The Earth recounts in Colombia

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.

You can also read the transcript in this link: https://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/RIB/article/viewFile/326825/20784096

Here are some illuminating quotes from Alfredo:

"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."