Mennonite Culture and Religion Series Part 3: A New Deal With a New Country

After deciding to leave Canada, the Mennonite elders were looking for a new place to settle, because their right to educate their children as they pleased in Canada, had been rescinded. They were also losing some Mennonites to the mainstream way of life, and they desperately wanted to avoid cultural assimilation. After considering a few various places, they decided on Mexico as their new home. And so began the Mennonite migration to Mexico, though some went further south to Paraguay.

The Mennonites petitioned the President of Mexico and outlined what they were looking for. The then-president Alvaro Obregon was eager to have them, and he agreed to their terms. There was a document drawn up and it stated that Mennonites had the freedom to teach what they wanted to in their own schools. In addition, they were granted Military exemption. These two things were crucial for the Mennonites to hold on to their core beliefs and way of life. And so began the Mennonite migration to Mexico.

The first train is thought to have had three thousand Mennonites on board. By 1930, there were about eight to ten thousand Mennonites in the States of Chihuahua and Durango. Unfortunately, because people understood how desperate the Mennonites were to immigrate to Mexico, they were often taken advantage of. When it came time to sell their land in Canada they were underbid, and the land in Mexico was overpriced.

Misunderstandings Between the President and the Mennonite People

Considering the First World War was still fresh in people’s minds, I believe they would have been hard-pressed to find many countries that would have agreed to Military Exemption. However, Mexico had also gone through a revolution, and they were excited to have “Caucasian farmers” diversify their own population and integrate modern farming! Obviously, the Mennonites had no intentions of integrating or diversifying anything in any way. And that just goes to show that President Alvaro Obregon did not understand the Mennonites as a Culture.

Difficult First Years after the Mennonite Migration to Mexico

There were three separate groups that settled in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the Manitoba colony, the Swift Current colony, and the Santa Clara colony. They quickly learned that the farming techniques that had served them well in Canada no longer worked in the Mexican environment. They faced crop failure, drought, and many other challenges that they might not have anticipated. As a result of the challenges they faced, there was much hardship and sickness. Many of the Mennonite people died because of this. Some of the Mennonites found this unfamiliar environment to be too challenging and migrated back. Unfortunately, having sold all their land they struggled to rebuild their lives in Canada.

Violence and Conflict Between the Mennonite Communities and the Locals

The revolution in Mexico brought about a land reform. The government was distributing land to peasants because there had been such a gap between the rich landowners and the peasant non-landowners in Mexico. So, seeing that the Mennonites had bought up so much land, there was a lot of resentment from the locals. Also, quite some time had passed between the purchasing of the land and the actual arrival of the Mennonites, so some people had occupied their land during that gap.

Once the Mennonites arrived, they faced a lot of opposition from the surrounding locals. They felt it was unfair that these foreigners were occupying so much of their land. The locals tore down fences, trampled the crop. In some instances, there was violence and even murder! Seeing this, the government decided to send in the Military to protect the Mennonites. Due to the constant conflict, Military intervention was required multiple times in the 1920s and 30s. In some instances, the Military did have to shoot some people, though I am not clear on the details.

The Mennonite Schools Shut Down by The Government

Things in Mexico were changing, just as they had in Canada. The revolution had brought about change and when a new Governor came into power in Chihuahua in 1927, he took a closer look at the Mennonite schools. The Colony gets a visit from an official who tours all the Campos and the Schools, and he writes a very unfavorable report. This eventually led to the shuttering of multiple schools in the 1930s, and so they are back where they started, before the Mennonite migration to Mexico. The Mennonites are incredibly distraught and some even consider migrating again. But they eventually gain an audience with officials, and they are assured that their agreement with Alvaro Obregon would be recognized. In 1936 their schools were open once again.

The Mennonite Migration: Making Mexico Their Home

After a turbulent few years, the Mennonites began building up their communities. They became big producers of Oats and even got into dairying. Canadian oats, beans, apples and corn were the main produce. Dairying specifically is still a big and successful enterprise in that area today. The lands and community flourish and what the Mennonites are doing is a widely recognized success. As the times change contemporary issues arise, new machinery and tractors and eventually the rubber tire. One would think that the change from steel to rubber tires is not a big deal. But, to the Mennonites, this rubber tire represented the outside “worldly” culture. Conflict arose about how far was too far, to adopt new and “worldly” ways of living. This again led to a split within the community. Once again, the more conservative Mennonites packed up, and traveled south.

Some eventually adopted the rubber tire, as well as many other modern technologies. However, even to this day, there are some who drive their tractors on steel. As the world changes, the gap between the Mennonites who adapted and the ones who held on to their old ways is becoming much wider. The conservative groups continue to split and move to isolated areas, one of the most recent being the Mennonite migration to Peru. Mennonites will go to the ends of the earth, to hold on to what they see as God’s will for their communities.