Mennonites in Bolivia


The Mennonites in Bolivia are mostly Russian Mennonites descended from Friesian, Flemish and North German people who came to South America from 1927 onwards. In 2012, there were about 70,000 Mennonites living in Bolivia.
In the 16th century, groups of Mennonites started to migrate from what is today the Netherlands and Belgium to Danzig and the Vistula delta region. There they lived among Germans and adopted the dialect of the area, even though they retained the Dutch language as sacred language until the middle of the 18th century. There they were joined by Mennonites from other German regions, but mainly from the north. Starting in 1789 they moved to what is today Ukraine. In the years after 1874 parts of them moved to the Western provinces of Canada and starting in 1922 to Paraguay, to Mexico and other Latin American countries. In the 1950s small groups migrated from Paraguay to Bolivia and in 1960s and 1970s larger groups from Mexico, Paraguay, Canada and other countries followed. All these migrations were motivated by their search for religious freedom.
Mennonites in Bolivia speak Plautdietsch, an East Low German dialect with some Dutch and Friesian elements. Since coming to Bolivia, a number of other people from other ethnic backgrounds have converted to Mennonite Christianity, mostly through missionaries of more liberal forms of Mennonitism. The "Russian Mennonites” in Bolivia are among the most traditional and conservative of all the Mennonites denominations in South America.

History

Origins

In the early-to-mid 16th century, Mennonites began to move from the Low Countries to the Vistula delta region, seeking religious freedom and exemption from military service. There they gradually replaced their Dutch and Frisian languages with the Plautdietsch dialect spoken in the area, blending into it elements of their native tongues. The Mennonites of Dutch origin were joined by Mennonites from other parts of Germany.
In 1772, most of Poland Mennonites' land in the Vistula area became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the first of the Partitions of Poland. Frederick William II of Prussia ascended the throne in 1786 and imposed heavy fees on the Mennonites in exchange for continued military exemption.

Russia

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. The ancestors of the Bolivian Mennonites settled in South Russia two main waves in the years 1789 and 1804. Leaving Danzig and the Polish Vistula delta because they were being annexed by Prussia. After Russia introduced the general conscription in 1874, many Mennonites migrated to the US and Canada.

Canada

In the years after 1873 some 11,000 left the Russian Empire and settled in Manitoba, Canada, and an equal number went to Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota territory. The Russian Mennonites settled in Canada until a universal, secular compulsory education was implemented in 1917 that required the use of the English language, which the more conservative Mennonites saw as a threat to the religious basis of their community.

Mexico, Paraguay and Belize

The more conservative Mennonites from Russia, some 6,000 people, left Canada between 1922 and 1925 and settled in Mexico. Another 1,800 more conservative Mennonites migrated to the Chaco region in Paraguay in 1927. In 1930 and in 1947 the Paraguayian Mennonites were joined by Mennonites coming directly from Russia. In the years after 1958 some 1,700 Mennonites from the Mexican settlements moved to what was then British Honduras and today is Belize.

Bolivia

The Bolivian government granted a privilege to future Mennonite immigrants including freedom of religion, private schools and exemption from military service in the 1930s, but that was not deployed until the 1950s.
Between 1954 and 1957, a first group of 37 families from various Mennonite colonies in Paraguay established Tres Palmas colony, 25 km northeast of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Soon, a second colony was established five km away from Tres Palmas by a group of 25 conservative families from Menno Colony in Paraguay. The settlers from Paraguay were experienced and well prepared to practice agriculture in a subtropical climate. In 1959, the total Mennonite population in Bolivia was 189.
In 1963, new settlements were founded where Mennonites from Paraguay and Canada lived together. In 1967, Mennonites from Mexico and from their daughter colonies in Belize began to settle in the Santa Cruz Department. Las Piedras colony, founded 1968, was the first colony founded exclusively by Mennonites from Canada. Most settlers in Bolivia were traditional Mennonites who wanted to separate themselves more from "the world". Altogether there were about 17,500 Mennonites living in 16 colonies in Bolivia by 1986, of whom nearly 15,000 were Old Colony Mennonites and 2,500 Bergthal or Sommerfeld Mennonites.

Colonies and population

In 1995, there were a total of 25 Mennonite colonies in Bolivia with a total population of 28,567. The most populous ones were Riva Palacios, Swift Current, Nueva Esperanza, Valle Esperanza and Santa Rita. In 2002 there were 40 Mennonite colonies with a population of about 38,000 people. An outreach of Conservative Mennonites can be found at La Estrella, with others in progress.
The total population was estimated at 60,000 by Lisa Wiltse in 2010.
In 2012 there were 23,818 church members in congregations of Russian Mennonites, indicating a total population of about 70,000. Another 1,170 Mennonites were in Spanish-speaking congregations. The number of colonies was 57 in 2011.
Martyna Wojciechowska, a Polish journalist, created a TV documentary as a part of her TV programme Kobieta na krańcu świata about the colony in Santa Rita that aired on Polish TV on 1 October 2017.
NameEstab­lishedOriginPopulation
in 1997		Population
in 2007
Tres Palmas1954Paraguay--
Canadiense 11957Paraguay402207
Altbergthal1963Canada, Paraguay--
Las Pavas1963Paraguay1710
Schönthal1967Paraguay--
Riva Palacios1967Mexico5,7285,560
Las Piedras 11967Canada--
Swift Current1968Mexico2,6142,925
Sommerfeld1968Mexico669920
Santa Rita1968Mexico1,5792,010
Nueva Esperanza1975Mexico2,6873,748
Canadiense 21975Canadiense 1777980
Valle Esperanza1975/6Mexico2,3182,305
Cupesi1976Canada, Las Pavas753530
Del Norte1980Mexico1,0161,323
Belice1981Mexico2,1392,620
Las Piedras 21984Las Piedras 11,150848
Nueva Holanda1984Las Pavas698824
Neu Bergthal1986Belice, Canada,
Altbergthal		499640
Pinondi1988Riva Palacios1,5332,429
Chihuahua1989Bolivia332607
Campo León1991Bolivia7340
Yanahigua1991/2Valle Esperanza7231,116
Las Palmas1992Paraguay, Las Plamas254322
Valle Nuevo1993Swift Current1,1851,699
Manitoba1993Riva Palacios1,8251,669
Leoncito1994Bolivia1110
Santa Clara1994Sommerfeld248456
Durango 11994Paraguay1,8132,846
Oriente1995/6Santa Rita6511,063
Alberta1996Canada167-
Casas Grandes1996Mexico280883
El Cerro1996Las Piedras 2-506
El Dorado1996Riva Palacios2981,848
El Este1996Cupesi--
Fresnillo1996Mexico164271
Hohenau1996Paraguay336634
Centro Shalom1997Valle Espeeanza2037
Del Sur1997Mexico-1,063
El Tinto1997Paraguay66823
Florida1997Del Norte8343
La Luna1997Mexico, Bolivia15-
Milagrosa1997Belize14266
Monte Cristo1997Canada9-
Waldheim1998Paraguay-243
El Cariño1998Las Piedras 1-227
Buena Vista1999Bolivia-33
Durango 22001Mexico--
La Sierra2002Argentina-228
El Palmar2002Paraguay-292
La Estrella2002Canada, Bolivia-220
Berlin2003N. Esperanza-513
Nueva Asención2004Valle Nuevo-448
IBNIAS 2004Bolivia-66
Monte Rico2004Swift Current-384
Neuland2004Paraguay-384
Nordenheim2005S. Rita-65
La Honda2005Durango 1-249
Barrio N. Estrella2005Bolivia-60
Nueva México2005Riva Palacios-507
Villa Hermosa2005Valle Esperanza-270
Villa Nueva 2005Bolivia-207
Schöntal 2005Fresnillo -105
Rio Nego2006Swift Current-120
California2006Manitoba-22
Las Piedras2006Belize-30
Bajio Verde2007Paraguay-16
Total33,08949,813


AffiliationMembership
in 2009		Membership
in 2012
Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde14,42419,096
Canadian Old Colony Mennonites344524
Sommerfelder Mennonitengemeinde2,0652,157
Bergthaler Mennonitengemeinde199557
Reinländer Mennonitengemeinde147203
Kleingemeinde394682
Conservative Mennonites70105
La Iglesia Evangélica Anabautista en Bolivia630630
Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Boliviana450450
Iglesia Misionera Anabaptista90
Independent colonies125494
Total18,84824,988

Rape and sexual assaults

In 2011, eight men belonging to the Manitoba Mennonite Colony were convicted of a series of sexual assaults committed from 2005 to 2009. Prior to the discovery, the rapes had been attributed to a ghost or demon. The victims were reported to be between the ages of 3 and 65. The offenders used a type of gas used by veterinarians to sedate animals during medical procedures. Despite long custodial sentences for the convicted men, an investigation in 2013 reported continuing cases of similar assaults and other sexual abuses. Canadian author Miriam Toews has made these crimes the center of her 2018 novel Women Talking.

Literature