Jose Luis Gonzalez, Cassandra Garrison

ASCENCION (Mexico) – Chihuahua’s Mennonite community can be traced back to a century ago when it was founded by settlers who sought ideal land for farming, solitude from the outside, and preservation of their faith.

They live a simple life with little or no electricity. Its centuries-old farming tradition provides the community with its income: onions, beans, chili peppers and cotton.

However, modern technology is bringing new challenges to the lives of these people. Their isolation is not the same as 100 years ago.

Low water resources due to drought, exacerbated by climate change, and the increasing cost of diesel for farming pumps are just a few of the challenges facing the community as they seek to prosper.

Mexico is home to Mennonite farmers who immigrated from Canada over the past 100 years.

Mennonites descend from 16th century Protestant Anabaptists radicals, Germany, Low Countries, and Switzerland. They rejected military service and any notion of a hierarchy of church leaders. After years of persecution, they became dependent on the support of rulers who were eager to capitalize their belief in the interconnection between faith and agriculture.

El Sabinal, Spanish meaning “The Juniper”, is a community that was formed in Chihuahua, northern Mexico. It dates back to nearly 30 years. Mennonite farmers are transforming it today into productive farmland using often antique equipment. The houses are usually made of brick and have only one room.

In drought-prone Chihuahua (where they also have multiple communities), the Mennonites’ farmland expanded, increasing the water demands. They have been accused of sinking illicit wells by local farmers, who claim they receive preferential treatment from the government.

Diesel is expensive here. Guillermo Andres (a Mennonite, who arrived in El Sabinal when he was a teenager) said that there is still water but that they need to dig more wells. The family of Guillermo Andres, a devout Christian family, avoids electricity and pumps water with diesel fuel. This is becoming a more expensive practice.

Plautdietsch is Mennonites’ common language. This unique mix of Low German dialects, Prussian dialects, and Dutch makes it the Mennonites most familiar. Mennonites who work with local workers often speak Spanish, as do many Mennonites.

The Mennonites have created almost all the things they need within their communities, including schools and general stores.

The average age at which Mennonites finish high school is 12. As in Sunday church, men and women sit apart in the classrooms.

You will often see children younger than 10 driving a buggy or tractor along the roads in the area.

Blond-haired, blue-eyed people get married young to expand their family. Many farmers claim they had 10 or more children.

This allows them to practice their faith in every day life. The fields are tended by men while the women tend to the gardens and take care of the children.

Mennonites have very little contact with the outside world. They only interact with their local neighbors as workers or when they go into towns to shop for goods.

Andres stated that the traditions live quietly without any trucks or rubber tires and without electricity. Our traditions are from Russia, Canada, and Mexico.

“I don’t understand it (technology); I was born that way and I’ve lived my entire life that way; that’s the only way I want to go forward,” he said.