Spanish Lookout, Belize

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Evening shadows engulf Reimer's Feed Mill

  Known as the bread basket of the country, Spanish Lookout is also a commercial center for all of Belize. From vast cornfields to hardware stores, it has supplied the country with food, jobs, and a financial boost to the economy. The most modern community of all Mennonites in Belize, it is also the biggest Mennonite "city" in Central America as far as commerce and shopping. It is not the biggest Mennonite community in population though.


  Supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, hardware stores, meat processing plants, banks, grain mills, glass importers, fuel stations, auto repair shops, metal fabricators and lumberyards are all found on the main road or a little off it. Unlike a typical town, the main buildings are not packed close together but scattered along on the 4 mile stretch known as Center Road. There is a new commercial zone opening up just outside Spanish Lookout, on Iguana Creek Road, the main highway that leads into and out of the community.

Spanish Lookout has its own fire truck, ambulance service and clinic which have tremendously benefited the surrounding villages.

   Other Mennonite groups are largely dependent on this town for their economy. On almost any day, inside Farmer's Trading Center, you can spot members from all branches of Mennonites in Belize. Old Colony, Old Order, Holdeman, Beachy Mennonites, Kleine Gemeinde, Conservative Mennonites, as well as those non-conservative ones who wear casual jeans and sweatshirts.

Old Colony Mennonites from northern Belize shopping at Farmer's Trading Center

Corn harvesting in Duck Run 3, next to Spanish Lookout

  It began as a closed community of Plautdietsch-speaking Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites from Mexico and in less than half a century their hard work and moral values already started paying off. Hacking through jungle, losing fingers and family members to sickness and work accidents, living in cramped little shacks, these pioneers built businesses that are still booming for them. There is much more religious freedom now, with several liberal churches having broken off from the traditional Kleine Gemeinde group but still retaining their membership in the community, such as EMMC, Amazing Grace church and others. The members of these non-traditional churches dress casually, wear jewelry and use some of the latest technology in their churches like stage lighting and high-end electrical devices. With religious freedom came a break-down of skin color barriers, resulting in interracial marriages among those of the liberal churches. Creoles, Hispanics, Mestizos, and Maya all live in the community now. Some of them are married to Plautdietsch Mennonites, others are simply renting apartments so they can be closer to their jobs.

A wedding at EMMC

Quality Feed Mill

  Blue Creek, another modern Plautdietsch Mennonite community in northern Belize, is similar to Spanish Lookout but not as big and definitely not a commercial center on the same scale as Spanish Lookout.

Old Order Mennonites from central Belize visit daily for business dealings

  If you're not a person who likes reading history, I'll just point out a tiny bit of it here, that ever since the 1700's, beginning in Germany, to Ukraine, then Canada, later Mexico and Belize, these Plautdietsch Mennonites have been renowned for building successful and thriving communities from scratch. In fact this success is partly what caused them to endure persecution in Europe.
  And centuries later here they are, living in Belize. Due to the small population of the country, the nation would suffer a near catastrophe if they would leave.

Repairing a power line

A Kleine Gemeinde church

Sunset reflection on Caribbean Tire



  They have prospered bountifully and while the younger ones are reaping those benefits, the community has rapidly modernized and continues to do so.
  A few interesting notes about the Mennonites of Spanish Lookout:
  In a manner of speaking, they could be classified into 2 main groups. The conservatives (Kleine Gemeinde) and the liberals (those who have left the traditional Kleine Gemeinde of Spanish Lookout and Old Colony from Shipyard and Little Belize). Both groups have their own churches, with the liberal, non-traditional ones sub-divided into different beliefs and views.
  The Kleine Gemeinde operate mission schools in several of the Mestizo villages around Spanish Lookout.

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