By Andrea Klassen
What is the price you would pay for your freedom of belief? Throughout Mennonite history, this question was answered hundreds of thousands of times by individuals who faced it – in very real ways. Many times, the answer came in the form of uprooting their entire lives and moving elsewhere at great cost.
We are familiar with thinking about this question with regard to Mennonite experiences during the Radical Reformation in the 1500s or later in Russia and the Soviet Union during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but we are likely not as comfortable thinking about it in relation to Canada. But in the 1920s, nearly 8,000 Mennonites left Canada for Latin America in search of a new home that would give them what they felt Canada no longer could, including freedom to practice their religion and retain their way of life through educating their children in private schools. In Mennonite Heritage Village’s (MHV) upcoming exhibit, “Leaving Canada: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico,” we explore different perspectives on this migration.
Mennonites faced many hardships in the early years in Mexico. When Mennonites arrived in Chihuahua, they were not sure what to expect. The journey had brought them through steep mountain passes into a dry, dusty, foreign landscape. Families spent the first weeks in tent villages before they were able to build small wooden homes and many struggled to make ends meet. In addition, crop failures, a lack of clean water, and poor drainage during the rainy season led to serious epidemics of malaria, typhoid, and smallpox in those first years.
As newcomers, Mennonites had to learn new ways of life. During the first decade, Mennonites learned from their Mexican neighbours and began to adapt their practices to the new landscape. While their first houses were built of wood brought from Canada, for example, they soon learned that it was better to build with adobe (dried mud) bricks. Farmers learned that staple crops like wheat were not suited to the Mexican environment, and they had to change their diet, economy, and farming techniques.
Conflicts with neighbours and governments and violence following the Mexican Revolution were major challenges in Mennonite villages in Mexico well into the 1950s and beyond. Conflicts with “agraristas” (peasants seeking land reform) in the 1920s, a crisis involving Mennonite school closures in the Manitoba Colony in 1935-1936, and aggression against Mennonites and their property into the 1950s were very challenging.
All these hardships caused some Mennonites to quickly return to Canada, but most found these difficulties bearable because Mexico had guaranteed their religious freedom. Years later in his memoires, Isaak M. Dyck, leader in the Old Colony Church, suggested all the hardships Mennonites experienced in Mexico were worth it. He wrote: “In Mexico we found what we had lost in Canada, namely: full freedom of conscience and expression of our religion, as much in the schools as in the churches.” (Dyck, Auswanderung von Canada nach Mexiko, ano 1922, Robyn Sneath, trans., [Cuauhtémoc: Imprenta Colonial, 1995], p. 115.)
Mennonites unloading their livestock, possessions, and agricultural implements from the trains in San Antonio de los Arenales (later Ciudad Cuauhtémoc) in 1923. The journey from Canada by train took about eight days.
Photo credit: Walter Schmiedehaus, Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott: Die Altkolonier-Mennoniten in Mexiko, 2nd ed. (Cuauhtémoc, Chih: Museo y Centro Cultural Menonita, 2021), 60.
Get the first look at MHV’s new exhibit at the exhibit premiere during our Spring Gala fundraiser on June 4 at 5pm with banquet at 6pm. Spring Gala tickets are $85 (partially receiptable). Get yours today by phone (204-326-9661) or online (www.mhv.ca). We also offer table sponsorships for businesses at $600 a table.
“Leaving Canada” is an exhibit produced in partnership by MHV, the Plett Foundation, and the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.
Upcoming Events:
MHV’s galleries and Village Books & Gifts are now open daily. Our grounds and Livery Barn Restaurant open Friday, April 29th! See our website and social media for the daily specials.
Manitoba Day 10:00am-3:30pm This year we are celebrating Manitoba Day on the Saturday before, May 7th. Admission is free to the public. Come enjoy our beautiful grounds together.
Mother’s Day Buffet Mother’s Day Buffet, May 8, 11:30am to 2:30pm. Treat mom with a Mennonite feast at the Livery Barn Restaurant!
Leaving Canada – Spring Gala, On June 4th, experience an evening of live music based on the theme of leaving, delicious food, and the unveiling of our newest exhibit, “Leaving Canada: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico”. This fundraising event will support the renovation of the Chortitz housebarn. Tickets are partially receiptible. Call 204-326-9661 or get your tickets online today!