Letter from Mexico: Impressions of a Mormon

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 26, 1958, No. 2

LETTER FROM MEXICO

IMPRESSIONS OF A MORMON

The official historian of the Mormon expedition which left Salt Lake City in the fall of 1861, bound for Utah's Dixie to settle the city of St. George, was James G. Bleak. Another member of the party was nine-year-old Anthony W. (Tony) Ivins.

In his role as general historian for the community and keeper of records for the St. George Stake and the Temple, Mr. Bleak became one of the principal preservers of southern Utah history.

During the winter of 1875-76, young Ivins, now twenty-three years old, was one of a party of seven men and about thirty horses and mules which made an exploration and missionary journey through Arizona and New Mexico and spent nearly nine weeks in Mexico. Six years later he went to Mexico City on a two-year mission for the Mormon Church. In 1896 he was called by the church to preside over the colonies which had been established in northern Mexico as cities of refuge for polygamists. In February and March of 1898 he spent thirty-five frustrating days in Mexico City trying to transact colonization business which he thought should have been disposed of in two or three days. In the midst of his frustration he sat down to write a letter to his friend Bleak at St. George. The original letter was presented to the Utah State Historical Society by Mrs. Juanita Brooks, a trustee of the Society. It is here reproduced without alterations or emendations.

City of Mexico Feby. 19 th 1898.

James G. Bleak Esq. St. George, Utah.

Dear Bro.

I have a little time at my disposal while I am waiting the slow movement of Mexican law and slower movement of Mexican officials and feel certain that I cannot use a portion to better advantage than to write a letter to you. I have promised myself for several months past that I would write you but this is the first favorable opportunity that I have had and now it is a question whether I will not have to surrender unconditionally to the fleas. It is fifteen years since I was in this wonderful city and I find that the fleas have prospered under president Diaz' administration as well as the people, and that they seem, like the giant in Tom Thum, to readily smell the blood of an Englishman or his American cousin.

While I think of it I desire to ask if you have received from C. E. Johnson my Mothers picture for the temple.

I had a Crayon made from one of her photographs and paid Charley for framing, packing and shipping it. This was while I was at Salt Lake last October and you should have received the portrait before the present date.

I have been here since the 5 th attending to colonization business and expect that I shall remain a week or ten days longer, and perhaps till a later date; when one gets mixed up with the government it is like a case in chancery, or the supreme court, it is impossible to tell when you will get out.

Bro. Macdonald came down with me to close up some business which he had begun but only remained a few days and I suppose is now at home. We have a number of important matters before different departments of the government which should have been settled long ago and I hope before I return home to get them all adjusted, so that we may take a fresh start.

I am negotiating for the purchase of about 40,000 acres of land near our colonies which will cost us if I succeed, as I hope to, about ten cents per acre. There is but little agricultural land in the tract but is good grazing land and some of it is well timbered. I shall also pay for, and get deeds for about 12000 acres of land which Bro. Macdonald had bought, or rather bargained for. This will give our company, or our stake about 210,000 acres of land, enough, if of good quality to sustain a large population, but unfortunately it is nearly all grazing and timber land. I do not think we have more than ten thousand acres of agricultural land altogether. There is plenty of good agricultural land in the neighborhood of the colonies but it belongs to wealthy Mexicans who refuse, as a rule to sell it, and if they do offer it at all the exaggerated notions which they entertain of the wealth of Americans in general and Mormons in particular prompts them to demand a price which no one will think of paying.

Under these circumstances our development is of necessity slow but still we move and occasionally pick up a piece of land which is offered for what it is worth and we expect as we utilize that which we have, that the Lord will open the way so that we may get more and better lands and that our advancement will be steady and continuous. Nearly all of the Latterday Saints who are in Mexico came here without resources and with large families to support; they have had a multitude of difficulties and obsticals to over come which people in the U.S. know nothing about, and the facilities at their disposal were very few, but notwithstanding these facts the tithing paid in the Juarez ward during the past year amounted to between [deleted: seventy] eighty and [deleted: eighty] ninety dollars per capita for each tithe payer for 1897. I have not the exact figures but it will be nearer ninety than eighty dollars. This is in Mexican Silver and a large proportion of the tithing was paid in cash. I refer to this because it gives you a very good idea of the condition of the people, the tithing being the best rule by which we can judge of their prosperity. We are building a nice brick academy at Juarez which will contain ten ten [sic] rooms and hope to have it completed for the beginning of this years school term. I have secured the services of Bro. Guy C. Wilson, formerly of the B. Y. Academy at Provo, who is now teaching at Juarez. He is a very nice man and an excellent teacher. I need not refer to the great benefit which this school will be to the colonies, no one I am certain would give support to an educational movement of this character more readily than you.

While waiting for the colonization department to consider my business I have been visiting familiar places and old friends and have enjoyed myself as well as I can expect to do among such a people.

When I was here 14 years ago we had nearly one hundred people who were members of the Church. I have met since my arrival six who still profess faith in the Gospel and there are a few others but they have been left so long without a shepherd that they have drifted away in practice if not in faith. They are like children and must be carefully taught and removed from their old surroundings before they can be made to appreciate the blessings of the Gospel and live according to its precepts.

Mexico has developed rapidly during the past ten years. Many rail roads have been built and there has been a great influx of foreign population and the investment of large sums of money in different avenues of trade. The City has greatly improved and that millionaires are being made is evident by the beautiful mansons which have been and are now being erected, the thousands of fine carriages which are seen on the streets any evening in the week, and the fine business blocks which are going up on every side. Public improvements are also being carried on with very creditable enterprise. The "Alameda," covering about sixty acres of land in the central part of the city is a most beautiful park, the trees and grass are as green as summer at home (in Utah) and flowers in bloom. It is a curious sight to go there in the evening and see multitudes of people of all grades from the wealthiest class to the half naked Indian indiscriminately mixed together, Americans, Englishmen, Germans, French, Spanish, Italians, Japs, Chinese and no telling how many other nationalities, the most cosmopolitan crowd in the world and no one assuming a prerogative which he is not willing to grant to another. I walked down the "Paseo de la Reforma" yesterday to Chipultepec and very greatly enjoyed my walk and visit after reaching my destination. The Paseo has been greatly improved since I was here and is now a most beautiful walk bordered with trees, seats, statuary and kiosks for the bands which make the heart glad by their fine music. Chipultapec is a historical spot. I[t] was upon the summit of this hill that the Montezumas had their summer palace, the viceroys, and later Iturbede and Maximillian made their summer residence there and later when it had been converted into a military academy under Santa Annas administration the Americans stormed it at the battle of Chipultepec where many Mexicans and American soldiers lost their lives. A fine building now crowns the summit of the hill which is at present used as a military academy and summer residence of the president, the West Point and White House of Mexico. The grounds are beautifully kept but the same giant cypress trees are there which shaded Montezuma more than three hundred years ago, and where Cortez rested and slaked his thirst from the chrystal spring which gushes out from their roots and which has supplied this city with water since before the conquest. It was by stopping this supply of fresh water and cutting off the food from the mainland that Cortez was finally able to to [sic] subjugate Guatamozin whose bronz statue now stands looking down upon the spot where he was cruelly tortured by his merciless conqueror because he refused to divulge the spot where he had secreted the state treasure. What am I doing? If I keep on in this strain my letter will weary you, but these thoughts and many others, revived from the study of youth come to me as I stand upon the brow of the hill upon which the castle of Chipultipec stands and look around me upon one of the most beautiful vallies that the sun shines upon, for looking East with the city and valley before you in its cloak of green, the foot hills beyond dotted with the cottages and fields of the Indians, and beyond the snow capped peaks of "Iztlacihualt" and "Popocatapetl" the view is an inspiring one to the most passive mind. What must it be to one who knows the past history of the land he gazes upon and the people who occupy it, knows it far better than they with all of their great archeologists, their libraries and their museums. Who knows how blessed they were in their obedience to the Gospel of Christ, how wicked they became when they rejected it, the great civilization which they had attained to under the Moc-tezumas, but with it how idolatrous they became, and how, because they had so fallen from grace, the Lord permitted the Spanish conquer [or] s to chasten them and instead of the idolatry of Huitzel introduce the idolatry of the cross which they worship today as blindly as their fathers did the images of stone to which they bowed down three hundred years ago. One thinks of their past, studies the present and concludes that the Lord only knows what the future will be.

What is to become of the masses of the Mexican people. When I go into the suburbs of the city, into the byways, or in fact upon the highways, and see the degradation of the masses, their poverty, their drunkenness, their filth and immorality, when I see them come through the streets of the city as they do every day in trains bending under the heavy burdens which are placed upon their backs, and above all when I observe how firmly the Mother of Abominations seems to have them within her grasp I conclude that only the power of the Lord and that manifest to a degree almost without parallel can ever bring their redemption. When I contemplate these things which are constantly before me, when I think of this Military Oligarchy which is called a republic, I thank the Lord for the Anglo Saxon race, I thank Him still more for the great Republic, where with all its defects, self government and the enjoyment of personal rights prevail to a degree which cannot be found elsewhere in the known world, and above all I thank him for the Gospel of His Son which brings with it a more perfect system of government, and more perfect laws of personal liberty and equality than the the [sic] wisest men have ever been able to devise or the average man is able to comprehend. If there are any of the boys who do not appreciate the blessing of the government under which they live send them to Mexico. I surmise they will return more patriotic, more appreciative of the blessings they enjoy, more thoughtful and interested in the downtroden of other Nations. It is nearly 12 oclock. I feel almost as though I were talking to you and could could [sic] go on and fill a small volume if the clock would only stop while I do it, but the little French clock which sits before me on the table keeps ticking away the moments and hours, just as our lives are ticking on, and admonishes me that my work is done so far as this day is concerned, be it good or bad. I cannot recall the hours which have passed while I have [been] scribbling off these lines. With the dying of the day I will finish this letter. I have enjoyed writing it, how much more I should enjoy standing] on the hill at Chipu[l]tapeck and discussing these things with you as we gazed upon them together. Remember me kindly to Bro. Cannon, Bro. Thompson and all the Temple workers as well as any enquiring friends. I shall hope to see you at conference. With best wishes Your Bro.

/s/A. W. Ivins

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