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 Martínez 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.

"Martínez has rendered an invaluable service to the history of the 
Southwest."—Justo L. González, Professor of Church History, Emory 
University

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JUAN FRANCISCO MARTÍNEZ is Assistant Dean for the Hispanic 
Church Studies Department and Associate Professor of Hispanic 
Studies and Pastoral Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary in 
Pasadena, California.


Number Four: Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series