Who are the Baptists?
Middle America
Baptists are located in each of the countries and territories of Latin America, extending from Mexico to the southern tip of South America. In the mid-nineteenth century there were no Baptists in Latin America. Fifty years later in 1904 there were 5,500 Baptists in this area. Today there are around 1,775,000, including 275,000 in Middle America and around 1,500,000 in South America.
Middle America
Middle America extends north to south from Mexico on through the Central American states to Panama. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Baptists began to show an interest in Mexico, a nation in Middle America adjacent to the USA. Except for limited British and Jamaican Baptist interests in English-speaking work on the Caribbean coast or nearby islands, the rest of Middle America was practically ignored until the twentieth century.
Baptist work has often not been easy in Middle America, which for centuries has been predominantly Roman Catholic. Pentecostals have been far more successful in the area and outnumber Baptists. Nevertheless Baptists today are showing significant growth.
Baptists organized the first evangelical church in Mexico in 1864 in Monterrey. Both Northern and Southern Baptists from the USA sent missionaries to the country. In 1903 Mexican Baptists formed a National Baptist Convention of Mexico, which today has 83,000 members in over 1,200 churches. Numerous other Baptist missions from the USA are also present, whose membership would increase the total to at least 138,000.
The first Baptist work in Central America was in the little country of Belize (formerly British Honduras) where the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) from England worked from 1822 to 1850. The Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society then assumed limited responsibility to 1901. After the Second World War Conservative and Southern Baptists from the USA entered the country and work together with the Baptist Association of Belize, which today has 1,760 members.
There was some other limited Baptist activity along the western rim of the Caribbean Sea in the nineteenth century. In 1846 a Baptist mission began in the Bay Islands of Honduras with support from the Belize Mission and later from Jamaica, but a century later little of this effort remained. In 1852 Edward Kelly from Belize started Baptist work on Corn Island, an English-speaking territory of Nicaragua, the first in the country. In 1888 the Baptist Missionary Society of Jamaica began work among English-speaking Jamaican workers in Costa Rica. Some attempt was also made to reach the Spanish-speaking population.
In 1892 English-speaking Jamaican Baptists working in Panama formed the first Baptist church in this area. The Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society then entered the field. After Panama gained independence and a Panama Canal Zone was created in 1903, Southern Baptists sent their first mission couple two years later. The first Hispanic church was not formed until 1943; work was also extended to the Indian population. In 1959 the Panama Baptist Convention was formed, which today has almost 7,000 members in almost 100 churches.
Practically all Baptist work among the Spanish-speaking population
in Central America did not begin until after the commencement
of the twentieth century. The Northern Baptists from the USA entered
El Salvador in 1911 and Nicaragua in 1916, and Southern Baptists
began working among Spanish-speaking peoples in the 1940s in Costa
Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. A number of other Baptist missions
from the USA also came. All five nations have one or more organized
conventions or associations. Costa Rica in eight groups with 110
churches and El Salvador in three groups with 166 churches each
has about 14,000 Baptists. Guatemala in two groups in 223 churches
and Nicaragua in three groups with 294 churches each has around
32,000 members. Honduras in seven groups with 554 churches has
about 39,000.