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2012 Brilliance Press. All rights reserved. The Mennonites struggled to survive in the 1930s and 1940s. An inhospitable, semiarid environment with little rainfall and poor soil made life difficult for the early settlers as they domesticated the land. Travel overland to Paraguays capital, Asuncin, before the construction of the Trans-Chaco Highway in the late 1950s, was an odyssey that left the remote colonies isolated from the outside world. Indigenous groups such as the Guarani resisted encroachment by their new neighbors and fought occasional skirmishes with the settlers. The Mennonites and the indigenous learned to co-exist peacefully, and many indigenous now work for the colonies. After years of toil, the Mennonites transformed the area into one of the countrys most productive agricultural regions. The Mennonite's cooperatives (cooperativas) are among Paraguay's largest enterprises. Closely affiliated with the local Mennonite Church, they manage the colonies commercial interests. Their operations and logistics networks are brilliantly efficient. They provide farmers with enriched animal feed, transport raw milk from farms to dairy plants, transform milk into dairy products, process foodstuffs, and ship finished goods to market on gravel roads that they maintain. The cooperatives also operate service businesses, including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and shopping centers that cater to the Mennonite communities. Fernheim Colonys cooperative, the countrys best known, also runs an experimental farm that incubates and crossbreeds cash crops capable of the surviving in the Chaco. The power and influence of the cooperatives is astounding, although one would not know it at first glance. The lowprofile associations are opaque operations whose sole purpose is to serve the Mennonites.
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2012 Brilliance Press. All rights reserved. The Mennonite culture emphasizes hard work, a simple life, and strict adherence to its religious beliefs. Unlike their Amish cousins, Mennonites embrace the use of technology when it improves their productivity, and they dress in plain, functional clothing. Most men wear short-sleeve cotton shirts and khaki pants or jeans; women usually wear dresses to church and pants on the farm. Most marry within the community, while those who marry non-Mennonites tend to leave the colony. As a result, offspring tend to look Germanic than Hispanic, indigenous, or mixed. It is common to see someone with blond hair and blue eyes walking around Filadelfia. Mennonites also prefer to speak Plattdeutsch, an old variant of Low German, to Spanish or Guarani, Paraguays official languages. Its easy for those who visit the Chaco to see the cultural divide between the Mennonites and non-Mennonites. While many indigenous and Brasiguayos, or Brazilian migrants living in Paraguay, work with the Mennonites on the estancias, they tend to live separately. Mennonites and other groups seem to frequent restaurants, stores, and services that caters to one or the other. Mennonite activities tend to focus on the church, while non-Mennonites enjoy pastimes such as soccer (ftbol) and public gatherings such as barbeques (asados). This tendency is reinforced more by tradition and preference than overt discrimination.
A visit to the Chaco is worth the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Mennonite culture set against a backdrop of the Wild West of South America. Its a remarkable journey back in time to a simpler age.
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Special thanks to Juliette Wade for hosting the original post on her blog, TalkToYoUniverse as part of the Writers International Cultural Share. Im grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in this great forum where writers can share their cultural experiences and insights from around the world. Juliette is a fiction writer with several published works, including the short story, "Let the Word Take Me," appearing in the July/August 2008 issue of Analog Magazine. Her novelette, "Cold Words," appeared in the same magazine in October 2009. In October 2009, she achieved one of her major goals by signing with The Grayson Agency. "The Eminence's Match" has since appeared in the Eight Against Reality anthology (July 2010). A novelette entitled, "At Cross Purposes" led the January/February 2011 issue of Analog, with cover art by Bob Eggleton. Originally from the Monterey Bay area of California, Juliette holds a Ph.D in Education and has lived in Japan three times, where she met her Australian husband. She has also taught the Japanese language. Visit her blog to learn more about her stories.
M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Mans Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain and a collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. His books are available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com and other booksellers. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex. For more books or stories by M.G. Edwards, visit his web site at www.mgedwards.com or his blog, World Adventurers. Contact him at me@mgedwards.com, on Facebook, on Google+, or @m_g_edwards on Twitter. 2012 Brilliance Press. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted without the written consent of the author.
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