News

DURANGO COLONY, Bolivia—Aganetha Bueckert left behind many treasured possessions in Mexico when she and her family moved to this closed, church-governed Mennonite colony in the municipality of Charagua about 280 kilometres south of Santa Cruz.

But she packed every issue of her valued collection of Die Mennonitische Post, (The Mennonite Post) a German-language newspaper published twice a month by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada’s Low German Mennonite program.

“I am very fond of Die Post,” said Bueckert. “I have had a subscription since Die Post started and I have every newspaper that has been published.”

Started as a 12-page newspaper in 1977, Die Post has grown to a 28-page newspaper with over 13,000 copies per issue printed in four countries--Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico and Canada. Most of the readers are from these four countries.

Bueckert and her family moved to Bolivia from Mexico in 1999. “The first thing I look for when I get Die Post is news from Mexico,” said Bueckert. When she feels homesick for her friends and familiar surroundings of Mexico she reads letters published in current issues and in old issues.

Die Post is produced primarily to connect the 250,000 descendants of a mass migration of 8,000 Old Colony Mennonites who left Canada for Mexico in the 1920s. They migrated in order to preserve their faith, language and culture. 

This migration and subsequent moves to new colonies and new countries, like Bolivia, have resulted in considerable hardship and poverty for many families. Shortages of land and disputes within colonies have contributed to families migrating and starting new colonies.

“We publish at least 40 letters from different regions in each paper,” said editor Kennert Giesbrecht from his office in Steinbach, Manitoba.

“The sense of community is very strong and people want to know what is happening in other Mennonite colonies and communities. Many elderly people have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in other countries and it is surprising how much they depend on Die Post to stay in touch with their families.”

Die Post also shares information about activities in other Mennonite communities. Information is collected during personal visits to the communities, in telephone interviews and with email, said Giesbrecht.

“There are so many good things happening in Mennonite colonies, there is so much caring and sharing,” he said. “We have published stories about colony people supporting the elderly and people with disabilities, neighbours working together to rebuild houses destroyed by a hurricane and people helping a widow and her family with harvesting their crop.”

Bueckert’s brother, Peter Thiessen, recognizes the importance of readers sharing information about what is happening in their communities. He is a regular contributor of news from the Durango Colony, one of 63 Mennonite colonies and communities in Bolivia.

“People encourage me to write so I try to send a newsletter to Die Post once a month,” he said. As a farmer, he often writes about prices and availability of diesel fuel, pest and weed control and outlook for crops. He also shares information about deaths and illnesses in the Durango Colony.

“It is good for our relatives to know about these things so I write about that, when I hear about it,” he said.

Thiessen also depends on Die Post for information on world events--for example news about earthquakes and disasters. “If we didn’t have Die Post we wouldn’t hear about this,” he said.

Photographs, stories and poems are other highlights for many readers of Die Post. Bueckert said she reads the stories and poems many times. She doesn’t cut out newspaper clippings because she likes to keep her newspaper intact. “If there is a poem I really like, I copy it out by hand,” she said.

Bueckert has been fairly successful with keeping the papers intact, with one exception. “The chickens got into a pile of newspapers one day so some of them got tattered but I just taped the torn pieces together,” she said.

MCC has Low German Mennonite programs in Bolivia, Mexico and Canada. These programs enhance the ability of Mennonite colonies and communities to address issues such as literacy, substance abuse, conflict resolution and the social well-being of women and families.

To learn more about Low German Mennonites and how MCC works with these communities visit mcccanada.ca/lowgerman.

Gladys Terichow is a writer for MCC Canada