A milestone in American Latino general authorities

Jorge Beccerra is without question an American Latino General Authority. More to the point to some he is a Mexican American general authority. He is also from Utah. His background is working as an investment advisor. His wife is an Anglo-American. He grew up attending the Lucero Ward, at least some of that time the only Spanish-speaking ward in Utah. Back when Thomas S. Monson was a child it was the only Spanish-speaking ward in the Church. Everything else was branches. Elder Beccerra was not born until 1962, so 35 years after President Monson. By them President Monson had moved out of downtown to the southeast suburbs of Salt Lake.

Elder Beccerra's grandfather joined the Church in Mexico as did his parents. The family moved to Utah before his birth. He served his mission in the Arcadia California Mission where he met his wife who was a missionary there. He now lives in Sandy, having thus moved to the suburbs and he was mission president in Arcadia.

The question is, was Elder Beccerra the first American Latino general authority. The simple answer is no, but he is the most clearly Latino American general authority to date.

The first Latino general authority was Angel Abrea. The first ethnic Mexican may have been Jorge Rojas but I think there was one before him. The longest currently serving ethnic Mexican general authority is Benjamin De Hoyos.

The first Latino general authority from the US is a tough call. Marion G. Romney was the first Mexican born but was clearly an Anglo. Clate Mask Jr. Was 1/3th ethnic Mexican but did not learn Spanish till his mission. Elder Uceda was called from New Jersey but spent most of his adult life in Peru. Elder Adrian Ochoa was born in California but raised in Mexico and spent most of his adult life there until only a few years before getting a general Church call. Elder Ochoa even lived in Utah, but Elder Beccerra growing up attending a Spanish-speaking ward in the US and always living in the US has the most Latino from the US credentials of any to date.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Defending Oaks balanced calls

Here  https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/10/14/stuart-c-reid-oaks-does/  is a well balanced article written for the Salt Lake Tribune defending the teachings of President Dallin H. Oaks, specifically his well thought-out talk to the General Women's Meeting in General Conference. Reid presents a well reasoned argument. What he never deals with is the reasons behind Riess's hateful attacks on President Oaks for his talk. To understand what is fully going on one has to realize in the past Riess has attacked President Packer for his comments on LGBT issues in general conference. The best theory is that Riess is not in accord with or agreement with the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on sexuality. She should stop pretending, as she did with her earlier reactions to President Packer, and just admit that she does not view the leaders of the Church as inspired men, clearly does not believe the Book of Mormon is the revealed word of God in an
Read more

Suing the "Mormon Corporate Empire"

The misuse of courts has reached a new low. In a rambling and clearly unhinged suit someone has now tried to begin a class action lawsuit against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the grounds that it misrepresents its history for corporate gain. The suit claims that it is known that Joseph Smith did not translate the Book of Mormon from the gold plates and that it is known that Joseph Smith did not see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in the First Vision, but the Church tries to manipulate and downplay these facts. The problem for the suit is that it makes false claims on what is and is not known, and then outright lies about the implications. First off, the seeming main claim is that because at least some of the translation of the Book of Mormon was done by Joseph Smith looking in a seer stone in a hat it was not translated from the golden plates. This is a clear false claim. The belief of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that t
Read more

The first BYU grad

In my interview on Monday for a position at Hope Academy on the westside of Detroit, the principal who has been a school administrator for 30 years said I was the first person who had attended school at BYU, and in fact in Utah, he had ever interviewed. My main regret is that I said in explaining why I went to BYU that I was a Mormon instead of saying that I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Nelson was correct when in his talk in Montreal he said we have a lot of work to do within the Church to change how we speak of the Church. I have already seen some people say that it cannot be done and that they will not even try. It can be done and it should be done. Will we end all uses of Mormon? Probably not. Should we cut back and refer to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in as many ways and by as many means as we can? Most defiately.
Read more