Brownsville Station

Monday, October 31, 2022

1977Presbyterian Church / Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana on E Jefferson

Dan Garcia

[Editor's note: from our Facebook page. I took a photo of this church near Washington Park and noticed date on sign indicated it was founded 100 years before being rebuilt. Not wanting to do any research on what is simply a regular customarily "Sunday" day-of-worship FB post it was a "blessing" that someone who knew the history saw it. Thanks to Dan Garcia for sharing photos of the founding members with us.]

(photo by Javier R. Garcia -- light post digitally removed)

Fun facts: the founders of that church put their lives in danger to introduce protestantism in Mexico. The founders often smuggled Bibles, which was made illegal by the Catholic Church, and even got into a few gun fights as a result. Mainly, the Mexican government shot at them; they couldn't fire back because they were unarmed and didn't believe in violence. My great-great-grandfather, pictured here, was one of those founders.

By the time his son became of age to preach, pictured here, the Mexican government softened their law regarding Protestantism and allowed the first assembly of the Presbyterian Church to form. This is how the church you have pictured came to be. It is now lead by my uncle, Presbitero Joel Martinez and still serves multigenerational servants of Christ.

added 3/31/2023

This was my great grandfather and great grandmother, Eleazar Santiago Garcia and Isabel Longoria Garcia. This picture was in a texas magazine many years back. They were from Brownsville and he was the minister for la Primera Iglesia Presbyteriana Mexican that his dad started over by Putgnat Elem. They used to smuggle Bibles into Mexico to try and spread Presbyterian faith there.