[citation needed] Converts to the Mennonite faith are both people who speak Spanish and groups with an indigenous background, notably Embera-Wounaan.
Mennonites as a religious group can trace back their roots to the time of the Protestant Reformation.
They belonged to the radical wing of the Reformation who tried to base its faith only on the Bible as God's word and live according to it.
Starting in 1683 (Germantown, Pennsylvania), Mennonites from Europe migrated to North America, but most came in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Liberal and moderately conservative Mennonites engaged in worldwide missionary work like other North American Protestant denominations.
In 1945 the Mennonite Brethren started missionary work among the Amerindian and general population in La Cumbre in Valle del Cauca and the corregimiento Noanama in Istmina, Chocó Department.