Introduction

Biography

Honorato was the hus­band of Er­nes­ti­na Ten­to­ri (mar­ried cir­ca 1935).

Reza’s edu­ca­tion be­gan at age six in the home of a Pro­test­ant pas­tor, and con­tin­ued in a board­ing school in Te­lo­lo­a­pan, and lat­er in Mex­ico Ci­ty.

Reza be­came a Chris­tian at age 11 af­ter hear­ing a ser­mon by Ruth Del­ga­do. He turned away from the faith as a teen, but was re­con­ciled in 1930.

He gra­du­at­ed from the Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Mex­ico Ci­ty in 1935, and took his first pas­tor­ate in Ma­tí­as Ro­mero, Oa­xa­ca.

Reza en­rolled at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pa­sa­de­na, Ca­li­for­nia, in 1937, re­ceived his ba­che­lor’s de­gree in 1939, and re­turned to Mex­ico Ci­ty in 1935 to op­en a new church.

Continuing post gra­du­ate stu­dies in par­al­lel with his pas­tor­al du­ties, Re­za earned a de­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mex­ico in 1941.

H. Or­ton Wi­ley in­vit­ed him to Pa­sa­de­na Uni­ver­si­ty the fol­low­ing year to teach Span­ish and li­te­ra­ture.

In ad­di­tion to his re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in Pa­sa­de­na, Re­za was dean and pro­fessor at a Bi­ble college in Los An­ge­les for His­pan­ic pas­tors of the Church of the Na­za­rene in Sou­thern Ca­li­for­nia.

In 1944, the Ge­ner­al As­sem­bly of the Church of the Na­za­rene created a Span­ish ra­dio pro­gram, with Re­za as its di­rect­or. He moved with his fa­mi­ly to Kan­sas Ci­ty in 1946 to sup­port that ef­fort.

For 23 years, he host­ed the ra­dio pro­gram La Ho­ra Na­za­ren­a, which was ev­en­tu­al­ly broad­cast on 700 sta­tions.

In 1980, Re­za be­came found­ing pre­si­dent of the Na­za­rene Se­mi­na­ry in Mex­ico Ci­ty, guid­ing it in its ear­ly years of de­vel­op­ment.

Works

• Brazil’s Op­en Door (Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing House, 1958)
• Our Task for To­day (Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing House, 1963)
• Nuestra Ta­rea pa­ra Hoy (Ca­sa Na­za­rene de Pub­lic­ci­o­nes)
• Ambassadors to La­tin Lands, 1965
• Prescription for Per­ma­nence: The Sto­ry of Our Schools for Train­ing Min­is­ters in La­tin Am­er­ica, 1968
• Missions: Both Sides of the Coin (Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing House, 1973)
• Through a Long Tun­nel: A Story of Sur­viv­al in Cu­ba (Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing House, 1976)
• After the Storm, the Rain­bow: The Church of the Na­za­rene in Cu­ba
• Tras la Tor­men­ta, el Ar­co Ir­is (Casa Na­za­rene de Pub­lic­ci­o­nes, 1993)