Preservings 11 (1997) - Plett Foundation

Peter Rempel, Franz Rempel, George
Rempel, Herman Neufeld, and Aganetha
Neufeld, 75 Jahre Mennoniten in Mexico:
1922-1997 (Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein,
Km.14, Carr.A Rubio, Apdo.755, Cd.
Cuauthemoc, Chih., Mexico, C.P.31500, 1997),
309 pages.
An immense toll is exacted from pioneers
whenever a new settlement is established in
wilderness conditions. The proverb in Plaut
Deitsch roughly translated goes, “The first generation
has the death, the second the grief, and
the third the bread.”
This saying can also be applied to the historical
documentation of a community. As long
as the main concern of a people is to garner in
their daily bread, there will not be much energy
left to write history books. This was also
the situation with the Mennonite community
established at Cuauthemoc and Durango,
Mexico, in 1922.
However, the Old Coloniers were fortunate
in that their gentle, existential Christianity
won the heart of Walter Schmiedehaus, the
German Counsel to Cuauthemoc. In 1948
Schmiedehaus wrote his famous monograph
about the Mexican Mennonites under the title
Ein’ Feste Berg ist unser Gott: Der Wanderweg
eines christlichen Siedlervolken, 307 pages.
This book has became the classic work on the
topic.
Some academic work has also been done in
the field, mostly characterized by modernization
typology, and often with limited understanding
of the significant role which ethnocultural
communities have played within many
societies since time immemorial. Of particular
value is the work of Leonard Sawatzky, They
Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in
Mexico (Berkley, 1971), 387 pages, which provides
a helpful survey of these communities and
their development.
In more recent years, Mennonite Central
Committee coordinated a picture book project
edited by Abe Warkentin and published in 1987
under the title, Gäste und Fremdlinge (“Strangers
and Pilgrims”), 361 pages, containing a
wealth of well-reproduced photographs. The
book was done in journalistic style, at least in
the Mexican Mennonite section, where people
are sometimes referred to generically and not
specifically. This tends to have a dehumanizing
effect and is not in keeping with current
historical methodology. e.g. On page 14 none
of the people in the five photographs are identified.
Nonetheless, Strangers and Pilgrims was
a significant addition to the historical literature
available about these people.
But it is not enough nor is it satisfactory for
any people to have its history written only by
others. This would be true even if the writing
about the group would be reasonably unbiased
which has not generally been the case with the
Mexican Mennonites. The historiography of any
culture is not complete until its own tribal legends
and folklore has been compiled and reproduced
in written form.
In light of these developments, the present
work represents a great coming of age for the
No. 11, December, 1997
65,000 Mennonites in Mexico and the 30,000
who have returned to Canada. For the first time
they will read about themselves and see their
community and spiritual ethos described from
their own perspective and historical experience.
To some degree 75 Jahre Mennoniten in
Mexico looks like its MCC sponsored-forerunner,
Strangers and Pilgrims. A short introductory
essay, written by Peter Rempel, a
Cuauthemoc apple producer and business tycoon,
sets the stage. The remainder of the book
consists of possibly as many as a thousand photographs
organized into various topical sections,
such as sawmills, adobe bricks, tractors replace
horses, into the Bustillos valley, Sommerfelder,
Ruszländer, and many others. It is slightly larger
than the standard 8" by 11" picture book and
printed on superior quality paper which will
last and last.
As a “Kleine Gemeinder” myself I particularly
appreciated the section on the “Kansas
Dorfer” covering the villages of Hoffnungsau
and Heuboden settled by six Kleine Gemeinde
families from Kansas in 1926. I have in my
possession a collection of some 50 letters written
to my great-grandparents Cornelius L. Plett
and Katharina F. Reimer, Satanta, Kansas, by
her brother, Jakob F. Reimer, and various family
members in Mexico covering the years 1925
to 1934. I am sure there are many collections
like it among the Old Colonier who remained
Attractive cover design of the book 75 Jahren
Mennoniten in Mexico: 1922-1997 with several cover
photographs portraying typical scenes against the
background of the “Tara Humara” mountains which
define the daily horizon of the Cuauthemoc Mennonites.
Mexican Mennonite Archives.
The Mexican Mennonite Historical Society
has established an archives of historical
documents. Anyone with documents or
information regarding the history of the
Mexican Mennonites is asked to contact Mr.
George Rempel, 804-325 6th St., Winkler,
Winkler, Manitoba, Canada, R6W 1G5;
phone 1(204)324-0934, or contact Mr. Peter
Rempel, Km.14, Carr. A Rubio, Apdo.
755, Cd. Cuauthemoc, Chih., Mexico,
C.P.31500.
103
in Canada. Such writings will become valuable
primary sources as the Old Coloniers continue
the task of documenting their own past.
The Mennonite Historical Society at
Cuauthemoc is to be commended for producing
this much needed book. 75 Jahre
Mennoniten in Mexico is a valuable work which
will spark the interests of many—Mennonites
as well as Non-Mennonites—in this fascinating
chapter of North American history. Hopefully
it will be followed by many more.
Reviewed by Delbert Plett
Mexican Mexican Mennonite Mennonite Video
Video
A review essay of the Mexican Mennonite
video, Kanadische Mennoniten Kolonisieren im
Mexico, “Canadian Mennonites Colonize in
Mexico”), producer Otto Klassen, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, reviewed by Delbert Plett, editor
Preservings.
Some 10,000 Canadian Mennonite snowbirds
head south each winter to destinations
such as Arizona and California. Imagine that
someone wanted to make a movie or video
called “Migration South” to introduce these
people, their culture and history, to their winter
hosts.
Imagine further that the producer of the
video went to Stony Mountain penitentiary and
interviewed the inmates there with Mennonite
surnames such as Peters who murdered a young
girl at a rock concert in Miami and Reimer who
led a police chase down Portage Avenue killing
6 teenagers, and then went to the City of
Winnipeg and interviewed the single mothers
on the welfare roles—some of whom are prostituting
themselves to make ends meet, and then
went to the bar at the Frantz Motor Inn in Steinbach
to discover that almost all patrons were
Mennonites many unemployed or else working
at menial jobs, then quoted a recent Winnipeg
study which alleged that there was wife
abuse in 60 per cent of Mennonite homes, and
then interviewed a well-known Mennonite pastor
and counsellor who had allegedly had inappropriate
relationships with a number of his
female patients, etc. etc.
I think even the dumbest person can get the
point. This is the type of information about the
Mexican Mennonites presented in the video
Migration North: Mennonites from Mexico produced
in 1995 by Mennonite Central Committee.
Although the purpose of the video ostensibly
was to familiarize social service agencies
in Canada about those Mexican Mennonites
who are returning to Canada, often as impoverished
immigrants, the total picture was more
or less as accurate about its subjects as the theoretical
video above referred to would be if based
upon the suggested material.
What Migration North: Mennonites from
Mexico does prove, beyond any reasonable
doubt, is the depth of the racial bias through
which many Canadian Mennonites view their
conservative co-religionists in Mexico, Paraguay
and elsewhere in Latin America. Even
MCC, with an envied international reputation