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Paul M. Roca Papers and Photographs, 1887-1979 (bulk 1955-1977)

MS 531

Biographical Note

Paul McClennan Roca (1912-1979) had a strong bond to the areas of the American Southwest and Northern States of Mexico. His Chilean grandfather, Miguel G. Roca, settled in Mexico where he married Josefa Samaniego y Bustamante de Haro who was from a long-standing family linked to the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Their son, Lautaro Roca, met and married Stella McClennan in Mexico. Lautaro was a silver-mine operator and Stella was an art teacher who worked with the children of a hacienda owner in Durango. They were eventually forced to move due to the political unrest of the Mexican Revolution and physical limitations resulting from uncooperative weather. The Rocas re-located to Nebraska, Stella’s home state, where Paul M. Roca was born. The Rocas eventually returned to the Southwest and settled in Tucson, Arizona where Paul M. Roca grew up and attended public school. Roca was a 1933 Honors graduate of the University of Arizona and in 1941 graduated with distinction from the George Washington Law School. Roca, a prominent lawyer, co-founded the firm of Lewis Roca Rothgerber in 1950 and practiced law in Arizona until the time of his death in 1979.

Roca spent a great deal of his lifetime collecting books and manuscripts related to the Arizona, Southwestern history, and the history of the Jesuit years in Sonora and Chihuahua. During most of the 1930s and 1940s, Roca was the chief administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Carl Hayden who had a significant influence on Roca’s interest in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. For over 20 years, Roca traveled back and forth between the United States and various locations in Northern Mexico to document Jesuit churches and church ruins. He wrote two books related to this subject. The first was Paths of the Padres through Sonora: An Illustrated History & Guide to Its Spanish Churches published by the Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society in 1967 and the second was Spanish Jesuit Churches in Mexico’s Tarahumara published by the University of Arizona Press in 1979.

At the time of his death, Paul M. Roca had been working on a third manuscript relating to Jesuit churches in the Chínipas Mountains in Chihuahua. The photo negatives related to the unfinished manuscript were donated to the Arizona State Museum.

Scope and Content Note

The collection (1888-1977) contains 156 photographs featured in the book, Paths of the Padres through Sonora: An Illustrated History & Guide to Its Spanish Churches, and four copies of a single manuscript, Spanish Jesuit Churches in Mexico’s Tarahumara. The Photograph Series (1887-1965, bulk 1955-1965) contains 156 photographs and corresponding maps denoting the approximate location of the churches. Most photos are by Roca, but in the case of other photographers they have been attributed in the folder title. The Papers series (1977) is comprised of four drafts of Spanish Jesuit Churches in Mexico’s Tarahumara: one typed draft with paste-ups, one unedited photocopy, one photocopy edited by both Karen Shure, an editor at the University of Arizona Press, and Roca himself, and one final photocopy sent to the University of Arizona Press.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Restrictions

None.

Copyright

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the University of Arizona, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Related Material

A History Pin featuring 30 of the collection photographs was createdPaul Roca Photographs of Missions in Sonora, Mexico

Additional manuscripts and negatives by Paul M. Roca are located at the Arizona State Museum: Paul M. Roca Northern Mexico Mission Research Files.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Credit Line

Paul M. Roca Papers and Photographs (MS 531). Special Collections, University of Arizona Libraries.

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