                Mennonite farmers expanding farm operations
across the region  At the center of the controversy are non-
Hispanic farmers—white-skinned Menones as they are often called
in Mexico, or Mennonites, who are actually Mexican citizens as
well, having transplanted to the region many years before. This
stoic group farms the northern regions under a protected
agreement with the Mexican federal government that dates back to
1921, when a large contingent of the sect fled their Canadian
farms in protest of laws there that required them to send their
children to government schools and to serve in the Canadian
military, both of which are requirements prohibited by their
fundamental religious beliefs.  Mennonites, who trace their
origins to the late 16th century during the early Christian
reformation in Europe, claim they are Anabaptists who have been
searching for a home to call their own in what many of them
refer to as "an escape from Babylon," an effort to flee from
modernization and progress to pursue a