 | This articlerelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this article by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Eduardo Balderas" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Eduardo Balderas (14 September 1907 – 6 January 1989) was a Mexican translator and religious leader. He was the leading translator into Spanish ofscripture and other works forthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He served as the church's chief Spanish translator for almost 50 years. Along withRey Pratt, Balderas was also most responsible for translating the church'shymns into Spanish. He was also involved in the first translation of thetemple endowment ceremony.
Balderas was born inMexico City to José Apolinar Balderas Carranco and María Centeno Guerrero. His family moved toTorreón, Mexico when he was a young child. They later moved toEl Paso, Texas. It was in El Paso in 1918 that the family joined the LDS Church.[1]
Balderas served as an LDS Churchmissionary in Arizona and California from 1929 to 1931. Balderas then worked in a lumber yard inCiudad Juárez from 1932 to 1939.[2]: 73
During his mission and throughout the 1930s, Balderas spent a significant amount of time doing translation work for the LDS Church'smission office in El Paso, the headquarters of the Spanish-American Mission and accompanyingmission president Harold Pratt as a translator.[2]: 78, 124–129 While serving as a missionary, Balderas had assisted Rey Pratt on a new translation of theBook of Mormon into Spanish that was never published.[3][2]: 101 Pratt and Balderas also worked on translating selections from theDoctrine and Covenants, known by adherents asLatter-day revelation. Due to Rey Pratt's untimely death, his successor,Antoine R. Ivins finished translating these selections of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1934.[2]: 101, 156
At about the time he was working on these translations, Balderas met a missionary named Rhea Ross. She was the daughter of Milton H. Ross, a teacher of penmanship atLDS High School inSalt Lake City. She had been born inPayson, Utah and raised in Salt Lake City. Rhea had been a missionary in Los Angeles before being transferred to El Paso and had sought an occasion to meet Balderas, since she had heard him praised as a great teacher and speaker by members in Los Angeles.[4] They drew close while Rhea was still serving as a missionary.[2]: 75–80
After Ross returned to Salt Lake at the end of her mission, she and Balderas continued to correspond. Despite opposition to an interracial marriage, they were married in theMesa Arizona Temple on 10 October 1935.[2]: 81–98 They then settled in El Paso, and he continued working in the lumber yard and as a part-time translator for the Mexican American Mission.
They became the parents of two girls and three boys.
In 1939, Balderas was offered a job as a full-time translator for the church byAntoine R. Ivins, which he accepted and they moved to Salt Lake City. Balderas worked under the direction ofStephen L Richards andGordon B. Hinckley, with them giving him guidance and direction on what to translate, but the review of his translation work was done by Ivins.[2]: 103, 131 Balderas was the first person employed full-time by the LDS Church as a translator.[5] Balderas remained a full-time translator until 1977, when he officially retired. He then immediately became a volunteer translator.[2]: 215–216
Balderas completed many translation projects for the church during his career:
In addition to this, Balderas translated several books by church leaders into Spanish, which provided access to that literature:
In 1961, Balderas helpedMarion G. Romney improve his abilities in Spanish so he could more effectively function as the church's area supervisor for Mexico.[7] Balderas was still working as a translator for the church in 1974, while also giving lessons on how to use theLiahona magazine in a church lesson.[8]
Besides his work as a translator, Balderas also wrote articles in English for church publications about the translation process and the success of the Spanish-language sessions at the Mesa Arizona Temple. He wrote an article on translating the scriptures into Spanish that was published in theEnsign in September 1972. The previous month, Balderas had served aschurch presidentHarold B. Lee's interpreter at the church's MexicoArea Conference.[9] Balderas also wrote "A Brief History of the Mexican Mission, 1874-1936" which was published in the SpanishLiahona in August 1956.[10]
His ecclesiastical assignments in the church included service as astakepatriarch and as asealer in theSalt Lake Temple. As a patriarch he also had special authorization to give patriarchal blessings to Spanish-speaking members no matter where they lived.[4][2]: 195–216 He also served as an officiator in the Mesa Arizona Temple, helping during excursions of Spanish-speaking Latter-day Saints. It was while in Arizona to assist with the Spanish-language temple sessions that Balderas gave most of his Spanish-language patriarchal blessings.