Mennonites in Bolivia
Total population | |
---|---|
70.000+ (2011) 28,567 (1995)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Santa Cruz | |
Religions | |
Anabaptist | |
Scriptures | |
The Bible | |
Languages | |
Plautdietsch, English, Spanish |
As of 2012, there were about 70,000 Mennonites living in Bolivia. They are mostly ethnic Mennonites of German and Dutch descent, so-called "Russian Mennonites", who lived for more than 200 years in West Prussia and then moved to the Russian Empire starting in 1789. These Mennonites speak Plautdietsch, a German dialect originating in the Vistula delta. Moreover, there are a number of Bolivians with other ethnic backgrounds who have converted to Mennonite Christianity. “Russian Mennonites” living in Bolivia are among the most traditional and conservative of all the Mennonites in South America.
Contents
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
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 the West-Prussian 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[edit]
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 the Russian Empire in two main waves in the years 1789 and 1804, coming from the Vistula delta in West Prussia. After Russia introduced the general conscription in 1874, many Mennonites migrated to the US and Canada.
Canada[edit]
In the years after 1873 some 7,000 left the Russian Empire and settled in Manitoba, Canada. 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[edit]
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[edit]
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.[2]
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.[3]
Colonies[edit]
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 (5,488), Swift Current (2,602), Nueva Esperanza (2,455), Valle Esperanza (2,214) and Santa Rita (1,748).[1] In 2002 there were 40 Mennonite colonies with a population of about 38,000 people.[4] An outreach of Conservative Mennonites can be found at La Estrella, with others in progress.
Name | Estab- lished |
Origin | Population in 1997 |
Population in 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tres Palmas | 1954 | Paraguay | - | - |
Canadiense 1 | 1957 | Paraguay | 402 | 207 |
Altbergthal | 1963 | Canada, Paraguay | - | - |
Las Pavas | 1963 | Paraguay | 17 | 10 |
Schönthal | 1967 | Paraguay | - | - |
Riva Palacios | 1967 | Mexico | 5,728 | 5,560 |
Las Piedras 1 | 1967 | Canada | - | - |
Swift Current | 1968 | Mexico | 2,614 | 2,925 |
Sommerfeld | 1968 | Mexico | 669 | 920 |
Santa Rita | 1968 | Mexico | 1,579 | 2,010 |
Nueva Esperanza | 1975 | Mexico | 2,687 | 3,748 |
Canadiense 2 | 1975 | Canadiense 1 | 777 | 980 |
Valle Esperanza | 1975/6 | Mexico | 2,318 | 2,305 |
Cupesi | 1976 | Canada, Las Pavas | 753 | 530 |
Del Norte | 1980 | Mexico | 1,016 | 1,323 |
Belice | 1981 | Mexico | 2,139 | 2,620 |
Las Piedras 2 | 1984 | Las Piedras 1 | 1,150 | 848 |
Nueva Holanda | 1984 | Las Pavas | 698 | 824 |
Neu Bergthal | 1986 | Belice, Canada, Altbergthal |
499 | 640 |
Pinondi | 1988 | Riva Palacios | 1,533 | 2,429 |
Chihuahua | 1989 | Bolivia | 332 | 607 |
Campo León | 1991 | Bolivia | 73 | 40 |
Yanahigua | 1991/2 | Valle Esperanza | 723 | 1,116 |
Las Palmas | 1992 | Paraguay, Las Plamas | 254 | 322 |
Valle Nuevo | 1993 | Swift Current | 1.185 | 1,699 |
Manitoba | 1993 | Riva Palacios | 1,825 | 1,669 |
Leoncito | 1994 | Bolivia | 11 | 10 |
Santa Clara | 1994 | Sommerfeld | 248 | 456 |
Durango 1 | 1994 | Paraguay | 1,813 | 2,846 |
Oriente | 1995/6 | Santa Rita | 651 | 1,063 |
Alberta | 1996 | Canada | 167 | - |
Casas Grandes | 1996 | Mexico | 280 | 883 |
El Cerro | 1996 | Las Piedras 2 | - | 506 |
El Dorado | 1996 | Riva Palacios | 298 | 1848 |
El Este | 1996 | Cupesi | - | - |
Fresnillo | 1996 | Mexico | 164 | 271 |
Hohenau | 1996 | Paraguay | 336 | 634 |
Centro Shalom | 1997 | Valle Espeeanza | 20 | 37 |
Del Sur | 1997 | Mexico | - | 1,063 |
El Tinto | 1997 | Paraguay | 66 | 823 |
Florida | 1997 | Del Norte | 8 | 343 |
La Luna | 1997 | Mexico, Bolivia | 15 | - |
Milagrosa | 1997 | Belize | 14 | 266 |
Monte Cristo | 1997 | Canada | 9 | - |
Waldheim | 1998 | Paraguay | - | 243 |
El Cariño | 1998 | Las Piedras 1 | - | 227 |
Buena Vista | 1999 | Bolivia | - | 33 |
Durango 2 | 2001 | Mexico | - | - |
La Sierra | 2002 | Argentina | - | 228 |
El Palmar | 2002 | Paraguay | - | 292 |
La Estrella | 2002 | Canada, Bolivia | - | 220 |
Berlin | 2003 | N. Esperanza | - | 513 |
Nueva Asención | 2004 | Valle Nuevo | - | 448 |
IBNIAS (Paiöòn) | 2004 | Bolivia | - | 66 |
Monte Rico | 2004 | Swift Current | - | 384 |
Neuland | 2004 | Paraguay | - | 384 |
Nordenheim | 2005 | S. Rita | - | 65 |
La Honda | 2005 | Durango 1 | - | 249 |
Barrio N. Estrella | 2005 | Bolivia | - | 60 |
Nueva México | 2005 | Riva Palacios | - | 507 |
Villa Hermosa | 2005 | Valle Esperanza | - | 270 |
Villa Nueva (Pailon) | 2005 | Bolivia | - | 207 |
Schöntal (S. Pablo) | 2005 | Fresnillo (Chihuahua) | - | 105 |
Rio Nego | 2006 | Swift Current | - | 120 |
California | 2006 | Manitoba | - | 22 |
Las Piedras | 2006 | Belize | - | 30 |
Bajio Verde | 2007 | Paraguay | - | 16 |
Total | 33,089 | 49,813 |
Members and population[edit]
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.[6] The number of colonies was 57 in 2011.
The total population was estimated at 60,000 by Lisa Wiltse in 2010.[7]
Affliation | Membership in 2009 |
Membership in 2012 |
---|---|---|
Altkolonier Mennonitengemeinde | 14,424 | 19,096 |
Canadian Old Colony Mennonites | 344 | 524 |
Sommerfelder Mennonitengemeinde | 2,065 | 2,157 |
Bergthaler Mennonitengemeinde | 199 | 557 |
Reinländer Mennonitengemeinde | 147 | 203 |
Kleingemeinde | 394 | 682 |
Conservative (Plain) Mennonites | 70 | 105 |
La Iglesia Evangélica Anabautista en Bolivia | 630 | 630 |
Iglesia Evangélica Menonita Boliviana | 450 | 450 |
Iglesia Misionera Anabaptista | 90 | |
Independent colonies | 125 | 494 |
Total | 18,848 | 24,988 |
Rape cases of 2013[edit]
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.[9]
See also[edit]
- Mennonites in Mexico
- Mennonites in Belize
- Mennonites in Paraguay
- Mennonites in Argentina
- Mennonites in Uruguay
Literature[edit]
- Huttner, Jakob: Zwischen Eigen-art und Wirk-lichkeit : Die Altkolonie-Mennoniten im bolivianischen Chaco. Berlin 2012.
- Schartner, Sieghard and Schartner, Sylvia: Bolivien : Zufluchtsort der konservativen Mennoniten. Asunción 2009.
- Cañás Bottos, Lorenzo: Old Colony Mennonites in Argentina and Bolivia : Nation Making, Religious Conflict and Imagination of the Future. Leiden et. al. 2008.
- Hedberg, Anna Sofia: Outside the world : Cohesion and Deviation among Old Colony Mennonites in Bolivia. Uppsala 2007.
- Pasco, Gwenaëlle: La Colonisation Mennonite en Bolivie : Culture et agriculture dans l'Oriente. Paris 1999.
References[edit]
- ^ a b William Schroeder; Helmut Huebert (1996). Mennonite historical atlas. Kindred Productions. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-920643-05-1. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bolivia&oldid=103617 Bender, Harold S., Martin W. Friesen, Menno Ediger, Isbrand Hiebert and Gerald Mumaw. "Bolivia." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2013. Web. 11 Feb 2014.
- ^ http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bolivia&oldid=103617 Bender, Harold S., Martin W. Friesen, Menno Ediger, Isbrand Hiebert and Gerald Mumaw. "Bolivia." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2013. Web. 11 Feb 2014.
- ^ http://www.menonitica.org/2002/vortrag7.htm Sieghard Schartner: "Deutschsprachige Mennonitenkolonien in Bolivien"
- ^ Schartner, Sieghard and Schartner, Sylvia: Bolivien : Zufluchtsort der konservativen Mennoniten, Asunción 2009, Page 48/9.
- ^ http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bolivia&oldid=103617 Bender, Harold S., Martin W. Friesen, Menno Ediger, Isbrand Hiebert and Gerald Mumaw. "Bolivia." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2013. Web. 11 Feb 2014.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Bolivia at Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
- ^ The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia, 28 December 2013, retrieved 6 January 2014