Mennonites in Argentina
{{Infobox Religious group
| image = Niños de la Colonia Menonita. - panoramio.jpg
| image_caption = Mennonite girls in the colony of Nueva Esperanza.
| group = Mennonites in Argentina
| poptime = 4,678 members (2012){{Cite web |url=http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Argentina&oldid=122029Bender, |title=Argentina - GAMEO}}
| popplace = {{hlist|Mainly in the province of La Pampa|There are also other established communities in the provinces of Santiago del Estero and Buenos Aires}}
| rels = Anabaptist
| scrips = The Bible
| langs = {{hlist|Plautdietsch|Standard German|Spanish}}
}}
Mennonites in Argentina belong to two quite different groups: conservative and very conservative Plautdietsch-speaking group of Russian Mennonites who are descendants of Frisian, Flemish and Prussian people, and converts to the Mennonite faith from the general Argentinian population. The Russian Mennonites are the third largest community of Mennonites in South America, with six colonies in Argentina. While Russian Mennonites have their own language and customs and live in colonies, converts to the Mennonite faith normally live in cities and speak Spanish and do not differ much from other Protestants in Argentina. Conservative ethnic Mennonites normally do not engage in missionary activities but look for a quiet and remote place where they can live according to their tradition. More liberal Mennonites are engaged in worldwide missionary work like other North American Protestant denominations. About one third of Mennonites in Argentina are conservative ethnic Mennonites who belong to the Altkolonier branch.
The Mennonites as a religious group can trace back their roots to the time of the Protestant Reformation. They belonged to the radical wing of the Reformation who tried to base its faith only on the Bible as God's word and live according to it.
History and ethnicity
Most ethnic Mennonites have a long history of migrations. The ethnic Mennonites in Argentina are descendants of Vistula delta Mennonites, who migrated around 1800 to a part of the Russian Empire that today belongs to Ukraine. From there they migrated to Canada in the 1870s and from there to Mexico and Paraguay in 1920s. A major migration of Mennonites to Argentina occurred from 1986 to 1987, mainly from Mexico, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Although from different countries, all are of the same Dutch-Prussian ethnic background which developed into an ethnic group in the Russian Empire. Therefore, they are often somewhat misleadingly called "Russian" Mennonites (German: Russland-Mennoniten). The ethno-language of these Mennonites is Plautdietsch.
Mission and settlements in Argentina
File:Departamento_Guatrach%C3%A9_(La_Pampa_-_Argentina).png.]]
North American Mennonite missionaries (Mennonite Church (MC)) started to work in Argentina in 1917. Work among Indians in the far north Chaco territory started in 1943. In 1953 there were 745 members in congregations founded by these missionaries.{{Cite web |url=http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Argentina&oldid=122029 |title=Argentina - GAMEO}}
In 1948 a first group of about 150 ethnic Mennonites from Russia heading for Paraguay stranded in Argentina. They settled mostly in Buenos Aires and assimilated more or less into the Argentinian society. Ethnic Mennonites from Paraguay joined them bringing their total number to about 400 in the mid-1950s.
In the year 1986 a group of very conservative ethnic Mennonites from Capulin colony, close to the city of Nuevo Casas Grandes in the northern parts of Chihuahua, Mexico, came to Argentina and founded "La Nueva Esperanza" colony 40 kilometres from Guatraché, La Pampa. A second colony of similar immigrants was founded near Pampa de los Guanacos, Santiago del Estero in 1995 by Mennonites from Durango, Mexico. In 2004 settlers from "La Nueva Esperanza" colony near Guatraché founded "Colonia del Norte" near the city of Santiago del Estero. Both the settlement near Guatraché and the settlements in Santiago del Estero Province have around 10,000 hectares.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/636945-los-menonitas-en-guatrache |title=Los menonitas en Guatraché |last=La Nación |authorlink=La Nación |date=2004-09-18 |language=Spanish}}{{Cite web |url=http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/historia-menonitas-argentina/historia-de-la-colonia-nueva-esperanza/32/ |title=Historia de la Colonia Nueva Esperanza |website=Colonia Menonita |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121218060128/http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/historia-menonitas-argentina/historia-de-la-colonia-nueva-esperanza/32/ |archive-date=18 December 2012 |access-date=4 February 2020}}They have been living in Santiago del Estero since the end of 2003 and early 2004, from La Pampa.{{Cite web |url=http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/06/07/menonitas_del_imperio_ruso_a_la_pampa_17417.html |title=Menonitas: del imperio ruso a La Pampa |last=Armero |first=Marta |date=7 June 2012 |access-date=22 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120609095401/http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/06/07/menonitas_del_imperio_ruso_a_la_pampa_17417.html |archive-date=9 June 2012 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.plettfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/magazines/Preservings%202012.pdf |title=Kennert Giesbrecht: "The Low German Mennonites of Argentina" in Preservings Issue No 32, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225210635/http://www.plettfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/magazines/Preservings%202012.pdf |archive-date=December 25, 2014}} In 2014 Old Colony Mennonites from Santa Rita Colony north of Cuauhtémoc in the Mexican state of Chihuahua founded a new colony of about 9,500 hectares 30 km far from Villa Mercedes, San Luis.Infomenonitas.mx: Bald könnten Mennoniten nach Argentinien ziehen [http://infomenonitas.mx/bald-konnten-mennoniten-nach-argentinien-ziehen] In 2019, a group of Mennonites from Chihuahua and Canada, bought {{convert|8038|ha}} of land near Arizona, Gobernador Dupuy Department, San Luis, {{convert|296|km}} from the state capital, which will be 180 families (about 1,000 people).{{Cite web |url=https://eleconomista.com.ar/2019-08-san-luis-se-llena-de-menonitas-mexicanos-compraron-mas-de-8-000-hectareas/ |title=San Luis se llena de menonitas mexicanos: compraron más de 8.000 hectáreas |date=August 2, 2019}} A 2020 survey found that there are more than 200 Mennonite colonies in nine Latin American countries, with 6 in Argentina.{{cite book |last1=Le Polain de Waroux |first1=Yann |last2=Neumann |first2=Janice |last3=O'Driscoll |first3=Anna |last4=Schreiber |first4=Kerstin |date=2020 |title=Journal of Land Use Science |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |doi=10.1080/1747423X.2020.1855266 |s2cid=230589810 }}
| class="wikitable" |
| Colony
! Group ! Province ! Established ! Origin ! Membership ! Hectare |
|---|
| La Nueva Esperanza
| Old Colony Mennonites (Horse) | Guatraché Department, La Pampa | 1986 | El Capulín, Mexico | ~1,400 | ~10,000 |
| Pampa de los Guanacos
| Old Colony Mennonites (Horse) | Copo Department, Santiago del Estero | 1995 | ~770 | ~10,000 |
| Del Norte
| Old Colony Mennonites (Horse) | 2004 | La Nueva Esperanza, Argentina | ~600 | ~13,700 |
| Monte Verde
| Old Colony Mennonites (Horse) | 2014 | La Nueva Esperanza, Argentina | ? (between 100 and 500) | ~8,500 |
| Santa Rita (Tupá)
| Old Colony Mennonites (Car) | San Luis | 2014 | Santa Rita, Mexico | ~360 | 9,540 |
| Manitoba Sur
| Old Colony Mennonites (Car) | San Luis | 2019/2020 | Manitoba, Mexico | ~30 (planned for 180 families) | 8,038 |
Vista aerea Colonia Nueva Esperanza 03.jpg|Aerial views of the colony Nueva Esperanza (New Hope)
Vista aerea Colonia Nueva Esperanza 04.jpg
Tipica casa menonita. - panoramio.jpg|Mennonite home in the same colony
Colonia menonita - panoramio (9).jpg
Menonitas de compras en su carruaje (Boogie) - panoramio.jpg|Mennonite women with their children in the same colony
Niños de la Colonia Menonita. - panoramio (1).jpg|Mennonite kids
=Populations=
File:Boogie en Colonia Menonita. - panoramio (1).jpg in Argentina too, is a traditional type of transport among the Mennonites.]]
The number of adult members of the Mennonite faith in Argentina in 2012 was 4,678. Of these 1440 were members of Old Colony Mennonite congregations with a Germanic background, whereas the rest of 3,238 was mostly in Spanish-speaking congregations.{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Argentina&oldid=122029 |title=Argentina |last1=Bender |first1=Harold S. |last2=Enns-Rempel |first2=Kevin |date=May 2013 |access-date=3 December 2014 |encyclopedia=Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online}}
Customs and beliefs
The ethnic Mennonites in their four colonies have been mostly engaged in tilling the land and live a simple life without electricity, cars, telephones, television, or other developments of modern life. They are distinguished by their plain clothes and their understanding of the Christian faith, which is very important to stay away from the world.{{Cite web |url=http://www.soydetoay.com.ar/menonitas/portada.htm |title=Menonitas en La Pampa |access-date=21 October 2014}} Relations with the outside world are restricted to the purchase of raw materials and selling products.{{Cite web |url=http://www.soydetoay.com.ar/menonitas/2.htm |title=Menonitas en La Pampa |access-date=21 October 2014}}
Languages
Ethnic Mennonites in Argentina speak Plautdietsch in everyday life and use an old-fashioned Standard German in reading, writing and singing. In addition, Spanish is spoken fluently by some settlers and taught in schools. By 2007, 1,300 people were surveyed in the town of Remecó, La Pampa, consisting of approximately 200 families, with an average of 8 to 12 children each.{{Cite web |url=http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/mas-informacion-sobre-los-menonitas-argentina/el-exodo-de-los-menonitas/93/ |title=El éxodo de los Menonitas |website=colonia-menonita.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203115927/http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/mas-informacion-sobre-los-menonitas-argentina/el-exodo-de-los-menonitas/93/ |archive-date=3 December 2012 |access-date=4 February 2020}} Converts to the Mennonite faith speak the language they spoke before their conversion, that is mostly Spanish.
Labour and production
File:Queso menonita Guatraché.JPG made by the Mennonites from La Nueva Esperanza.]]
The Mennonite colony "La Nueva Esperanza", in La Pampa, produces {{convert|15,000|L}} of milk per day and over 500 silos per year. They have about 5,000 head of cattle, and most families, a dairy farm. As well, grow potatoes, radish, cucumber, pumpkin, onion, pepper, carrot, sunflower, lettuce, cabbage, and cilantro; they raise poultry, pigs and horses. Through a civil partnership, they sell several products to the rest of Argentina, such as cheese, pasta with mozzarella, wheat, furniture, silos and other implements for agriculture.{{Cite web |url=http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/costumbres-colonia-menonita/agricultura-y-agropecuaria/60/ |title=Costumbres: Agricultura y Agropecuaria |website=Colonia Menonita |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203115822/http://colonia-menonita.com.ar/costumbres-colonia-menonita/agricultura-y-agropecuaria/60/ |archive-date=3 December 2012 |access-date=4 February 2020}}
See also
Literature
{{Portal|Argentina|Christianity}}
- Cañás Bottos, Lorenzo: Old Colony Mennonites in Argentina and Bolivia : Nation Making, Religious Conflict and Imagination of the Future. Leiden et al. 2008.
- Cañás Bottos, Lorenzo: Christenvolk: Historia y Etnografia de una Colonia Menonita. Buenos Aires 2005. (This Spanish language book is about Mennonites in Argentina)
References
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External links
{{commonscatinline}}
- [https://dataverse.scholarsportal.info/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.5683/SP2/I4FEQZ "Data for "Pious Pioneers: The expansion of Mennonite colonies in Latin America""], This data is provided in support of the paper "Pious Pioneers: The expansion of Mennonite colonies in Latin America", published in the Journal of Land Use Science, December 15, 2020, 1–17
{{Immigration to Argentina}}
{{Mennonites in the world}}