“There is a very beautiful word called consistency. One is consistent when one says what one thinks and does what one says. An upright person is correct in everything, with everyone and in front of everyone.
Let's say, for example, that someone comes to destroy our land. Wouldn't an upright person defend the rights of nature?
Because it could be that someone acts uprightly by defending with words, but when it comes time to exploit the farmer or attack the land, they just stay quiet. That's no longer being upright. That's being inconsistent.
One takes a stand now and later and in any circumstance. That is being consistent.
An upright person has a position. That is what our grandparents in the countryside have taught us.
But how do you learn that? Is there a course in school called 'Being Upright'? No. Do they teach you to be upright at university? No. So how and where do you learn to be upright? How do you learn to be upright in a broken reality where the authorities steal, the corrupt are influential, the educated are ignorant, the lazy make demands, those who destroy progress, those who commit crimes boast, those who are slow-witted are respected, and those who lie govern?
There is no baptism of uprightedness, no graduation or diploma in uprightedness. There is no confirmation ceremony at the age of fourteen to proclaim that a person is upright. That test of being upright is taken by life at every moment.
A person who can be considered upright, even if they are eighty years old, may run the risk of straying: "The old man strayed," one might say. He strayed: he went off the path...
Being upright is not a title: it is a virtue and a temperance that is acquired through incessant practice and inexhaustible consistency.
Alfredo Mires
in: The Right to Essence
The Rural Libraries Network depends, to a large extent, on the supportive backing of a friends' association in England: Sarah's Rural Library Fund. These lovely people do everything they can to raise funds and thus underpin our activities and tasks.
Here is an example that touches us deeply:
The intrepid collaborators of Sarah's Rural Library Fund are back in action this weekend. Paul Mansell, an old friend of Sarah's, will be running in the Great North Run to raise money for Rural Libraries on Sunday 7 September. It is the world's largest half marathon and Paul will be running with 60,000 other runners through the iconic city of Newcastle in north-east England.
Our thanks go to Paul and to the family of Sarah Heery, an English friend who passed away many years ago but who continues to help us from where she is.
Thank you. Now and forever.
It has been almost three years since Alfredo Mires, co-founder and Executive Advisor of the Network, passed away. During this time, I believe we have learned to keep moving forward, sometimes with firm steps, other times with more concerns and uncertainty.
When I think of Alfredo, I feel he would say to me: I know you are following my compass, but it is time for you to learn to find your own path and face new challenges in your own way.
Alfredo was an extraordinary teacher, our guide, our faithful companion. We are not looking for a replacement, but rather a way to continue his legacy with consistency and dignity.
To that end, at the end of September we organised a workshop to reflect on our history and search for new paths, with an old friend of Alfredo's: Grimaldo Rengifo, from PRATEC (Andean Project for Peasant Technologies). Alfredo and Grimaldo met in the 1970s and have shared a long history. If I had to point out a historic and lasting alliance of our association, it would be the one we have with PRATEC.
And once again, Grimaldo, with his closeness to the Network and his great wisdom, helped us in this workshop to find paths: small trails perhaps, still hidden in the darkness, but with a ray of light that we can see at the end.
Thank you, Grimaldo, for helping us to keep going.
Rita Mocker
This Wednesday, 1st October, the General Coordinator of the Rural Library Network, Javier Huamán Lara, librarian and member of the El Tambo community in Bambamarca, represented the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca at the seminar Roots that Read: Rural Libraries as Spaces of Memory and Interculturality, organised by students from the National University of San Marcos, Lima.
Four female speakers from different institutions and associations, all linked to communities and libraries, also participated in this seminar.
At Bibliotecas, we decided that Javier was definitely the right person to represent us, not so much because of the position he currently holds within the Network, but because of his long career in rural libraries, his direct relationship with rural communities and his long involvement in our Peasant Encyclopedia Project. Javier joined this team in 1984 and played a significant role in the preservation of Cajamarca's traditional culture and knowledge, guided by the master Alfredo Mires Ortiz.
Javier's participation in the seminar demonstrated that he is well versed in this context.
Congratulations, Javier, on this discussion.
Thank you for representing us and the community members who make up the Network. We are proud of you.
On Friday, 29th August, our headquarters was the setting for the presentation of the books Rondo and Catequil by Fr. Miguel Garnett Jhonson, a dear friend of our Network.
For us, this re-launch is a cause for immense joy. And although Miguel says that nothing has changed inside, we know very well that a book read for the second or third time is not the same as when it was read for the first time, because the reader will always find something new and different, even if the reader is the author himself.
It was a simple and very emotional ceremony, and the image of our beloved brother Alfredo Mires was if course present, because when we talk about reading, that name resonates like an echo of every word, every page read.
Good luck, Father Miguel, with your new publications.
The compass found his friend, the map, distressed.
"Help me, I have no countries to fill my space!" said the map.
"I'm sorry," replied the compass. "This void cannot be filled. All the countries have already been sold."
Alfredo Mires
in: The Goblin of the Labyrinth
