La Batea 55 Jahre
By Peter T. Bergen
La Honda, Mexico: Self-published, 2017, pp 156. Softcover

Die 17 Kolonien in Campeche
By Peter T. Bergen
La Honda, Mexico: Self-published, 2017 pp. 157. Softcover

Reviewed by Helen Ens

La Batea 55 Jahre and Die 17 Kolonien in Campeche, Mexiko are two picture books compiled, written and published by Peter T. Bergen. It is written in an easy to understand German, although people in Germany might find the writing style and grammar somewhat antiquated.

The photography in this volume is amazing. Peter Bergen must have gone to great lengths to put this collection together. How did he manage to get these marvellous aerial photos? The pictures tell their own stories of the hardship of pioneering.

In the 1870s many Mennonites left the south Ukrainian steppe to become pioneers on the prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Within fifty years of their settlement, many of them pulled up their stakes from their comfortable villages, which were located almost at sea level, and moved to a plateau of the San Antonio Valley, a plateau of approximately two thousand meters above sea level, in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Another colony settled in the state of Durango, also at a similar altitude. They were motivated by the fact that the Canadian government demanded that they send their children to public schools where the language of instruction was to be English and a host of other subjects were to be taught, ignoring their privileges promised them in 1873. In 1962, this time for economic reasons like land scarcity, a large number of this same group of Old Colony Mennonites again moved from their homes in Durango, joined by others from Chihuahua, to the neighbouring state of Zacatecas. Here they formed the La Batea Colony. From here some would move in 1983 to the state of Campeche. Four major migrations in a little bit more than a hundred years, which always involved settling in locations where clearing the land was necessary even before tilling virgin soil was possible! With that in mind the two picture books speak volumes.

“La Batea” means “the basin,” and that is exactly what this area is: a huge basin enclosed on all sides by mountains, still at an altitude of 2,430 meters above sea level. Long before Mennonites came to occupy this land a tunnel had been dug to drain the lake Valderamo when too much water accumulated there. This drainage tunnel is still in use. There are good maps at the back of both books, but I would have appreciated a complete map of all of Mexico with the names of all the different Mennonite settlements and their respective states.

This land at La Batea was bought from an engineer, Angel Mier. He and his family remained living within the area of the colony for several years and there seems to have been a fair bit of social interchange between them and the colony. I was looking for signs of the non-Mennonite culture rubbing off on the Old Colony Mennonites. Maybe I detected something in a picture on page 14. Also, it was interesting to note where and when rubber tires on tractors made their appearance.

Bergen has also, in the La Batea volume, included a brief but comprehensive history of the Mennonites from the times of Conrad Grebel and Menno Simons, to life in Ukraine, and the move of the Old Colonists to Mexico. The latter is a graphic report of the search for land in Latin America, where they would be assured of their special privileges, which included having their private schools, using the German language, and maintaining their unique way of living. He also illustrates the moves to the Chavi Colony in Campeche and the Fresnillo Colony in Bolivia.

Let me translate the first paragraph of the message Bergen has put on the back cover of the Campeche volume: “Come with me to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, to the State of Campeche, for a trip through the seventeen Mennonite colonies. During the last almost four decades massive groups of Mennonites have come to settle in this southern state of Mexico in the midst of a jungle where there was hardly any agriculture before the advent of the Mennonites; also in the midst of the archeological zones of the Mayas.” I was disappointed that this last sentence was the only reference to the very rich history of the Mayas, who inhabited this region during the pre-Hispanic era and left many footprints.

The front and back cover pages of this volume are very informative. The front page has a small, typical picture taken in each colony with the respective name of the colony and the year it was started. There are no German names: all of them are in Spanish! I find the top three pictures on the back cover most intriguing. The first displays an age-old tradition, dating back to Russia, maybe even to Prussia, in which dough that has been kneaded in community, is now being distributed among the neighbours for baking Kringel and buns. This is done for any Gaustjibott (social gathering), whether it be a wedding or a funeral. In the second picture a girl in proper Old Colony apparel and hat displays pumpkin/squash seeds, a new cash crop grown in the colonies. It demonstrates the capacity for adjusting to new environments and climates, especially in the field of agriculture. I counted at least ten new and different crops grown in these colonies by the Mennonites, all shown in this book. The third picture shows the advent of electricity and the use of rubber tires on tractors, which in this case is used to transport a bevy of girls dressed in their Sunday finery. The bottom picture portrays the commercial centre of Hopelchen where you can encounter Mennonites at any hour of the day.

The pictures in both books have captured the spirit of pioneering of these groups of Mennonites and historical societies owe a debt of thanks to Peter T. Bergen for his efforts to save the past for future generations. As he writes, “This book is not a complete history of each colony, only a shallow overview. But if it serves to spurn the people on to write down their stories so that they do not get lost then one goal has been achieved.”