Pious pioneers: the expansion of Mennonite colonies in Latin America

Nearly one hundred years ago, a group of Mennonites left the prairies of Manitoba for the deserts of Northern Mexico. Since then, Mennonites have created over two hundred agricultural colonies across Latin America, spanning nine countries and seven biomes. In this paper, we provide the first continental-scale map and account of Mennonite expansion in Latin America over the last century. We show that Mennonite colonies today cover an area exceeding that of the Netherlands, having expanded through the conversion of uncultivated land to agriculture in remote areas. We discuss the implications of Mennonite expansion for the study of frontier land-use change. We argue that Mennonite farmers differ from both peasant and capitalist farmers, two categories of agents commonly featured in studies of frontier land-use change, in ways that have made them more likely to take a pioneering role in agricultural frontiers. We finish by proposing some avenues for future research.