Spanish Lookout

17.217222222222 - 88.978611111111Koordinaten: 17 ° 13 ' N, 88 ° 59 ' W

Spanish Lookout is a town in the west of the Central American state of Belize in the Cayo District ( not to be confused with the island of Spanish Lookout Caye, 16 km east of Belize City). Spanish Lookout has an area of ​​approximately 7,500 hectares and is located on the north side of the Belize River. The municipality has approximately 2.000 inhabitants and is inhabited to the vast majority of Plautdietsch Mennonites.

History and Economics

Spanish Lookout in 1958 was populated by about 75 Mennonite families of the little community that had migrated from the source colony in Chihuahua (Mexico) and 2008 celebrated their 50th anniversary with a memorandum. This group belongs within the Mennonites to the modernists who also advocate the use of machines. The incoming settlers arrived on the jungle, the they cultivated for their agricultural purposes. In the first ten years was their main source of growing and selling vegetables, but was largely abandoned in the late 1980s. Instead, a poultry and egg production has been installed, expanded the dairy industry comprehensively and operated cattle. Today, Spanish Lookout supplies large parts of Belize with their agricultural products.

Your crafting skills took the settlers to fill other gaps in the economic fabric of Belize. They specialized in the production of furniture and home construction and have put it in these areas marktbeherrschendem influence. This also applies to trade in tires, auto parts and agricultural machinery.

In 2005, smaller oil fields were found in the area settled by the Mennonites, which are now being exploited.

Over the years it came to migration, because some families emigrated in the Interlake region to Manitoba in Canada and another 25 families settled in Northfield Mennonite Settlement in Nova Scotia in Canada. Despite these migration movements, the population remained stable and even increased, as refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala came to Spanish Lookout.

The municipality maintains its own management, local roads, bridges and schools.