Trips to Paraguay

Mennonitas

The Mennonitas conforms an originating protestant religious group of the Anabautismo of the century XVI (Christian branch that disabled person considered the infantile baptism by not being, obvious, a faith symbol). They come from Switzerland, Germany and Austria although they take its name from Menno Simons, turned Dutch catholic priest to the anabautista faith.

The Mennonitas took a simple life and honest to imitation of the first Christians and the pacifism it was its flag. As they refused to assume positions public or to serve as the military considered rebels them and, like such, hard they were persecuted. These persecutions lead several times to the emigration of the mennonitas groups: In centuries XVII and XVIII they settled down in the United States (Pennsylvania) and Russia. And from 1920 some began to take root in Latin America, especially in Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina, fleeing from the inductions on the occasion of the World wars, on the one hand, and of the stalinista persecution, by another one.

These groups have dedicated themselves to the Earth farming and to live a simple style of life, without automobiles, electricity or other progresses of the modern life. They are distinguished by his modest clothes: Everything is expression of its understanding of the Christian faith.
Mennonitas in Paraguay

In 1928, the Paraguayan government granted to the mennonitas territories to colonize region in the heat of chaqueña. Although the mennonitas thought that they had arrived at the Promised Earth, with time called to the Chaco “Green Hell” (In the Chaco the water is scarce and the temperatures exceed 45ºC generally). Although the Chaco occupies 60% of the Paraguayan territory, the first colonists found only 500 natives there living. The region was considered uninhabitable.

At the outset the life was difficult. The harvests failed. One of each 10 colonists died; other so many surrendered and they went away. However, thanks to his solidarity and he signs Christian ethics (they avoid the idleness, among other things, and they dedicate his life to produce and to accumulate capital), the followers of the anabaptist movement turned this wild and hostile region into a prosperous agricultural center within the Paraguayan economy.

The completion of the Transchaco freeway - that served as it connects with the outer world at the end of years 80 impelled a fast expansion that gave to the mennonitas the control of the quarter of the milky industry of Paraguay. More recently this group established a prosperous business of export of meat from head of cattle to many markets of the world - from Angola, Israel and Russia to Brazil, Chile and Peru that represent most of its income at the moment.

Thanks to the wage average of at least three times the wage national average, the prosperous mennonitas colonies have received swelling of external people who look for work. In Philadelphia - the greater menonita establishment of the Chaco, with more than 6,500 inhabitants at the moment one of each two inhabitants does not belong to the colony. The signallings in the streets, sometimes only in German, are now in Spanish.

The first colonists that arrived at Paraguay were escaping of the pressures of the modern world and apparently they had found the place perfect to practice his traditions peacefully. Nevertheless, 80 years later, the globalisation has reached to the mennonitas in these inhospitable and remote scrubs. They even participate in the national policy. Key people in the present government - the ministers of Finances and Property, and the financial adviser of the President is mennonitas whose honesty highly is valued. The mennonitas are being integrated to Paraguay and the world.

In Paraguay there are approximately 28,000 mennonitas seated in a twenty of colonies (including the mennonitas of Asuncio'n). At the moment the majority is in the Eastern part of the country but three more known they are in the Chaco:

- Fernheim Colony, whose center is Philadelphia.
- Menno Colony, with Hill center Silver, the oldest and traditional establishment.
- Neuland Colony, with center in Neu-Halbstadt, magnificent place to buy Indian crafts.
Around 14,000 people of German speech they live in the heart of the Paraguayan Chaco.

The mennonitas colonies, with its recent history of sacrifice and work, and their consequent development, surprises all type of visitors.