Brief Bio:
Isabel Scheid is a retired veterinarian and a pioneer, arguably, as the first woman specializing in swine reproductive medicine and research in southern Brazil. Having a mixed German heritage against a background of Roman Catholicism, she rather forged her own beliefs in the power of community and her faith in humanity.
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Here we are in July 2020 and the Covid pandemic is escalating in Brazil. Things are a bit better in South Brazil where I live but the whole country is experiencing a mix of health and political problems, not much different from the United States. There seems to be the same line of thought for the Presidents of both countries!
My heritage is mixed. My mother is Brazilian with Portuguese and French roots, and my father is of German ancestry. His family came to Brazil in 1827, almost 200 years ago, fleeing hunger and poverty in Europe. Most of the German immigrants settled in southern Brazil and lived in closed rural communities retaining habits and culture from their original home.
I was born in 1953 in Novo Hamburgo or New Hamburg, Brazil. My father is third generation in his German family and it took that long for the immigrants’ descendants to assimilate with Brazilian culture. He grew up speaking German and went to a small communal school where classes were given in German. He learned to speak Portuguese, the local language, only when he was 14; that was because of geopolitical tensions leading up to the Second World War which was a kind of breakpoint for German-Brazilians. Brazil aligned with the U.S. and England against the Nazis, and speaking German was forbidden. German descendants were obliged to learn Portuguese. German schools and businesses owned by German-descendants were closed. However, the culture was kept to some extent, and you still hear German in conversation and old folk songs in small inland towns in the southern parts of Brazil.
My father grew up on a small farm near the family’s lumber mill. His father and grandfather had been in this business but he decided to move into town and learn a profession. He chose to be a woodworker, perhaps this was “in his genes.” The feel for wood remains in the family.
He started as an employee in a small furniture company but soon decided to have his own business. He only had four years of basic schooling but he was an intelligent man and also obstinate in his ways. Over his lifetime, he started three different businesses. He wanted more opportunities to improve his work and to have better conditions for his family.
He married a beautiful Brazilian lady, my mother, in 1947. She was a teacher and didn’t speak any German. She was the second youngest child of 11 children in her family and also grew up on a farm like my father. Her family moved into town when she was 8 years old and her father died a few years later. She had nine years of schooling and started teaching when she was just 16. She helped my father to speak and write correctly in Portuguese with his business contacts, and supported him each time he started a new enterprise.
After I was born, she went back to Teacher Training School and studied for four more years to get her formal certification. I am amazed to think now that she juggled working, studying and raising three children mostly by herself since my father was busy working day and night building his business. I don’t know how they did it but they did it. We did have some help at home though. I remember two maids in particular who stayed with us for years and became a part of the family. One of them still visits my mother often.
When I was older and asked my mother how she managed everything, she just said, “I don’t know. Maybe there was no television back then and there was enough time to do things.” I remember that she would work in the evenings to prepare for her classes the next day; that was a time without “Xerox,” there were no photocopiers or computers. All this seemed normal when I was growing up with my family and among my circle of friends. I do not remember “rich” and “poor” friends in school. All families were pretty similar in the sense of working hard and aiming for a better life for the family and community.
My mother retired early, when she was 46, because she had been working for almost 30 years. She felt that was enough and also, my father had started his third business at the time. She is now 94, healthy and still sharp as a whistle. My father passed away 12 years ago. The last company he founded 48 years ago is still running. He was the boss until he died, suddenly, on his way to work at the age of 84. The company is currently run by my brother and brother-in-law, and some of their children are already working there too. My father cared for people. He knew each one of his employees and their families. He had lifelong friendships and helped people; we didn’t know much about these events until after he died when people shared their stories.
I grew up speaking Portuguese but hearing German spoken by my paternal grandparents in what I would describe as a Roman Catholic religious environment. My grandfather was serious but also had a funny and sweet side. By comparison, my grandmother was very religious, less able to share her feelings and emotions. While my father’s family was very religious, my mother’s family was Catholic only in formality.
Growing up, we attended to all the rites of the Catholic Church including baptism, first communion, and holy mass every Sunday. Christmas and Easter were festive holidays but also important religious events. But at some point, perhaps when I was around 8 to 10, my family slowly stopped going to church so regularly. Perhaps, it was important for my parents that we had some basic religious education and exposure. Perhaps they considered it fundamental to our upbringing. That said, my parents never used religion to instill any sense of guilt or link it to good or naughty behavior.
My father’s oldest brother, my Uncle Ewaldo, became a priest of the Jesuit religious order. My grandmother was extremely proud of this. When we called him “Uncle Ewaldo,” she always corrected us and said, “Not Uncle, it’s Father Ewaldo.” But that was difficult for us because he was so kind and we children loved him. I remember that he could also sing songs in Latin and Greek! He was like an idol to me.
Uncle Ewaldo went to Rome as a young priest for further studies in theology. It was the beginning of the ‘50s and he was gone for a few years. He worked on a doctoral thesis about Martin Luther who contested the Catholic Church and created the basis for the Lutheran Reform in Europe in the 16thcentury. When Uncle Ewaldo returned to Brazil, I was about 5 years old. I remember that was a special occasion for my family and especially for his mother. Unfortunately, his thesis work was not well accepted by the conservative Brazilian clergy when he came back. He expected to teach at a Catholic seminary but it did not happen. He was not allowed to give classes. He was considered an unorthodox person and lived in the seminary doing minor activities feeling fairly frustrated with his situation.
About 12 years later, I was already in University, about 18 at the time, and there came the bombshell to the family. He wanted to leave the Order! He left the priesthood and got married to an ex-Nun. It was a scandal in the family. My grandmother was devastated. She never accepted it and passed away without forgiving him. My grandfather came to live with my parents after she passed away and I noted that he accepted his son’s decision. My parents also supported my Uncle’s decision, but I must say that my mother was more open about discussing it than my father.
Uncle Ewaldo and his wife, Ruth, had three boys. He passed away 2 years ago at age 98. All considered, he was a big influence in my life and perhaps his decisions also gave me a sense that we each have to make our own life choices and follow our own paths.
I also remember that Simone de Beauvoir’s writings had an impact on me. I was about 10 years old when she and Jean Paul Sartre visited Brazil and gave talks at various universities all over the country; there were strong political and intellectual reactions and repercussions to their ideas. Some years later, I read de Beauvoir’s iconic book, “The Second Sex.” I was already a young woman, and the feminist concepts she expressed in that book made clear for me, in a very decisive way, the importance of independence in a woman’s life.
To me, there’s a strong difference between faith and religion. Religion is a set of rules and rituals around belief in a superior entity. Faith is something different, something very special, something inside you. We have a beautiful church here in Canela, the town I now live in. It has become a well-known tourist attraction. But you can’t be in there for contemplation or for being with your faith because people come in and out, talking loudly and taking pictures. In the last five or six years, my partner and I have chosen to go to the nearby Lutheran church which is small and nice. The Pastor welcomes us, and we identify more with that community than with the Catholic community. We found it to be a kind of inclusive place. I wonder if it has something to do with the memories of the story of my uncle. Anyway, this little church is a place where I can find faith, peace and strength.
So, how did I get into science and veterinary medicine?
I had opportunities that young people today don’t seem to have anymore. For me, it was a clear decision to study something that was different from the family business. I had a feeling that there was no space for me in my father’s company anyway. When compared to other families around us who had German roots, mine was less rigid, less conservative. Yet, men still had priority. It was obvious that my brother would take over from my father, a bit of that machismo. My sister, as the oldest, even had difficulty convincing my father that she wanted to go to University. But she succeeded. She did all the fights and set the stage which made it easy for me. My father had limited schooling but he was good at technical drawing and easily picked up on things related to engineering. It was expected that we would go into the “exact” sciences. My brother did it with engineering. My sister, however, studied history.
I studied in public schools and remember an extraordinary Biology teacher during middle school, Astrid Momberger. She was a simple person, looked fragile, not especially elegant, nor especially beautiful. But she was sweet, never spoke loudly, was kind and always willing to listen to her students. She loved teaching. Her classes were like listening to a storyteller. She also drew very well and it was like an additional art class except focused on cell biology and botany. She was impressive to all of us. In fact, quite a number of my schoolmates became medical doctors, biology-related professionals and teachers. One classmate and good friend of mine became an artist and her work has a biological perspective with drawings of cells and leaves and such. Astrid, who is quite old now, still joins our reunion gatherings.
In high school, I had to choose from three tracks in preparing for the national level exam that determined entry into a public university: Human Sciences & Linguistics; Biological Sciences, and Exact Sciences. I chose Biological Sciences. At the end of high school, I was 17 years old at the time, I decided to apply to the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the University in Porto Alegre, about 30-40 km from Novo Hamburgo. To get there to apply for the National examination, I took the bus and went on my own.
On the bus, I started to think, “Biochemistry? Is that what I really want? But I like animals!” My grandparents had farms and my parents had also grown up on farms. In some sense, my feet were in farms and I knew animals from very young. Sitting in the bus, I decided instead to try for Veterinary Medicine. It was a last-minute decision. That’s what I told my parents later and they said, “What? Are you sure? OK, if you want to do it, do it.” Thankfully, my parents had brought us up by giving us more and more responsibility and with making our own decisions as we were growing up.
The exam was hard and I wasn’t sure if I would make it. There were a lot of candidates, but I got in! After my first month at the Veterinary College, I knew I had made the right decision, this was the right thing for me. The professors were fantastic, we respected them and I got along well with everyone.
The course was 4 years long. During the last semester, I still did not know what I wanted to do within Veterinary Medicine. I felt I wanted to learn and do more. I applied to a relatively new program and was accepted as a resident in the Animal Reproduction Department of the Veterinary Medicine College in Botucatu which is now part of Sao Paulo State University. I got my Veterinary degree in December ‘74 and started at Botucatu in January ’75 as one of the second batch of residents. I was just 21 years old.
I spent nine months there and especially enjoyed the bovine reproduction work. I had a good advisor in Professor Vaske; he did his Doctorate at Hannover University in Germany and was well known. I didn’t complete the residency because another opportunity came up bringing me back to Rio de Grande do Sul (RS) to join a new program in swine artificial insemination.
I had developed a special interest in swine because of a colleague who had come back from Germany while I was still a veterinary student. Ivo Wentz was a scientific assistant at the University’s veterinary hospital and often invited me along when he had to work on pigs. That’s why I wanted to join the swine breeding program in RS. It involved developing expertise in artificial insemination (AI) and optimizing swine production and medicine. I was hired by the Brazilian Swine Breeding Association to work in Estrela, a small town with German descendants and significant swine production operations distributed across many small farms.
With this job, while there was the idea, the concept and a lot of enthusiasm for the AI project, there was not much else. Ivo Wentz was in charge of the collaboration and he came once or twice a week to Estrela. With another veterinarian, we worked as a team, started from nothing and built up a small laboratory with the necessary equipment.
Working as a female professional, I did have some challenges but I didn’t recognize them as such at the time. The swine project included the planning and building of the AI Center with the boar house, semen collection area and semen laboratory, semen processing and storage techniques, and providing AI service at the farms. It all felt normal to be a veterinarian, and as a woman veterinarian working with swine and with AI and having contact with farmers, working closely together. I didn’t think about being accepted and just did it. This was 45 years ago. Maybe it was easier because I didn’t recognize them as challenges. In turn, the people I worked with treated me as a professional. If there was prejudice, I didn’t see it.
That was the beginning of artificial insemination in swine in Brazil. It started slowly but then grew steadily from the ‘90s onwards. Currently AI is the standard technique in Brazil, with more than 70% of the sow herd being inseminated. Brazil turned into an important global player in pork production and is now the 4thlargest exporter in the world. I am proud to have been part of this history.
Estrela had a Lutheran community and I went to church sometimes when I lived there. Faith and religion are always linked to persons for me, otherwise there is not much meaning. To be with God is to have peace of mind, to be with people and have good relationships with others. It doesn’t matter if you’re the boss or the last one on the rung in the company, people are important.
More than formal religion and church, I gave and still give a lot of value to people and connecting with others. What’s important to me is the sense of humanity. There were few women veterinarians at that time and especially women working with swine. I may have even been the first female swine veterinarian. I was also the first judge at swine fairs. Professor Vaske and Ivo Wentz were also part of this network and there was this feeling of working together and sense of faith from shared goodness.
The work in Estrela also involved collaborations with the Veterinary School in Hannover. A technical visit from Dr. Heinrich Treu was a key factor in my decision to apply for a German government scholarship in 1977. He had just published a scientific paper on deep freezing of boar semen, an important scientific and practical achievement for AI. That was the time I started to think about a full time career as a researcher. From 1978 to 1980 I studied at Hannover’s Clinic of Andrology and Artificial Insemination and earned a Doctor Veterinarae Medicinae degree in the field of Animal Reproduction. My doctoral thesis was on deep freezing of boar semen. After that I spent 15 years as a researcher in swine reproduction at the Brazilian Center for Swine and Poultry Research, a branch institute of the federal Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). That gave me an opportunity to work again with Ivo Wentz, my former adviser and colleague in Estrela.
AI started to be used intensively on farms. Part of my work was dedicated to training junior veterinarians and farmers and encouraging young professionals towards scientific careers. Part of my research was on solving limitations on semen preservation and developing more efficient reproductive management techniques through better knowledge about female and male reproductive physiology. Embryo transfer studies in the late ‘80s in collaboration with the Göttingen University in Germany resulted in the first swine embryo transfer paper published in Brazil.
After government and private sector work, I retired 13 years ago and moved with Ricardo, my partner, to Canela, a small town near the hills in the south of Brazil. I regret a bit having retired early. On the other hand, retirement gave me time and opportunity to see the world beyond my profession while keeping some professional ties. I am now dedicated to volunteer work for environmental and community issues. I am an activist in the right for public spaces, the right for clean water and sanitary structure, the right to take part in decisions about common matters which affect community life, the right to education and health, the right for sustainability regarding natural resources and the environment.
But life is not only about rights. Life is also to make a commitment with yourself and with others, with your generation and with the coming generations.
In my early formal religious education, I heard about heaven and hell. I was not threatened by sin and the concept of hell even though I had this education (or indoctrination) when I was young. But what is heaven, a white place with angels? I don’t believe in that. Perhaps you’re just forgotten when you die. If all the life you have is what you have here, I don’t know what the meaning is.
Despite the religious education; having a priest in the family who became an outsider to the church; living with my religious grandmother and grandfather when I was 3, 4, 5 years old; all of that was not enough to convince me that I would be punished in another life or afterlife. I think to sin is to do bad, doing a wrong thing to someone else. If you’re punished for it, yes, punishment should be in this life, not after death or in another life.
Is there an afterlife, or life after death? What are we doing here? Is it over when you die? If not, what’s on the other side? I don’t know and I’m close to turning 70 and I don’t know. And in this exact moment, writing about myself, my faith and my beliefs, the reflections about life and death made me remember a phrase I read a long time ago. It said: “I am not afraid of what I will find on the other side; I’m just afraid of the jump.” Unfortunately, I can’t recall the name of its author butut it expresses exactly what I feel.
Looking back to my professional life I recognize I may have contributed to the improvement of animal production in Brazil, a sector of high economic value for the country. Sound technology has been adopted, and it means an improvement in production processes but also an improvement of life quality for the farmers and farm employees. Sound science is also the basis for the availability of higher quality food for a larger number of people. I recognize that I also have contributed to others choosing careers in science.
I do have some great worries for the future, starting with the growing moral crisis in politics and how much it affects us as citizens. Also, I have nieces and nephews and my partner has children and grandchildren. There is less empathy, commitment perhaps, with the younger generation. I worry about the future with the loss of a sense of community. It’s more superficial now, people don’t care about other people. I worry about environmental issues. Perhaps the Covid pandemic came to show us how fragile we are especially as a society and a community.
~ August 2020~