{"id":18514,"date":"2019-11-07T03:18:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T03:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18514"},"modified":"2019-11-08T15:01:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T15:01:08","slug":"mormons-in-mexico-a-brief-history-of-polygamy-cartel-violence-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/mormons-in-mexico-a-brief-history-of-polygamy-cartel-violence-and-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Mormons in Mexico: A brief history of polygamy, cartel violence and faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Janzen<\/a>, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Nine members of a prominent Mormon family in northern Mexico, all women and children, were gunned down on Nov. 4 in territory whose control is disputed by the Sinaloa Cartel and the La Linea<\/a> militia.<\/p>\n

Mexico, which has experienced high<\/a> crime<\/a> for over a decade, has seen violence surge in recent weeks. On Oct. 17, a shootout in the city of Culiacan<\/a> involving the Sinaloa Cartel led officials to release from custody Ovidio Guzman, the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman.<\/p>\n

In the context of so much bloodshed, the LeBaron killings are both highly unusual and tragically quotidian.<\/p>\n

Unlike most murder victims in Mexico, the LeBarons are U.S. citizens<\/a> and Mormons \u2013 part of a religious community that broke away from Utah\u2019s Church of Latter-Day Saints<\/a> years ago. But, as many Mexican journalists have written<\/a>, the peace activism of family member Juli\u00e1n LeBaron could also have made his community a target. And the LeBarons have a history of violent encounters with organized crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mormons in Mexican history<\/h2>\n

In my 2018 book on American- and Canadian-based religious enclaves in Mexico<\/a>, I researched the Latter-Day Saints community and the LeBaron Mormons of Chihuahua state, near the U.S. border. Typically, these communities\u2019 members are somewhat reluctant to talk to outsiders, beyond proselytizing.<\/p>\n

But as a person of Mennonite<\/a> background with relatives in Mennonite colonies in Mexico, I was able to interview members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints<\/a> \u2013 the official name of the mainstream Mormon church \u2013 in northern Mexico.<\/p>\n

Along with the Romneys \u2013 relatives of Sen. Mitt Romney, whose father was born in Mexico<\/a> \u2013 the LeBarons are among the most storied families in Mormon history.<\/p>\n

Members of Utah\u2019s Latter-Day Saints community emigrated to Mexico<\/a> in the 1880s to follow their religious beliefs by living in polygamous families, which was illegal in the United States. Polygamy was illegal in Mexico, too, but the government there offered a flexible definition of family and did not enforce its anti-polygamy laws.<\/p>\n

Alma \u201cDayer\u201d LeBaron, the patriarch, was born in 1886 and grew up as a Latter-Day Saint in Colonia Dubl\u00e1n, Chihuahua. In 1904, he married a women from nearby Colonia Ju\u00e1rez. She left him when he sought a polygamous marriage.<\/p>\n

LeBaron fled the Mexican Revolution<\/a> for Utah in 1912, where he married two women \u2013 Maude McDonald and Onie Jones \u2013 and had what\u2019s been described as \u201ca large family of sons<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBaron and his big family returned to Mexico in 1924 to find that their Latter-Day Saint neighbors<\/a> did not welcome their polygamy. So LeBaron established his own colony, called LeBaron, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Today it stretches approximately six miles along a municipal highway and is four miles wide, surrounded by fields. LeBaron also began his own Mormon church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Poverty and conflicts<\/h2>\n

For 50 years, the LeBarons migrated back and forth across the Mexico-U.S. border, with Alma\u2019s sons serving as missionaries evangelizing on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the community struggled with poverty and, starting in the 1970s, ran into land conflicts with a nearby farming community that had been granted land by the government after the Mexican Revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The LeBaron colony\u2019s land may have been illegally purchased from this neighboring land grant. Area peasants called the LeBarons \u201cAmerican invaders\u201d and destroyed their fences. This allowed cattle into the LeBaron\u2019s fields, damaging their crops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judges in Mexico, however, sided with the LeBarons, whom they saw as productive members of the local economy. The land clashes between Mormon and Mexican ranchers have largely dissipated, though a flare-up occurred just last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Alma Dayer LeBaron died in 1951, his sons \u2013 Joel, Ross, Ervil and Verlan \u2013 disagreed over the future of the church Alma had established, leading to violence within the family and the formation of new fundamentalist groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ervil LeBaron was arrested and convicted for the 1972 murder of his brother Joel. That verdict was later overturned<\/a>, but in 1981, a Utah court convicted Ervil of a different murder<\/a>. He died in prison in 1981<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Members of this community report enduring beatings, underage marriage and other abuse<\/a>, as the escapee Anna LeBaron<\/a> recounts in her 2017 memoir \u201cThe Polygamist\u2019s Daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The entrance to Colonia LeBaron, a religious enclave in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, Nov. 6, 2019.<\/span>
\nAP Photo\/Marco Ugarte<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The LeBarons have also been victims of violence. In 2009, 16-year-old Eric LeBaron was kidnapped by drug traffickers<\/a>. His family successfully lobbied the government for help and secured his release. In retaliation, a cartel killed Eric LeBaron\u2019s brother Benjam\u00edn LeBaron and brother-in-law Luis Widmar<\/a> in 2011.<\/p>\n

Frustrated by violence<\/a>, another brother, Juli\u00e1n LeBaron, that year joined a high-profile peace movement<\/a> founded by the poet Javier Sicilia.<\/p>\n

LeBaron and Sicilia reportedly fell out in 2012<\/a>. But after the murder of Juli\u00e1n\u2019s cousin and other family members on Nov. 4, Sicilia wrote a condolence letter<\/a> encouraging Juli\u00e1n to \u201cuncover the barbaric reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Integration in Mexico<\/h2>\n

As their peace activism shows, the LeBarons are more integrated in Mexican society than other religious minority groups I\u2019ve studied.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An American relative of some of the Latter-Day Saints killed in Chihuahua is comforted by a neighbor in Queen Creek, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2019.<\/span>
\nAP Photo\/Matt York<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The LeBarons have long sought connections with fellow Mexicans to proselytize about their beliefs<\/a>. And 39-year-old Alex LeBaron, from this community, has worked for the government of Chihuahua. From 2015 to 2018<\/a>, he was even an elected official. Alex LeBaron also married a Mexican woman, Brenda R\u00edos, in a Catholic ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Like other northern Mexicans<\/a>, the LeBarons are a thoroughly cross-border community<\/a>. Much of their purchasing power in Mexico comes from remittances sent by male relatives who work in the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

Like their neighbors, too, the LeBarons are vulnerable to the violence that surrounds them. Mexico\u2019s death toll in 2019 is on pace to exceed the 33,341 murders seen in 2018<\/a>. In spite of a new National Guard<\/a> established to fight crime, last year was Mexico\u2019s deadliest year since modern record-keeping began<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Violence in Chihuahua state, where homicides had dropped markedly in recent years<\/a> is rebounding.<\/p>\n

So the LeBarons may have an uncommon backstory. But from kidnappings to gruesome murders, they share a familiarity with tragedy that far too many Mexicans know far too well<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[ Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n

Rebecca Janzen<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Janzen, University of South Carolina Nine members of a prominent Mormon family in northern Mexico, all women and children, were gunned down on Nov. 4 in territory whose control is disputed by the Sinaloa Cartel and the La Linea militia. Mexico, which has experienced high crime for over a decade, has seen violence surge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[7205,2034,671,1336,2973,2972,6610],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18514"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18520,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18514\/revisions\/18520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}