With the 1873 installation of Bishop John C. Keener in Mexico City, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was eager to expand its influence. Intended for use by a growing lay Methodist community, Himnos para uso de la Iglesia Metodista del sur combined newly written hymns with Spanish-language selections circulating in missionary tracts and US-produced hymnals since the late 1840s. Deviating from A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social, and Domestic Worship—the denomination’s flagship hymnal from 1857 to 1887, featuring the standard fare of English-language Methodist hymnodists—Himnos drew from more varied sources. These include William Harris Rule’s 1848 Himnos para el uso de las congregaciones españolas de la iglesia cristiana and the ca. 1870 American Tract Society publication Himnos y cánticos con la música. The resulting ecumenical repertoire served Mexico’s growing Methodist community.

—Erin Fulton