SPRING CITY–A new book by a Sanpete County author offers insight into the lives and struggles of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the late 1800s.
“Grass Roots in Mexico”, written by Spring City resident Lamond Tullis, tells the story of 19 individuals, how and why they converted to the Church, and what difficulties they faced.
Tullis says he spent nearly half a decade doing research for the book. It’s a topic that he became intrigued with at a very young age. When asked what drew him to the topic, he joked, “That’s going to take more than a soundbite to answer that question.”
Tullis says he became interested in learning a foreign language because of a classmate he had in elementary school while growing up in Utah.
When Tullis was in high school, learning Spanish, or any other foreign language for that matter, wasn’t an option. Foreign languages weren’t taught in high schools at the time. “No one ever thought about considering teaching a foreign language,” he said.
Later at Brigham Young University, Tullis met another individual who spoke Spanish. Tullis was able to pick up the language from this colleague. Eventually, Tullis would go on to serve a mission for the Church in Central America, a mission that included part of Mexico.
As for the book, Tullis said the manuscript he presented to the publishing company was roughly 800 pages. He got generally posi- tive feedback from the publishing company. However, Tullis was requested to trim the manuscript down. The publishing company said he had three books in one. The book was eventually printed with 330 pages.
“I’m glad they made me do it,” Tullis said. “It’s more readable.”
The 19 people chronicled in the book were selected based on a couple of areas of criteria.
“Part of that was, you’ve got documents,” Tullis said, “or you’ve got an interesting historical past.”
They all had a wide variety of backgrounds.
Tullis says he spent a good amount of time searching out the individuals highlighted in the book. However, if family members didn’t have documentation, then their story couldn’t be told. Documentation was critical in the research for the book. Without it, there would be no proof that what he wrote was true.
Among those whose stories are in the book is one Agustin Gutierrez Ruiz, who learned Spanish in his 20s. Later, he became a university professor, and he translated portions of the Book of Mormon and the LDS temple endowment ceremony into Tzotzil-Mayan.
Another story is of Bertha Hildalgo Rojas. She is a widow and a mother, who grieved over losing seven sons to another religion in North America. She prayed and received an answer that changed her life: “Go, be with your sons! Be baptized!”
The book was published in 2021 by the Religious Studies Center at BYU in cooperation with Deseret Book.
Currently, Tullis is writing about his son in a completely different project. His son passed away due to a brain tumor nearly 15 years ago.
Will there be a second book to Grass Roots in Mexico?
“I’m 87,” Tullis said. “I’m running out of time.”
Tullis and his late wife, Marta Morrill, are the parents of six children. He and his second wife, Eileen Heurkins Roundy, served a church mission in Mexico from 2011-2013.
During his academic career, Tullis served as a professor of political science at BYU. Additionally, he also served as an associate academic vice president at BYU.
