Space, voice and vote

In November, the Community Program stopped: as we do every year, we take time to review and evaluate our work.

It is good to remember what fails us, celebrate what we achieve and together, plan the next steps. And it is even better if we do it as a family.

This time we had the opportunity to share this experience with the Parent Groups of Huayrasitana, Numbral, Conga Blanca, Rejopampa and several other communities of Chota.

And it wasn't just the adults who talked: also children with projectable abilities had space, voice and vote in this process. For that we apply different techniques and open new forms of participation to strengthen consensus.

Thank you all for making these meetings possible!

The BRIEs shine

On November 28, the BRIE (Rural Library in Educational Institution) was formally inaugurated in IE Ricardo Palma, San José de Lourdes district, San Ignacio province.

Students and teachers attended with a spirit that we would like to see multiplied in more communities.

“They have put their hearts into it and it shows in the librarian's smile,” said Marleny Olivera, Coordinator of our Network in the area.

The librarian is Deysi Olivia Pintado Camacho: for her and hers, ours, we send an embrace of many arms.

The ñaupas help us

In the Community Program we have younger and younger parents, and their children present what ‘officially’ is known as temporary disability, that is, learning difficulties, hyperactivity or behavioral problems.

As a strategy and to remind parents that they are responsible for the life and improvement of their children, a few years ago we printed papers where our coordinators write together the tasks for parents. "Help me every day with my speech therapies" or "Take me for a walk three times a week," you can read on these personalized posters.

Gino and Kelvin have greatly improved their mood with these highlighted responsibilities. Now they pay more attention and do their homework even better, help at home and know how good it is to behave beautifully.

You will see how happy the family is!

Magdalena reads

Our friend José Julio Estela continues to send us photos, celebrating the spirit of reading that has been awakened in Magdalena with our books.

We join that celebration!

25 years: words sprout

The voice of Fiorela (a girl from the community of Huarrago, province of Cutervo) and a member of the Community Program for the Accompaniment of Children with Projectable Capacities, began the reading of ‘Gabi's eyes’; then Alfredo told how Gabi (the girl with cerebral palsy) "spoke" with her eyes and told him what is written in this booklet.

Rita, responsible for the Program for 25 years, recalled how this enthusiasm was born in a General Assembly of Librarians of the Network, through which the spirit became collective and from that moment the books, therapies, support of coordinators with natural medicine, advice on food, care and treatment of children was and has been the guiding star of the Program.

The voice of Mara and Rumi and the volunteer Coordinators were present, relating the impact and transcendence that the Community Program has had in their lives.

The voice of all, full of admiration and respect for the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca that celebrates, in one of its Programs, the permanence of goodness, love and absolute dedication to the cause of peasant families, who require a voice of support, encouragement and a thousand community voices saying that we are not alone, that here we are, we are all.

Congratulations Rita, coordinators, families for their first 25 years of precious work!

Mayra learns to read

Mayra lives in Liuchucolpa, in the highlands of Bambamarca, province of Hualgayoc. After three years she was integrated into the Community Program for the accompaniment of children with projectable capacities, by our coordinator Nanci Huamán.

At this time, Mayra could not walk. Nanci prepared rubs of traditional Andean remedies that she had learned from her mother. She also massaged Mayra: little by little, the girl took her first steps.

Now Mayra runs and also goes to school. There she learns, although with difficulty. Camila, Nanci's daughter, is Mayra's classmate and helps her with difficult tasks. Happily they were blessed by a conscientious teacher, with much patience. 

Mayra still has a hard time spelling, but she loves the stories of the Rural Library Network which call her attention a lot.

We are sure that Mayra - with the help of our elders' words - will one day be reading even better!

So in the flowers as in the fire

The hummingbird, ‘winged deity’, is the center of the work that our brother Alfredo wanted to share, years ago, in this book published by the Rural Library Network of Cajamarca.

These letters offer the most varied gifts: if your interest lies in the sacredness, the soul and the depths of the Andean peoples; in the way of life, bodily characteristics and the character of the hummingbird; if you want to know about the Andean peoples and other worldviews; if the  stories, myths and legends call you; if you want poetry, drawings and community inspiration; if you want to refresh your eyes with the beautiful iconography of our winged god; if you seek a sensitive approach and, at the same time deep, stuck to the earth and, at the same time, supported by sources ... in sum, if you want to simply inhabit other worlds other than the frantic, polluted, arrogant and commercial world of today, immerse yourself in So in the flowers as in the fire: you will be moved, shocked and in love with the birds and the flowers, of the Andean and peasant world; of this earth, our spirit and the hummingbirds, our order-givers, fertilizers and eternal shamans.

Beautifying reading

Our sister Marleny Olivera, our Coordinator in the province of San Ignacio, has sent us recent photos of the IE Rural Library “Ricardo Palma”, in the San José de Lourdes district.

"They have created the space with love!" Marleny tells us.

How not to believe in this infusing force of joinings and growth?

In this way it pleases to enter the universes of reading!

Congratulations and hugs.

Street Parade in Jaén

Within the framework of the First Book Fair in the province of Jaén, the Educational Institution "Sacred Heart" took to the streets to encourage reading, to promote reading with position and heart with its Rural Library.

What an inspiring march they made on 31^st October!

Infusing courage with every step is also one of our challenges.

Tamborín and the architect

‘Tamborín and the architect’, a book written by Father Miguel Garnett, an English priest, nationalized in Peru, has been published by our Network.

Father Miguel toured the Cajamarcan countryside with Juan Medcalf many years ago and is a personal friend of our brother Alfredo, so he knows about the network's wanderings.

This novel is made up of the presence of a farmer with great wisdom –inspired by our brother Pascual Sánchez Montoya, community and veteran volunteer of the Network–, an architect raised in Lima but in search of his mountain origins; a cemetery and the stories of families, conflicts, mausoleums and epitaphs.

References to the wakes and the washing of the deceased's clothes, as well as to the Andean culture on “the narrow roads and valleys where serpentine rivers run, the goblins, the apus, the enchanted forests, the birds and the animals that speak."

Allusions to the history of Peru; to ideals and struggles. To the art of construction and design. Reflections on life, love, death; the bewilderment and frustration. About costumes and nudity. On diseases of the soul and the encounter with the cure: "Tamborín was a kind of healer with very humble origins and with a capacity to heal wounds."

From the richness of orality and the ability to tell histories and stories “… being illiterate is a certain poverty, but it also has its richness (…) The richness of memory. People like my father have fabulous memories. My father must have heard hundreds of stories and legends; stories told at night around the stove. He always remembered them all. It was as if he had a library in his head.”

This work is also a tribute to books and reading, to the people who lend, give or facilitate others to read, as do the volunteer members of the Network who, after celebrating 50 years, continue to do the honourable work to circulate the books that, in addition to speaking and instructing the universal and Peruvian culture, make known the traditions, stories and teachings of Cajamarca's culture.

Trail of books

Our friend José Julio Estela arrived at the headquarters with two bags full of brochures on different topics: literature, history, language, laws, ecology and environment, health, recipes and others.

Thank you very much, José Julio. Soon these materials will begin to be shared in the field.

Launch of Tamborín

"Tamborín and the Architect" of Father Miguel Garnett and edited by our Network, was launched to the public on 18^th October of this year.

It is a book that fills the rural library family with joy because the main protagonist is our beloved brother Pascual Sánchez Montoya, from the community of Chuco, in the province of San Marcos.

Pascualito is a villager who with only a few years of primary education and despite the long work in the field, there has always been time to read and promote reading; He did not attend a university or any "superior" institution, but his vast knowledge and wisdom matches the specialists and the learned.

At some point in the history of the Network, Pascual was General Coordinator; he visited and accompanied with humility and commitment the work of the Rural Libraries in many communities.

Pascual could not be present in the presentation of this book that we consider a deserved tribute to him, however, we feel accompanied by his good energy and his enormous wisdom.

Thank you, Pascual. Thank you, Teacher Earth.

25 years of the Community Program

Let the words sprout ...

25 years ago, the coordinators of the Community Program for the accompaniment of children with projectable capacities began to take the first steps in the rural communities of Cajamarca.

Today, 15^th November, the Network will be commemorating this date. We invite you to participate in this celebration.

We know that not all who belong or have been part of this journey at some time can be present personally. But we also know of your love and solidarity that has no limits or borders.

We will be together, all, as a family, as always.

In Magdalena

Our friend José Julio Estela took with him, to the Magdalena district, Cajamarca, a collection of our Peasant Library - Series “And other stories”.

After only a few days he already wrote to us with lively enthusiasm:

“It's amazing what can be done. The students of the school were very motivated and at recess they continued reading and listening to what others were reading. Then they told stories and drew. There are some who have already signed up to tell their own stories! 

Then, from other classrooms, all these children asked to read Cajamarcan stories in their free time. Thank you for the gift of Rural Libraries: these stories fascinate children!”

Encounters

The enthusiasm and commitment of our brother Alfredo Mires and of the coordinators of Rural Libraries, of our entire organization and of the organizations that show solidarity with us, are making possible the promotion of reading and the rescue of our culture in Educational Institutions of different communities.

The Encounter of Rural Libraries with the Educational Institutions in our Base has been an opportunity to feel, once again, proud of our roots and, as good community members, to share techniques and strategies to attend libraries, learn together, celebrate our achievements and reflect on our shortcomings.

And, as if that were not enough, to enjoy the oral tradition embodied in the books produced by the Network and the taste of our produce that came together again in the common pot.

What a school of solidarity and life we share here!

Pleasant visit

We received the visit of the Contumacino painter Óscar Corcuera Osores. By the hand of his daughter Rocío, they came to the headquarters of our Network of Rural Libraries in Cajamarca to learn about the experience and present the book that the Corcuera family published about Oscar E. Corcuera Florián, born in 1885.

We appreciate and celebrate the pleasant visit.

New BRIE

After a workshop in Cajabamba, teacher Sonia Eslava was encouraged and encouraged her community of the educational institution to apply together for their rural library; so today the children, families, and teachers of EI No. 82289 have their rural library to read more and better our land, our Cajamarcan traditions and learn to be more together, in community.

Mrs. Antonia Loya Torres is the librarian of this BRIE (Rural Library in Educational Institution), to whom we congratulate and thank her enthusiasm.

In San Juan de Cuñacales

And now the community of San Juan de Cuñacales, in the province of Hualgayoc, already has its rural library.

Many thanks to our brother Víctor Carranza, Sector Coordinator and animator of the initiative. Congratulations!

Live without bubbles

I arrived in Ecuador recently, for reasons of studies.

Just about to reach the border, the bus staff told us that due to the strike that had started there, we might not reach our destination. However, I managed to get to Quito and, there, an unexpected blow of reality changed my perception of the continent and its people.

In Ecuador, a decree that multiplied the cost of fuel had recently been approved and, therefore, the cost of living had doubled. A friend told me that, for example, his father - who works in the distribution of food in the city - used an estimated $10 to cover a full day's work; as a result of that decree, he now invested about $26 per day.

In the following days, the struggle worsened with the insertion of indigenous organizations and the deployment of state forces throughout the country.

Within the universities - to my great and pleasant surprise - aid brigades were organized for the comrades who day by day defended the sovereignty of their people.

It would be not only commendable but also necessary that, in Peru, the great centres of studies became a benchmark for change in similar times, which in my homeland are not lacking. Because it is very good to promote research and cultivation of the intellect, but this work must always be accompanied by activities for solidarity and social good. Problems in our continent are never lacking, so we cannot be indifferent to situations like this, especially if they are directly or indirectly the engine of our knowledge development. Stop living in a bubble and start feeling reality, getting off the absurd pedestals imposed by society.

Rumi Mires, October 2019

1st Meeting of the BRIE

On September 13, 14 and 15, we held our First Meeting of Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions, attended by students, teachers and directors of several provinces of Cajamarca who are already part of the great family of the Network, volunteers and librarians committed to Cajamarca's cultural tradition and those who are willing to undertake the task of inspiring transformative and critical reading. And to strengthen our ties with the land and the community.