They Sought a Country - by Harry Leonard Sawatzky (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

They Sought a Country: Mennonite Colonization in Mexico by Harry Leonard Sawatzky is a deeply informed study of a religious community's quest to preserve its identity through migration. The Mennonites, one of the oldest Protestant sects, originated in the Alps, moved across the North German plain and South Russia, and by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had established themselves in Pennsylvania and on the Canadian prairies. Their creed, rooted in scripture and interpreted through congregational consensus, has long set them apart from surrounding societies. Committed to plain living, plain dress, and avoidance of "the world," Mennonites maintained their separateness by founding wholly rural communities organized around village life and agriculture. Congregational autonomy allowed for continual revision of rules, producing diverse branches from communal Hutterites to more individualistic groups. Sawatzky, himself raised in Manitoba's Mennonite settlements, combines firsthand knowledge of Mennonite faith, farming, and cultural life with a geographer's eye for the ecological and economic dynamics that shaped migration and colonization.

The book's central focus is the dramatic relocation of conservative Canadian Mennonites to northern Mexico after World War I. In Canada, Mennonites had lost key privileges, especially over schooling, and many sought a new homeland that would safeguard their autonomy. Mexico promised land and guarantees of religious and cultural freedom, prompting an exodus from prairie to plateau. Sawatzky traces how Mennonites transplanted their Russian-Canadian village system into Mexico, reenforcing their apartness by settling among unfamiliar language and culture. Initially their adherence to Canadian farming methods brought them close to disaster, but gradual adaptation enabled survival and eventual expansion into new colonies driven by demographic growth and economic change. Throughout, Sawatzky offers an intimate and critical portrait of real people navigating dislocation, environment, and faith. His work captures the persistence of a religious community in defining itself across shifting landscapes and political regimes, situating Mennonite colonization in Mexico as part of a centuries-long pattern of migration in pursuit of religious freedom and cultural preservation.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.