In November 2024, the principle temple of the spiritual organisation La Luz del Mundo in Guadalajara was added to the Mexican state of Jalisco’s stock of heritage websites. The choice to record the Mexican architect Leopoldo Fernández Font’s large 1992 constructing instantly sparked controversy, however the row has little to do with the temple’s daring design. Naasón Joaquín García, La Luz del Mundo’s chief since 2014, is at present serving a 16-year sentence in California for sexually abusing kids. This truth sparked an ongoing debate about how a lot a web site’s conflicted historical past ought to affect heritage concerns.
Symbolism and scale
At 83m excessive, La Luz del Mundo’s foremost temple is seen from a lot of Guadalajara. It stands on the coronary heart of the neighbourhood of La Hermosa Provincia, which the congregation constructed for its followers within the early Nineteen Fifties.
La Luz del Mundo was based within the metropolis in 1926 by Eusebio Joaquín González (often called Aaron). The autonomous church follows Evangelical beliefs intently associated to Pentecostalism and considers its chief—a lifelong “dwelling apostle”—to be God’s consultant on Earth. Management is rooted in familial connections, with Naasón Joaquín as its third apostle.
La Luz del Mundo got down to construct a temple that might dwarf Guadalajara Cathedral
Within the early Eighties, the economically buoyant and fast-growing congregation (then led by Naasón Joaquín’s father, Samuel Joaquín Flores) got down to construct a brand new temple that might dwarf Guadalajara Cathedral, an emblem of Catholicism in a historically conservative area. Fernández Font—who had expertise constructing Baptist and Catholic church buildings, inns and universities, primarily in Jalisco—received the competition to design the constructing.
“In keeping with the jury, the mission fulfilled the necessities: a construction seen from a distance, monumental and majestic, with a naturally ventilated inside, good lighting, unobstructed visibility and, above all, ample capability,” says Iván San Martín Córdova, an architectural researcher on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico.
The end result was a pyramid-like constructing that may maintain 12,000 worshippers. Constructed by a whole bunch of church volunteers, it was stuffed with spiritual symbols and ultimately topped by a 23m-tall bronze sculpture of the biblical Aaron’s rod. The positioning covers 15,500 sq. m, using distinctive architectural improvements to span its giant house with out using intermediate helps, in line with San Martín.
Conflicting visions
The Guadalajara temple, a group enclave and pilgrimage web site, grew to become an emblem of La Luz del Mundo, which now has a presence in 60 international locations and greater than 15,000 congregations worldwide, in line with its web site.
“Beginning within the late twentieth century, a lot of its temples re-created historic types, corresponding to Mayan or Mesopotamian, to show their universality, generate empathy and spotlight the alleged historic roots of a comparatively latest religion,” San Martín says.
The symbolism of Guadalajara’s temple reaches even additional than that, in line with Enrique X. de Anda Alanís, an structure historian and knowledgeable on Mexican heritage. “It expresses the connection between structure and energy, each socially and throughout the city panorama, as has been evident over 2,000 years,” he says.
After accusations of sexual abuse of minors, possession of kid pornography and human trafficking emerged towards Naasón Joaquín, pictures of the temple had been extensively publicised and the constructing grew to become synonymous with the scandal. Three separate documentaries have investigated La Luz del Mundo, its management and the experiences of its followers. Within the movies, some victims describe being transported to buildings the place abuse befell via the Guadalajara temple’s underground tunnels (designed to guard its leaders from undesirable consideration and permit them to go unnoticed).
La Luz del Mundo’s Guadalajara temple at evening Picture: JosEnrique, by way of Flickr
“The temple materialises the abuse suffered by dozens of victims, as recounted of their testimonies,” says Alejandro Díaz San Vicente, the director of the 2023 miniseries El Apóstol. Within the late Nineties, Samuel Joaquín had additionally confronted allegations of sexual abuse, albeit with no repercussions; he died in 2014.
When information of the heritage itemizing surfaced, it brought about a media uproar. In response, native authorities declared that the itemizing represented solely an “effort to advertise [the temple’s] safeguarding and topic future interventions to official evaluate”, reasonably than designating it as a part of the official cultural heritage of the state.
“The church is an instance of contemporary or worldwide structure from the Eighties, designed by famend architect Fernández Font, who created an unique and timeless mission that serves as a group landmark and identifier,” Jalisco’s cultural ministry mentioned in an announcement in March. The ministry has not commented on the matter since then.
The constructing’s cultural designation additionally performs into native politics. Traditionally, La Luz del Mundo has been tied to authorities officers, sparking debate over time. De Anda calls the temple’s heritage itemizing “a neighborhood phenomenon that lends a distinction to a constructing with out federal repercussions and is a part of the congregation’s community of political relationships”. For instance, latest candidates for Mexico’s reformed judicial system are reportedly near the church’s management.
A wider lens
Whereas this debate has unfolded in Jalisco, it poses bigger questions on heritage designation worldwide. “Heritage apply has been grappling with controversial associations with folks and occasions for many years now, as much as the best ranges, and might even be topic to diplomatic intervention,” says Luke James, an knowledgeable in worldwide cultural heritage.
One such instance is the 2015 itemizing of websites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution on Unesco’s World Heritage record, which sparked Korean opposition over compelled labour endured there through the Second World Struggle. A compromise was reached when Japan acknowledged this facet of its historical past within the web site’s interpretation supplies.
In Spain, in the meantime, final 12 months’s native heritage recognition of the 1939 Pyramid of the Italians in Burgos, a funerary sanctuary devoted to troopers killed within the Spanish Civil Struggle, grew to become controversial for what some view because the monument’s glorification of fascism. On this case, the dispute is ongoing, and a compromise has but to be reached.
These examples spotlight heritage’s political and ideological implications, the place a easy act of acknowledgment has the power to create a center floor. Whereas debate is frequent with many heritage websites—together with these related to spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church and others—in La Luz del Mundo’s case, these points are accentuated. That is possible because of its intensive media protection, social media immediacy, pending authorized proceedings in Mexico and disinformation.
Chronological proximity additionally performs a component. “When the occasions or associations are in dwelling reminiscence of the group, they’re certain to be caught up in numerous interpretations and generally deeply affectual responses,” James says.
The truth that, as is the case with different spiritual minorities in Mexico, La Luz del Mundo and its aesthetic have traditionally been seen by many as “the opposite” solely provides to the equation. Whether or not additional heritage recognition will likely be granted to its flagship temple stays to be seen. However within the courtroom of public opinion, not less than, it appears unlikely.
