MWC
Paraguayan Mennonites you might meet at Assembly 15
Helped by others to a life helping others
Often one teacher, one friend, or one chance encounter makes all the difference in the world to a young person.
For Wilmar Stahl, now 62, it was a series of people who, at strategic moments in his life, inspired him, pointed out opportunities, suggested directions, or made introductions that helped him successfully navigate his way to many years of service with the Association of Cooperative Services Indigenous-Mennonite (ASCIM) in the Chaco, Paraguay.
Wilmar Stahl’s parents were Russian Mennonite refugees who came to the Chaco with their families in 1930. His father, Peter Stahl, left the Chaco to find work in Concepción and Asunción. He eventually returned and purchased a tract of land 80 kilometres from Filadelfia, the centre of the Mennonite settlement, Fernheim. The ranch was successful until 1954, when cattle rustlers threatened his livelihood and his life.
His father’s bad fortune became Wilmar’s good fortune, because the family moved to Filadelfia where he was able to attend high school and then continue his studies at the Bible seminary in Montevideo, Uruguay. Here, he encountered people who would change his life.
“While I was at the seminary, I read articles in Practical Anthropology written by Jacob A. Loewen, an anthropologist, who had been in the Chaco to do a six-month feasibility study on settling people on their own lands. He wrote about mutual understanding between cultures,” Wilmar says, “and, in 1966-7, he was a speaker at the seminary.”
The inspired young Wilmar remembered that one of his high school teachers, Helmut Neudorf, had been to Goshen (Ind.) College and spoke to him about attending. But it would be Rosemary Wyse, a seminary librarian, who gave him not only information about how to get there but also names of professors, such as Calvin Redokop, an anthropologist studying the Chaco. Redekop would later write Strangers Become Neighbors: Mennonite and Indigenous Relations in the Paraguayan Chaco.
In his second year of college, Wilmar married Katy Wiens, his high school sweetheart, who had moved to Canada to attend the Bible college in Winnipeg. She joined him in Goshen and later, they would raise three children together.
At that time, Wilmar recalls, the Maxwell School of Graduate Studies at Syracuse University offered a Master’s degree in development anthropology. He and Katy were off to Syracuse next. Here he specialized in Third World economies, development, and education. He intended to return to the Chaco after graduation.
Anthropological approach
In 1972, Wilmar and Katy paid a visit to Akron, Pa., to meet Edgar Stoesz (later author of The Garden in the Wilderness), who had been to the Chaco the year before as Mennonite Central Committee’s secretary to Latin America.
That same year, a meeting of anthropologists in Barbados had made accusations that the Mennonites in the Chaco were guilty of genocide. This was of grave concern to Edgar Stoesz. He felt there was a need for a more anthropological approach to relations with indigenous people in the Chaco.
Stoesz reported to MCC that there was a young anthropologist – Wilmar – “who would be perfect to work with Association of Cooperative Services Indigenous-Mennonite (ASCIM).” Begun in 1973, ASCIM oversaw a resettlement program, schools, and medical facilities for the indigenous peoples of the Chaco.
Back in the Chaco, Wilmar did training in inter-ethnic communication, studied the Enlhet language, and served many years with ASCIM. In 1975, he became director for three years, which allowed him to institute reforms.
“We officially founded ASCIM as a social program, co-administered by the indigenous and Mennonite leaders, and registered with the Paraguayan government as a non-governmental organization (NGO), allowing more autonomy and fundraising possibilities,” Wilmar says. At their assemblies, the different indigenous groups spoke in their own languages and communicated with a simultaneous translation system. Today, Spanish is the common language for the various groups.
“The first project was to secure land, which we increased from 40,000 to 160,000 hectares,” Wilmar says. “In the early years, the most exciting experience was when the native groups were looking for homeland – convincing ranchers to sell land, and then accompanying [the indigenous groups] as they moved back on their land in order to have the harmony and tranquility they value. Everyone was unified as fences were put up, schools and hospitals built. They were so excited to create their own lives.”
Now a consultant, Wilmar sees his role as “gathering information that would help people analyze together to see how things can be improved.” He is especially active in helping with the yearly evaluations of the indigenous non-governmental organization, the Federation of Regional Indigenous of Chaco Central (FRICC). “The leaders get together for three days to bring out their own ideas, raise their own questions, find their own solutions, and analyze decisions in relation to how they affect others,” Wilmar says.
The challenge for the future, he says, “is for the all the indigenous groups to have a territorial base to preserve their cultural identities, which is not possible in the urban centres. A place of retreat is needed.”
Helped by others to a life helping others
Often one teacher, one friend, or one chance encounter makes all the difference in the world to a young person. For Wilmar Stahl, now 62, it was a series of people who, at strategic moments in his life, inspired him, pointed out opportunities, suggested directions, or made introductions that helped him successfully navigate his way to many years of service with the Association of Cooperative Services Indigenous-Mennonite (ASCIM) in the Chaco, Paraguay.
Wilmar Stahl’s parents were Russian Mennonite refugees who came to the Chaco with their families in 1930. His father, Peter Stahl, left the Chaco to find work in Concepción and Asunción. He eventually returned and purchased a tract of land 80 kilometres from Filadelfia, the centre of the Mennonite settlement, Fernheim. The ranch was successful until 1954, when cattle rustlers threatened his livelihood and his life.
His father’s bad fortune became Wilmar’s good fortune, because the family moved to Filadelfia where he was able to attend high school and then continue his studies at the Bible seminary in Montevideo, Uruguay. Here, he encountered people who would change his life.
“While I was at the seminary, I read articles in Practical Anthropology written by Jacob A. Loewen, an anthropologist, who had been in the Chaco to do a six-month feasibility study on settling people on their own lands. He wrote about mutual understanding between cultures,” Wilmar says, “and, in 1966-7, he was a speaker at the seminary.”
The inspired young Wilmar remembered that one of his high school teachers, Helmut Neudorf, had been to Goshen (Ind.) College and spoke to him about attending. But it would be Rosemary Wyse, a seminary librarian, who gave him not only information about how to get there but also names of professors, such as Calvin Redokop, an anthropologist studying the Chaco. Redekop would later write Strangers Become Neighbors: Mennonite and Indigenous Relations in the Paraguayan Chaco.
In his second year of college, Wilmar married Katy Wiens, his high school sweetheart, who had moved to Canada to attend the Bible college in Winnipeg. She joined him in Goshen and later, they would raise three children together.
At that time, Wilmar recalls, the Maxwell School of Graduate Studies at Syracuse University offered a Master’s degree in development anthropology. He and Katy were off to Syracuse next. Here he specialized in Third World economies, development, and education. He intended to return to the Chaco after graduation.
Anthropological approach
In 1972, Wilmar and Katy paid a visit to Akron, Pa., to meet Edgar Stoesz (later author of The Garden in the Wilderness), who had been to the Chaco the year before as Mennonite Central Committee’s secretary to Latin America.
That same year, a meeting of anthropologists in Barbados had made accusations that the Mennonites in the Chaco were guilty of genocide. This was of grave concern to Edgar Stoesz. He felt there was a need for a more anthropological approach to relations with indigenous people in the Chaco.
Stoesz reported to MCC that there was a young anthropologist – Wilmar – “who would be perfect to work with Association of Cooperative Services Indigenous-Mennonite (ASCIM).” Begun in 1973, ASCIM oversaw a resettlement program, schools, and medical facilities for the indigenous peoples of the Chaco.
Back in the Chaco, Wilmar did training in inter-ethnic communication, studied the Enlhet language, and served many years with ASCIM. In 1975, he became director for three years, which allowed him to institute reforms.
“We officially founded ASCIM as a social program, co-administered by the indigenous and Mennonite leaders, and registered with the Paraguayan government as a non-governmental organization (NGO), allowing more autonomy and fundraising possibilities,” Wilmar says. At their assemblies, the different indigenous groups spoke in their own languages and communicated with a simultaneous translation system. Today, Spanish is the common language for the various groups.
“The first project was to secure land, which we increased from 40,000 to 160,000 hectares,” Wilmar says. “In the early years, the most exciting experience was when the native groups were looking for homeland – convincing ranchers to sell land, and then accompanying [the indigenous groups] as they moved back on their land in order to have the harmony and tranquility they value. Everyone was unified as fences were put up, schools and hospitals built. They were so excited to create their own lives.”
Now a consultant, Wilmar sees his role as “gathering information that would help people analyze together to see how things can be improved.” He is especially active in helping with the yearly evaluations of the indigenous non-governmental organization, the Federation of Regional Indigenous of Chaco Central (FRICC). “The leaders get together for three days to bring out their own ideas, raise their own questions, find their own solutions, and analyze decisions in relation to how they affect others,” Wilmar says.
The challenge for the future, he says, “is for the all the indigenous groups to have a territorial base to preserve their cultural identities, which is not possible in the urban centres. A place of retreat is needed.”
—Katherine Arnoldi
