Pozo Azul (Paraguay)
The first Canadian Mennonite immigrants to Paraguay disembarked at the end of 1926 in Puerto Casado, still 200 kilometers away from their new land. Facing a major delay until a land survey could be completed and other obstacles overcome, the settlers quickly began establishing temporary farming settlements in the Paraguayan Chaco, beginning with Pozo Azul on 17 February 1927. The settlement disbanded in 1928, its inhabitants settling into the new, permanent villages of Menno Colony.
Fred Engen of the Corporación Paraguaya led the first Mennonite expedition into the Chaco in the middle of January 1927, a few weeks after the first settlers landed. They travelled 72 kilometers on the Casado Company's narrow gauge railway and conducted the rest of their venture in a Chevrolet truck purchased from the Casado Company by the Corporación Paraguaya. They achieved their goal of finding a suitable location for a temporary farming site and relay station at Hoffnungsfeld, which later became the settlers' second temporary settlement.
A month later, a group of six families equipped with axes, spades, and plows made a five day journey by rail and ox cart (driven by employees of Casado) and founded Pozo Azul. The location was somewhere in between the end of the Casado railroad and the site of their newly purchased land, perhaps 25 kilometers short of what would become Menno Colony.[1] Small groups of new arrivals continued to grow the settlement until May. Other temporary sites established later included Loma Plata and Palo Blanco. The new residents immediately planted crops, dug wells, and built temporary shelters.
By May the crops in Pozo Azul were producing good yields. This showcased the viability of agriculture in the Chaco to the dispirited immigrants waiting in squalid conditions in Puerto Casado and later provided an early model for how to successfully conduct tropical agriculture. The temporary settlements also became important stations for others venturing into the interior, for those conducting the survey work, and for when people began settling the permanent villages.
Temporary settlements also helped reduce the population pressure in Puerto Casado. Many immigrants were eager to escape the idleness, discontent, and poor accommodation in Puerto Casado and flocked to the temporary settlements. Royden Loewen in particular presents evidence of an accelerated exodus through the first half of 1927 to the temporary settlements; in his account, by the middle of 1927 Puerto Casado was "nearly emptied of Mennonites."[2] Many of those who went into the interior did so in an effort to flee the epidemic that had broken out in Puerto Casado, but often illness followed them: seventeen people died in Pozo Azul during the year and a half of its existence.
See Also
- Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s
- Loma Plata (Menno Colony, Boquerón Department, Paraguay)
Notes and References
Bibliography
Braun, Ernest N. "There and Back Again: A Tale of Two Decisions." Preservings 45 (Fall 2022): 29-34.
Fretz, Joseph W. Pilgrims in Paraguay: The Story of Mennonite Colonization in South America. Scottdale: Herald Press, 1953. Pp. 17-18.
Friesen, M.W. Canadian Mennonites Conquer a Wilderness: The Beginning and Development of the Menno Colony, First Mennonite Settlement in South America. Translated by Christel Wiebe. Historical Committee of the Menno Colony, 2009.
Loewen, Royden. Village among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916-2006. University of Toronto Press, 2013. Pp. 54-65.
Quiring, Walter. “The Canadian Mennonite Immigration into the Paraguayan Chaco, 1926-27.” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 8, no. 1 (January 1934): 32-42.
| Author(s) | Gerald Ens |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 2025 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Ens, Gerald. "Pozo Azul (Paraguay)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 2025. Web. 1 Feb 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pozo_Azul_(Paraguay)&oldid=180471.
APA style
Ens, Gerald. (2025). Pozo Azul (Paraguay). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 1 February 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Pozo_Azul_(Paraguay)&oldid=180471.
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