Mexican/Canadian Mennonites

[Guest Anonymous]

My family has a cottage in SW Ontario near Point Pelee/Leamington. The area has a large population of mennonites that have travelled between Mexico and Canada with seasonal work, many of whom have settled in the area permanently over the past 20 years or so. I mention it here because they appear to be fundie in the modest dress/have lots of kids kinda way, but have no problem with modernity otherwise...the married women typically wear black headcoverings and the women and girls all seem to wear the same pattern dress (prairie style) with large floral patterns the norm. I did see one woman who had a headcovering but was wearing pants (!) with averagely dressed tween daughters, but I'd say that's unusual. It was very odd to see a mother with her 4 little girls, all dressed in their prarie outfits, at the park, with the mother madly texting away while her kids played. They also drink (the women usually go into the beer/liquor store. You can't really pick off the men because they dress like all the other farmers around - jeans, t or plaid shirt, baseball cap (standard issue for the area).

 

Does anyone else know much about this sub set of mennonites? They differ vastly from the old order mennonites that live in other areas of the province (i.e. drive cars/vans, drink and apparently use the computer/cell).

[Guest Anonymous]

Well, I found this - an article originally in Saturday Nigh magazine about this community and drug running. One error I picked off is that it's Lake Erie where they are located, farm - not Lake Ontario. It seems mennonites from western Canada went to Mexico in the late 1800s and many are now making their way back.

http://caj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/m ... 0Mitrovica)%20Saturday%20Night%20Magazine.htm

[Markie]

In the 70's when I was in elementary school, there were a few Mennonite families living near us in SW Ontario. One girl was in my class. She was one of eight and dressed in very bright dresses (pants underneath in winter) with long braids. I was fascinated by her (I loved Little House on the Prairie and wanted long hair). I got to know her better in gym class - gymnastics - I had broken my arm and couldn't participate and she couldn't particiapte because of her long dresses. The whole family worked in the tomato harvest and in tobacco. The kids were given some (all?) of the the money they earned and could spend it how they liked. The girl in my class said, "My older sister used her money to buy clothes (jeans and modern clothing) and stuff, yet we have perfectly good clothes! I bought something useful; I bought a guitar!" The girl in my class was about 8 or 9, whereas her sister was a teenager. They were only in our area a year or so and then moved to the east end of our county where there were more tobacco farms and available work I suppose.

[maybeizfundie]

There are colonies of Mennonites ("Old Order") in Mexico and some other central and south American countries. Here's another article, similar info: http://www.offbeattravel.com/mexican-mennonites.html

I wasn't fully aware of the Canada connection. But splitting time between a northern area and a southern area in order to basically run two farms is common with anabaptist groups. We knew many Beachy Amish families in Florida who had places in both Indiana and Florida.

[maybeizfundie]

Found a youtube docu on Bolivian colony mennonites:

[Wolfie]

A few of my friends have moms from the south American colonies. They left and became more mainstream Mennonites when they married their American husbands.

[Deleted03]

There's a whole big colony in Paraguay, they are on a place where no one else grows anthing there, seems pretty hard there and very hot.