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Honestly, this story
is difficult to navigate – it is full of contradictions and surprising vitriol,
but if true, it could indicate a hundred-year reversal of Mennonite immigration
out of Russia back to the steppes and arid lands of their forefathers – well, a
few of the fore-parents anyway… but Mexico’s Mennonites, or at least some
of them, might be heading back to Russia and Kazakhstan by 2014. The ink
might already be drying on the new deeds.
The reason this story is difficult to follow is that it takes place in at least three very different languages – none of which are English – and I am not certain of either the electronic translations or search results for further information. [Note: I have contacted various groups to obtain more reliable “official” information, and will share this via the blog as I receive responses.]
According to
GAMEO.org, several thousand Mennonites chose to leave Canada for Mexico in
1922-1927, representing the entire Alt
Kolonie subculture and many Sommerfelder
(later to be also joined by numerous conservative Kleine Gemeinde who would settle near and in Belize).
According to GAMEO.org, the settlers migrating to Mexico represented the most
conservative of the earlier Russian Mennonite immigrants into Canada and their
move to Mexico was in reaction to early 20th Century governmental
efforts to Canadianize the Mennonite
immigrants – especially in the area of education and language rights, felt to
have been guaranteed under the original agreements with Crown authorities
extended to encourage Mennonite immigration to Manitoba. While GAMEO.org
focuses on language rights, one must assume that struggles by Canadian
Mennonites to maintain their exemptions from military service during World War
1 – and American imprisonment of conscientious objectors during the same war,
probably played a similar role in the decision to immigrate, as well as the
perennial need for additional farmland and cultural seclusion.
