Shawn E Says:
I saw photos of what looked like Amish people in Belize. Are there many Amish people there?
IL Executive Editor Jennifer Stevens Says:
Hi Shawn,
It’s most likely you saw photos of the Belizean Mennonite community, who share a similar faith with the Amish.
It’s easy to spot Mennonites in Belize. Many of them speak a variety of Low German and dress in an old-fashioned way—men with beards, women in plain clothes and little to no makeup—so they’re often mistaken for Amish.
They’re a good example of the many religious groups Belize has attracted over the last several decades.
A few hundred Mennonites from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada settled in Belize in 1958 after making an agreement with the government to pay lump-sum taxes in return for certain privileges, like exemption from military service. Other Mennonite groups followed.
Today, there are more than 14,000 Mennonites—about 3.6% of the country’s population—in Belize, including some 2,000 converts. They continue to live independently in Mennonite towns.
The Mennonite communities form the agricultural backbone of Belize. Take a drive through Spanish Lookout and you may feel as if you’ve been transported to a Pennsylvania Amish community. You’ll pass green, manicured landscapes and rolling hills, large barns and silos, and rich, fertile cropland. Only the palm trees make it clear you are in Belize.
You can learn about all the cultural groups that make up Belize in Chapter 1 of Escape to Belize.
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