Group in front of Small Church

11,140--Group in front of small church copy

Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín > Colección Menonitas > Addona Nissley

Municipio desconocido | Unknown Municipality

1956/1971

Title assigned by the cataloguing team.

A group of individuals appear dressed in conservative attire in front of a humble chapel. The scene documents the religious environments of Puerto Rico in the mid-twentieth century. Mennonites were a large part of the island’s emergent Protestant culture. Historic pacificists, many Mennonites came to Puerto Rico as conscientious objectors during World War II. Banned from working in conflict zones like China, Mennonite Conscientious Objectors came to Puerto Rico instead for their service. While their work was commendable, aiming to uplift precarious populations in rural parts of the island, the church’s broader missionary effort related to World War II services also aligned with US political interests. Religious missionaries hoped to change the religious culture of local inhabitants, especially disenfranchised and largely Catholic communities of color. This effort dovetailed with a larger political agenda, English-only instruction and rapid industrialization, which aimed to shift, and in some cases eliminate, the island’s native cultures. While Mennonite missionaries did great work in the sectors of rural health and education, these plain-dressed people by a country church, much like a Mennonite mainlander, speaks to a darker narrative of acculturation and cultural genocide.

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Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín

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