Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Collection in Mormon Mexican History

Collection

Identifier: H-Mss-1124

Staff Only

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Collection in Mormon Mexican History consists of primary and secondary sources about Mormonism in Mexico. Primarily covering the activities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there are general regional history and Fundamentalist Mormon groups’ documents including Bautista, Allred, and LeBaron groups. Some of the important figures who are found in this collection are Abel Paez, Margarito Bautista, Narciso Sandoval, Moses Thatcher, and Rey L. Pratt, to name a few. This collection is notable because it has many files pertaining to the Escuela Heroes de Chapultepec, director Consuelo Gomez, and the Beremerito school in Mexico. There are several church publications in Spanish and English including Liohona, Relief Society magazine, church pamphlets, etc. There are also large amounts of journals, diaries, and mission/congregation photographs from throughout the Mexico Mission. There are several patriarchal blessings, ordinance documents, and myriad documents from the Third Convention movement in the 1930s and 1940s.

The processing and cataloging of the Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Collection in Mormon Mexican History benefitted from the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

Dates

Creation: 1810-2019
Creation: Majority of material found within 1879-2012

Creator

Gómez Páez, Fernando Rogelio (Person)
Gómez, Enriqueta (Person)

Language of Material

Languages represented in the collection: English and Spanish.

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be sumitted in writing to Special Collections and Archives, The Claremont Colleges Library.

Biography / Administrative History

Fernando and Enriqueta Gomez were both born in Mexico in the early 1940s. They were married and sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple in 1964. With the help of his wife, Fernando graduated as an electrical engineer from Brigham Young University in 1967. His professional life took place in Mexico and the Philippine Islands, where he contributed to developing and assembling semiconductors and magnetic heads for disk drives. He served his first LDS mission on the west coast of Mexico in 1964. While in the Philippines, he was called to serve as a Regional Representative from 1985 to 1990. The couple presided over the Mexico Merida Mission [1992-1995], the Missionary Training Center in Santiago, Chile [1998-2000], and the Merida Mexico Temple [2001-2004]. They have four children, sixteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Consuelo Gomez Gonzalez, the aunt of Museum of Mormon Mexican History founder, Fernando Gomez, was born in the state of Hidalgo in 1896. She was educated in Methodist schools, where she graduated in 1919 as an educator and was employed by them. She met Mormon missionaries in 1923 and was baptized in 1925, causing the loss of her employment. She became a pillar of the early LDS Church in central Mexico, and in the 1940s she helped Bernabe Parra establish a private school, Heroes de Chapultepec, which allowed her to become a key figure in the development of the LDS Church’s Educational System in Mexico in the 1960s. She developed her talent as a poet and published many poems in LDS publications for decades, among them: "The Vision of the Prophet" and "The Blind Men of Our Branch."

The mission of the Museum of Mormon Mexican History is to collect and preserve the early history of how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints developed in Mexico and to make it available to the general public free of charge. This collection is a result of the work of the Gomez family through the establishment of the Museum of Mormon Mexican History after the collection was originally preserved and passed down to Fernando and Enriqueta Gomez from Consuelo Gomez.

Extent

41.2 Linear Feet (30 records boxes, 10 document boxes, 1 half-size document box, 4 oversize document boxes, 2 flat boxes, 2 custom ledger boxes, 1 audiovisual box)

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection covers the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico both from the native and missionary perspectives, starting in the mid-19th century to the early 21st century. This collection also includes a significant amount of documents from the Fudnamentalist Mormon movement in Mexico, namely items from Margarito Bautista who founded the group headquartered in Ozumba, Mexico, Mexico but also has documents translated to Spanish from the Woolley, Allred, and LeBaron groups.

Organization and Arrangement

This collection has been organized into the following series and subseries:

Series 1: Institutional Records, 1810-2012 and undated
Subseries 1.1: Addresses and Sermons, 1881-1968 and undated
Subseries 1.2: Chapels and Temples, 1946-2000 and undated
Subseries 1.3: Congregations, 1900-2006 and undated
Subseries 1.4: Events, 1900-2012 and undated
Subseries 1.5: Families, 1906-1968 and undated
Subseries 1.6: Leaders, 1874-2009 and undated
Subseries 1.7: Members, 1830-2010 and undated
Subseries 1.8: Missionaries, 1900-1989
Subseries 1.9: Missions, 1876-2009 and undated
Subseries 1.10: Ordinances, 1810-1983 and undated
Subseries 1.11: Schools, 1919-2008 and undated
Series 2: Latin America, General, 1885-1997 and undated
Subseries 2.1: Places, 1885-1997 and undated
Subseries 2.2: Politics, 1931-1994
Series 3: Museum Records, 1830-2019 and undated
Subseries 3.1: Administrative Files, 1830-2019 and undated
Subseries 3.2: Correspondence, 1983-2017 and undated
Subseries 3.3: Exhibitions, 1881-2016 and undated
Subseries 3.4: Presentations and Publications, 1875-2015 and undated
Series 4: Printed Matter, 1879-2016 and undated
Subseries 4.1: Magazines, 1908-2016
Subseries 4.2: Newsletters, 1937-2001 and undated
Subseries 4.3: Pamphlets, 1924-2008 and undated
Subseries 4.4: Training Materials, 1879-1992 and undated
Series 5: Research Materials, 1830-2015 and undated
Subseries 5.1: Biographical Materials, 1844-2014 and undated
Subseries 5.2: Call, Eran A. Papers, 1915-2010 and undated
Subseries 5.3: Correspondence, 1857-2001 and undated
Subseries 5.4: Histories, 1832-2012 and undated
Subseries 5.5: Journals / Diaries, 1846-2012 and undated
Subseries 5.6: Publications, 1830-2015 and undated

File folders are arranged alphabetically by title. Contents within files are typically arranged by chronological order.

Physical Location

Please consult repository.

Provenance/Source of Aquisition

Gift of Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez, August 2020

Accruals

No additions to the collection are anticipated.

Alternative Forms of Material Available

Some materials from this collection have been digitized and added to the Claremont Mormon Studies Collection in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Follow the link for the Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Mormon Mexican History Collection to view relevant items.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Claremont Graduate University (CGU) ARCH 315 students and updated by Stephanie Griswold, a Ph.D. student at CGU.

The processing and cataloging of the Fernando R. and Enriqueta Gomez Collection in Mormon Mexican History benefitted from the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.