Rafa
is a child who lives in Celendín, is only six years old and is
learning to read and write in school, but his learning is not limited
to what his teacher teaches: Rafa likes, above all, to read on his
own and from the voice of his godmother.
Doña
Consuelo, who is the librarian in Rosario Bajo, reads with pleasure
the favourite stories of Rafa and, while she reads, he jumps ahead
from time to time because he knows by heart what follows in every
line of his favourite story: The fox and the candle.
And
it's not just about what makes him laugh, but also about what makes
him think: "Get out, fox!" he said, "That happened to
you because you were arrogant!" And he burst out laughing.
If
all the children read like him and if all the godmothers read to
their godchildren, as does Doña
Consuelo to Rafa and all the children who visit her library, our
history would be different.
The
district of Bambamarca, province of Hualgayoc, was our next stop: in
this zone, 46 years ago, we started our Rural Libraries movement.
At
the invitation of teacher Manuela Vásquez, sister of our dear friend
Rosa Vásquez - who has long been a member of our Enciclopedia
Campesina Project, we arrived at the Educational Institution of
the Pedagogical Higher Institute of Bambamarca. There we had a
fruitful meeting with the director and his teaching team. They were
all very eager to start the process to open their rural library, to
engage in the rescue of our ancestral wisdom and to engage in
training with their children in the encouragement of reading.
Sometimes it
seems that one can never know the full extent of the effects of our
efforts, however an echo may reach our ears. And so it went
when three out of the seven teachers present spoke of how they
remembered with joy their childhood experience of reading to their
parents, who could not read, the books they borrowed from the rural
library in their community.
Teacher
Benigno Edquén
Díaz recalls that his father was a rural librarian,
and thus all his family read the books to be able to recommend them
to the readers. He asserts that having the rural library in his home
helped him loose the fear of reading, helped him feel a brotherhood
with books, and appreciate his own campesino culture. He not
only learned a lot from the books: he grew a lot with them.
And
so we were back again, hoping that our efforts and books inspire more
young minds, while we keep on keeping on.
About
an hour and a half from the city of Chota lies a rural community
named Tugusa, in the district of Chiguirip. And it is there that we
directed our steps, on a road constructed above an immense divortium
aquarum (divorce between water basins).
Thanks
to the interest and enthusiasm of teacher Ricardo Delgado, we had the
opportunity to meet and converse with firstly the students and
teachers of their secondary school, then with the parents and
community members of Tugusa.
Our
brother Alfredo Mires spoke to the community about culture and
education, or rather, the lack of the former in the latter. The
importance of knowing our own culture, and being unabashedly proud of
it, in order to have a solid base from which to welcome the world,
was a message that was received with spirit and decision by the
learners young and old.
The
reunion with the parents of the community began with Alfredo covering
the basics of forming and sustaining a rural library, and it ended
with the community electing their librarian: doña
Eluvina Díaz Guevara, whose acceptance was met with a
hearty applause.
As
we were exchanging details with doña
Eluvina there was already a line of eager borrowers
hoping to jumpstart the library functioning.
Tugusa
now is part of a grand community that continues advancing.
The
rejuvenation of our libraries in the province of Celendin continues.
Last year we opened several new libraries - from outer-city barrios
to high altitude rural communities (of the jalca), and at the
beginning of June we visited three of them.
In
the community of Bella Vista we called in on Karin Muños
who operates her library under the famous sombrero of Celendin, where
the neighbourhood children bask in our stories and learn from our
ancestors who speak from the depths of the pages.
Karin
is a special needs teacher so we discussed our Community Program and
how we could share material that could benefit the children and their
families.
Early
the following morning we visited the barrio of Rosario Bajo where
Consuelo Livaque, rural librarian, gathered the children of her
neighbourhood to carry out an enchanting reading circle. Each child
chose from the selection of new books that we brought and very
quickly got lost in their colourful pages.
We
concentrated our energy once again to read and listen together. The
children bid goodbye contentedly knowing that every Saturday the
space would be open for the young earnest readers to gather.
Celendin
also provided us the opportunity to meet with teacher Nancy
Castañeda,
the enthusiastic coordinator who continues to animate colleagues to
integrate into the rural libraries family. Nancy is still recovering
from an accident that injured her arm: from here we send Nancy a
fraternal hug and our best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Towards
the end of last year, our brother and Executive Advisor to the
Network, Alfredo Mires Ortiz, was invited to the Colombian city of
Medellín to give a keynote address in the launching of the Citizen
Plan for reading, writing and speaking.
We
now have the pleasure of sharing this conference titled: "The
Earth recounts: Orality, reading and writing in community territory".
(original title: "La
Tierra cuenta: Oralidad, lectura y escritura en territorio
comunitario".)
Alfredo
covered diverse topics that were grouped under the following
headings: The sensation and the word; The bloody disagreement;
Writing or the clotting
of voices; Reading: perceptions and descriptions; Oralities,
territories and searches; And Going.
You can see the video of the conference - edited by the Didactic Group and New Technologies (el Grupo Didáctica y Nuevas Tecnologías) - here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S4-sOpC4b0, or directly below.
The video includes the conversation that took place after the conference.
"We
are also losing the ability to read ourselves. Fortunately ants do
not go to school: in order to learn one needs to
always observe and wonder. The earth does not hold back
teachings. There is no other way than this coming together, generous
and fertile, of all with all, among all, for all. In this country,
those who remember the most are the most forgotten."
"...
Perhaps the problem is not that the objectification of the world is
at the foundation of hegemonic discourses, but rather the level of
assimilation that people and communities have of this concept and its
consequent predatory practices."
"It
happens that knowing how to read and write does not make us readers
and writers. In this sense, the school teaches literacy but not
culture."
"The
truth of our semblance
has been twisted for a long time. And perhaps we are suffering the
nightmares of those who no longer have dreams. We do not have to
aspire to gloomy prosperities when the fortune of this continent is
on its soil and its people. We do not have to aspire to stagnant
decadences if we have inherited the fortune of our own way, with our
authentic joy, in our legitimate terrain."
While
opening the 10 new Rural Libraries in Huamachuco, Department of La
Libertad, our brother Alfredo was asked to give
two more workshops: firstly with the team and the volunteers
of Proyecto Amigo, then for students of the Higher Pedagogical
Institute (Instituto
Superior Pedagógico).
With
the team and volunteers conceptions and practices were approached to
ensure the rescue of the oral tradition transmitted through the
generations. As the focal theme, Alfredo addressed the issues of
colonization and education, dignity and identity. After underlining
the scope and depth of the problem of continued colonization, the
importance of rescuing and strengthening the dignity in our ancestral
identity was emphasised. In this way the fundamentals of the rescue
and cultural affirmation were presented.
Then
the future teachers were enriched with innovative and intuitive ideas
about the art of encouraging reading. The essence and cultivation of
the love for reading and the flare for writing, as well as the
ability and courage to think independently and critically, were some
of the key points that Alfredo imparted and that we hope that the
teachers-in-training will incorporate in their learning practice with
the children.
At
the end of the day we rose to greet the sacred Apu Marcahuamachuco
and the mountains that surround him. And
we were blessed with a rainbow.
For
several years we have cultivated a gratifying closeness with the
organisation Proyecto Amigo of Huamachuco (Huamachuco district,
capital of the Sánchez Carrión Province, Department of La Libertad,
northern highlands of Peru).
This
organization is dedicated to alternative education initiatives
involving children and families in vulnerable situations, now
counting many years serving the population of Huamachuco.
After
much coordination full of encouragement and sharing of dreams, on
receiving the applications to open 10 libraries in the neighborhoods
of the semi-urban area, around the city of Huamachuco, we crossed the
departmental border to La Libertad to inaugurate this initiative. The
strength of the feminine was present when we met with the newly
elected librarians: they are all women, mothers of families from the
countryside and determined to make their way through all the
challenges.
Our
brother Alfredo Mires Ortiz was encouraging these steps, sharing the
network's commitment to new members of the community, as well as the
conception, operation of libraries and techniques to encourage
reading in groups. Alfredo insisted on how a living library can
rejuvenate and strengthen a community.
Accompanied
also by Rocío Altamirano and the coordinating team, the new
librarians assumed their responsibility in this humble forge for a
fairer and better tomorrow.
On 1st June we had the honor of opening another rural library in the
province of Cajabamba.
Within
the Educational Institution of Quinuacruz, under the direction of
Professor María Milenne Pérez Iglesias, another light emerges and
joins the humble and vibrant family of our Network of Rural Libraries
of Cajamarca.
Arriving
at school the children welcomed us with their warm hugs and songs
written by themselves. The teaching team shone with enthusiasm as
they shared with us their hopes of igniting the joy of reading and
the pride of the ancestral culture in the hearts of their students.
We
were presented with the space that is being prepared to house the new
books. However, as we looked out across the stunning landscape in
which the school is situated, we imagined the rich experience of
reading under a tree overlooking the immense green valley: bringing
the books out to encounter the nature that inspired them.
Congratulations
to the leadership of the principal and her teaching team, and our
gratitude to Soledad Álvarez for carrying the torch from her
previous school to light the fire in this one.
We
had the luck to meet again with some of our volunteers in the
province of Cajabamba. It is a huge encouragement to be able to count
on the presence of the teachers Miguel Rodríguez Roncal, Soledad
Álvarez Plácido and Carmen Malca Bocanegra amongst our
Coordinators, who strongly support the work of the Rural Libraries in
the communities of Pingo, Corralpampa and Tangalbamba.
Their
tireless efforts to coordinate the libraries in their educational
institutions, to encourage their teaching team to bring the proposal
of the Rural Libraries to life, to promote reading with the children
of their communities and to encourage the recovery of our ancestral
knowledge, fills us with vitality and hope.
We
came loaded with books to exchange with the libraries, thus renewing
the collections and providing fresh learning to the avid readers.
