Members of Utah’s Latter-Day Saints community emigrated to Mexico in the 1880s to follow their religious beliefs by living in polygamous families, which was illegal in the United States. LeBaron also began his own Mormon church.

When the Mormons entered Salt Lake Valley in 1846, they entered Mexico, and thus escaped both persecution and the oversight of the United States federal government.

The country of Mexico has the largest body of LDS Church members outside the United States. The LDS Church reported 1,455,774 members at the end of 2018….

Polygamy is against the law in Mexico, too, but that country has always been more lenient toward it. There has been no roundup of polygamists there like there was in Utah and Arizona as recently as the 1950s.

In America, polygamy was practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a religion founded in the United States. However, parts of the country began to prohibit this practice in 1885, so several of its members fled to Mexico and Canada, where they continued the habit.

Church and Mexican law do not allow more than one marriage at a time. Cienega and Bocato de la Pila were married in a church; he says he and his second wife had a civil ceremony. He and his second wife have an infant son and she is pregnant.

Many of their descendants live in Colonia Juárez and Colonia Dublán, the only two settlements of the original colonies that remain active. In 1999, the church constructed the Colonia Juárez Chihuahua Mexico Temple to serve members still living in the area.

Among other things, the law felonized the practice of polygamy and disenfranchised polygamists. As a result, over a thousand Latter-day Saint men and women were eventually fined and jailed. This act allowed over 350 Latter-day Saint families who practiced polygamy from Utah and Arizona to settle land in Mexico.

Polygamy is illegal in Mexico, despite the above cases. In the Federal Penal Code, there is a section called “Against Civil Status and Bigamy”.

Only two colonies remain: Colonia Dublán and Colonia Juárez. Members of the Romney family have roots in these colonies, including both Marion G. Romney and George W. Romney having been born there.

Mormon Colonies in Mexico is also the title of a 1938 book by Thomas Cottam Romney. The book details the story of Mormons who sought refuge in Mexico after fleeing from US authorities for polygamy.

Villa once rode and hid in those same mountains as a notorious local bandit. He became one of the revolution’s boldest generals, and attacked the United States as an act of vengeance for Woodrow Wilson’s support of his rival, Venustiano Carranza.