Rise up to be born...

Rise up to be born with me, brother.

Give me your hand from the deep place

of your scattered pain.

You won’t return from behind the rocks.

You won’t return from time underground.

Look at me from the depths of the earth,

farmer, weaver, silent shepherd:

I come to speak

through your dead mouth ...

So cries this poem by Pablo Neruda ("Alturas de Macchu Picchu" in “Canto General” – translated as “Heights of Macchu Picchu” in “General Song”), which we now have transcribed on the stairs of our house, so as to ascend and feel as we read.

Thus we read when we ascend. And we ascend when we read.

Give me silence, water, hope.

Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.

Stick your bodies to mine like magnets.

Hasten to my veins and to my mouth.

Speak through my words and my blood.

Segundo Huamán, a volunteer community member who is helping us with the construction these days, was the first reader of these telling steps.

In this way we also delve into, evoke and better ourselves.

Jacinto and the ritual for the deceased

Jacinto Aguilar Neyra is a veteran with over thirty years as a Coordinator of our Rural Libraries Network.

From his community, in Carrizal, Cajabamba province he has remained dedicated despite political persecution, lack of funds, the weight of the books on the endless slopes on foot, and other problems that have presented themselves along our path.

Jacinto works tirelessly in the recuperation of our ancestral knowledge. A few weeks ago, as we visited him, we found him dedicated to the recuperation of the rituals surrounding the deceased. Not only is he recuperating the information but also recreating the drawings of the animals and mythical figures that are found in what the elders of the communities tell.

Various birds are depicted as winging messengers of death, as well as the dragon, angels and the Christian figures of Adam and Eve. The mixture of Christian and native symbolism in the representations that he has collected reflects the mix that is found in the Cajamarcan tradition.

This recuperation is especially significant now for our dear friend Jacinto, due to the pain of having recently lost his wife after a long illness.

Thank you, brother, for your courageous efforts and your unfailing commitment.

Reading Corners

In Cajamarca, since years ago, we built our house and we did it in Minga (voluntary and community work): this is also a source of pride for us.

With and between us all we went about laying the foundations and raising these walls: each corner knows of our efforts.

A while ago now we made wells –in the shape of seats- where we collect rainwater, now we are renovating them so they can also be Reading Corners... and there we go, brightening them with poetic actions.

That is, the building of the house has not finished.

It's like with each of us: we continue to construct.

Heart Links

A few weeks ago our house received with joy the visit of a group of friends from Heart Links, a Canadian organization that supports some of the efforts of the Rural Libraries.

During this visit we had the opportunity to talk and learn about the work we do at an organizational level and to listen and inform ourselves about the context of our respective countrie;, because only then will we understand the Why of our communal  journey.

However Sheila Horrell, Linda Lustins, Susan Price, Mara Horrell and Shannon Theriault, not only got to know some of our work in the countryside, they also participated as ‘mingueras’ (volunteers in community) in the preparation of books for our Rural Libraries - placing stamps and pasting the recommendations paper. These tasks, in fact, are simple and easy to perform, but when it comes to one or two thousand copies, or even more, the task becomes a bit heavy. However, when we are in a group, between laughter and coffee, this and other activities are even fun.

We recognize the efforts of this group of friends to share and learn about our country and culture.

At Celendin's Magisterial Week

At the beginning of July, our colleague Alfredo Mires was invited as a speaker at the Pedagogical Update Conference during the Magisterial Week, in the province of Celendin. The invitation was made by the Unitary Union of Education Workers, Celendin Base, who expressed their appreciation for "the important work and commitment to the education of the people of our region that the Rural Libraries of Cajamarca carries out".

The topics discussed by Alfredo (in blocks for nursery, primary and secondary school teachers) were the promotion of reading and the rescue of ancestral knowledge. While he broached these issues, he also spoke of the racism present in the social structure and how it is transmitted directly through the formal education system. He questioned the act of uncritically opening our doors to foreign influences if we don’t have a solid foundation in our own culture, remembering what Mahatma Gandhi said: "I want all the world’s cultures to blow about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be swept away by any of them. I refuse to live in other people's houses as an intruder, a beggar or a slave. "

Through the oral tradition of the Andes we can keep alive the ancient wisdom of our elders and, using books as tools, we can maintain it more safely and spread it more widely. Stories in particular are vehicles that can travel through centuries while still carrying their seeds.

Approximately 1,500 teachers from all districts of the province of Celendín attended and there was a high level interest to have the presence of the Rural Libraries in their rural communities and schools.

Alfredo always closed his speeches with the phrase that summarizes our work: "Our glory comes from having given our hand to our grandchild without letting go of our grandfather’s".

The Gurrión 144

"The Gurrión" number 144 is now in circulation.

Our friend Mariano Coronas continues with this struggle that is an uphill journey.

"While we have forces, we will continue in the pit.

May the summer holidays fill your body with joy and may you be happier than a partridge. Good summer and good reading to you, "says Mariano.

On this slope and in this struggle we support each other.

"The hunter of stories"

A few weeks ago “El cazador de historias” (The hunter of stories) arrived, the posthumous wanderings of our brother and colleague Eduardo Galeano.

Helena Villagra, Eduardo’s companion to the last breath, made sure it got to us.

"One writes without really knowing why or for what, but I suppose it has to do with what one deeply believes in, with the themes that reveal it.

I tried, and I'm still trying to discover of the women and men animated by the desire for justice and the will of beauty, beyond the boundaries of time and maps, because they are my countrymen and my contemporaries, who were born where they have born and have lived when they have lived. "

Thus says Eduardo, whose spirit is still hunting, writing and walking.

Thank you, Helena.

Abel's Challenge

Abel Vasquez is a member of the Community Program and Coordinator of Rural Libraries in areas of Sócota and San Luis de Lucma, in the province of Cutervo.

Here he tells of his wanderings:

For me reading is an encounter with books, but it is also an encounter with the environment, with reality itself.

Reading books can be a bit easier, but reading nature, reading reality is a bit more difficult because it means going to meeting her 〚nature〛.

For this reason the presence of the Rural Libraries is a huge contribution to our lives, both personally and professionally. Because from the Rural Libraries we learn not only from the amount of books to which we have access, but also from the experiences told by the readers themselves, from the experiences recounted by the long-standing coordinators.

And we also learn from those who travel and write the texts that speak like us. Here we must thank our friend Alfredo Mires, who has such advanced work with our communities: this has helped me so much.

The biggest challenge we have, I think, is how to survive amid the bombardment of other communication systems, such as television and cell phones, for example.

Now here is the challenge: in the midst of this we can still encourage the people to read. And so we must seek out some strategies of how to encourage reading and growth, because people now read very little.

This invites us to improve our capacity to find ways to encourage reading. That is the challenge.

We miss “Ñaupa”

There’s no shortage of cats that cross our roof, passing through the neighborhood.

But one came to stay: he came down who knows how and we found him already installed, as if he owned the place.

Still tender, loving and trusting, he came to integrate himself: no owner came to claim him, so a few days later he was baptized with the name "Ñaupa".

He took no time to fatten up as he spent the day having breakfast, going from office to office, from room to room, participating in meetings, arriving timely for coffee breaks or communal meals.

But he also read (or so he made us believe): living among books, presumably, he had no choice.

A few days ago he went for a turnabout and has not returned.

We are worried about him. He is a member of the team.

If you see him, please tell him that we are missing him.

 

“El duende del laberinto”

And it has gone to press: “El duende del laberinto” (The Labyrinth Owner), a collection of 96 microstories written by our colleague Alfredo Mires.

Father Juan Bottasso, who prefaced the book, says that these stories have been written like in Oriental wisdom, "with aphorisms, short stories, apodictic phrases, which surprise and are recorded in our memory".

Soon we will be sharing it with our communities.

"The Labyrinth Owner is a concentration of years and years of experience, matured in the permanent contact with a wise people who have suffered."

- Father Juan Bottasso

Libraries in San Marcos and Cajabamba

We went visiting the community of Chuco, with our beloved friend Pascual Sánchez, one of our oldest and dearest librarians. Pascual recalls when he used to walk 12 hours to visit one of the rural libraries under his charge, in the community of El Chorro, walking up mountains and into valleys, carrying his saddlebag full of books.

Pascual has passed on that love to his son, Manuel, who has taken up the baton from his father as library coordinator, and to his granddaughter Sonia, whom made the endearing appearance in the film Libros y Nubes about Bibliotecas Rurales.

Our next stop was in the community of San Isidro with our friend Antonio Vilchez.

In the evening he gathered his family and his community to share in the All’pata Paguikun, the Offering to the Earth. We thank the earth, the mountains and the deceased, using the blessed coca leaf, sugar and alcohol to do so. We remember all that the earth provides us with, sustains us with, and through this offering we show her our respect and gratitude. After the offering we form a reading circle, taking turns, young and old, men and women, to read stories from our book “The Storyteller”.

The next day we meet with several of the librarians that Antonio coordinates with. Agustin, from the community of Canish, travelled 4 hours on foot to be there. The librarians spoke of how they encourage each other to read – sharing and recommending books, helping each other as readers just as they help each other as farmers.

On the road to Cajabamba we stopped to visit Fausto Salirrosas, librarian from the community of Huamaní. There are 22 librarians that Antonio coordinates with. A portent of volunteering.

The written word unites and inspires from mountain top to valley, especially when the written word carries the wisdom of our elders and illuminates the way for our children. 

Schools with Libraries in Cajabamba

We visited three schools which have a library full of our books.

In the Tangalbamba community all have access to the library. The teacher Carmen Malca Bocanegra promotes the recuperation with the students and their families, while Professor Crhistian Wilmer Sánchez facilitates reading and registers the borrowing of books.

In the Pingo community, the teacher Miguel Rodríguez Roncal is responsible for the library in the school and assumes his role as a promoter of reading - animated and accompanied by all the teaching staff of his school. Among several innovative ideas, Miguel tells of his plans for a reading festival for parents.

In the highlands, crossing the river Crisnejas, is the Corralpampa community with its school run by the enthusiastic and inspired presence of the teacher Soledad Alvarez Placido. The children at this school have taken the recuperation to a new level, producing their stories on recycled paper made by themselves.

We were delighted to see our books displayed on shelves around the playground and happy children grouped to read.

However in many parts we also see the lack of willingness on behalf of the State to improve reading. The mere fact of being forced to do something steals its magic. And on top of that, when the content is so far removed from your reality, it is almost an act of oppression trying to promote it. The children become more disconnected from learning, they lose their passion and their innate desire to read.

Fortunately there is the will and the example of these extraordinary teachers who inspire reading.

Bibliotecas Rurales books introduce us to the wisdom and wonders that took generations to form. Another way to inspire children to celebrate their roots is to involve them in the rediscovery and preservation of their ancestral tradition, to give them the opportunity to be researchers and authors.

The Co-Libris in San Luis de Lucma

The Co-libris continue reading and speaking in San Luis de Lucma, in the province of Cutervo. A few weeks ago we were lucky to meet them: this group of student readers continues in the struggle, accompanied by Mr. Abel Vasquez, coordinator of our network in the area.

The Co-libris project aims to promote reading among children and young people and encourages them to carry out the recuperation of their community traditions.

The young people invited our friend Alfredo Mires to open the conversation. He addressed the ways we can be manipulated to consume information at the expense of our own culture, the need to go back and look at ourselves again – to look towards the inside of us. "An educated person is not a person who forgets his roots, but who remembers and celebrates them".

The young people were also excited to hear about the experience of the recuperation of the oral tradition of Cajamarca. Alfredo established five key factors for the success of the recuperation: will, persistence, preparation, respect and approach techniques (the various strategies, for example, Nights of Recuperation).

This whole process can be enriched by reading. Thus, each book read is an act of creation: "When we read a text the writer writes anew in us. To read is an act of rebellion against the attempts of the system to extinguish or reduce us".

In reading, writing, drawing, creating, we keep our essence alive.