Finally, a Definitive Word on Tatarstan and Mexico's Mennonites

Time to add a new decal?  Russian Mennonite - Tatarstan

The American press has finally discovered the story about Mexican Mennonites possibly returning to Tatarstan, Russia.

Please follow this link to Tim Johnson's excellent coverage of this story in the Kansas City Star:

Johnson, Tim, "To Some Mennonites in Mexico, Russia Looks Like Promised Land," 11 Nov 2012

Neu Bruderthaler's comments:

An excellent article.  Thank you Tim for taking the time to research this story properly.  It is very informative.

I do have some unease with Dr. Koth's remark which might indicate a clearer connection and gross oversimplification between the Russian Revolution and the immigration of the Mennonites out of Russia and Ukraine than is the case.   The primary immigration to North America, as most Kansans recall from their state history courses, immigrated in the 1870s when Alexander II's policies towards minorities became increasingly irrational and ambivalent and Mennonites were faced with the threat of losing their freedoms of religion, individual conscience and from mandatory military service.  Many Mennonites chose to immigrate to North America while many chose to stay during this time and negotiate further regarding these freedoms with the Czar.  The farms of those leaving were sold to either Mennonites who remained in Russia-Ukraine or to Russians and Ukrainians desiring new farmland.

Arguably, it was the unrest created by the Revolution and contact with invading German armies who promised stability and protection during WWI and WWII that caused the greatest impetus for further immigration amongst those who stayed.   But land appropriation was only one concern -- much more important was the general level of social and political violence encouraged by the early Soviet regime and Stalin's administration, natural and man-made famines, the imposed atheism of the Soviet state and the horrors of the Holodomar -- one of the darkest periods of Ukraine's history.

Frente Menonita

  

Announcing The Front for the Defense of the Mennonite Colonies Civil Association of Chihuahua

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Dueck sworn in as president of Frente Menonita, courtesy La Cronica de Chihuahua

    Noting heightened tensions between Mennonite settlers and their Mestizo neighbors in Mexico's state of Chihuahua, complicated by recent rumors that at least small numbers of settlers are now seeking to immigrate out of Mexico, either to Canada or central Russia, the Mennonite colonies have now formed a new organization to promote unity, dialogue, rights, cooperation and philanthropy amongst the region's Russian Mennonite population.

    Generally, this is both welcomed and sad news.  The welcoming is that it is probably not only long overdue for the existence of such an organization (especially if it is able to speak on behalf of all ethnic Mennonites regardless of conference or denomination), but also indicates the need for other global pan-Mennonite organizations such as Mennonite World Conference and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to again review their leadership of the pan-Mennonite diaspora and to continue a commitment to ethnic and cultural preservation, above and beyond still needed foci on evangelism, spirituality and social justice for others.

 "We will promote unity amongst the Mennonite colonies to help loosen the mood and look towards establishing agreements with other groups through dialogue," Dueck.

Are Mexico's Mennonites Leaving for Russia?

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Bottom (c) El Universal.com.mx

    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 20^th 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.

God directed Moses to call forth water from the rock.

ne Wotahakjse onn ne dräje Tiet

    For centuries, Amish Americans and Russländer Mennonites have attempted to establish homes in dry hostile environments and to survive draught in part by practicing the mysterious and controversial art of water dowsing.  In Montana, we refer to this as water witching – the practice of attempting to find water by noting reactions and vibrations in a wooden or metal stick.  My grandfather, Albert Wall, used a long metal rod and spent many an afternoon trying to determine water resources on his Montana farm.  According to his stories, his grandfather, J. C. Wall, had located at least three water wells using a willow wand – though at least one of these seems to me to a rather common sense location due to surface evidence of a high water table.

    In Nuevo Ideal, Mexico, distant cousins are currently attempting to deal with the consequences of a harsh drought.  A few are moving to Canada but others are attempting to either ride out the difference between the drought year and a promising recovery, or even to identify new water resources.  Apparently, Mexican Mennonite Peter Wall has inherited the knack for dowsing – though his method is described as that of using two metal wands – one in each hand, to determine the location, quantity and depth of the water table.  Who knows – there might be something to this.  While water dowsing is certainly not considered to be scientific, neither would Mennonites sanction the practice of magic – so the practice is seemingly more complicated than doubters would have us believe. 

Tacos de requesón menonita

Queso Mennonita, aka Queso Chihuahua

Tacos de requesón menonita 

Mennonite Tacos

Mennonites in Mexico are known for their excellent cheeses, especially queso Mennonita.  Recently, Chef Marisa Rodriguez published this recipe for Mennonite Tacos using cottage cheese -- a well-known ingredient to North American Mennonites but less familiar to our Mexican neighbors.  

The original recipe might be found via this link:  Mennonite Tacos

Chef Marisa Rodríguez | NorteDigital

"Nuestro estado de Chihuahua se caracteriza por elaborar productos lácteos de muy buena calidad, y uno de ellos que muchas veces no sabemos en qué utilizarlo es el requesón que el día de hoy les presento.

Es un plato muy sencillo con este ingrediente y muy útil para esta cuaresma, el requesón se elabora con el cuajo de la leche que nos sirve para elaborar los famosos quesos menonitas y muchos más.

Tiene un sabor muy neutral que podemos consumirlo en recetas tanto dulces como saladas y en esta ocasión les comparto unos tacos de requesón con una mezcla de pico de gallo lo que lo convierten en una comida muy diferente pero igualmente rica, ¡elabórenla y disfrútenla!"

New additions to the 2013 Mennonite Booklist

Eunice Adorno - Las Mujeres Flores (The Flower Girls:  Mennonites in Mexico) (2012)

    Mennonite lovers of art books often have to settle with beautiful prints of Mennonite and Amish quilts, photographs of barns, or the more picturesque photo journals of our Hutterite and Amish cousins.

    Mexico City-photographer Eunice Adorno is changing all this with her photographic journal of the lives of Mennonite girls in Mexico's isolated Nuevo Ideal communities (colonies) in Durango and La Onda, Mexico.

    Many Russian Mennonites left homes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1922 as the Canadian government began to require greater assimilation into Anglo-Canadian culture and greater tolerance of patriotic inculcation in the then-become mandatory public schools.  Today, some 90,000 Mennonites call Mexico home.  In fact, Mexico is becoming a new global center for Russian Mennonite literature, cinema and cultural development -- though many Mexicans will continue to think of their quiet, German-speaking neighbours as the fond originators of quesa Mennonita, now often marketed by Mexican grocers as queso chihuahua.

    Adorno similarly recommends the photography of Larry Towell as a heavy influence on her work.  Check out Towell's photographic collection in The Mennonites (2000).

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John M. Barry,  Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul:  Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (2012)

John M. Barry's Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul:  Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (2012) is an effective and informative look at how religious dissent and a reactionary intolerance in the early Massachusetts colony gave rise to the developed principle of religious freedom in the modern United States. 

    Many Americans and Anabaptists tend to forget or overlook the contributions of the Dutch Mennonites in shaping the attitudes and doctrines of the Pilgrim settlers.  Perhaps their influence on religious dissent in the Massachusetts Bay colony settlements helped establish this democratic principle on American soil well before the first Mennonites and Amish arrived in New York or Pennsylvania.