Keywords
Religion in Mexico; Mennonite women; Low German Mennonites; Russian Mennonites; M3
Abstract
This article explores documents and photographs that record the migration of two Old Colony Mennonite women from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s. It focuses on the lives of two women, Sara Wiebe and Anna Enns, and their families. The archival materials document their arrival and travel companions. This study illustrates a researcher’s ability to analyze a limited archival record to broaden our understanding of Mennonite immigration to Mexico and the role of women in the Mennonite community at this time. Not only do these archival documents help us understand how women helped establish villages and schools in ways that conformed to their religious beliefs, but they also show us that they were migrating for better or different economic and professional futures as well as for preserving family bonds. This expands the existing story of Mennonite emigration from Canada to Mexico and the existing scholarship on Mennonite women at that time. [Abstract by author.]
Acknowledgements
Portions of the research for this article were funded by the Plett Foundation.
Recommended Citation
Janzen, Rebecca. 2020. "Old Colony Mennonite Women's Lives in Mexico from the 1920s to the 1940s." Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies 8(2):125-38.
ISSN
2471-6383