Are You English, German or Spanish?

While I would describe my ethnic background in the fairly universally understood terms of “Canadian of Mennonite background,” the people still belonging more fully to this group have other terms by which they describe ethnicities.

 

For example, they might describe my immediate family thus:

 

“His parents are German, and he grew up German.  But now he and his sons are English and his wife is Spanish.”

 

Anyone who knows my wife, my kids and me knows that there’s nothing English, Spanish or German about us – least of all in terms of ethnicity or culture.  Of course, what these people are doing is referring to ethnicity/culture by the language spoken.  I’m English because that’s my primary language; my parents are “German” because they still speak the Mennonite dialect of the language between themselves; likewise my wife is “Spanish” because of her mother tongue.

 

I don’t know the exact reasons for this choice of terminology, but I can guess as to some of the underlying ideas:

 

• An idea seems to have come about that there’s something inappropriate, embarrassing or sometimes even insulting to refer to people by their true ethnicity; while in the parts of Mexico where I lived, most Mexicans are proud to be called “Mexican”, a number of Mennonites who have lived in Mexico seem to feel that the people consider it insulting.  I don’t know if this is true or if it’s just their impression.

 

• On a similar note, numerous Mennonites whom I’ve talked to  “correct” me discretely, yet pointedly, when I refer to them as “Mennonites.”  For example, if I ask them if there were many Mennonites at the community picnic, they will answer that there were a lot of “German” families, slightly emphasizing the word “German.”

 

• This leads to another point; while Mexican is clearly a national ethnicity, Mennonite is officially a church denomination; strictly speaking it refers to someone’s faith and religious views.  A very strong case could be made that the nature of the denomination (which sometimes, but definitely not always, dictates laws about clothing, transportation, entertainment and even language of its adherents) has in many cases created a corresponding ethnic culture; a similar case could be made about certain Jewish groups.  For this reason, it’s common to refer to anyone belonging to that ethnicity as “Mennonite” even if they have never joined that church, don’t adhere to its beliefs or have been excommunicated.  On the other hand, there’s justifiable hesitation in calling someone Mennonite after they’ve joined a new church, even if they retain the cultural practices.

 

• Finally, there’s a problem with calling the Anglophone population of southern Ontario “Canadians;” the problem is that it implies that the German-speaking Mennonites are not Canadians, when in fact many of them are.  They are NOT immigrants – at least not most of them.  They have been Canadian citizens for a longer time and for more generations than most Anglophone Canadians, having arrived to the Prairie Provinces during the mid- to late-1800s.

 

• A similar problem arises with the term “Mexican;” a growing number of Mennonites are now Mexican citizens, since that’s where they and their parents were born.  So, calling the Hispanic Mexicans only “Mexican” incorrectly implies that these Mennonites are not Mexican, when they are by all legal rights.

 

The biggest problem is that while ethnicity is clear, there is no clear rule for determining religion or citizenship of ethnically “Mennonite” people.  So, in light of all of this, I could  re-word the description of my family given above as follows;

 

“His parents are ethnically low-German speaking Mennonites of Canadian citizenship, and he was raised in this same culture; he and his children are now ethnically Anglophone Canadian but his wife is Hispanic Mexican.”

 

I'm not sure if this would go over so well with most people, though.