Je’dult met
aundre
Part 2: Potential
Property Tax Aggression in Mexico
Recent news
items have given ethnic Anabapatists cause to reconsider the definitions and
boundaries of thire ethnic-religious cultures and how these cultures are seen
by those looking in from the outside.
A tax
dispute between Mexico’s Manitoba Colony of Mennonites and local authorities
are leaving ethnic Russländer Mennonites wondering if they are being targeted
for exploitation. Is Mexico really
taking a page from Europe’s Medieval past to pass off its financial excesses
onto the backs of “ethnic minority enclaves” or ghettos?
Asked
differently, is the Mexican majority losing its ability to tolerate minority
cultures (external cultural toleration)?
The Mennonites of (Colonia) Manitoba
Kolonie near Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, have seemingly been
presented with a municipal tax bill over 18x (1,800%) their present rate of
taxation and are concerned that the local authorities are playing the ethnic
card to force them to pay.
Manitoba Colony was
established in 1921 by Old Colony immigrants from Manitoba, Canada. Exact figures are difficult to estimate. GAMEO indicates that the original colony sat
on 150,000 acres. An article posted by
Enrique Lomas for Terra TV indicates that there about 20,000
Mennonites impacted by the tax, which may or may not include the population of
other nearby Mennonite colonies.
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| Manitoba Colony is about an hour west of Chihuahua |
According to the colony’s Postura Oficial de Habitantes, Empresarios y
Jefes de Colonia Manitoba, Respecto al Tema del Predial (the Official
position of the People and Leaders of the Manitoba Colony Regarding the
Property Tax), the colonies property tax bill is set to increase from 6,150,000
pesos (roughly US$476,000.00 or US$3.17 per acre) to 112,000,000 pesos (US$8,667,000.00
or CA$8,659,000.00) or roughly US$58.00 per acre or between US$1,400.00 and
US$1,500.00 per household) (Lomas, ibid).
To put this into context, ranch-recreation sites near Chihuahua, sell
for about $115.00 to $125.00 per acre or roughly twice the proposed annual tax
bill (www.landflip.com).
The colony has countered
with an offer to pay an 20% increase, which they point out is more than the 8%
increase assessed against non-Mennonite citizens of Cuauhtémoc, though well
below the 1,800% increase proposed by Cuauhtémoc authorities.
Originally, the Manitoba Colony was modeled
after Chortitza Colony and Molotschna Colony in Ukraine, having negotiated a privilegium with the Mexican government
wherein the Mennonites could run their own schools and enjoy wide rights of
self-government, (not dissimilar to similar rights originally enjoyed in
Canada).
Part of the difficulty with
the local authorities might be disagreements between commercial and private tax
rates. The original colonies were set up
as corporations under the names Heide – Neufeld
und Reinlander Waisenamt and Rempel – Wall und Reinländer Waisenamt – seemingly
similar to social corporate structures maintained by the Hutterite Colonies of
the United States and Canadian West, which have also had to negotiate tax
structures with the local states and provinces.
According to Lomas, the
Mennonite directive also expressed concern at the tone the local government has
taken against the Mennonites and with the spreading of false or misinformation
indicating that the Mennonite community is evading paying their fair share of
local taxes, that the Mennonites are demanding special treatment and that they are
not loyal to the local region.
Lomas quotes, “Unfortunately
these comments and information are creating a negative view towards the
inhabitants of this colony, which are generating division and maybe even hate,”
(translation courtesy of Google Translate™.
Similar concerns have often been
expressed in the past by other North American communities who have been
scapegoated for negative local conditions.
Recently, Hutterites in Montana have been accused of generating a
regional land shortage due to their consumption and social organization, and
Mennonite communities located on prairie Reserves or Native American
Reservations have noted a breakdown in communication between the Tribal
leadership and non-Native American residents.
Lomas states that the
directive reiterates that the local Mennonite community fully supports and
respects the municipal authorities and hopes that they will continue to work
together in the future as they have in the past.
 |
| Mexican Mennonite Family in Manitoba Colony |
Taken together, incidents
between the Mennonite or Anabaptist communities and their surrounding host
cultures are still far from fully tolerant (probably on both sides of the
dialogue), indicating that difficult matters of assimilation, identity and
effective inter-cultural relationship building still have a long ways to
go. It would be interesting to see an
intercultural body emerge to help the various Mennonite and Anabaptist communities
better cooperate with and support each other in secular conflicts with other
ethnic communities – similar to bodies within the MC-USA established to deal
with inter-faith relations. The
pan-Diasporaic or inter-Mennonite groups that currently exist focus primarily
on religious and developmental matters, indicating that more inter-cooperation
needs to occur on the primarily ethnic and cultural level – more similar to
certain groups and organizations maintained by the world-wide Jewish community.
One of the biggest
considerations for demonstrating greater leadership in the secular relations of
the Mennonite Diaspora is that the Mennonites have long extolled the value of
peace making and service – values that could be undermined by a failure to
effectively manage their own inter-ethnic secular relationships.
On the other hand, the
historic absence of an inter-cooperative ethnic Mennonite cultural group might
indicate that its use would limited or that such inter-Mennonite cultural
support is not fully desired at this point – a likely if short-sighted
perspective if such is the case.
We have the resources, we
have the people, we have the need – we should put them to work. A cartoon of a sincere though unaware pastor
praying with his eyes turned up to Heaven while about to fall into a manhole,
was once captioned something like, “Pastor
[Smith], he’s so spiritually minded that he’s no earthly good.”
Note: This essay has been written using
trust-worthy on-line resources that have not been independently confirmed with
members of the Manitoba Colony.
Regarding the contemporary organizational status and structure of the
colony(ia), I have been unable to obtain a timely definitive answer to that
question.
Krahn, Cornelius and Helen Ens. "Manitoba Colony,
Mexico." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia
Online. 1989. Web. 07 March 2012. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/M36505ME.html.
Lomas, Enrique, “Agobia a menonitas
aumento en predial,” Terra TV, http://noticias-pe.hlg-vgn76-live-poa.terra.com.br/agobia-a-menonitas-aumento-en-predial,4ec64d04c2e75310VgnVCM2000006b369ac8RCRD.html, 14 Feb 2012, downloaded 07 Mar 2012.
Manitoba Colony, Russländer
Mennonites, Mennonitas, Mexican Mennonites, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), ethnic
conflict, Taxation, Social Structures, Hutterites, Colonia Manitoba
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