Welcome to the Maxwell Institute podcast. I'm Joseph Stewart.

In today's episode, we're joined by Dr. Elisa Eastwood-Polito, a historian and religious

study scholar, who joins me to talk about her book, The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito

Batista, Mexican Mormon evangelizer, polygamous dissident, and utopian founder, 1878 to 1961, published in 2020 by Oxford University Press.

She was kind enough to speak to BYU history students earlier last year. As the book's cover describes,

Bolito provides the first full-length biography of a celebrated Latino leader in the United States in Mexico in the early 20th century.

Surprisingly little is known about Batista's remarkable life, the scope of his work, or the development of his vision.

Elisa Eastwood-Polito draws on his letters, books, pamphlets, and unpublished diaries,

provide a lens through which to view the convergence of the evangelization efforts

of the Church of Jesus Christ's Latter-day Saints, Mexican nationalism, and religious improvisation

in the United States, Mexico borderlands.

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Let's start our conversation with Dr. Polito.

Elisa Eastwood, Polito, welcome to Maxwell Institute podcast.

Thank you very much.

I'm very excited to be here, Joseph.

Thanks for inviting me.

Of course.

In reading your book about Margarito Batista,

I was curious,

how did you find Batista in the first place? How did you

...