Colonia Juárez is a small town in the northern part of the Mexican

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Chihuahua. Colonia Juárez is located in the valley of the Piedras Verdes River on the western edge of the

Chihuahuan Desert The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower P ...

and beneath the eastern front of the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...

. It is roughly north of

Mata Ortiz Mata Ortiz is a small village in the States of Mexico, state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Mexico, less than from the US-Mexico border. The community is one of the designated ''localidades'' (localities) in the Municipalities of Mexico, ''muni ...

and southwest of

Nuevo Casas Grandes Nuevo Casas Grandes is a city and the seat of the Nuevo Casas Grandes Municipality in northern Mexico. It is located in the northwestern part of the state of Chihuahua, on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, situated in a wide, fertile valley o ...

. The town had a population of 1,035 in 2010. Established in 1886, the colony was named for the Mexican national hero

Benito Juárez Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Liberalism in Mexico, Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec peoples, Zapo ...

. The colony was one of many colonies in Mexico settled by

Mormon pioneers The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter Day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...

, or members of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church). This colonization was part of the church's larger campaign to establish the

State of Deseret The State of Deseret (modern pronunciation , contemporaneously ) was a proposed state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Salt Lake City. The provisional state ...

while evading the anti-polygamy

Edmunds Act The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882,U.S.History.com is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur, declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories. The act ...

of 1882. Although the town was planned before the end of polygamy, much of its growth in the late 19th century was due to Mormon immigrants leaving Utah and other parts of the U.S. due to their practice of polygamy. In addition, Mormon colonies outside of the U.S. proved financially important to the LDS Church during this time when the U.S. Federal government had confiscated much of the church's holdings. There are many descendants of these colonies that have attained prominence in both countries, including

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

. In addition, many church leaders have roots in these colonies. By the beginning of the 20th century, Chihuahua and other Mexican states were home to hundreds of thousands of Mormons and were almost a majority of the state of

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

. The

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

resulted in the exodus of many colonists from the region; some left permanently while others returned after a few years. Many families of all backgrounds sent women and children to the United States or Europe during the Revolution; others left completely. One of the last battles of the final phase of the Revolution was fought just outside Casas Grandes; several colonists participated in rescuing the wounded and caring for them at the old hacienda known in the histories as "El Refugio," earning the gratitude of the Revolutionary Government. Many of the colonies survived for several generations after the Revolution. The mountain colonies, such as Pacheco, García, and Chuichupa, slowly lost the colonist population due mainly to economic pressures, so that by the 1960s most Mormon colonists lived either in Colonia Juárez or

Colonia Dublán Colonia Dublán began as a Mormon colony, located in the state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Mexico. It is now a part of Nuevo Casas Grandes Municipality. It is one of two surviving Mormon colonies in Mexico (the other being Colonia Juárez, C ...

, where to this day a sizable part of the population descend from the original colonists. Colonia Juárez is known for its

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

and

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

orchards as well as

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

ranches. It is also known for the many graduates from its renowned academy. Residents typically work as

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

s, ranchers or in the local schools. Colonia Juárez is the home of the

Academia Juárez Academia Juárez, previously known as Juarez Stake Academy, is the oldest private high school owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and is located in Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Academia Juárez opened on S ...

(Juarez Stake Academy), a private

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

owned by the LDS Church. Colonia Juárez is home to one of the LDS Church's

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. It was dedicated on March 6, 1999, by church president

Gordon B. Hinckley Gordon Bitner Hinckley (June 23, 1910 – January 27, 2008) was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from March 1995 until his death in January 200 ...

. The Colonia Juárez Chihuahua Mexico Temple was one of the first of the smaller, standardized temples the LDS Church began constructing in the late 1990s, and is currently the smallest temple it operates.

Notable people from the colony

* Joseph T. Bentley * Carl F. Eyring * Greer Skousen *

Henry Eyring (chemist) Henry Eyring (February 20, 1901 – December 26, 1981) was a Mexico-born United States theoretical chemist whose primary contribution was in the study of chemical reaction rates and intermediates. History Eyring, a third-generation member of th ...

Henry Eyring (Mormon pioneer) Henry Carlos Ferdinand Eyring (March 9, 1835 – February 10, 1902) was a prominent mid-level leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in the United States and Mexico during the 19th and early-20th centuries. He was a ...

* Franklin S. Harris * John Hatch (basketball, born 1947) * Jorge A. Rojas * Marion G. Romney * O. Meredith Wilson

References

External links

Colonia Juarez Temple Read about Helaman Pratt, one of the founders of Colonia Juarez

Mormon Colonies in Mexico

Mormon Colonies in Mexico Wiki

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua Populated places in Chihuahua (state) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico Populated places established in 1886