
South Baja California Mission headquarters.
Photo courtesy of South Baja California Mission.
South Baja California Mission
By Jaime Bruce Holguín
Jaime Bruce Holguín Guzmán, B.A. (Montemorelos University, Montemorelos, N. L., Mexico) is an ordained pastor and currently a district pastor in the Chihuahua Mexican Conference of the North Mexican Union.
First Published: August 22, 2021
South Baja California Mission is a part of North Mexican Union Conference in the Inter-American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
Territory and Statistics
South Baja California Mission is comprised of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The Baja California peninsula at its longest point is 1,200 kilometers in length, and its average width is 140 kilometers.1 The peninsula contains 7.5 percent of the land in Mexico. It is divided into two states: Baja California on the north end of the peninsula, with 3.7 percent of the Mexican territory, and Baja California Sur on the southern or lower end of the peninsula, with 3.8 percent of the national territory. In 2020, Baja California Sur had a population of 798,447 inhabitants distributed into five municipalities.2
As of 2020, South Baja California Mission had 2,525 members, according to the records of the secretariat of the North Mexican Union Conference. This means that out of each 252.2 inhabitants in the state of Baja California Sur, one of them was a Seventh-day Adventist, and that the Adventist community in that state forms 0.39 percent of the population.
South Baja California Mission is divided into seven districts. The Guerrero Negro district is in the north, and includes congregations in the cities of Guerrero Negro, Vizcaíno, Jesús María, and Bahía Tortugas. To the south, the next district is Las Misiones with the city of Loreto at its center. It includes three churches in the cities of Loreto, Mulegé, and Santa Rosalia. Next is the Ciudad Constitución district, which includes congregations in the cities of Ciudad Constitución, Ciudad Insurgentes, and the town of La Purísima. The central region of La Paz, which includes the state’s capital city, is divided into two districts. The Centro district includes four congregations in different areas of the capital city. The second district is called Pacífico Cortés, so called because the members reside at the far end of the Gulf of California and at the point where the Pacific Ocean starts. This district has three congregations, two in the city of La Paz, and the other in a town called Pescadero. South of La Paz is the district of Cabo San Lucas. This district has five congregations distributed among several parts of the city. And finally, on the southernmost part of the state of Baja California Sur is the district of San José del Cabo. San José del Cabo is the municipal seat for the municipality of Los Cabos. There are three congregations in this city.
Origins of Church Work in the South Baja California Mission Territory
While it is believed that Seventh-day Adventists took the gospel to the city of La Paz at a much earlier date, the only written and verbal records document that the Adventist message entered Baja California Sur in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, two young men, Joel Salazar López and Arturo Vázquez Rivas, came to the city of La Paz to preach the eternal gospel in the light of last day events. These young men, still adolescents, were sent as self-supporting laymen by the then Pacific Mexican Mission. They were to spend a month in the city of La Paz sowing the seeds of truth. They were courageous young men with the spirit of adventure, and they satiated their thirst for adventure in the risky mission by spending a month in the city without any outside financial support, depending totally on God for economic support and safety.
During that one month, López and Rivas visited almost all the homes in the city, which was not as large as it is now. They invited residents to listen to the radio program La Voz de la Esperanza, and to sign up for its correspondence courses. Whenever they found someone who was interested in the message preached on the radio, they would make an appointment to visit them at home in the evening, giving Bible studies with the help of a View Master projector and the slides that came with it. The slides presented all the Adventist doctrines. Generally, the families in the homes would invite neighbors to the presentations. During this month, the young men visited hundreds of people. At the end of the month, they returned to their homes, López to El Dorado, Sinaloa, and Rivas to Ruiz Cortines, Sinaloa.3
Because of the hundreds of interested persons those dedicated missionary young men found in La Paz, the administrators of the Pacific Mexican Mission decided to send Jorge Suárez to preach in the city of La Paz. He arrived in La Paz at the beginning of 1960, and as there were no Adventists in the city, he and his family usually met alone in their home on Sabbaths. In 1962, Antonia Ventura Hernández, her husband Jesús Villa Espinoza, and her daughter Juana Guillermina Villa Ventura arrived in La Paz. They were originally from Acapulco, Guerrero, and had learned about the gospel in the city of Ensenada, Baja California. Josús Villa’s job had moved them to the city of La Paz.4
Suárez was in La Paz for only a brief time, as the city of Guaymas, Sonora, was urgently in need of his services. Nevertheless, a few months later, Dr. Héctor Medina came from the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, to La Paz, and his presence there was crucial to the advancement and development of the work in Baja California Sur. This small group of people started the Adventist church in the state of Baja California Sur.
From then on, the group of believers began to grow slowly but surely. They received the help of various missionaries who came through, whether colporteurs or lay workers who had been given the title of pastors, not because they were professionals, but because they had that vocation. The epicenter of the missionary work was in the city of La Paz, but later several members from the northern part of the peninsula came south for work reasons, and were situated in nearby cities like Ciudad Constitución and Los Cabos.
Organization of South Baja California Mission
Northwest Mexican Conference was made up of the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, and Baja California Sur; however, on July 25, 1988, the board of directors of the conference voted to reorganize Northwest Mexican Conference and form a new conference, Baja California Mexican Conference, which would be made up of two states: Baja California, and Baja California Sur, with headquarters in Tecate, Baja California.5
Soon it became evident that the state of Baja California Sur needed more particular attention, so Baja California Mexican Conference voted to make the state a field of its own, and assigned a pastor to be the field secretary for that area. The committee appointed Marcelo Ramírez, who then became responsible for the districts of Loreto, Ciudad Constitución, Los Cabos, and La Paz. The office for this field was located in La Paz.
On July 16, 2006, the board of directors named Ismael Reyna field secretary for the Baja California Sur region. Development and reorganization of the field would make him the last field secretary named by Baja California Mexican Conference to care for this region.6
On October 29, 2008, it was voted that the Baja California Sur zone become a field of its own, independent of Baja California Mexican Conference. At that time, the southern state had a total church membership of 1,087. Saúl Barceló Guerrero was named coordinator of the field, and his wife, Nohemí Gil de Barceló, was appointed his assistant with responsibility for the departments of health and family life, child ministries, and women’s ministries.
At the midyear session in 2013, Saúl Barceló Guerrero was transferred to work on the development of a new entity, which would raise funds for the growth of education and community service projects. This new entity would be coordinated by North Mexican Union, and Pastor Barceló would have his office there. At the same session, Pastor José Jaime Vázquez was named to be the new coordinator for the Baja California Sur field, and his wife Melisa Lorena Cruz would be in charge of the departments of child ministries and women’s ministries.
In August 2016, North Mexican Union Conference appointed Jaime Figueroa the new coordinator for the Baja California Sur field. His wife, Raquel Aguirre de Figueroa, was asked to be in charge of the departments of women’s ministries, child and adolescent ministries, and the International Society of Adventist Ministers' Wives (Sociedad Internacional de Esposas de Ministros Adventistas, SIEMA).
On October 22, 2016, a constituency meeting was held in the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, during which a motion to change the status of the region from a field to South Baja California Mission was approved.
List of Presidents
Jaime Figueroa (2016- )
Sources
Baja California Conference Board of Directors. July 25, 1988. Accessed June 20, 2017. Secretariat Archives, Tecate, Baja California, México.
“Baja California Sur.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed June 21, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baja_California_Sur.
Barceló, Saúl. Predicando Hasta Los Cabos su Palabra. Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico: Editorial Montemorelos, 2014.
Martínez, Pablo L. Historia de Baja California. La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico: Instituto Sudcaliforniano de Cultura, 2011. Accessed June 21, 2017. http://archivohistorico.bcs.gob.mx/historia/historia.pdf.
North Mexican Union Conference Board of Directors. July 16, 2006. Accessed June 21, 2017. Secretariat Archives, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México.
Notes
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Pablo L. Martínez, Historia de Baja California (La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico: Instituto Sudcaliforniano de Cultura, 2011), 17, accessed June 21, 2017, http://archivohistorico.bcs.gob.mx/historia/historia.pdf.↩
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“Baja California Sur,” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, accessed June 20, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baja_California_Sur.↩
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Saúl Barceló, Predicando Hasta Los Cabos su Palabra (Montemorelos, Nuevo León, Mexico: Editorial Montemorelos, 2017), 71-72.↩
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Héctor Medina, telephone interview by author, June 21, 2017.↩
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Baja California Conference Board of Directors, July 25, 1988, 7, accessed June 21, 2017, Secretariat Archives, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México.↩
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North Mexican Union Conference Board of Directors minutes, July 16, 2006, 5, accessed June 20, 2017, Secretariat Archives, Montemorelos, Nuevo León, México.↩