Liminal Sovereignty

Rebecca Janzen

Description

Liminal Sovereignty examines the lives of two religious minority communities in Mexico, Mennonites and Mormons, as seen as seen through Mexican culture. Mennonites emigrated from Canada to Mexico from the 1920s to the 1940s, and Mormons emigrated from the United States in the 1880s, left in 1912, and returned in the 1920s. Rebecca Janzen focuses on representations of these groups in film, television, online comics, photography, and legal documents. Janzen argues that perceptions of Mennonites and Mormons—groups on the margins and borders of Mexican society—illustrate broader trends in Mexican history. The government granted both communities significant exceptions to national laws to encourage them to immigrate; she argues that these foreshadow what is today called the Mexican state of exception. The groups' inclusion into the Mexican nation shows that post-Revolutionary Mexico was flexible with its central tenets of land reform and building a mestizo race. Janzen uses minority communities at the periphery to give us a new understanding of the Mexican nation.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction: They Did Not Come to My Mexico

1. Mennonites, Mormons, and the Registration of Foreigners in the 1930s and 1940s: A Rare Attempt to Promote Integration

2. Whose Land Is It: Mormons, Ejidos, and Agrarian Reform

3. Mennonites and Agrarian Reform: Can Mennonites be Mexican?

4. Mennonites and Mormons in Mexico’s Drug Wars: Criminals and Victims on Screen and in Literature

5. Contact Zones in Stellet Licht [Silent Light] and Las Mujeres Flores/The Flower Women

Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Film
• Caribbean
• Mexico
• History of the Americas
• Latin America
• Visual culture
• Película fotográfica
• Latin American

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 27 août 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438471044
• Langue: English

Extrait

Liminal Sovereignty
Liminal Sovereignty
Mennonites and Mormons in Mexican Culture
Rebecca Janzen
Cover art reprinted with permission from the Mennonite Centre Archives
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2018 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Book design, Aimee Harrison
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Janzen, Rebecca, 1985- author.
Title: Liminal sovereignty : Mennonites and Mormons in Mexican culture / Rebecca Janzen.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2018] | Series: SUNY series in Latin American cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017049447| ISBN 9781438471037 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438471044 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Mennonites—Mexico. | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Mexico. | Christianity and politics—Mennonites—History—20th century. | Christianity and politics—Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—History—20th century. | Christianity and politics—Mexico—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC BX8119.M6 J36 2018 | DDC 305.6/89772—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017049447
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
I dedicate this book to the memory of my grandparents, Abram G. and Gertrude (Wiebe) Janzen.
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
They Did Not Come to My Mexico
CHAPTER ONE
Mennonites, Mormons, and the Registration of Foreigners in the 1930s and 1940s: A Rare Attempt to Promote Integration
CHAPTER TWO
Whose Land Is It: Mormons, Ejidos, and Agrarian Reform
CHAPTER THREE
Mennonites and Agrarian Reform: Can Mennonites be Mexican?
CHAPTER FOUR
Mennonites and Mormons in Mexico’s Drug Wars: Criminals and Victims on Screen and in Literature
CHAPTER FIVE
Contact Zones in Stellet Licht [ Silent Light ] and Las Mujeres Flores/The Flower Women
CONCLUSION
NOTES
WORKS CITED
INDEX
FIGURES
FIGURE 1
Elena Farnsworth y Martineau Baker
FIGURE 2
Heinrich Berg Loewen
FIGURE 3
Rosina Farnsworth
FIGURE 4
Jacob Bueckert Siemens
FIGURE 5
“Me dicen el Menona” [“They Call me the Menno”]
FIGURE 6
“Que Menona menoníssima” [“What a Mennonite Menno”]
FIGURE 7
“Meanwhile, chop, chop, chop”
FIGURE 8
“Be nice”
FIGURE 9
“A circle of blood”
FIGURE 10
“Johan and Zacarías”
FIGURE 11
“Johan and Marianne”
FIGURE 12
“Johan and his father”
FIGURE 13
“Esther’s coffin”
FIGURE 14
“La reunión de solteras/The meeting of the singles”
FIGURE 15
“I love you, Peter”
FIGURE 16
“Sin título/untitled”
FIGURE 17
“Sin título/untitled”
FIGURE 18
“Las fotos de ellas/Their photos”
FIGURE 19
Mormonen, ihre Damf Muhle
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the advice and encouragement of my family, friends and colleagues. My immediate family—Bill Janzen and Marlene Toews Janzen, Phil Janzen and Rachel Powers—have been very encouraging. Other members of the Toews and Janzen families, especially my aunt Clara Toews, have also been very supportive. I would also like to thank family friends Ghenette Houston and Brian Ladd, Steve and Gloria Houston, and Moira Toomey and Paul Siebert and Dave and Ally, and Jane and Ben Willms.
My friends in Bluffton, Ohio, who were instrumental to all aspects of my life and work, especially Karen Bontrager, Ryn Farmer, Marathana Prothro, Jackie Wyse Rhodes, and Emily Buckell. Their respective families made my time there joyful. I am thankful for the friendship also of Brad and Sarah Potts, Judy Lester, Amy Marshall, Elizabeth Kelly and Ray Person, Esther Yoder Strahan, Walt Paquin, Kate Spike, and Rudi and Ravonn Kauffman. Ross and Anna Kauffman and their daughter Nora are truly in a category of their own. I also am thankful for finding friends and community at Grace Mennonite in Pandora for continued friendship in Toronto, including Adleen Crapo, Paula Karger, Sara DeMoor, Geoff Wichert, and Marcia Boniferro. I finished this project in Chicago, with special thanks to Ryan Radebaugh and Nick Seamons, and in Columbia, SC, where my new colleagues and department made my move a happy one.
My colleagues in Mexican studies have also shaped this project. First, I would thank the lady locusts, Ilana Dann Luna, Sara Potter, Amanda L. Petersen, and Cheyla Samuelson. Emily Hind belongs there, as well as in my writing group with Carmen Serrano and John Waldron. Thanks also to Susan Antebi, Ignacio Sánchez Prado, Carlos Amador, Tamara R. Williams, Olivia Cosentino, Christina Soto van der Plas, Ariel Wind, Carolyn Fornoff, Dan Russek, Pedro Ángel Palou, Jason Dormady, Bram Acosta, Sam Steinberg, Daniel Calleros, Brian Gollnick, Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, Saúl Hernández, and others.
This project began as a presentation about Carlos Reygadas’ film, Stellet Licht [ Silent Light ] at the 2013 LASA meeting in Washington, DC, at a panel organized by Eva Romero where I presented alongside of Vicky Garrett and others. It grew from that initial exploration to include an analysis of Mormons in Mexico. Thanks to my friends Brian L. Price and Benjamin Cluff, for telling me about the LDS tradition, and then introducing me to their family and friends in Mexico. Russell M. Cluff initially provided information about the colonies. In Colonia Juárez, my hosts Sam and Mona Cluff were incredibly generous with me. John and Sandra Hatch, Ed and Gayle Whetten, and LaVon B. Whetten were also helpful in my research. They introduced me to some Mennonites from the US—Phil and Jeanne Stover, who helped me contextualize the Colonias Juárez and Dublán. David Dalton made sure I knew about the other Mormons in Mexico.
My visits to Mennonite communities in Mexico were greatly facilitated by my dad—his presence on a first visit and, on a second visit, his Kanadischapapiaoabeit [Canadian citizenship paperwork]. He arranged for us to visit in Cuauhtémoc with George Reimer, Anna Martens, and Elena Krahn, and with Peter Rempel and his family, and, on my second visit, with Franz and Sarah Penner. We attended a Conference church in Blumenau, and an Old Colony church in Rosenort. On a later visit, I also met Cornelius Loewen and Helen Thiessen and their family, including their children Tony and Veronica, and their friend Angelina Peters. In Capulín, Gerhard and Susanna Neufeld showed me around their colony and introduced me to their family. They also drove me and my dad to the Sabinal colony to meet some of my family there, John and Maria Redecop, and Jacob and Eva Neudorf, and their families. Their kindness extended far beyond my limited understanding of Low German (I definitely know what oba yo means now). In La Honda, Zacatecas, I have many kind relatives. These include my dad’s cousins Henry Bergen, and his family, Abe Bergen, and his family, and Sarah and John Thiessen and their family, and Anna Friesen and her family. I especially appreciated spending time with my second cousins Maria and Eva Thiessen, Anna and Peter F. Friesen, and Peter T. and Nancy Bergen and their kids. Also special were my visits with Hermann and Julia Penner and their daughters. In Nuevo Ideal, Durango, John and Helena Guenther welcomed me warmly, and Helena took me everywhere I could possibly have wanted to go. I met more relatives, and Anna Hiebert showed me many old family photographs. Laura G. Gutiérrez made sure I knew about the other part of Nuevo Ideal.
I gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Plett Foundation, particularly the assistance of Andrea Dyck. The project has also benefited from the support of the C. Henry Smith Peace Trust and the Karl B. Schultz Award. I submitted the manuscript as the Kreider Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, and would like to thank its director and affiliates, Jeff Bach, Hillary Daecher, Cynthia Nolt, Steve Nolt, Edsel Burge, and Don Kraybill. The High Library staff, particularly its director, Sarah Penniman, and archivist, Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh, created a welcoming space for me to write and research. Thank you.
The following is reprinted with permission:
The cover artwork is reprinted with permission from the Mennonite Centre Archives.
An earlier version of chapter 5 was originally published as “Still Life/Mexican Death: Mennonites in Visual Culture,” in volume 19 (2015) of the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies , pp. 75–90.
INTRODUCTION
They Did Not Come to My Mexico
My great-grandmother and six great-aunts and uncles and their children emigrated from Canada to northern Mexico, along with several thousand other Canadian Mennonites, between the 1920s and the 1940s. 1 These immigrants lived on individual farms in the states of Chihuahua and Durango. These farms were grouped into villages, which were then grouped into colonies. To this day, some of my relatives live in colonies. They and their descendants aim to pursue their own educational systems and religious practices, preserve their Low German language and farm in tight-knit communities. 2
They did not come to the Mexico I had learned about through my previous academic work on twentieth-century Mexican literature. When I traveled to visit them, I did not know what to say. There was often a language barrier. So, I listened and I watched. I noticed that the land, their land, the land I almost could have come from, shaped them. I was impressed with how they used their comparative isolation to preserve their religion, language