Wanderings in Santa Cruz II

(Notes of Alfredo Mires Ortiz, visit to the area of ​​Santa Cruz, September 2017)

In the community of Poroporo the assembly decided that the head of the school would be in charge of the library, taking turns with the other teachers.

We had not finished signing the agreement when the community members began to request the books.

In a way, two schools coexist in Latin American education: that which the system imposes, governs, controls, harasses, disciplines and forces, and that which the indomitable soul of the people resists, prods, digests, challenges, contrasts, contests, rebates, faces, creates and makes the most of.

Us Indians have never been defeated: they crushed our forms and verbs, burned down dwellings and the forest, cut off hands and sliced faces, speared hearts and chained legs, but the starch remained, spermatozoa dodged the scythe, the earth hoarded its eggs, the duck crouched in the feeder, the seed waited for the rain, the furrow made the revolt.

Wanderings Santa Cruz I

(Notes of Alfredo Mires Ortiz, visit to the area of ​​Santa Cruz, September 2017)

It had been a while since we had been communicating with Professor Luis Calderón, a teacher from Poroporo and Catache, in the province of Santa Cruz.

Whether for distance or time - given that we are so few in the Central Team of the Network, we had never met with community members in this area ... until this September.

The night of the meeting in the Poroporo community there must have been about eighty people. All had returned from their labors in the fields, gathering themselves to rest; all were curious to know what was this about rural libraries.

We do not go where they do not invite us. That of arriving "as an institution" to start a project has an intrusive aftertaste, as if "the conscious" knew in advance what the "straggling peasants" need.

So we went there, talking, telling them what we were doing, and leaving open the possibility that they formed their own library: the decision, after all, must be communal and sovereign.

There was a lot of doubt floating about: the history of our people is a mass of absences and broken promises. The book was always an alien character, and when it was present: an improper, irresolute neighbor.

So I began to read one of our books, those that try to be an extension of our assembled elders; those books that have been born of our own seed and our own crop.

Now the eyes were different:

"I need those books for my children," a community member said suddenly. “Come to my community: there we are not shy, there we are already decided."

That night we formed the first rural library in the province of Santa Cruz.

How come we have not been there for 46 years? That is no longer the question: these wanderings are always new.

Yossi reading

My name is Yossy Katherine Carranza Guevara, I am sixteen years old and I am from San Luis de Lucma, in the province of Cutervo.

Reading for me is magic: when I read or take up a book I immerse myself in its words. There are words that make me laugh, or make me cry. Reading is my life because I love to read: it is incredible to jump into stories and hallucinate that I am the author.

Rural libraries helped me a lot because one of the main inspirers was the Coordinator of my area, bringing books. With my classmates we read and it was there where I discovered that I loved reading, it impassioned me. That is why reading is now my passion.

It pains me that many people do not place so much importance on reading; more prefer to go to the internet and all that, when they could, for example, read works. But they no longer read them, they buy the movies instead and watch them on TV.

There we have a great challenge.

In the Geography Congress

Our sister Nathalia Quintero, volunteer of the Network, traveled to Tacna to participate in the Congress of Geography with the paper titled: Books and rural geographies: the case of the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca - Peru.

There she presented some reflections on the cultural geography of books and the Andean geography of Cajamarca; she told the audience who the readers, writers and speakers of the Network of Rural Libraries are: where, how and what they read, write and talk about.

In her presentation she stressed that: "the campesinos, community members of Cajamarca members of the Library Network, are deeply linked to life and happiness. They are part of a sacred vision of nature, united with the enunciating and creative force of solidarity and encounter; to the complementary rhythm of the soil: of their farm and their crops, which are food, water, living substance of the land they love, care for and protect.

Nathalia emphasized that in the Network we do not stop examining the meaning of the task, the impacts of the actions, the reasons that founded us and allow us to be present even today; we ask ourselves about the kind of society we dream and deserve, for the world we want for our children, for the reverence and sacredness we owe to the land, the water, the Apus, the deceased, our food, the sustenance of a life worth living. And she made it clear, as we usually do in a coherent and consistent way, the nonnegotiable position in the defense of nature.

The Network also reaches academic universes where it moves, inspires and, as Professor Miroslawa Czerny said, fills with optimism because it makes one feel that yes, it is possible!

Launch of the Cajabamba Tourist Inventory

At the end of September the presentation of the book 'Tourist inventory of the province of Cajabamba' was held during the traditional cultural night held in the framework of the celebrations of this province of Cajamarca.

In the presentation that our brother Alfredo made, he emphasized the usefulness of books like these, since they offer relevant information of the territory itself, of what we love and that makes us feel proud. Cajabamba, said Alfredo, "has countless fortunes, and this book is a mirror in which we can rediscover them as we look at ourselves. That is to say, in these pages we see ourselves reflected as the earth and the beauty with which we have been made is reflected". He emphasized the effort, persistence and love with which Miguel Rodríguez Sánchez and Miguel Rodríguez Roncal - authors of the book - have directed their research and projects.

The tourist inventory of Cajabamba joins the circulation of the books by the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca. It is a sample of the passion for places and geographies, seals of the vital presence of nature, time and space, of the permanence and memory of the people.

It is the moment to congratulate the authors and to exalt the bonds of an imperishable friendship, that has crossed times, dissertations, learnings, teachings and the deep passion to know the environment that inhabits us all.

Wanderings in Cuntumazá

"Colladar mountain announces rains: the apu has put on a cap," said Alfredo. They are the signs that nature in her fullness- by the roads towards Contumazá - showed us. We could say that this province, besides being "Land of intellectuals and good wheat", as announces a huge poster at the entrance of the town, is land of librarians and community members, as the movement of books, readings and conversations daily encourage families from Cuntumazá. And the encounters had heart and feeling.

With the family of Ramiro Yglesias, coordinator of the area, Doña Isabel, her son Javier and the pleasant company of Roque Florián, veteran coordinator of the sector La Cocha, we learned the meaning of the word Community, how this way of land tenure works, the difficulties and the organizational strategies.

With Andres Léon, another of the network's veteran librarians, we had an interview to recall the beginnings, his recollections of Father John Medcalf and Alfredo Mires ("When he was a little one" he told us).

With Marcos Florián, librarian of Taya El Colal, we also had a memorable encounter. He, with enthusiasm, showed his rescue book full of letters, memories, wisdom and simplicity; the words, drawings and peasant knowledge made available to be published, to share and enliven our voices.

Contumazá is really a province of immense community members; they, with the books, the readings and the writings of their own traditions, have made of the Network of Rural Libraries an exemplary experience for all this family.

Interview

On 18th September, the first program was broadcast ofRadiolibros (Radiobooks), on Radio Nacional del Perú (National Radio of Peru). For this occasion they interviewed our brother Alfredo Mires Ortiz about the experience and work of our Network.

Here the interview link (which starts about halfway through the program):

http://www.radionacional.com.pe/audios/radiolibros/radiolibros-ya-esta-en-el-aire 

In Catache

At the end of September we traveled to Catache, in the province of Santa Cruz. There we met with teachers, students, authorities and parents interested in learning about our Rural Libraries.

The participants of the meeting - at the San Agustín de Catache Educational Institution - watched, listened and spoke: they were the creators of a moment in which sensitivities sprang up and projections flourished.

How is it possible to forget the words of a communal authority when he said that, in his 72 years of life, he had never heard a proposal like ours. Or the words of one of the young teachers, recognizing with joy the fact of being a peasant and to be proud of the dignified and firm references of the agricultural tradition. How is it possible to forget the reflective and attentive look of all the participants and the words of our brother Alfredo saying that reading is a developer of the mind, that reading is a frank passion and that the book is a source in which we can see ourselves ...

The participants, in communion, wove with words the possible encounters, the possible community and educational links; they laid out the haystack of joint projects where books, readings, stories, traditions, the Andean world and a future reading plan can open up vibrant and generous paths where we will most surely walk together.

Coming alive in Santa Cruz

Memories of the roads traveled at the end of September, previous conversations, rock art sanctuaries to be visited and the exuberant sacred and planetary geography united with the immense and warm presence of the people of the community of Poroporo, in the district of Catache, Cajamarcan province of Santa Cruz.

In all these years, we had never been an institution in Santa Cruz: so we traveled there after much coordination by telephone and correspondence with Prof. Luis Calderón, who also acted as our gracious guide.

Our brother Alfredo, to the rhythm of some stories collected in the communities of Cajamarca and published by the Network, demonstrated how the voices of the community members extend from province to province, from family to family, from heart beat to heart beat through the extensive territory of Cajamarca. Alfredo exalted the treasure that is being a farmer: to cultivate and to read the earth, to live in community; he explained how it is to work as volunteers, with books, readings and rescue of the traditions of our peasant communities and the ways of doing it.

Many interested eyes and hearts, enthused, showed that they wanted to have the books in their hands. Many voices told how many stories they have to relate, how many meetings are left to go forward.

The community assembly decided to form its Rural library.

After delivering the batch of books and choosing their librarian, the community of Poroporo integrated into this desire to read and be read, to write and be heard, to meet letters, conversations and presences.

We welcome teacher Gabriel Paz, the new librarian, and the entire community of Poroporo. It is an immense joy that they are part of this family of the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca and that together we start this walk, this journey, this communal beat.

In the communities of Socota

At the beginning of September our sister Rita Mocker travelled to Sócota, in the province of Cutervo, to visit the Community Program Coordinators in the area, accompanied by Ilse, a visitor, and Hannah, a volunteer for the Network. The green of the mountains and the song of the river welcomed us to this pleasant village.

In the house of Abel we had a meeting with the parents and children in his charge. The mothers had made a great effort to come, they were animated and in a good mood. Rita talked with each mother and child to see how they were doing and whether to start some other therapy or support them in some other way. Coordinator Nadia also came and attended the meeting: we were very impressed with the effort that the coordinators and the families of the children are making. And we very much regret the death of one of the children: we think a lot about his mother and all his family.

The next day we left early to the town of San Luis de Lucuma, and with Abel we visited some children in the village of Chilac. In the afternoon we met in San Luis de Lucma with the coordinator Luz Nelva and the children she attends. Rita talked to each child and their mom or dad and showed them some exercises and foot and face massage.

The last day of our stay we visited the coordinator Angela in the town of Huarrago. Arriving, Angela introduced us to the teacher and her daughter Aldana's classroom, and the girl Fiorela who is also in the Community Program. The two girls, attending classes every day, were attentive to the teacher's instruction, and had become good friends with their classmates, thanks to the efforts of Angela and the teacher. During the meeting at Angela's house, we met all the children in her care, as well as their fathers and mothers.

For lunch the adults cooked, while with the children chopped fruits to make a salad. For dessert, Ilse prepared a quinoa mazamorra with fruit salad that we all liked! To end the meeting, Ilse gave a short presentation on nutrition, explaining what we can eat to feed ourselves. Quinoa, an ancestral grain native to the Andean highlands, has a nutritional value that can not be compared to any other grain. In addition to being good to eat, it is easy to plant, so everyone should leave a little space on their farm to grow their quinua. We give our sincere thanks to those who voluntarily support the Community Program and who accompany us in our work!

Upon returning to Cajamarca on Thursday, we said goodbye to the coordinators, the children and their families, and the beautiful valley of Sócota, with a heart full of good cheer.

A new encounter

The last training encounter of the Community Program for this year was carried out during the first weekend of September. Unfortunately, for various reasons, not all coordinators could participate in this event. We know that they are the first to regret his absence, since our meetings are not only to learn and share, but above all to meet in family.

After this shared weekend we received a very pleasant and kind mail from our Colombian sister Nathalia Quintero who participated actively during this meeting. Here we share her words with you:

“I would like to congratulate you on the Encounter; the proposed agenda was excellent and its development orderly, illustrative and essential for the attendees. Infinite thanks for all your teachings, your immense wisdom, generosity and clarity to illustrate essential themes for the 'healing' coordinators of the program. They are very important subjects for anyone - how much I learned listening to you!

With all my admiration and affection.

Strong hugs!"

Thank you, Nathalia, for encouraging and accompanying our way.