The Conversion of Ambrosio Gonzales: Fueling a Westward Movement through Sustained Memorialization

Memorialization of Ambrosio Gonzales, a nineteenth-century Methodist convert from New Mexico, has aided in the maintenance and expansion of Latinx Protestantism. Gonzales’s trajectory matters to communal and institutional memories, I argue, because his life was embedded within the very origins of Latinx Protestantism in the Southwest. Moreover, Gonzales became emblematic of Protestantism at a time of westward expansion. Even today, commemorating Gonzales bolsters Latinx Protestant identities and legitimizes missionary efforts. While memorializations of Gonzales have often been symbolic, his life also had long-lasting structural effects on Latinx Protestantism in the West. This article is part of a special issue of Pacific Historical Review, “Religion in the Nineteenth-Century American West.”