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Paraguay Mennonites: Immigrants, Citizens, Hosts

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Paraguay Mennonites: Immigrants, Citizens, Hosts Mennonite Central Committee Peace Office Publication January –March 2009 Volume 39, Number 1 Paraguay Mennonites: Immigrants, Citizens, Hosts IN THIS ISSUE Introduction 3 Mennonites In Paraguay: by Daryl Yoder-Bontrager A Brief History by Edgar Stoesz n July of this year, people who are part Paraguay was appropriate for Mennonites Iof the Anabaptist tradition will gather in in other ways as well. A somewhat isolated, 6 A Letter from Paraguay: Asunción, Paraguay from all over the world land-locked country in the middle of the The 2008 Elections to celebrate the 15th global assembly of Southern Cone, the southern triangle of by Alfred Neufeld Mennonite World Conference. The assembly South America, Paraguay contained vast will be hosted jointly by the 8 Paraguayan tracts of sparsely populated lands in its 9 Hopes and Plans for the MWC member churches. In anticipation northwest Chaco area. The Chaco region, 2009 Mennonite World of that event, this issue of Peace Office shared with Bolivia and Argentina, is Conference Assembly 15 Newsletter offers some beginning glimpses famous for its climatic extremes. The coun - by Carmen Epp into the people and issues of Paraguay. try had long since merged Spanish-speaking and Guarani-speaking cultures. Today Span - 11 Ernst Bergen, Jumping into Almost anywhere in Paraguay at nearly any ish and Guarani, the language of the domi - Empty Space time of day one can find Paraguayans clus - nant indigenous group, are both official reviewed by Alain Epp Weaver tered in little groups drinking tereré, a cold languages. Moving to Paraguay seemed a tea, sipped from a metal straw stuck into win/win situation. Paraguay got people it a gourd that has been filled to the top with believed it could count on to settle and farm dried leaves of the yerba mate plant. The land it considered empty and unused, and host pours water into the gourd, and passes the Mennonites got a place to live far away it to the nearest person who sips all the from the influences of the world. water from the container and hands it back. The host then refills the gourd and gives In this issue Edgar Stoez recounts a brief his - it to the next person, and so on around the tory of various groups of German-speaking group in a ritual repeated several times daily. Mennonites who migrated into Paraguay. Yerba mat e contains a stimulant much like Their success at turning the Paraguayan hin - coffee. But passing the tea from person to terlands into an economic powerhouse is person—gourd, straw and all—changes the indeed a story worth telling. By organizing morning coffee concept that those of us in themselves into colonies and economic coop - the Northern Hemisphere are more familiar eratives they were able to use the strength of with. Rather than a silent, solitary morning their collective work to survive and then to cup, it becomes a kind of several-times-daily sell their goods in the markets around them. communion with one’s family and friends. Meanwhile the rest of Paraguay struggled With such a custom common in the country, through the 20th century. Geography does it can seem only natural that German- play a significant role in determining a coun - speaking Mennonites with their strong try’s economic prospects. A land-locked emphasis on sharing life together as a com - country like Paraguay starts with the major munity chose to emigrate from Canada to disadvantage of not having its own access to Thanks to Daryl Yoder-Bontrager Paraguay in the 1920s. It was yet another the sea. While Alfredo Stroessner managed to for compiling this issue of the move in their centuries-long quest to live out modernize the country somewhat during his Peace Office Newsletter. their own interpretation of the Bible, free 35-year dictatorial hold on power, he also from the imposed laws of worldly kingdoms. was a flagrant abuser of human rights and led When German-speaking Mennonites built a country with the dubious notoriety of rank - their first houses in the Chaco, the area was ing high on the list of most corrupt nations. inhabited by at least five groups of indige - Chaco nous people. The Mennonites’ response to One piece of that modernization was the the indigenous people living around them road that connects Asunción to the Chaco, was to establish mission churches and to a lonely sliver of asphalt that runs through work at community development among some 200 miles of mostly flat cattle ranches them, initially with MCC collaboration. PARAGUAYPARAGUAA GUAAYY Asuncion with houses few and far between. The road The intent was to help set up community itself plays a big role in the history of Ger - and economic infrastructure like roads, man-speaking Mennonites and of Mennon - water systems, schools and health care sys - ite Central Committee’s (MCC’s) role in the tems, and cooperatives of their own. country. Until MCC’s large relief effort after the 2004 tsunami smashed into Asia, the After years of work, missions efforts with highway that connects the Chaco with the indigenous groups began to see fruit. In spite southern part of Paraguay was MCC’s of the missions’ success, however, these new largest single project (dollar amounts Mennonite believers did not become part of adjusted for inflation). It is notable that the the German-speaking Mennonite colonies, road was financed in part with funds from nor of their co-ops. Rather, they were encour - The highway was the United States Agency for International aged to form their own organizations. While Development (USAID), while MCC today the indigenous people do have immensely undoubtedly a factor in maintains a steadfast refusal to accept improved lives as a result, it requires only a moving many German- USAID funding. cursory tour of the Chaco and its peoples to speaking Mennonites observe the old U.S. civil rights movement The increased ease of access to the rest of truism that separate is not equal. toward more integration the country made possible by the highway into Paraguayan society. was undoubtedly a factor in moving many As Carmen Epp notes, when we consider Ger man-speaking Mennonites toward more the history, it is easy to understand why inte gration into Paraguayan society. Their the word mennonite in Paraguay denotes schools began to offer higher quality edu- an ethnic label more than it does a Christian cation. Their churches began mission work denomination. Noting the record of the among indigenous and Spanish-speaking peo - Mennonites in Paraguay provides those of ple. And the businesses of the co-ops grew. us who did not live through the hardships of settling the Chaco a chance to examine Economic success came gradually after many one of the inherent contradictions of the years of hard work and sacrifice perhaps due Anabaptist tradition. in good part to the fact that German-speaking Mennonites could achieve something of an We in the Anabaptist churches take seriously economy of scale as they banded their com - Christ’s call to go into the world and invite munities together. In all likelihood, it would all to come join us. Doing that effectively have been much harder for the Mennonites to requires a church with porous boundaries. achieve their current level of success had they People will pass into and back out of the approached their life without the glue of com - church body, and it may be difficult at times munity and their cooperatives. to determine where some individuals are in their relation to the church. On the other The prominence of Mennonites in Paraguay hand we also take seriously the call to be became obvious when Nicanor Duarte, community, to support one another, to get whose wife was a member of a Mennonite involved in the nitty-gritty of each others’ The word mennonite church in Asunción, was elected president in lives. 2003. He invited Mennonites to join him in in Paraguay denotes facing the country’s difficulties and endemic While it is easy to argue that these two an ethnic label more corruption, and named four of them to his should not exclude one another, that has not than it does a Christian cabinet. Ernst Bergen, one of those cabinet been my experience. The communities where members, reflects on his time in government I have experienced strongest support—finan - denomination. in a just-released book, reviewed below by cial, emotional, spiritual and others—have Alain Epp Weaver. In May 2008 Fernando tended to have boundaries that are quite Lugo, a former Catholic priest, was elected closed, clearly defining who is in and who to succeed Duarte. Lugo is probably more is out. The communities where I have expe - left-leaning than many Mennonites in rienced open and genuine invitations to all Paraguay are comfortable with, but for now have had a wide mix of people and varying the jury to pass judgment on his administra - levels of commitment and have tended not tion is still out. Alfred Neufeld offers some to provide the support that I have enjoyed reflections on those May 2008 elections. in the more closed communities focused on member support. 2 MCC Peace Office Newsletter / January–March 2009 Probably for historic reasons that are cen - In July 2009 the world-wide Anabaptist Putting both emphases turies old, it seems to me that Mennonites church will gather for the 15th time. Maybe together under one with European cultural background have some will appreciate the grassy flavor of ter - church roof will likely been apt to emphasize a community that eré as it is passed from hand to hand.
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