Manitoba Colony is a large community of
Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites mostly north of
Ciudad Cuauhtémoc in the state of
Chihuahua in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. It was founded in 1922 by
Old Colony Mennonites
Old Colony Mennonites ( German: ''Altkolonier-Mennoniten'') are a part of the Russian Mennonite movement that descends from colonists who migrated from the Chortitza Colony in modern Ukraine near Zaporizhia (itself originally of Prussian origins ...
from
Manitoba, Canada
Manitoba is a province of Canada at the longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's fifth-most populous province, with a population of 1,342,153 as of 2021. Manitoba has a widely varied landscape, from arctic tundra and the Hudson B ...
, and consisted originally of 47 villages. It is the largest and oldest
Mennonite colony in Mexico.
In 1926 the Manitoba settlement consisted of 3,340 persons, in 1949 the number had grown to 7,706, and in 1953 the number was 8,768. In 1987 the total population of the Manitoba settlement was around 12,500 persons and 17,000 in 2006.
Plett Foundation: "New Library in Mexico"
Adjacent to Manitoba Colony is Swift Current Colony. Further to the north are the Ojo de la Yegua Colony (Nordkolonie), Santa Rita Colony, and Santa Clara Colony. West of Santa Rita Colony is Los Jagueyes
Los Jagueyes, also known as Quellenkolonie, is a Mennonite community in the municipality of Naimquipa, Chihuahua in northern Mexico that started with a group of Plautdietsch speaking Mennonites that bought the Los Jagueyes Ranch and immigrated fr ...
Colony (Quellenkolonie). Altogether these Mennonite colonies stretch over 100 km and have some 50,000 Mennonite residents (2015).
References
Canadian diaspora in Mexico
Old Colony Mennonites
Russian Mennonite diaspora in Mexico
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