Mexican American Methodists of the Rio Grande Conference serve as a case study for Hispanic Protestantism in the Southwest. The dissertation examines the impact of Protestantism upon the cultural, social, and religious life of Mexican American Methodists and ways in which they integrated Protestantism into their Hispanic cultural matrix. Following an institutional history of the conference from 1848 until the present, the dissertation examines the culture and worldviews of Anglo missionaries and the ways in which Mexican American Methodists appropriated religious and cultural elements of Protestantism. The dissertation examines the changes in Mexican American Methodists’ cultural and religious identity by tracing the changes that have occurred in their relationships with Mexican American Catholics and Anglo Methodists. While acknowledging the assimilative nature of Protestantism, the dissertation asserts that certain Anglo-Protestant values and denominational structures also enabled Mexican American Methodists to retain a degree of their Hispanic heritage. To a certain extent, Anglo—Protestant values of education, social and economic advancement, democracy, and self—improvement enabled members of the Rio Grande Conference to achieve a high degree of autonomy in the administration of their institution and, consequently, to strive toward the development of an indigenous form of Mexican American Protestantism.