Mexico and Manitoba both begin with the letter M, but another M word they have in common is Mennonites.
During a recent trip to Mexico’s largest state, Chihuahua, I visited the town of Cuauhtémoc where I learned about this surprising religious community that thrives there and its connections to Canada.
My education about Mexico’s Mennonites began with a tour of Queseria America, a cheese-making factory that produces queso Chihuahua or Chihuahua cheese. This soft white Chester-style cheese is beloved across Mexico where it is also known as queso Menonita or Mennonite cheese. It’s perfect for quesadillas, chilaquiles, chili con queso and other popular Mexican dishes. I can vouch that it’s also great on pizza as I couldn’t get enough of the Chihuahua-cheese-topped slices we had for lunch at a local Mennonite-owned pizzeria called Los Arcos.
It turns out the cheese factory is just one of many successful agricultural businesses that Mennonites have founded in Chihuahua, and other areas of Mexico, since they came here from Canada in the 1920s. That history was fully explained in the Museo y Centro Cultural Menonita in Cuauhtémoc.
The first Mennonites came to this part of Mexico not just from Manitoba, but also Swift Current, Saskatchewan. In all, 5,800 traditionalist Mennonites would charter thirty-six trains in March 1922 to relocate to Mexico. To this day, it’s still the largest mass emigration event in Canadian history.
Among the biggest factors in their decision to leave were public education laws that required compulsory attendance at government-run schools. These schools emphasized secular education and mandated the teaching of English. For Mennonites, whose religious beliefs prioritized simple living and education in their own languages (German and Plautdietsch), these laws were seen as a threat to their way of life and their ability to educate their children in line with their religious principles.
In addition, the First World War had just ended and Mennonites still had lingering concerns that future changes in government policy could lead to compulsory military conscription. As committed pacifists, this thought didn’t sit well with Mennonites.
Mexican President Álvaro Obregón saw an opportunity to bring hard-working farmers to the lightly-populated northern regions of his country. He offered Mennonites large tracts of affordable land in Chihuahua and Durango where they could continue their agricultural lifestyle. While the economic incentive was strong, Mexico also offered the Mennonites significant autonomy, including the freedom to establish their own schools, teach in their own language and maintain their traditional way of life without interference from the state. Today, there are about 75,000 Mennonites living in the country with the majority of them residing in Chihuahua.
There are still strong connections between Chihuahua’s Mennonites and Canada as many still have Canadian citizenship and relationships with friends and family back in the Great White North. And since Winnipeg is also home to Canada’s only Mennonite university, many of Mexico’s young Mennonites head north for higher education.
We also learned about the differences between traditional and liberal Mennonites, the latter of which dress in more modern clothes and are open to mixed marriages and other practices that more conservative members of Mennonite society see as a threat to their long-term survival.
They’ve thrived here for more than a century, so it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Mexico’s Mennonites. In the meantime, they welcome visitors with open arms who come here to learn about the traditions of this unexpected community in the heart of Mexico.
To find out more about what there is to see in do in Chihuahua, Mexico beyond just its Mennonite communities, visit https://www.visitachihuahua.mx/en
- The author was the guest of Visit Chihuahua which did not view or approve this article before publication.
