Herramientas de comunicación alternativa en la comunidad menonita de Chihuahua, México

Zusammenfassung

This research focuses on the Mennonite community in northwestern Mexico. A conservative minority group that has been characterized by having a very consolidated identity with respect to its dress code, language, religion and social parameters. The objective of this work is to identify the alternative communication tools that emerge within the Mennonite community and to determine the impact that these tools have on their daily life and the perpetuity of their identity. The first approach we had with the community to carry out the study was an interview with Abraham Siemens, a Mennonite leader, recognized for his altruism but also for his work in the media. In this interview, it was identified that there are three media outlets in the Mennonite community: a newspaper, a magazine and a radio station operated in Low German or Plautdiescht. All of them were founded with the purpose of providing a space to transmit ideas far from the mass media and to have a fluid communication in their own language and under their own precepts. Once these media were identified, the written media were selected, determining a sample of publications from January to December 2019. This sample was translated into Spanish to carry out a content analysis through which the strategies that Mennonites use to maintain their consolidated identity were investigated, thus finding a broad link between all the content published in the media and the daily life of Mennonites. One of the main conclusions obtained with this work is that the alternative media within the Mennonite community, work as an educational tool that transmits ideas of their idiosyncrasy, which although it makes the Mennonites move away from the mass media, it also makes the members of this culture acquire religious, educational and cultural precepts. Despite being in contact with other cultures and being exposed to modernity, Mennonites have preserved their identity by relying on tools such as these alternative means of communication. The interesting aspect of a research like this is that we are working with a highly conservative group that decided to approach technology in search of strategies that allow them to maintain their identity. It is important to note that the communicative strategies and tools found in this research are applicable to the Mennonites, but also open the door to new scenarios in minority communities in the rest of the country that so far have not been able to find an alternative that allows them to preserve their identity and therefore are in danger of disappearing. Through this analysis, it recognized the work of the Mennonites in this sense and found future lines of work that could be useful and applicable in other minority communities.