Mormons in Peru: Building Temples with Sacred Cornerstones and Holy Drywall

In this chapter we will not provide an overview account of the progress and problems of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru. Instead, employing the ethnographic field research approach common to our discipline of anthropology, we focus on a particular subset of Peruvian Mormons in a particular locale (Arequipa, Peru) and on a singular topic. The story we relate does, however, have wider implications for LDS Peruvians generally, as well as for Mormons throughout Latin America and for Latinx Mormons in the U.S. In assessing the tension between grassroots control and institutional control over the meaning of significant LDS places, our overarching framework rests on a distinction between places that are “sacred” (generally referring to insurgent spirituality) and place that are “holy” (generally referring to official spirituality). We begin making these distinctions by quoting portions of two distinctive prayers delivered at the dedication ceremonies of two different LDS temples in two different times and places (Salt Lake City in 1893 and Arequipa, Peru in 2019.