Social Ills Disrupt Mexico Sect : Mennonite Youths Are Abusing Alcohol and Drugs

Drug and alcohol abuse has become a growing problem among youths in Mexico’s largest Mennonite community, a Protestant sect that largely shuns modern ways and lives apart from others.

City leaders and even some Mennonites say the community’s conservative leadership needs to provide sports and other leisure activities for their children to combat the problem. They also say the children need to participate more in Mexican society.

“The drinking problem among the young is enormous. And now they’ve started on marijuana,” said Mayor Humberto Ramos of Cuauhtemoc.

About 50,000 to 60,000 Mennonites live in villages around this wealthy agricultural hub in the northern state of Chihuahua, which borders on New Mexico and Texas. About 100,000 non-Mennonites also live in the area.

Drugs Are a Problem

Ramos said he’s been asked by conservative and progressive Mennonite leaders to help control the youth problem.

“The Mennonite youth have more money to buy drugs and alcohol and they’re not used to handling these things,” Ramos said. “So they’re fighting among themselves in the camps. There’s nothing else to do. There are no dances, no movies, no music, no sports.”

Jacobo Froese Reimer, chief of the Mennonites’ Manitoba Colony, a conservative group of 50 camps with a total population of about 14,000, acknowledged that teen-age drinking is a serious problem.

But he attributed it to a shortage of land for the growing number of Mennonites in the region.

More Families Now

“The population is higher,” he said. “Fifty to 70 families live now where 20 families lived before.”

Cuauhtemoc, 65 miles southwest of the state capital of Chihuahua City, is a commercial center that owes much of its prosperity to the labors of the austere, hard-working Mennonites who began settling in the region in 1922.

The German-speaking Mennonites have turned Cuauhtemoc into a major region for oats and apples. Mennonite dairy products, especially cheeses, are known throughout Mexico. They also manufacture farm machinery, clothing and furniture.

Most Mennonites live outside town in simple, sod homes but come into Cuauhtemoc regularly for business and shopping. The men are dressed in overalls and straw hats, and wives and daughters wear dark, knee-length dresses and scarfs on their heads.

Some Mennonite youth, children of the progressive factions, have adopted blue jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes of non-Mennonite teen-agers.

The Mennonites, a sect whose beginnings date to 16th-Century Europe, fled to Mexico from Canada after the Canadians attempted to incorporate them into their national culture.

The Mexican president at the time, Alvaro Obregon, allowed the Mennonites to establish their own schools, which are not required to teach the Spanish language or Mexican history. The Mennonites, who are pacifists, also are exempt from military registration. They hold Mexican citizenship.

Conservative Mennonites do not participate in sports, watch television or listen to music. Smoking and drinking are prohibited.

Pickups vs. Buggies

Until recently most Mennonites shunned electricity and used only horse-drawn buggies for transportation. Progressive groups use pickup trucks.

“The old idea was that we must flee from this world of evil,” said a former Mennonite school principal, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

“But what one doesn’t realize is that we are part of the world. You can’t exclude the world by dress or by customs,” she said.

The progressive factions, which broke from the mainstream beliefs about 20 years ago, have become more integrated into Mexican society.

U.S. TV Programs

Elena Letkeman de Klassen, whose two sons are taught the Mexican curriculum in the progressive Quinta Lupita School, said the television set in her home receives programs from the United States.

“I like it because it helps the boys with their English,” she said.

Klassen said her Quinta Lupita village is building a bowling alley and tennis courts for children.

“The alcoholism has increased a lot in the last few years, not just in the boys but in the girls too,” she said.

Increasing Integration

Froese, the conservative Manitoba Colony leader, was asked about the progressives’ increasing integration into Mexico society.

“Each person has the right to do what he thinks is best,” he said.

But, he added, “The Mexicans are not accustomed to our ways. We remain isolated to avoid problems,” such as intermarriage.

“Mexicans like to live in town,” he said. “We want people to continue working the fields.”

Can’t Stay Isolated

But Ramos said the Mennonites cannot remain isolated. “Their commerce is with us.”

He acknowledged that young Mennonites are picking up the “bad habits” of some of the townspeople.

“I am proposing to the state legislature that the young men perform one year of civil service instead of military service, so they will feel more a part of the Mexican society and learn about our culture,” he said.

“They can live with good Mexicans and they’ll learn there’s more to do than get drunk.”