Antonio Roca

Roca (center) with Nancy Gates (left) and Amelia Bowman.

Antonio Roca was a Spanish Bahá’í who pioneered to Honduras opening the country to the Bahá’í Faith. He also arranged for the translation and printing of Bahá’í literature in Spanish.

Background

Roca was originally from Spain and grew up on the island of Mallorca. When he was twelve years old he moved to Germany to work as a fruit picker and he lived in the country until 1917 when he moved to Cuba where his father had moved. He moved again to the eastern United States in 1923 first living in Chicago then moving to Milwaukee where he established a fruit store. He returned to Germany in 1926 and established himself as a fruit and nut vendor and eventually owned his own confectionary. Rampant inflation in Germany forced Roca to leave Germany before the end of the 1920's and he moved to New York City where he established a fruit stand, and later returned to Milwaukee where he opened a fruit store.

Roca became a Bahá’í in Milwaukee in 1938. In September, 1939, he departed Milwaukee in order to pioneer to Honduras traveling overland and he stopped in Laredo, Texas, and Mexico City during his travels. He met with fellow pioneer Gerrard Sluter in Guatemala during his journey consulting with him on ways to teach the religion at their respective posts.

He settled in Tegucigalpa after arriving in Honduras and painted a picture of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, which he presented at a National Industrial Exposition shortly after arriving. Through his teaching efforts prominent Honduran poet Angela Ochoa Velaquez was introduced to the Faith and she wrote a positive article which was published in most Honduras newspapers as a result. He departed the country in early 1940 having spent six months teaching, during which he estimated he had proclaimed the Faith to over two thousand people, and he had successfully established a Bahá’í Group in Tegucigalpa.

In 1945 Roca visited Texas on a travel teaching trip and he taught the Faith in San Antonio and Houston. In 1947 he returned to Spain to see family members who lived in the Balearic Islands, remaining in Spain for three months during which he taught the Faith.