, which publishes a quarterly digital magazine (El Pregonero de Deseret);2 the publication of Mormon-themed novels such as Eleusis3 and Noria;4 the organizing of several international literary contests (including one in Spanish) by Mormon Lit Blitz;5 and the recent awards given by the Association for Mormon Letters to several Spanish-language works.6 This slow emergence of Mormon literature in Spanish is not occurring ex nihilo but is part of a larger tradition that is largely unknown.To help provide some perspective, this article seeks to shed some light on the history of Spanish-language Mormon letters. A starting point for analysis is the observation that the twentieth century is a key period for the history of Mormonism in Latin America. Through its missionary efforts, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints witnessed steady growth in Latin America during that century. An inevitable trait of such membership growth was that some Latter-day Saints sought to express their faith and experiences through literature. This way, a small body of Mormon-themed literary works emerged.This article considers where these Latter-day Saints might have found venues to distribute their creative writing. As expected, the church seemed to provide an obvious place to seek publication. Part 2 of this article offers some background about twentieth-century church publications in Latin America. Within that context, this article seeks to understand whether a Spanish-language Mormon literature emerged at all. Part 3 describes the method followed to such an end. Part 4 presents data regarding the extent to which these church publications provided a viable venue for Latter-day Saint literary authors, especially for poets. Part 5 discusses the findings and in so doing will develop some observations that stem from the literary landscape described throughout the article. Part 6 provides some conclusions about the development of a Mormon literature in Spanish moving into the twenty-first century.The church sent missionaries to two Spanish-speaking countries in the mid-nineteenth century. Parley P. Pratt and his wife Phoebe served an arguably unsuccessful mission in Chile in 1851–1852. Missionaries arrived in Mexico in 1875. However, missionaries did not come to most countries until the twentieth century. They began arriving to Latin America gradually,7 initially to Argentina (1925)8 and Brazil (1928).9 After World War II, missionaries were sent to Central America (1947),10 Uruguay (1947),11 and Paraguay (1950).12 By 1966, “all of the Spanish-speaking countries in South and Central America had missionaries,” and after 1978 “the Church began sending missionaries into the islands of the Caribbean.”13 In turn, full-time missionaries arrived in Spain in 1969.14 Thus, it was only in the twentieth century that the church gained a stable and expanding presence throughout the Spanish-speaking world.Scholars have often pointed out that the expansion and growth of the church was slow at first but then accelerated. Mark Grover highlights how this growth fundamentally altered the faith's overall demographics in the late twentieth century: “The Church in Latin America went from less than 1 percent (.72) of the entire Church [in 1964] to almost 37 percent by January 1, 2004.”15 This establishment and consequent expansion required the creation of institutions to support the church's efforts. The very first were missions. The South American Mission, for example, was established with headquarters in Buenos Aires in December 1925.16 These missions were physically far removed from Salt Lake City, and communications were not as immediate as they are in the twenty-first century. Thus, for local converts these early missions were the totality of the church. Until the formation of stakes starting in the 1960s and the movement in the 1980s of general authorities to area presidencies in local cities, the structures and policies adopted by local missions were highly influential in shaping the immediate experience of early members.To further their efforts, these early missions created official gazettes or bulletins. Some of these periodicals were intended for the missionaries, but others were dedicated to supporting local members. For example, in Argentina the Gaucho Gazette “was published in English and intended for the families and friends of the missionaries,”17 while El Mensajero was published in Spanish for local church members. The member publications were like other such church publications around the world. They contained lectures, essays, news items, and information regarding missionary activities.18 Mission leaders wrote some of the content, and some was translated from English-language church magazines such as the Improvement Era. They also published literature, usually in the form of poetry.19 This made them a potential publication outlet for Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints with literary inclinations.In 1879, Plotino Rhodakanaty20 and a “small group of believers”21 published the earliest Spanish-language LDS periodical, called La Voz del Desierto,22 in Mexico City. Published by the Mexican Branch, this short-lived periodical was an effort of early LDS enthusiasts and not an official church publication.The first Mexican Mission publication on record was Evangelio Restaurado. It was published monthly from March 1927 to September 1930, first out of El Paso, Texas, and then out of Los Angeles, California. According to the Church History Library catalog entry, this publication was intended for investigators, which implies it was a proselytizing tool.In January 1937, the Mexican Mission launched a monthly periodical out of Mexico City to benefit local church members. The name was El Atalaya de México. That was changed to In Yaotlapixqui Itechpa Tenochtitlán in March 1937 and then to In Yaotlapixqui in April 1937.23 In 1944, the name was Atalaya. All these names can be translated into English as something like “Watchtower” (e.g., the Watchtower of Mexico). That name was too similar to other religious denominations’ magazines, so the church authorized a name change to something with distinctly LDS connotations.24 In January 1945, the periodical was rebranded Liahona.25The Spanish American Mission also had a periodical. This mission, created in 1936 as a language-specific mission, stretched from Texas to California within the United States. In November 1936, it launched an English-language periodical, called Tonatiuh Itzácual, expressly for missionaries and their families.26 Despite its expressed audience, the content was also intended for the members. Three years later in January 1940, the mission began publishing Mensajes de Interés, a monthly periodical intended for local members. Most of the material was English-language messages translated into Spanish and reprinted articles from other church publications. It ran until December 1944.Farther south, the Argentine Mission began publication of the aforementioned El Mensajero in January 1937. In January 1947, the monthly publication changed its name to a more readily recognizable LDS name, El Mensajero Deseret. This periodical circulated in the Argentine and Uruguayan missions. It ran until 1955.By the mid-twentieth century, several missions in the Americas were publishing their own periodicals under the direction of their mission presidents. These included original, Spanish-language literature by Latter-day Saints. Eventually these local mission efforts at publication were consolidated. In a decade-long process, the Liahona periodical out of Mexico City replaced other similar publications. The Spanish American Mission stopped publishing Mensajes de Interés and Liahona became the official publication of both the Mexican Mission and the Spanish American Mission in January 1945.27 In 1952, mission authorities requested Liahona expand its distribution into the Central American Mission.28 At that point, Liahona became the official Spanish-language magazine for members in all of Central and North America. Later, in May 1955, all South American missions adopted Liahona as their official publication.29El Mensajero Deseret's last issue was published in April that year.As Liahona became the official publication of all Spanish-language missions, the Missionary Committee in Salt Lake City controlled the publication. During the 1960s, efforts at correlating (or unifying and streamlining) church doctrine and practice, including publications,30 reached Liahona. Starting in January 1968, the content of the magazine became the same as that of other international magazines.31 The new Liahona became in essence a product of translation: most texts (in many issues, every text) were translated from English-language magazines, usually the Improvement Era, Relief Society Magazine, the Instructor, the Children's Friend, and Church News. The bulk of twentieth-century poetry published in Spanish, then, dates to the period when the church in Latin America was relatively small rather than to the period of rapid expansion in the late twentieth century.Even so, in this second iteration of Liahona, poetry written originally in Spanish continued to be published intermittently. These poems usually appeared as stand-alone pieces. Starting in the 1980s, they were included in a section dedicated to content generated within Spanish-language stakes and districts. This poetry was published until the mid-1980s. From then until the early 1990s, literary works, including poetry, were only occasionally included as part of the local news inserts. By the end of the century, however, Spanish-language literary works were no longer included in Liahona. This matched a trend observed in English-language magazines, which eliminated fiction in 1995 and only occasionally printed poetry after that.32This background provides a setting to explore the literary landscape for LDS poets in the twentieth century. The first step is defining a domain for study. A domain can be understood as a context identified in terms of location, participants, and topic.33 The location is the Spanish-speaking world including the United States, Latin America, and Spain. The are and usually an LDS or a the step is where these LDS poets in the Spanish-speaking world might have published their works during the twentieth century. the LDS that of their the Spanish-language publications provide an obvious place to El Atalaya de Yaotlapixqui Itechpa El Mensajero Liahona, Mensajes de Interés, and Tonatiuh For the Liahona where were such were to the on digital and through the Church History Argentine members some of Mensajero Deseret. The is not but at including every issue to the 1 the of from these like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in its not all of its early periodicals are for This is for are not physically in which to such as found at the These help for the relatively number of during time out of Mexico and Argentina so, through to digital by the Church History to other found in with the and the help of had to a was the is not the be of in the are not but observed that in the section will some of the of the literary landscape for Spanish-speaking twentieth-century LDS section describes the content of church magazines, starting with the magazines the years that Atalaya was published in it had In all of poetry appeared as a its own either (e.g., in or (e.g., in These often included only one but Most of the poetry was originally written in Spanish, with only the from and most of the poets were Latter-day Saints, with only the by established the poems Some no LDS such as which is a of poems a LDS For example, the by is a to Mexico as a was by Most however, LDS of this poems that the such as or LDS such as They where the is at the church and that they will poems are such as de of that is an to a poems could be considered that are written in the second and can be described as a by in A in these early Mexican publications was that of not of as a but of including several poems in of In del of for about the same the Mission published Tonatiuh Itzácual, a publication that included some poetry in Most of the poems were from poems originally published in the Mexican periodical. The however, to more the as by de a where out of all the in the the one to be the is the one that not the Mission began publishing the Mensajes de Interés, it became the outlet for LDS poetry in of Mensajes de content from other and this is of most of the poems from the Mexican and at poems published in Tonatiuh were An is del It appeared first in El Atalaya de in 1937, was reprinted in Tonatiuh in and later was included in Mensajes de Interés in this periodical published a of LDS was poetry in of missionaries, such as the however, the did not to for poetry that was not similar in its of El Most of the poets were Latter-day Saints, but poems by poets were were not as in which poetry, or which also like or Most poems are LDS in their including poems that missionaries or missionary such as de poems that on such as of the first in the of Mormon and such as Liahona replaced these as the publication for the Spanish-speaking world. when Liahona was published out of Mexico City, the poetry was similar to with the same (e.g., missionaries, the the after Liahona under of the Missionary Committee in 1955, most poems on LDS or a that might with a LDS from the church publications continued to including poems about and missionaries and missionary the or and and A poems were published that were not a of that and de de a for on his are poems were published in support of such as a to the in or in support of the magazine that was publishing the that appeared more in Liahona than in periodicals was the was and now a of into the poems in of missionaries, this is a LDS of that found a outlet in Liahona. An of this of be de A that appeared for the first time in Liahona is that of the as found in poems such as where the to into a Jesus Christ was also as a as in However, only a were only about the poems were about other (e.g., the from the and Christ as part of a the poetry was out of in the of Liahona, but poems especially in the These from time to time literary at the area and then the usually in the of poetry and by the end of the century literature became a of the in official Spanish-language church these were the last form of literary poets appeared That may that to some periodicals were a outlet for their that out in the Atalaya and Most of the poets in Tonatiuh in were in and was a missionary In Mensajes de Interés, were authors, including poets (e.g., poets (e.g., P. and missionaries (e.g., Eugene south, poets found in El Mensajero included and In the early of Liahona, when it was a publication of the Mexican Mission, some of the same poets carried from such as that had been published in other mission periodicals continued to such as from Mensajes de Interés or from El Mensajero Deseret. Liahona under of the Missionary some poets continued but the of time is in the of the and made early in the late and early 1960s but they to poets such as de and are not However, church periodicals often included either the or the where the poets in mission periodicals were either in Mexico and the United States publications in North or in Argentina and Uruguay publications in the In a way, this is of where the church had a presence during the first of the twentieth century. Liahona, however, was mostly during the second of the century, at a time when the church and in a Thus, Liahona and not the poets in its began a of to their poetry from not the countries but also El and of the publication of literary of poetry, in church periodicals is to about the development (or of a LDS literature in the Spanish-speaking world during the twentieth century. In other it seeks to something about Mormon letters in The background and data to two first observation is that the through its a publication As these periodicals were mission at supporting the members of a church. Starting in the publications like El and Tonatiuh provided a for Latter-day Saints to express through literature, local poets of this outlet and published poems on and with Spanish-language magazines were under the Liahona and their content was to Salt Lake City, for literary continued to be especially in the form of poetry such as continued to occasionally The group of poets that of the was more international and overall to have however, this mostly outlet began publishing literary works less until it stopped doing so by the end of the it this was a outlet several poets in the of this periodical This implies that for a small group of Latter-day Saints, the church provided a to a creative with an LDS That was for example, in the of It is not that most of the poems were with the doctrine and of their church and or of the its or Thus, these publications a for a a that with the church This the general of the this the only literary outlet for these to this is to poets might have published in These have to be to poetry and had a to it so as to be to general to that may be found in how the poets were in LDS publications. were including and literary is a as it a but after all the several poets were For example, de of the the literary of a identified poets the of and the of several were on information provided about the the were for and Library of one published by these LDS poets was The Library of a of El World and It is a of many of which express with Some are including a of the aforementioned de and an dedicated to The was published in in It provides no of a only of a so it was The second observation more poets were an outlet for their in church publications were not such two observations sense one considers the context during the twentieth century. Mormonism is a twentieth-century in most of the Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints went from to a small within their Thus, from an LDS and an LDS their not be of to the of the was for the most part in many in religious In the that is often new religious have made LDS In LDS poets did not within their countries a of the to the or of most Thus, the of them their literary as LDS poets was the other through its the church was in a to help an international LDS literary are of this in the publications. these early periodicals were from one was an that they a A 1937 article in In Yaotlapixqui this of publications de (in an that is part of the effort to the Latin American only were mission leaders published these periodicals of the but is that some of the poets this as a In 1945, Argentine wrote a to Mexican Mission for a of El Atalaya that had been to The which included a a to was published in Liahona, when it was by the Mexican of church publications as a venue for the creation of an international of LDS literary could be Liahona became the official publication for the church in all the Spanish-speaking world. As a the group of poets published then became more This as a of but it was also the of a effort to some of literature. During the 1980s, for example, poetry often appeared in a section dedicated to content that was generated in Latin America and Spain. A for content that while have been some material for more was The a for literary to in their These could among other and could many including and literary which included in and creative in the of early periodicals and then in Liahona to a small group of of other and of For example, when a in El Mensajero that as de de most and of the poets to Mensajero for many years and the first Argentine about Mormon a Liahona published an article about Mormon of the of this was also an Argentine had found a outlet for his poetry in church Liahona published a of at the of an Uruguayan was identified as de of most The included a to by was also a in the of the of a small international literary of LDS poets seemed to be it the outlet church publications is that literary could not stem from publication in church the a where with literary could their and in was very to A of is and Saints in Latin America during the twentieth century were relatively and very far from especially when to the Mormon in the United States. such and with communications only in the last of the century with the too late in the is no that a literary did develop under these second is that the distribution of such poetry was almost on support from the church. that a distinctly LDS or a LDS had no of Thus, its had to come from and have a in some as especially when they are not but the same that most of these LDS poets from have them from considered by Thus, the only stable distribution outlet was the with its publishing that reached an international LDS the church was in the of literature. the extent that it it was an of its efforts the Latin American Thus, as the church from publishing LDS poets to LDS poetry had to to for publication. In support of such literary to be a for twentieth-century LDS poetry to the growth and expansion of the church in Latin America from the 1960s through the early one might Latter-day Saint literary in Spanish to be late in the century. the most to be from the late to the early in mission followed by the early years of the Liahona. These provided the of a Spanish-language literary for demographics less than structures of support for the development of literature. the church to no longer literary in its magazines, it until were for it to As were very in the twentieth century for publication of this of literary pieces. As the twenty-first century the world of publishing changed The provided to and distribute literature that did not two now to their own and them to the the of a publishing In other LDS now have a of they may seek publication of in the general this now are for LDS literature to be This and so, a that can be from the emergence and of Spanish-language LDS poetry in the twentieth century is that support can a efforts and It is that the church will provide the of support for this that it did in the but other institutions may be to provide publication in communications and publishing this a however, be a century from del de de no a de They on the of a in did they from the readily a they a in their that is and now that their now by not but they it is the of every but did in that to them that they might the its the light of in the a they removed from the of the

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