Over the course of the 1990s, Towell photographed 23 Mennonite communities at a time of great change and upheaval. ASCENCION, Mexico, May 19 (Reuters) - The Mennonite community in Chihuahua, Mexico, can trace its roots as far back as a century ago, when the first such settlers came seeking ideal farming. Indeed, most conservative Old Colony people preferred to migrate to other countries rather than to assimilate, and some migrated to Canada seeking work when their crops did not perform well. For a comparative example, see also Ben Nobbs-Thiessens analysis of Bolivian Mennonites agricultural production, titled Landscape of Migration: Mobility and Environmental Change on Bolivias Tropical Frontier, 1952 to the Present (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina press, 2020), 13. In response, soldiers were brought in to force the peasants to leave.56The situation worsened after Mennonites purchased land for a fourth village in 1963. All will be checked now! They were joined by 246 Old Colony settlers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but most of these settlers either soon returned to Canada or left the colony.[13]. Concerning this point, our laws are exceedingly liberal. The Mexican Mennonite community was the setting for the 2007 film Stellet Licht by acclaimed Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. From 2012 to 2017 alone, it is estimated that 30,000 Mexican Mennonites relocated to Canada. The social organization of the Mennonites is a matriarchy, that is,the woman has the last word in making decisions. Outside, men and women work the land, scything hay and tending to livestock, travelling to and from the fields in horse-drawn carts and squat caravans. The government resolved the ejidos position in two ways: (1) According to Bergen, Dieses Land haben die Mennoniten hier schlielich ganz verloren. Peter T. Bergen, La Batea: 55 Jahre (La Honda, Mexico, 2017), 3, 5, 6. . 71 Herrera Bocardo, Letter, May 2, 1979; Acuerdo sobre Inafectabilidad Agrcola, relativo al conjunto de predios rsticos denominado Fraccionamiento La Honda, ubicado en el Municipio de Miguel Auza, Zac., Diario Oficial de la Federacin, October 1, 1979, 2nd section, 1213. Although these were positive changes for Mexican peasants, the federal government irregularly implemented the agrarian code, and already wealthy landowners continued to own the best land and hold the most power in rural Mexico. 9 (2017): 40. While the boys attend school, their families must contribute a quota due to their absence from field work. Marcela Enns IG 124shares Mennonites have been living in. Mennonites in northern Mexico are descendants of German and Swiss immigrants. Between 1922 and 1925, some 3,200 members of the Reinlaender Gemeinde in Manitoba and 1,200 from the Swift Current area left Canada to settle in Northern Mexico on approximately 230,000 acres (930km2) of land in the Bustillos Valley near present-day Cuauhtmoc, Chihuahua. In the period leading up to and during World War I, governments in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan passed laws requiring public schools to fly the Union flag, required compulsory attendance, and created public schools in areas of Mennonite settlement. The situation began in a similar way as the land purchases in the 1920s. Am ersten waren sie auf der Arenas Fence. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 56. Dedicated to agriculture, cheese production and cattle ranching, this religious community was divided between those who want to stay in Sabinal and those who want to tie their horses to their carts, carry their belongings and move to an even more isolated place. In other words, he forced them to comply with Mexican laweven though the Mennonites thought they had been exempted from it. Menonas (Mennonites) are a conservative Christian religious group which originally chose to live in communities which shun secular life. they had full knowledge facts situation became awful . Mexico has the worst mortality figures in the OECD as a result of Covid. Rather than compromise their way of life, they have continually been forced to migrate around the world to maintain their freedom to live as they choose. He became a photographer in 1984, having previously taught poetry and folk music, which remain abiding interests. Young Mennonite women fleeing a cloud of dust. )66, The armed men took the peasants and their goods away. Events in Durango and Chihuahua show that because the government valued the Mennonites economic contributions, it would use force to remove obstacles for them, even when those obstacles were other people. In addition, there are a number of Amish-run businesses in Mexico, including furniture stores, buggy makers . As a result, logging in lowland forest was suspended in an area of 759 hectares, as well as in 10 properties; five sawmills were closed, four tractors and three trailers were confiscated, and 299 charcoal ovens were permanently closed. The Environment Department said the agreement covered Mennonite communities in the state of Campeche, on the Yucatan peninsula. 2.In no case will you be compelled to swear oaths. These land transactions were finalized as century-long lease agreements with the government since, at that time, foreigners could not purchase land in Mexico.12But in Chihuahua, the Zuloagas had not been honest. Schlielich 3, 2, und dann 1! Other relevant dates include 1917, when the Constitution was passed, and the 19261929 Cristero War, an armed conflict between conservative Catholics and the Mexican government. Whereas the Mennonites believed this to be an occupation of land they had rightfully purchased, peasants had the opposite impression; when the J. Santos Bauelos ejido officially petitioned to expand their ejido in 1976, they claimed that the Mennonites were illegally occupyingtheirland.65. The Mexican situation is different from situations in Canada, the United States, or other countries as the relationships between the state and Indigenous people are not defined by treaties. They finally settled in a tract of land in Northern Mexico after negotiating certain privileges with Mexican President lvaro Obregn. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Nord_Colony,_Mexico&oldid=141245. During this period, peasants attacked Mennonite crops and animals and threatened Mennonite people. (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP), Million-pesos fines in Campeche and Coahuila for environmental damage Photo: Profepa. La Honda, the Mennonites other colony in Zacatecas, also experienced land conflict with nearby ejidos. "Se van mil 500 menonitas por sequa e inseguridad", "Las migraciones menonitas al norte de Mxico entre 1922 y 1940", "A Century Ago, Our Families Left the Prairies and Moved to Mexico. The Mennonite community has its roots in Germany and the Netherlands and at the end of 1922, they arrived inSan Antonio de los Arenales, north of the city of Chihuahua. This organizing was met with massive state repression, most notably expressed in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in downtown Mexico City. Some Mennonite colonies were founded in other parts of Mexico, including . His photographs of Mennonite families are often more redolent of life on the US prairies during the dustbowl years of the 1930s. 1527. Seorita Mxico 1987 con Katharine Renpenning/Miss Mexico 1987 with Katharine Renpenning. The economic achievements have attracted the attention of organized criminal gangs, putting Mennonites at risk of armed robbery, kidnap and extortion. We would do well to learn from these examples and engage in reparations to counter our own participation in these systems and to right our relationships with our neighbors. Mexico is comprised of 31 states, in which Mennonite colonies can be found in six. The Rockefeller initiative partially funded this project and ensured Mexican farmers would produce profitable crops with high yields (Nick Cullather, The Hungry World: Americas Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), 57. They have three silos and two dryers with a storage capacity of 2,800 tons and trucks with a capacity of 45 tons of grain. (AP) The Mexican government said Thursday, August 12th, it has reached a preliminary agreement with Mennonites living in southern Mexico to stop cutting down low jungle to plant crops. Among them were the Mennonites and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1922, 3,000 Mennonites from the Canadian province ofManitobawere established inChihuahua. Zum Schauder der Mennoniten fingen diese Mexikaner an, die Felder der Mennoniten zu bearbeiten. However, groups with active petitions could continue with the ejido process, and existing ejidos would continue to have a relationship with the Mexican state through bureaucratic channels. By the time I was done, they had nearly all adapted to some degree. A Mennonite man walks outside his home at the Sabinal community, in Ascencion municipality, Chihuahua State, Mexico. (His voice was very clear and emphatic, so that the Mennonites far and wide could hear him in their homes. 2 (2014): 172. These stipulations allowed the Mennonites to continue educating their children in their own schools and to avoid mandatory military service, both of which were important to them. These leaders were pleased with the reception they received in Mexico. Inside their houses, everything is spartan and functional: plain wooden chairs, handmade childrens cots, work benches and cupboards. Manuel vila Camacho, president from 1940 to 1946, created the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The La Batea and La Honda colonies were started there in the 1960s by people from Durango who needed more land. The Mennonite community is known by that name because ofMenno Simmons, its most important leader. [7], Worsening poverty, water shortages and drug-related violence across northern Mexico have provoked significant numbers of Mennonites living in Durango and Chihuahua to relocate abroad in recent years, especially to Canada, and to other regions of Latin America. A group of Sommerfelder Mennonites had bought most of the land in this area from Russeks hacienda.42They faced difficult initial years of settlement without water for wells, a problem compounded by stony soil that made it difficult to grow crops.43In 1946, the Ojo de la Yegua and Santa Rita colonies were established, bridging the distance between the Santa Clara colonies and the larger Mennonite settlements just south of them.44These colonies began to prosper in the 1960s and 1970s because the Mennonites had developed better well-drilling technology and improved irrigation systems.45, The neighboring La Paz and Namiquipaejidoswere attuned to the expanding Mennonite settlement and agricultural technology. La Honda es una comunidad de menonitas. I came across them right in my own back yard., Mennonites are a nonconformist Christian denomination dating back to the 16th century. At first, they were on the Arenas Fence. Life today in Mexicos Mennonite communities remains largely conservative, but the use of automobiles has become the norm and Spanish and English are spoken alongside Plautdietsch, an old Germanic language. El pensamiento indigenista del Presidente Echeverra, Accin indigenista 264 (June 1975): 1. Fernando Ruiz Castro, Report on the Colony in What Was Known as the La Honda Hacienda, n. d., Ejido J. Santos Bauelos Collection, Archivo General Agrario, Mexico City. A community out of time: Larry Towells images of Mennonite families, featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 2015, by Larry Towell is published in May by Gost (60). The majority belonged to the Old Colony Mennonite Church, and a smaller number belonged to the Sommerfelder Mennonite Church. 4 This is significant to our discussion here because the revolution was fought, in large part, over land use. Canadian oats, beans and corn were the main produce. Religion and identity meet in Mexico Citys Iztapalapa, A quick guide to Mexico Citys many Pueblos Mgicos, 6 national banks join forces to offer commission-free ATMs, US brings charges against Sinaloa Cartel, including Los Chapitos, Reform allowing state-owned airline passes in Chamber of Deputies. This was a wise move on the part of the ejido, given that the newly installed federal government appeared to be committed to rural development and land redistribution. And in each, there are Mennonite villages. The Mexican governments federalSecretara de la Reforma Agraria(Secretariat of Agrarian Reform) (SRA) organized land redistribution.27It worked with similar bodies on the state level.28A five-member decision-making body, theCuerpo Consultivo Agrario(Agrarian Consultation Body) (CCA), would make final all decisions related to land redistribution. berdem gab der Sprecher bekannt, dass er von 30 anfange wurde hinunter zu zahlen. In addition to these places, Mennonites have moved to other places, including cities. Documentary on Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico and their culinary links to Ukraine. In another, rows of young schoolgirls sit poised and attentive, chalk in hand, over slate boards. Dormady, Mennonite Colonization 181; Sawatzky, They Sought a Country, 194. A powerful landowner, Roberto Elorduy, who was a friend of a Mennonite leader in Durango, had sold the Mennonites land that was eligible for redistribution.63 Mennonite leader Jakob K. Guenther had been worried about this in light of conflict in nearby La Batea. Currently, the Mennonite community inChihuahuais made up of 50,000 members who in turn are divided into 80% conservative and 20% liberal, and both groupsinteract daily, agreeing that their differences would not prevent them from working together. Da bauten sie Kleine Huser aus Pappe. Originating in Europe in the sixteenth century, the Mennonites are a Protestant religious sect, related to the Amish. Because I liked them, they liked me and although photography was forbidden, they let me photograph them. . Even though these Mennonites are Dutch and Prussian by ancestry, language and custom, they are generally called Russian Mennonites, Russland-Mennoniten in German. This community spoke German and Adorno speaks English and Spanish. . . Mennonite peddler boy selling bread in Bacalar, Quintana Roo. . [17] There have been fresh accusations more recently. Comparable development occurred in rural areas, in part due to the Green Revolution.36Mennonites, for their part, were able to deal with their many challenges in Mexicosuch as droughts and religious divisionswithout the added stress of what they perceived as interference from the government, or from conflict over land ownership.37But then, in the 1960s and 1970s, conflicts resurfaced as, in the 1920s, landowners sold Mennonites land that was already involved in the land reform process. But thanks to her sympathy, beauty, and intelligence, the graduate of the Autonomous University of Chihuahua was chosen to seek the crown at Miss Mexico. In other words, the Mennonite colonies in Mexico have engaged in capitalist expansion and are one of many groups from within or outside of Mexico that have colonized parts of the country, displacing others in the process. One Mennonite family remembers soldiers saying that they. In Campeche there are 14 communities of Mennonites, one of them is led by Ernesto Friessen Voth who is responsible for the collection and sale of 10 thousand tons of soybeans a year, which is exported to Asia, where it is used largely to feed pigs, meat widely consumed in that area of the planet. The Mexican authorities gave their approval for the Mennonites to maintain an education different from the official one, however, every Monday is sung in traditional German, theMexican national anthem. invasores dicen recibir ordenes central campesina independiente . In Campeche there are 14 communities of Mennonites, one of them is led by Ernesto Friessen Voth who is responsible for the collection and sale of 10 thousand tons of soybeans a year, which is exported to Asia, where it is used largely to feed pigs, meat widely consumed in that area of the planet. Mennonites are a people whose strength is their perseverance and the unity of their community. Mennonite young women walk at the Sabinal community, in Ascencion municipality, Chihuahua State, Mexico on September 22, 2018. Mennonite, member of a Protestant church that arose out of the Anabaptists, a radical reform movement of the 16th-century Reformation. Between 2008 and 2009, Profepa carried out inspection visits that led to a confiscation operation of forest products at Mennonite field number 7 in Hopelchen, Campeche. Dormady, Mennonite Colonization, 18283. [citation needed] The villages followed Mennonite architectural styles existent in Russia and Canada and the names were based in some cases on former names in Germany but in most cases from German names of villages in Russia and Canada such as Rosenort, Steinbach and Schnwiese. In the midst of this mutually convenient agreement with the federal government, however, Mennonites have experienced altercations with their neighbors over land use. Finally, 3, 2, and then 1! [16], Some Mennonites were, in fact, convicted of drug running in the 1990s. As their numbers began to grow, they built homes and a school. One catalyst for channeling this unrest into action was a railway worker strike in 1958, after which students and workers organized protests against widespread injustice.39Rural people began to organize outside of official channels, creating, for instance, a national union for peasants, which existed in a close relationship to the federal government. Resolucin sobre la creacin de un nuevo centro de poblacin agrcola que se denominar La Nueva Paz, en Riva Palacio, Chih., Diario Oficial de la Federacin, September 12, 1970, 15. 3 (1997): 357n5. On May 19, 1976, the Mennonites were told to stay indoors and pray. These included ejidatarios near what are now the Santa Rita, Santa Clara, and Ojo de la Yegua Mennonite colonies. In the midst of this mutually convenient agreement with the federal government, however, Mennonites have experienced altercations with their neighbors over [], Mennonites from Canada migrated to Mexico to pursue religious freedom by living in communities of villages called colonies.1 Mexico welcomed them, as it believed the Mennonites would improve the economy of an unstable region. In Mexico, this program was formalized through theejidosystem,24in which groups of people could claim land based on historical occupancy patterns for Indigenous groups, provided they were recognized in writing.25 Groups of peasants could also petition for land for farming or ranching simply because they did not own any land.26. At one point in the 1930s, the situation became so tense that Durangos governor ordered the Mennonites to close their schools. Rodolfo Soriano Duarte, Report titled Relacin de las propiedades rsticas ubicadas en el predio denominado La Batea de este municipio, que aparecen inscritas a nombre de los menonitas que a continuacin se detalle, January 26, 1971, Ejido Nio Artillero Collection, Archivo General Agrario, Mexico City. As part of this process, multiple officials advocated on their behalf. He concluded that debido a los reglamentos tan estrictos de su religin, no causan nunca problemas o conflictos a las Autoridades, y cuando las hay generalmente las resuelven en forma interna y pacficamente (given their strict religious rules, they never cause problems or conflicts with the authorities, and that when there are problems, they resolve them internally and peacefully).70, In October of 1979, the SRA granted Mennonite landowners the certificates that rendered their land ineligible for further redistribution, and the ejidatarios never returned.71, Learning from a Long View of Capitalist Expansion. . in Chihuahua. He received a certificate of ineligibility for the rest of his property.52These Mennonite farmers came up with creative ways to avoid negative consequences of land redistribution in their own communities. The Manitoba and Swift Current area groups settled the Manitoba and Swift Colonies in Chihuahua, while about 950 Mennonites from the Hague-Osler settlement in Saskatchewan settled on 35,000 acres (140km2) in Durango near Nuevo Ideal.
