Antonio Roca

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

Antonio Roca was an American 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 from Milwaukee and accepted the Faith there 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 visited Spain to see family members who lived in the Balearic Islands.