48 years

In the Andean tradition, 48 years is a perfect and large number, powerful and pleasant.

For us it is a gift. To know that we are humbly alive and walking without giving up or complaining, with encouragement and stirring, with courage and contentment, accompanied by our living and our dead.

This March 31 we celebrate 48 years of journeying: we always have to thank the accompanying people and ask for amends for our mistakes.

In 1996, when we turned 25, our brother Juan Medcalf visited us to share the moment: he had left Cajamarca in 1982 and found himself in another experience ... Back in his native England, he wrote the article "Awakening in The Andes". Here a fragment:

"The occasion of my beginning with the coca was in a recent visit to Cajamarca, in the Andes of northern of Peru. A Network of 500 rural librarians was celebrating 25 years of activity and I, as its long-absent founder, had been invited to 3 days (and nights) of joint celebration at almost 3000 meters above sea level. The experience was an awakening to realities that I scarcely imagined as a young and inexperienced missionary.

My first insinuation of profound change was on the opening night. The inaugural greetings were given not in Spanish, the language imposed on the natives for about 500 years, but in the ancient Quechua language of the Inca civilization, supposedly condemned to extinction with the assassination of the Inca Atahualpa in 1533.

That night, for many hours, I savoured the bitter-sweet delights of the sacred coca leaves next to several hundred men and women from distant Andean communities. We sat in a circle, interweaving present, past and future in a fabric of realism. Many of them understood concepts such as the globalization of the economy and the commercial control of the media. Many of their brothers and sisters had left the mountains for the bright lights of Lima, where their identity would be lost in an opaque McDonaldized megalopolis of 7 million inhabitants. Their response was positive and was filled with a hope that can only be born of suffering ... "

Romero

On March 24, 1980, Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Saint Romero of America (who yes, would deserve the adjective of Saint as 'distinguished by God and his people') was killed by hired assassins of the "established order".

An extraordinary and community book that tells of his way is "Pieces for a portrait", which was worked and produced by María López Vigil.

Here, a fragment and the invitation to read the complete book:

There were several sessions, when we started it was already night and we caught the dawn discussing. Muyshondt was very cordial with Monsignor, but very hard with the demands of the workers.

- Without giving in, conflicts are not resolved, Monsignor insisted.

- But with violence you can not talk, said Muyshondt.

He wanted us to dismantle the strike and then negotiate. But our only weapon was union pressure in the factory and popular pressure in the street.

- What they do is violent - Muyshondt claimed to the bishop.

- But what they ask is fair, he argued.

They were days of great tension. Muyshondt was stubborn, we and Monsignor Romero decided on his permanent advice to the bosses.

- What does it cost to give in? - he said-. Given in, take off the rings in time so that they do not cut off your fingers. Whoever does not want to let go of the rings for justice risks being robbed by violence.

Re editions

The last General Assembly of our Network, at the beginning of February, made the decision to reprint several of our books.

So in that we walk, seeing the demands of reading in the countryside and trying to always satisfy the supply with our own productions.

Because books are not neutral, because knowledge is not neutral. And reading, apart from being a grace, is a blessing for ethics when it knows its cause.

At this moment, just two months after the Assembly's mandate, seven books (including new ones and reedits) are ready to enter the press and others are in the process of final correction.

We are little in the Central Network, but enthusiasm we don't lack. More hands are lacking, but our spirit multiplies the arms.

Message and Mystery

Professors Carlos Taype and Alejandro Pocco have sent us copies of their books "Mystery in the Andes" and "Millennial message of the man from Qanchis, Cusco".

From here our gratitude and sincere congratulations.

Knowing the work we carried out in our Network for the recovery of collective memory and the cultural roots of our peoples, they asked our brother Alfredo Mires to write a text for "Millennial Message ...", which addresses the presence of rock art in the peasant community of Tucsa.

We share a fragment of this text entitled "Growing Communities":

"In the case of our continent - and with greater emphasis on the case of the Andes - it is imperative to rethink our approaches and dismantle the gripping scaffolding of the imposed patterns.

Rock art, the oldest cultural evidence of our indigenous peoples, is most related - probably-  to the mutual, raising virtue of the natural and human communities, fundamentally with the presence of water.

This nurturing and fertile capacity -which prevails in the agricultural life of the current Andean communities-, should occupy the core and foundation of educational work in countries like ours.

Someone said that "There are more forgotten things to remember than new things to discover". In our case, the exceptional and wise roots of our history could be the best remedy against the scourge of ignorance and forgetfulness, against the scourge of corruption, vileness and excessive predatory greed."

City and contamination

One of the evils of the current era is the high pollution of cities. They tell us that these centres of agglomeration provide us with quality of life, that there we find means and resources to work and that, therefore, our existence will be better.

Yes, they are centres of concentration of people - and pollution; concentration of activities, goods and services - and also of consumerism, frenetic speed and dissatisfaction.

The urban centres are presenting the highest rates of air pollution. In large cities such as Lima in Peru and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the levels are alarming; But the issue is not new: in Chile and Mexico for quite some time serious problems have arisen in this aspect and travelling in this direction are Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia ...

However, the Andean peoples who remain in the fields, living from the sowing and under the peasant rhythm, know that another way of living is possible. More simple and less contaminated. A more austere life trying to filter the attacks of the messages that indicate to us that to consume more, to buy more and to waste, is better. A more humble life, but wiser; a life in greater harmony with our planet, with our earth.

For this reason, the rural families of the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca say yes to our land, yes to life in the countryside, yes to a life in greater plenitude, greater happiness, greater autonomy.

Nathalia Quintero

To play!

In mid-February, the coordinators of the Community Program arrived for the first time this year, in Cajamarca, for a training meeting.

The training and demand in this space are extensive, since the knowledge and skills of our coordinators depend on the achievements, advances, learning and possibilities so that many children with disabilities are better: their health, in some way, is also in our hands .

At this moment there are only eight coordinators committed to this task. Men and women of the countryside offer their time, dedication and courage to accompany children with disabilities: a strong, determined and valuable team that meets for this purpose.

Training among them is very pleasant. We learn from each other, with many practices, games and fun, because that is the best way to accompany children. Only in this way, with the spirit of a child, we achieve this relationship that is necessary to heal us.

Therefore, learning to play is one of the slogans of the Community Program. And our coordinators do it between laughs, efforts and affection.