Mennonites in Paraguay are either ethnic

Mennonites Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

with mostly

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

, Frisian and

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

ancestry and who speak Plautdietsch or of mixed (southern European/Amerindian) or

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

ancestry like the vast majority of Paraguayans.

Ethnic Mennonite The term ethnic Mennonite refers to Mennonites of Central European ancestry and culture who are considered to be members of a Mennonite ethnic or ethnoreligious group. The term is also used for aspects of their culture, such as language, dress, and ...

s contribute heavily to the agricultural and dairy output of

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

History

In the 1760s,Catherine the Great of Russia invited Mennonites from Prussia to settle north of the Black Sea in exchange for religious freedom and exemption from military service, a precondition founded in their commitment to non-violence. After Russia introduced the general conscription in 1874, many Mennonites migrated to the US and Canada. The members of the

Menno Colony Menno Colony is a Mennonite settlement located in the central part of the Chaco region, in northwest Paraguay, occupying an area of 7500 km² (2900 mi²). It was founded in 1926 by Plautdietsch-speaking descendants of Russian Mennonites ...

moved to Paraguay from Canada when universal, secular compulsory education was implemented in 1917 that required the use of the English language. More conservative Mennonites saw this as a threat to the religious basis of their community. In 1927, 1743 pioneers came from Canada to Paraguay and turned the arid Chaco into fertile farmland over the years. It was the first Mennonite colony in the region. In the beginning, the pioneers in the Chaco had to overcome many adversities. Many became sick due to the lack of medical care, of whom 121 died and some 60 families returned to Canada. In 1930, another wave of

Russian Mennonite The Russian Mennonites (german: Russlandmennoniten it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire occasionally Ukrainian Mennonites) are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for abo ...

immigrants arrived in the Chaco area from Russia (mostly via a temporary stop in Germany) and founded the Fernheim Colony. They were fleeing the persecution by the Communists and a bad economic situation that was caused by the

collectivization in the Soviet Union The Soviet Union introduced the collectivization (russian: Коллективизация) of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 during the ascension of Joseph Stalin. It began during and was part of the first five-year plan. Th ...

and eventually led to the Holodomor. More Russian Mennonites fled to the west with the receding German Army at the end of WW2 fearing

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

, Russian forced labor camps and deportation. Some 3,500 of these Mennonites arrived in Paraguay and founded Neuland and Volendam colonies in 1947. House Construction Isaak Doerksen In Bergfeld (6123859199).jpg, The appearance of the first houses built by the Mennonites. Philadelphia Paraguay Main Street (5615922591).jpg, Colony of Filadelfia, 1949. School Children In Paraguay (5615922529).jpg, Mennonite school children In Paraguay, 1949. Mennonite World Conference General Council Meeting, Paraguay, 1987 (14511637354).jpg, Girls from Fernheim Colony, 1987.

Origin and languages

The vast majority of Mennonites in Paraguay, spread out over nineteen colonies across Paraguay, are of the Russian Mennonite variety, meaning they are originally of Dutch ancestry and can trace their history to the Mennonite settlement in the Vistula Delta, from where they migrated to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and later to the Americas. The percentage of the Mennonites of Paraguay who came directly from Russia is 25 percent. 51 percent came from Russia via Canada, where they lived for several decades and a further 22% from Russia via Canada via Mexico (some from Mexico via Belize). Smaller groups of Swiss German or

Old Order Amish The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsace, Alsatian origins. They are close ...

also exist in Paraguay, making up about two percent, and are descendants of Amish immigrants from the United States, who came originally from

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

. The Russian Mennonite majority share a common ancestry, Plautdietsch language, and many other traditions, which are quite distinct from the small group of

Amish Mennonite Amish Mennonites came into existence through reform movements among North American Amish mainly between 1862 and 1878. These Amish moved away from the old Amish traditions and drew near to the Mennonites, becoming Mennonites of Amish origin. Over ...

in Paraguay, who speak Pennsylvania German along with English.

Demography

There were 22,710 ethnic Mennonites living in Paraguay in 1987 and 29,045 in 2000. Plautdietsch speakers were estimated 40,000 in 2007 according to Ethnologue.

Major colonies

There are two major Mennonite concentrations in Paraguay. The first one in the

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gro ...

region (West), and the second one in Eastern Paraguay. In 2014, Menno Colony had about 10,000 inhabitants, Fernheim about 5,000, and Neuland about 3,500.. A 2020 survey found that there are more than 200 Mennonite colonies in nine Latin American countries, with 27 in Paraguay.

Mennonites of the Central Chaco

The Central Chaco region probably has the highest concentration of ethnic Mennonites anywhere in Latin America. Ethnic Germans (almost all of them Mennonites) formed 32% of the total population of the Central Chaco as of 2005. Only Paraguayan Indians (52%) were more numerous compared to them. Latin Paraguayans, the majority ethnic group in Paraguay, constituted just 11% and Braziguayans and Argentines another 5%. Mennonites have received some criticism from human rights organizations for their relations with a number of indigenous tribes, including the

Ayoreo people The Ayoreo (Ayoreode, Ayoréo, Ayoréode) are an indigenous people of the Gran Chaco. They live in an area surrounded by the Paraguay, Pilcomayo, Parapetí, and Grande Rivers, spanning both Bolivia and Paraguay. There are approximately 5,600 ...

in Paraguay.

Conservative Mennonites

Colonies of

Conservative Mennonites Conservative Mennonites include numerous Conservative Anabaptist groups that identify with the theologically conservative element among Mennonite Anabaptist Christian fellowships, but who are not Old Order groups or mainline denominations. Con ...

can be found in Asunción, Catupyry, Colony Florida,

Canindeyú Department Canindeyú () is a department in Paraguay. The capital is the city of Salto del Guairá. Canindeyú comes from the Guarani words Kaninde - macaw; ju - yellow, blue-and-yellow macaw (''Ara ararauna''). Districts The department is divided in 16 ...

Itapúa Department Itapúa () is a department in the southern region of Paraguay. The capital is the city of Encarnación. It is divided into 30 districts, more than any other district in the country. History This department was created after the breakup of the ...

, and in Hohenau.

Bibliography

* Gerhard Ratzlaff et al.: ''Lexikon der Mennoniten in Paraguay''. Asunción 2009. * Peter Klassen: ''Die Mennoniten in Paraguay : Reich Gottes und Reich dieser Welt''. Bolanden 1988. * Hendrik Hack: ''Die Kolonisation der Mennoniten im paraguayischen Chaco''. Den Haag 1961.

References

{{Mennonites in the world Immigration to Paraguay