Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s

In the 1920s, nearly 8,000 Low German-speaking Mennonites from Manitoba and Saskatchewan emigrated to Mexico and Paraguay. These migrants were a conservative subset of a group of Mennonites who had immigrated from Russia to Canada, for the most part in the 1870s. They left Canada as a response to assimilationist policies introduced by the governments of both provinces, especially policies that forced them to send their children to secular, English-speaking public schools with a nationalistic and militaristic agenda. From 1922 to 1930, 5,350 Reinländer (also known as Old Colony), 550 Sommerfelder, and about 50 Saskatchewan Bergthaler Mennonites removed to Mexico, while 1,785 Chortitzer, Sommerfelder, and Saskatchewan Bergthaler Mennonites settled in Paraguay. This remains the largest group out-migration of people in Canadian history and marks the beginning of the conservative Mennonite presence in Latin America, today numbering over 100,000 people. The vast majority of conservative Mennonites living in Latin America are descendants of this migration.

Background in Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay

Some degree of tension over the issue of education had existed for years between most Mennonite groups in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and their provincial governments. Even as these provinces sought to build a universal education system, most Mennonites persisted in operating a network of religious, German-language private elementary schools. The provincial governments increasingly sought to improve educational standards, as they understood them, and to use schools as instruments to build a British-Canadian citizenry; most Mennonites understood education to be about building participation within the faith community and saw the push towards a public school system as a threat to their faith and way of life. World War I inflamed these tensions. Beginning in 1916, both provinces began concerted campaigns to end the private Mennonite school system and to assimilate Mennonite children to Canadian society via public schools.

In the early 1920s, Mexico was emerging out of its ten-year revolutionary war. Its newly elected president, Álvaro Obregón, was eager to attract modern farmers to aid in the reconstruction of his country. This ambition contained an explicitly racial logic: Obregón was especially intent on bringing in white farmers who would lift up the "backward" Mexican peasants by not only introducing modern farming techniques but also by whitening the population as they integrated into it. In addition, Obregón was fresh off a presidential campaign in which he had promised sweeping land reforms that would break up the estates of wealthy landowners in order to give land to individual tenant farmers. This motivated Mexico's large landowners to seek buyers for their lands before the state dispossessed them.

Paraguay had not fully recovered from the brutal Paraguayan War, or the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70), which had devastated its population. The Paraguayan government under President Manuel Gondra was enthusiastic about acquiring settlers who would open up the undeveloped land of the Gran Chaco, where it was said that white people could not survive. Paraguayan officials also wanted to secure their northern border, which had long been disputed by neighboring Bolivia. A small but meaningful presence of indigenous peoples remained in the Chaco at the time the Mennonites moved there.

Reinländer Migration to Mexico

Finding Land

The first compulsory school attendance laws passed in Manitoba in 1916. After mounting legal challenges and making appeals to different levels of government, the three Reinländer settlements in Canada (western Manitoba, Hague-Osler, and Swift Current) determined in meetings held in July 1919 to find a new homeland. They immediately dispatched delegations to investigate possible destinations . These delegations negotiated with authorities for a Privilegium (special group privileges), including exemption from military service and autonomy over the education of their children, and looked for suitable farmland. In February 1921, a Reinländer delegation received a satisfactory Privilegium from President Obregón of Mexico. Preparations for wholesale migration of the entire church to that country began immediately.

Reinländer delegates entered into an agreement to purchase land in the Valle de Guatimapé in the state of Durango in April 1921. A conflict over finances between Hague-Osler delegate Johann P. Wall and Manitoba delegate Klaas Heide led Wall to pull his community out of the agreement and forced the other delegates to unilaterally abrogate their end of the contract at a considerable loss.

The Manitoba and Swift Current groups continued to cooperate. With the help of John F. D. Wiebe, a businessman turned land agent from Herbert, Saskatchewan, they located suitable land in the Valle de Bustillos in the state of Chihuahua, the estate of Carlos Zuloaga. In September of the same year, the Manitoba group purchased 155,000 acres and the Swift Current group purchased 74,125 acres in adjacent tracts of land at the price of 8.25 USD per acres, with a down payment of 2.00 USD. These settlements became known as the Manitoba Colony and the Swift Current Colony. In each case, the group contracted to purchase its tract from its Mexican seller in a single transaction, significantly reducing the expense of the land transaction process; parcels of land were then sold to individuals.

Withdrawing from the land deal in Durango upset the emigration plans of the Hague-Osler group. It was only in 1924 that they purchased about 35,000 acres in the Valle de Guatimapé, the site of the originally planned purchase, at 4.00 USD per acre. This settlement became known as the Durango Colony.

In all these cases (and also the Sommerfelder purchase, discussed below) the Mennonites grossly overpaid for their new lands. In some cases, the purchase price was greater than the sale price they were able to achieve for their much superior Canadian land. By some estimates, the land the Mennonites purchased from the Zuloaga estate had a value of 0.15 USD per acre.

Land Sales

The Reinländer experienced numerous setbacks in their efforts to sell their land in Canada, resulting major financial losses, division and ill-will in the community, and many would-be emigrants remaining in Canada.

Reinländer leaders in each settlement decided early on that all church members would sell their land in a single block sale. A major motivation for doing so was to redistribute wealth to poorer members who would otherwise be unable to emigrate. A single block sale also would likely have allowed Reinländer leaders to exercise more social control over the migration. The challenges involved in achieving such a sale ultimately proved insurmountable. Between the end of 1920 and the end of 1921, all three Reinländer settlements entered into land sale agreements for large tracts of pooled land. All three of these deals fell through when the buyers were unable to get their finances together.

These failed deals caused confusion, loss, and discontent in all cases, but the consequences were particularly severe for Swift Current. The law firm acting for them in the prospective purchase demanded a guaranteed commission of 10,200 acres, which they received from individuals who were persuaded to sign releases by church leaders. After the American purchasers backed out, the law firm demanded its commission in a lawsuit. The legal proceedings were costly and drawn out. While three Canadian courts found in favor of the Reinländer, the Privy Council in London reversed these decisions in what what Harry Sawatzky characterizes as a "miscarriage of justice." The farmers who had signed releases lost their land. An attempt by church leaders to repay them via a small levy on every member of the community proved so unpopular that they quickly abandoned it.

Discontent and concern among the Reinländer membership mounted as 1921 dragged on. Canada entered a recession and land prices fell rapidly. Several farmers in Manitoba and Swift Current began selling privately; church leaders disciplined them with excommunication, ostracism, and denial of the immigration papers needed to enter Mexico. Reinländer leadership never officially abandoned their position on a block sale, but by early 1922 they had begun looking the other way when individuals privately sold their land. They needed the monies from a sale to fulfill their purchase obligations in Mexico and were concerned about flagging enthusiasm for the emigration. In 1922, some villages in Manitoba's West Reserve sold in their entirety to Hutterite immigrants from South Dakota.

Those who sold achieved very low prices. Many who left did so without having first sold their land, which a friend or relative typically later sold for them. Prices improved somewhat in late 1923 with the arrival of Russländer Mennonite immigrants from the Soviet Union, but here too sales were often complicated by time lags, the impoverishment and indebtedness of many of the Russländer, and then by the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent economic depression. An attempt by the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization to facilitate a mass land transfer to the Russländer did not materialize. By August 1923, the Reinländer had still not sold much of their land and in Manitoba the Reinländer's legal firm was still attempting to broker offers on a block sale. In many cases, those who had left for Mexico in 1922 only sold their land in 1924 or later. Sales continued until 1932.

The Hague-Osler group was unable to find buyers for years, in part because land inspections consistently found that their land had poor value. Individuals only began to sell plots of land towards the end of 1923. In the botched 1920 land sale, Hague-Osler's Reinländer farmers had signed over their land to Benjamin Goertzen and Johann P. Wall, leaders in their community. Gaining back land titles afterwards proved both time consuming and expensive, and church leadership was not forthcoming with assistance. This dissuaded many Hague-Osler members from emigrating, both due to the material hardship it caused and their lost trust in their leaders. However, in 1924. the Hague-Osler group was the only Reinländer settlement to achieve something resembling a block sale when, with the help of a London financier, they transferred a large block section of land to Russländer immigrants for $18.50 per acre.

Emigration

The lengthy and uncertain search for a new homeland followed by protracted and bumbling land sale efforts caused enthusiasm for emigration to wane. Church leaders worked, with only partial success, to keep up their members' resolve, perhaps none harder than Manitoba Reinländer Ältester Johann J. Friesen. Facing a crisis of commitment, Friesen canvassed his church in January and February of 1922, requiring all to affirm that they intended to obey the church and move to Mexico; he excommunicated those who would not provide such affirmation. In the end, 64 percent of the Manitoba Reinländer moved to Mexico, much higher than the 37 percent from Swift Current and the 24 percent from Hague-Osler.

The first train taking Mennonites from Canada to Mexico left from Plum Coulee, Manitoba on 1 March 1922. By March 11, five more trains carrying Mennonites to Mexico had left, three from Manitoba and two from Swift Current. By the end of 1922, more than 2,000 emigrants had departed from Manitoba alone. They disembarked for their new lands in Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua (then known as San Antonio de los Arenales), typically after eight days of travel. By the end of 1925, approximately 4,400 Reinländer had immigrated to Chihuahua, 3,200 from Manitoba and 1,200 from Swift Current. The immigration to Chihuahua continued on more sporadically for the next few years, with families still arriving in scattered fashion until the end of the decade.

The first Reinländer group from Hague-Osler departed for Mexico on 4 June 1924, led by Johann P. Wall. Over the next two years, about 950 Hague-Osler Reinländer moved to Durango. The last organized trainload left on 10 December 1927. Scattered groups continued moving to Durango, including in enclosed trucks, into the early 1930s. In addition to poverty (fines for refusing to send their children to the public schools had devastated the finances of many Hague-Osler Reinländer) and distrust in leadership, negative reports from those returning from Mexico led many in the Hague-Osler settlement to decide to remain in Canada. Others were simply unable to sell their land.

A total of 36 chartered trains carried Mennonites (including some Sommerfelder and Saskatchewan Bergthaler) to Mexico in the 1920s. They were joined in 1924 by three Kleine Gemeinde families from Kansas, who purchased land just to the north and east of the Manitoba Colony, which quickly absorbed them, both culturally and administratively.

Emigration of Bergthal Mennonites

By the turn of the 20th century there were three main groups of conservative Mennonites in Canada that all shared a common lineage to the Bergthal Colony in Russia: the Chortitzer in Manitoba's East Reserve, the Sommerfelder in the West Reserve, and the Saskatchewan Bergthaler, scattered throughout Saskatchewan. These groups cooperated during the public schools crisis and in their emigration efforts. They reached a decision to emigrate only in late 1920, after repeated attempts at compromise with government. Their land-seeking delegations ultimately secured Privilegia from both Paraguay and Mexico. Leaders were divided over which country was the better option. In meetings held in September 1921, the Chortitzer voted 277 to 3 in favor of Paraguay while the Sommerfelder narrowly voted for Mexico by a count of 125 to 123.

Most Sommerfelder migrants went to Mexico and founded the Santa Clara Colony in the state of Chihuahua. The emigrating Chortitzer, Saskatchewan Bergthaler, and some Sommerfelder would go on to found Menno Colony in the Gran Chaco, Paraguay.

Mexico

The first Bergthal land-seeking delegation left in February 1921 with instructions to investigate both Paraguay and Mexico. When it returned more than six months later it recommended migration to Paraguay. However, Sommerfelder Ältester Abraham Doerksen had heard other reports that favored Mexico and sent a second delegation to Mexico in the fall of 1921, which returned with a positive report. Then, in the winter of 1921-22, Doerksen received a visit from David S. Russek, a Chihuahua banker and heir to the massive Santa Clara estate, which bordered the Zuloaga estate where the Reinländer had purchased land. Russek had become aware of the Sommerfelder emigration efforts through the Reinländer. Fearing impending land reforms, he came to Canada to seek a buyer for his family's land. After this visit, Doerksen appears to have been completely persuaded to the Mexican option.

In the summer of 1922, a Sommerfelder delegation purchased 12,000 acres in the Santa Clara estate in Chihuahua, just north of the Manitoba and Swift Current settlements. The cost was 12.00 USD per acre. In what Harry Sawatzky describes as a "baffling" decision, the delegation selected land with an inadequate water supply, much of it extremely stony. Showing a streak of independence, two Sommerfelder families (headed by Jacob Sawatzky and John Fehr) jointly purchased 3,125 acres in the Zuloago estate that Russek also had available to sell. A group of eighteen Sommerfelder families from Herbert, Saskatchewan, under the leadership of Johann Zacharias also bought land near Cusihuiriachic, Chihuahua, while Kornelius Epp led a small group of Saskatchewan Bergthaler to the Sawatzky-Fehr settlement plan, where he operated an independent church for several years. Both of these small settlements were much closer to Cuauhtémoc and had better quality land than Santa Clara.

Low prices made it difficult for many Sommerfelder to sell their land. Nevertheless, three trains left Manitoba carrying Sommerfelder Mennonites to Mexico between 16 October and 11 November 1922, two to Santa Clara and one to the Sawatzky-Fehr settlement. The immigrants disembarked at Agua Nueva (since renamed Parrita), 100 kilometers north of the city of Chihuahua, and from there took a wagon road up a canyon to their lands. A few Sommerfelder families from Herbert chartered individual railroad cars in Reinländer trains, as did those Manitoba Sommerfelder who came later.

The first settlers at Santa Clara were immediately surprised at the lack of available water. As a result, many of the first colonists were unable to settle on their land. They remained at Ojos Azules and at other Mexican ranches, some held back as far as the disembarkation point of Agua Nueva. Facing this impasse, some of the less determined emigrants returned immediately to Canada. By mid-February 1923, however, the move to the land in Santa Clara was complete, aided by Russek, who purchased a drilling machine and dug three wells over 500 feet deep to supply the settlement. The migration to Santa Clara topped out at around 600 people, including about 50 people from the Herbert region and a small group of Saskatchewan Bergthaler.

The report of those who returned to Canada when faced with the water shortage in Santa Clara resulted in an abrupt cessation of the migration to Mexico among the Sommerfelder and is likely a major reason why only 8 percent of Manitoba Sommerfelder ended up moving to Mexico. Some were diverted to Paraguay and others simply never left Canada, including some who had already bought land in Mexico. Most Sommerfelder lived in villages together with Bergthaler Mennonites, who had no intentions of emigrating, and this also made it more difficult to muster group enthusiasm for emigration than among the cohesive Reinländer and Chortitzer.

Paraguay

New York banker General Samuel McRoberts was pivotal to the Mennonite immigration to Paraguay. He had learned of the Mennonites' plight sometime in 1919 and his wife persuaded him that helping these religious exiles was a matter of Christian duty. It was he who introduced the Paraguayan option to the Mennonites after conducting his own search for a promising location where they might settle; on his advice the Bergthal coalition sent their first delegation to that country. This delegation received a satisfactory Privilegium from President Gondra and permission to settle in the Gran Chaco. They gave a glowing report on prospects in the Chaco, unaware that they had seen the Chaco (known as the "Green Hell") at the time of year when its climate is at its best and also ignorant of many of its features. Leaders like Martin C. Friesen of the Chortitzer and Aron Zacharias of the Saskatchewan Bergthaler were especially impressed by the fact that Paraguay's congress had authorized the Privilegium, whereas in Mexico the Privilegium had been issued solely under presidential authority.

The leaders of the movement to Paraguay hoped to create one congregation from the dispersed Chortitzer, Sommerfelder, and Saskatchewan Bergthaler who were emigrating. They were partially successful, striking a joint committee to organize and lead the emigration. Even after Menno Colony was established, however, those from Saskatchewan settled separately in the village of Bergthal.

McRoberts initially agreed in 1921 to buy the land of those who were moving and to help them purchase a block of land in Paraguay, but the 1921 recession led him to withdraw his offer. By the time he re-engaged in 1924, many Chortitzer had acquiesced to the public schools and there was less enthusiasm for emigration. McRoberts persevered, chartering the Intercontinental Company, to purchase 44,000 acres of the Mennonites' land for 903,000 USD (later resold to Russländer newcomers to Canada) in June 1926. The Corporación Paraguaya, also founded by McRoberts, then facilitated the Mennonites' purchase of 138,990 acres of Paraguayan land from the Carlos Casado Company for approximately 690,000 USD. This arrangement enabled poor members to emigrate, unlike in the other Mennonite migrations south at this time. The Paraguayan company also reportedly compensated the indigenous Enlhet, a semi-nomadic people whose territory included the sites where the Mennonites built villages, trading items of food and clothing for the land. In some cases, land transactions in Canada took place before McRoberts's intervention, often by those who were unaware that the migration was going to be delayed, and to their financial detriment. One report finds that the inhabitants of the Chortitzer village of Bergfeld had sold all of their land and machinery by June 1924.

The emigration began in late November 1926 and continued in earnest for the next 12 months, with more occasional migrants continuing to trickle into Paraguay until 1935. The migrants traveled by rail to New York and from there by ship and boat to Puerto Casado, Paraguay, a journey of over a month. In total, 1,201 Chortitzer (41 percent of their total population) made the journey; 357 Sommerfelder and 227 Saskatchewan Bergthaler joined them.

The first migrants reached Puerto Casado on 31 December 1926 to find that little had been prepared for them. Accommodations were grossly inadequate and unsanitary. No one had surveyed or demarcated the land they had purchased. Ox carts had not arrived. The promised railroad into the Chaco was far from complete. The settlers' land was 200 kilometers away and was unmarked and nearly inaccessible. They were unable to move forward onto their lands and in the meantime more migrants kept arriving behind them.

Conditions deteriorated and an epidemic broke out. In total, about 185 people died before the end of 1928, when the villages of the new colony were finally established, including 121 in Puerto Casado and about 50 more in temporary camps in the Chaco. The dead included Aron Zacharias, Ältester of the Saskatchewan Bergthaler. As conditions worsened, disagreements flared up between the different groups of Mennonites gathered together. Approximately 350 people, a highly disproportionate number of them Saskatchewan Bergthaler or Sommerfelder, found circumstances so dire that they returned to Canada, usually on credit, disheartened and impoverished. More would have left but for the steadfast encouragement of Ältester Martin Friesen, who arrived in Paraguay in September 1927. Still, of the 1,785 who left Canada for Paraguay, fewer than three-quarters ever lived in the newly established colony. Word of the would-be settlers languishing at Puerto Casado got back to Canada and put a halt to further migration.

McRoberts's associate Fred Engen, whom the Mennonites knew well and trusted, met the first group of immigrants when they arrived in South America in December 1926. When they discovered Puerto Casado ill-prepared for their arrival, it fell on Engen's shoulders to organize the settlement of the Chaco. Under Engen's leadership, the immigrants established several successful temporary settlements and relay stations in the interior, including Pozo Azul and Loma Plata. However, it took McRoberts's arrival in July 1927 and the pressure he was able to apply on the Paraguayan government for the land survey work to begin.

The land survey was completed at the end of April 1928. The settlers then quickly moved into the interior, using the Casado Company's narrow-gauage railroad for the first part of the journey and ox cart for the rest, and built the first fourteen villages of Menno Colony (one later disbanded). In September they officially received title to their land, with Johann Pries acting as the lead negotiator. The final group of immigrants left Puerto Casado at the end of 1928.

Aftermath

Canada

The refusal of the Reinländer leadership to provide the communities they left behind with successor leaders left the remnants of the Reinländer church in Canada in complete disarray. The church in Swift Current disbanded, many of its former members joining the local Sommerfelder. The Reinländer churches in Hague-Osler and Manitoba were able to reorganize as the Old Colony Church in the 1930s under the respective leadership of Johann Loeppky and Jacob Froese. Several Reinländer villages simply ceased to exist as a result of the emigration, including Kronsthal and Blumengart (the latter was turned into a Haufendorf by Hutterites from South Dakota). Other villages only survived because of incoming Russländer immigrants. The emigration was also the death knell for the traditional village system in Canada, which had already significantly disintegrated in the preceding decades but had largely persisted in Reinländer communities. The emigration also broke further organized resistance to the public schools. Pain was often experienced by those who decided to stay as well as by those who decided to leave, and disagreement about how to live a faithful life caused division within families.

The partings in the Sommerfelder, Chortitzer, and Saskatchewan Bergthaler churches were much more conciliatory. The Chortitzer church ordained three new ministers prior to the emigration to serve the Canadian members alongside two ministers who intended to remain behind. Abraham Doerksen of the Sommerfelder ordained Heinrich J. Friesen as his successor on 15 October 1922. When Aron Zacharias of the Saskatchewan Bergthaler left, his southern counterpart, David Doerksen, was able to serve the remaining congregation until the ordination of Cornelius Hamm in 1928.

From the outset, there was back-and-forth migration between Canada and Latin American countries, with some dissatisfied migrants returning to Canada almost immediately. Most of those who came back to Canada returned destitute. The Great Depression and increased enforcement of border crossings by the Mexican authorities significantly decreased the flow of people between Mexico and Canada in the 1930s. World War II put a complete stop to these crossings, but after the war the back-and-forth movement continued. Return migrations provided a pool of landless wage laborers, especially in the East Reserve, where before they had been subsistence farmers, thereby altering the economic conditions of the area. Those who came back to Canada received the derogatory label of Rückkehrer (returnees) and often had trouble fitting in (economically, culturally, and religiously) with the remainers.

The Canadian government showed little concern or interest in the emigrating Mennonites, with many government officials falsely stating in official correspondence that only a few of the migrants were naturalized British subjects. The same was not true of the Manitoba business community, which became sufficiently alarmed at the rapid depopulation of agricultural lands that a group of businessmen formed an organization with the aim of halting the migration. The arrival of the Russländer in 1923 allayed many of these economic concerns. Between 1926 and 1930 about 255 farms changed hands between emigrants to Latin America and Russländer newcomers; many other farms had already changed hands in the preceding years.

Mexico

Several structural factors increased the cohesiveness and insularity of the colonies in Mexico, as well as the power of church leaders. The practice whereby colonies acquired tracts of land corporately, and then sold land to individuals, insulated members from financial and legal contact with Mexican authorities and brokers. This also enabled church leaders to prevent "alien" elements from purchasing land within the community and could prevent church members from setting up homesteads independent of the village system. Furthermore, it meant foreclosure of mortgaged homesteads was not a threat to the village system as it was in Canada.

The arrival of Mennonite immigrants in Chihuahua provoked a short-term conflict with local farmers who claimed the Mennonites' new land as their own under Mexico's land redistribution scheme. These agraristas had already established themselves on this land and resorted to violence to defend their rights to it. By the end of 1925, after the intervention of the state and federal governments and with the cooperation of the Zuloaga family, this crisis was largely resolved and the agraristas compensated with land elsewhere.

The Mexican Mennonite colonists' lack of knowledge of the land and climate was initially a major impediment to their ability to successfully establish an agricultural economy. However, their strong traditions of mutual assistance and community offset these weaknesses, and in a short time the settlements became economically successful and were an economic boon to the regions in which they were located. By 1925, Mexican authorities were remarking upon the Mennonites' agricultural success. Their presence in Chihuahua transformed Cuauhtémoc from a bare railroad station to a bustling commercial center. Chihuahua had been devastated by the revolution and the Mennonite immigration contributed significantly to its increased stability and economic revitalization.

Paraguay

The existence of Menno Colony was a decisive factor in Paraguay coming to be identified as a possible destination for Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union in 1930 (Fernheim Colony) and after World War II (Neuland Colony). The Mennonite presence in the Chaco also made an impact on the region's geopolitics, and was one of the main factors leading to the outbreak of the Chaco War, between Paraguay and Bolivia, in 1932. In 2008, Peter J. Dyck wrote that "the way Mennonites opened the vast Chaco for settlement is unique, never in more than 400 years have we done something like that." Others have also commented on the astonishing accomplishment of the Paraguayan Mennonites, set to a seemingly impossible task.

The area of Mennonite settlement in the Chaco was part of the traditional territory of the indigenous Enlhet. At the time of the Mennonites' arrival, the indigenous population had been decimated by European diseases, inter-tribal war, and poor food security; it is estimated that 200-700 Enlhet people lived in the vicinity of Menno Colony. Sharing the land with the Mennonites had a massive impact on the Enlhet way of life, fundamentally altering their economy, religion, and education. Assessments of this impact and of the Mennonites' relationship with their indigenous neighbors vary widely. Most 20th- and early 21st-century English-language sources (primarily written by Mennonites) document a generally positive and mutually beneficial (if imperfect) relationship between the indigenous peoples of the Chaco and the Mennonite settlers. Beginning in the second decade of the 21st century, some scholarship began to offer a countervailing view, arguing that the Mennonite activity in the Chaco has been and continues to be oppressive towards the indigenous population. By the beginning of the 21st century the Enlhet population around the Chaco Mennonite colonies had grown to about 10,000 people, driven partly by population growth and partly by the immigration of people attracted to the economic opportunity and food security the Mennonites represented.

Bibliography

The sources listed under "Main Sources" are sufficient for outlining the main story of the emigration. The sources listed in the other three sections fill in and corroborate details.

Main Sources

Doell, Leonard. "The Bergthaler Mennonite Emigration to Mexico and Paraguay." Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian 27, no. 2 (2022): 13-21.

Ens, Adolf. "Sommerfeld Mennonites at Santa Clara, Mexico." In Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve, edited by Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001: 181-188.

Ens, Adolf. Subjects or Citizens? The Mennonite Experience in Canada, 1870-1925. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1994: 201-230.

Ens, Adolf and Ernest N. Braun. "Emigration to Paraguay 1926 to 1927." In Settlers of the East Reserve, edited by Adolf Ens et al. Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2009.

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. Loma Plata, Paraguay: Historical Committee of the Menno Colony, 2009.

Guenter, Jacob G. "Mennonite Migration to Mexico." In Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve, 1895-1995, edited by Jacob G. Guenter et al. Hepburn, SK: Hague-Osler Reserve Book Committee, 1995: 372-377.

Janzen, William. "The 1920s Exodus to Mexico of Old Colony Mennonites from the Hague Osler Area of Saskatchewan." Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian 27, no. 2 (2022): 5-13.

Loewen, Royden. Village among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916-2006. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013: 14-73.

Sawatzky, Harry L. They Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Stoesz, Edgar. Like a Mustard Seed: Mennonites in Paraguay. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2008: 21-41.

Wall, Andrew, dir. Conform: The Mennonite Migration to Mexico of the 1920s. Refuge 31 Films, 2022.

Canada

Bergen, Peter, comp. History of the Sommerfeld Mennonite Church. Sommerfeld Mennonite Church, 2001: 101-105.

Doell, Leonard. "Altester Jakob Wiens (1855-1932)." Preservings, no. 29 (2009): 14-19.

Doell, Leonard. "Bergthaler Mennonites at Carrot River." In Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve, edited by Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001.

Doell, Leonard. "Emigration to Paraguay, 1921-1930: Preserving the Faith." In Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve, 1895-1995, edited by Jacob G. Guenter et al. Hepburn, SK: Hague-Osler Reserve Book Committee, 1995: 390-391.

Doell, Leonard. "Hague Osler Old Colony Mennonite Church." In Old Colony Mennonites in Canada, 1875-2000, edited by Delbert F. Plett. Steinbach, MB: Crossway, 2001: 142-151.

Doell, Leonard. The Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Saskatchewan, 1892-1975. Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1987.

Doell, Leonard. "The Mennonite Problem: Public Schools in Saskatchewan." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 19-22.

Doell, Leonard. "The Move to Mexico." In Hague-Osler Mennonite Reserve, 1895-1995, edited by Jacob G. Guenter et al. Hepburn, SK: Hague-Osler Reserve Book Committee, 1995: 386-393.

Ens, Adolf. "A Second Look at the Rejected Conservatives." In Old Colony Mennonites in Canada, 1875-2000, edited by Delbert F. Plett. Steinbach, MB: Crossway, 2001: 27-32.

Ens, Adolf and Kathy Enns, ed. Ens: Lineage and Legacy. Ens Book Committee, 2006: 26-29.

Epp, Frank H. Mennonite Exodus: The Rescue and Resettlement of the Russian Mennonites Since the Communist Revolution. Altona, MB: D. W. Friesen & Sons, 1962: 186-194.

Epp, Frank H. Mennonites in Canada, 1920-1940: A People's Struggle for Survival. Toronto: Macmillan, 1982: 94-138, 197-201.

Francis, E. K. In Search of Utopia: The Mennonites in Manitoba. Altona, MB: D. W. Friesen & Sons, 1955.

Friesen, Aileen. "Notes from the Editor." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 1.

Friesen, Henry A. "Mennonites from the Swift Current Mennonite Reserve Migrate to Mexico." Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian 27, no. 2 (2022): 21-26.

Friesen, Henry A. The Swift Current Mennonite Reserve, 1904-1927. Self-published, 2022: 79-93.

Guenther, Bruce L. The Ältester: A Mennonite Leader in Changing Times. Regina: University of Regina Press, 2018: 50-51.

Janzen, Abram G. Altester Johan M. Loeppky, 1882-1950: As I Remember Him. Self-published, 2003: 4-8.

Janzen, John J. As I Remember It...: Neuanlage, 1895-1995. Self-published, 1995: 12-13

Janzen, William. "Government Pressure, Mennonite Separateness, and the 1920s Migration to Mexico and Paraguay." Preservings, no. 28 (2008): 5-10.

Janzen, William. "Stories from the Life of Abram Janzen of Blumenheim." Saskatchewan Mennonite Historian 27, no. 2 (2022): 29-37.

Janzen, William. The 1920s Migration of Old Colony Mennonites from the Hague-Osler Area of Saskatchewan to Mexico. Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan, 2006.

Letkeman, Johann. "My Walk in Life." In Patchwork of Memories, compiled by Veronica Dyck et al. Wymark, SK: Wymark & District History Book Committee, 1985: 651-659.

Peters, Jacob E. "Ältester Abraham Doerksen (1852-1929)." In Church, Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve, ed. Adolf Ens et al. Winnipeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, 2001: 109-124.

Redekopp, J.P. et al. Gnadenthal, 1880-1980. Winkler, MB: Gnadenthal History Book Committee, 1982: 20-28.

Toews, Bernhard. "Life and Travel Remembrances of Bernhard Toews," translated by Delbert Plett. Preservings, no. 16 (June 2000): 33-37.

Werner, Hans. "Old Colony and Russlaender Land Transactions." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 23-28.

Wiebe, Bruce. "The Move to Mexico: The Sale of Three West Reserve Villages." Preservings, no. 30 (2010)

Mexico

Dalke, Grace. "Moving to Mexico: A Family Story." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 19-22.

Dyck, Isaak M. "The Mennonite Emigration from Canada to Mexico: A Memoir by Isaak M. Dyck," translated by Robyn Sneath. Preservings, no. 44 (Spring 2022): 3-71. Translation of first part of Auswanderung der Reinländer Mennoniten Gemeinde von Canada nach Mexico. 2nd ed. Cuauhtemoc, Mexico: Imprenta Colonial, 1971.

Harder, David. "Schools and Community: Remembrances of School Teacher David Harder (1894-1968)," translated by Delbert Plett et al. Preservings, no. 23 (December 2003): 9-23.

Kouwenhoven, Arlette. The Fehrs: Four Centuries of Mennonite Migration, translated by Lesley Fast and Kerry Fast. Leiden: Winco, 2013: 185-211.

Peters, Jacob E. "My Experiences in Mexico, 1923." Preservings, no. 20 (June 2002): 101-105.

Schmiedehaus, Walter. The Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico, translated by Erwin Jost and edited by Glenn Penner. Mennonite Heritage Archives, 2021.

Stoesz, Donald. "Preaching in Mexico: Sommerfelder Minister David M. Stoesz." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 9-12.

Wasserman, Mark. "Strategies for Survival of the Porfirian Elite in Revolutionary Mexico: Chihuahua in the 1920s." Hispanic American Historical Review 67, no. 1 (February 1987): 87-107.

Wiebe, Bruce. "'Mennonites in Mexico': A Letter from John Henry Black." Preservings, no. 28 (2008): 10-13.

Werner, Hans. "Restoring the Commons: Land Deals and the Migration of Manitoba Mennonites to Mexico in the 1920s." Agricultural History 87, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 452-472.

Will, Martina E. "The Mennonite Colonization of Chihuahua: Reflections of Competing Visions." The Americas 53, no. 3 (January 1997): 353-378.

Paraguay

Boschmann, Erwin. Paraguay: A Tour Guide with Special Emphasis on the Mennonites. Indianapolis: Science Enterprises, 2009: 101, 135-158.

Braun, Ernest N. "My Grandmother's Song: Katherina Falk Braun 1890-1927." Preservings, no. 10, part 1 (June 1997): 43-46.

Braun, Ernest N. "There and Back: A Tale of Two Decisions." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 29-34.

Canova, Paola. "Intimate Sovereignty: Mennonite Self-Government in 'Green Hell' and the Politics of Belonging in Paraguay's Chaco." Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 26, no. 1 (February 2021): 65-83.

Dyck, Peter J. Foreword to Paraguay: A Tour Guide with Special Emphasis on the Mennonites, by Erwin Boschmann, 11-12. Indianapolis: Science Enterprises, 2009.

Enlhet Institute Nengvaanemkeskama Nempayvaam Enlhet (Growing Our Language and Knowledge). "The Enlhet in Paraguay." September 2023. [[1]]

Fretz, Joseph W. Pilgrims in Paraguay: The Story of Mennonite Colonization in South America. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1953.

Friesen, John J. "Maria Wiebe Toews (1889-1984): Mennonite Pioneer." Preservings, no. 10, part 1 (June 1997): 64-65.

Hecht, Alfred. "Relationships and Tensions Between Mennonites and Indians in the Paraguayan Chaco." In Mennonite Images: Historical, Cultural, and Literary Essays Dealing with Mennonites Issues, edited by Harry Loewen. Winnipeg: Hyperion, 1980.

Kalisch, Hannes. "'They Only Knew the Public Roads': Enlhet Territoriality during the Colonization of Their Lands." In Reimagining the Gran Chaco: Identities, Politics, and the Environment in South America, edited by Silvia Hirsch et al. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2021.

Quiring, Walter. "The Canadian Mennonite Immigration into the Paraguayan Chaco, 1926-27." Mennonite Quarterly Review 8, no. 1 (January 1934): 32-42.

Redekop, Calvin. Strangers Become Neighbors: Mennonite and Indigenous Relations in the Paraguayan Chaco. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1980.

Stoesz, Conrad. "Letters from Paraguay: The Maria Neufeld Family." Preservings, no. 45 (Fall 2022): 35-40.

Stoesz, Conrad. "McRoberts and His Photos of Mennonites in Paraguay, 1928-1929." Mennonite Historian 40, no. 3 (September 2014): 6.

Stoesz, Edgar and Muriel T. Stackley. Garden in the Wilderness: Mennonite Communities in the Paraguayan Chaco, 1927-1997. Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1999: 1-4, 17-22.

Author(s)	Gerald Ens
Date Published	June 2025

Cite This Article

MLA style

Ens, Gerald. "Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2025. Web. 19 Jan 2026. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Emigration_from_Canada_to_Mexico_and_Paraguay_in_the_1920s&oldid=180901.

APA style

Ens, Gerald. (June 2025). Emigration from Canada to Mexico and Paraguay in the 1920s. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 January 2026, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Emigration_from_Canada_to_Mexico_and_Paraguay_in_the_1920s&oldid=180901.

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