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.

Library in San Martín

Professor Gabriela García, librarian of our Network of Rural Libraries at the Educational Institution Don José de San Martín de Porres, located in the San Martín de Porres Town Centre, province of Jaén, recently opened the rural library with a Reading Festival with the participation of students and professors from both San Martín and the Sacred Heart and Magllanal, institutions that also have their rural library.

This collective effort in Jaén is a cause for joy. We congratulate and thank the entire team of teachers that accompanies us in this community task with reading and books.

Challenges for literacy

Our brother Alfredo Mires was invited as a panelist at the First Meeting “On the 2019-2021 literacy route”, held in Cajamarca. Here are some contributions from his presentation:

“Being illiterate does not imply a reduction in the human and sapient condition. And knowing how to read and write the words can be a blessing, but at the same time, it can also be a distraction from other forms of memory and communication. ”

"If we do not know the roots of our own culture, no matter how beautiful and clear a project may seem, it will always be invasive and colonizing."

“In general, the first victim of literacy is sovereignty, because literacy does not decide the language, method, teacher and, in most cases, not even the reason for learning to read and write "

"Literacy becomes an affirmation of denial: "You don't know," he says, and from this submission what we could call the teaching is exercised."

“Except for honourable exceptions, it is literate in the standard or dominant language, not in the parent language and, even less, in local speech.”

"What are the challenges in this regard?: teach the grammar that governs a language or understand and respect the culture of speech?"

"Eradicating illiteracy does not mean eradicating the causes that originate it."

“Literacy cannot be a suppressive process. And the ways of learning do not have to be tributary to the system.”

"It is valuable to learn to read to fit our ability to understand reality, and learn to write to strengthen our ability to transform it."

“That is why we are also convinced that there is a vein of the future in that extraordinary reason that constitutes Orality.

In sum, we can argue that in any literacy action, at least four considerations should prevail:

1. The sovereign decision of the people or groups to be literate.

2. That the places in which these processes are developed are frank spaces of trust.

3. That the literacy task does not suppress one's own culture or other forms of communication.

4. That the materials to be used should be constructed from the cultural tradition, with the authority of the words of each community.”

In Jaén

 

At the beginning of September we were with the students and teachers of the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Jaén, who concentrated on two days of workshop and joint conversation, we were able to deepen on issues related to Identity and dignity, colonialism and hegemonic patterns, reading and Qualitative research techniques.

Thanks to Professor Sara Moreno for the invitation, to the managers for their support and to the students for their welcome and encouragement.

Workshops in Cajabamba

Cajabamban teachers invited us again to continue training on “Read for others” strategies and reflections on education, school, and ways of reading.

There are many questions and lessons, we have to keep thinking about issues as deep as those proposed by our brother Alfredo: at whose service is education? What kind of human being do we want to form? What is the dream of education?

These questions accompany the conception that inspires the Network of Rural Libraries and the desire, as in the case of Cajabamban teachers, to think that other education is possible.

Primordial Shrines

As we had announced, the book “Primordial Sanctuaries: Rock Art in Cajamarca, Peru”, was presented on 22nd August.

The room was full and, although it was not a Tinku (Encounter), many of the participants brought something to share, so we set out the joijona, the long blanket that represents the food in community.

Various interventions took place that night, from the welcome of Javier Huamán, General Coordinator of the Network; Helen Heery's comments; the reading of a letter sent by Kyra Grewe and the central presentation made by Manuel Angulo and Miguel Rodríguez.

The friends of “Lugareando” did an interview with our brother Alfredo Mires, author of this book; This can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDulZfvlTwk

'Aguacero' - Downpour

With the offering to the land, the presentation of the movie ‘Books and clouds’ and a panel in which the participants were: Alfredo Mires Ortiz, Executive Advisor; Lola Paredes Saldaña, Internal Coordinator and José Isabel Ayay Valdez, Library Coordinator and Veteran Member, the Cajamarca Rural Library Network was present at this meeting in August, organized by the APU Cultural Association and fraternal associations.

We feel encouraged that a group of young Cajamarcans want to know the principles and actions undertaken by our Network, which since 1971 has been "With books in the Earth."

To them and to all the attendees, thank you very much!

Helen and Trudy

In August we had the gratifying visit of Helen Heery and Trudy Brannan, who day after day, tirelessly work for the proposal of the Network of Rural Libraries through Sarah’s Rural Library Fund.

Helen and Trudy were at our house, meeting with the Central Team and visiting some libraries, walking and chatting together about new adventures; assessing achievements and limitations, celebrating the paths and looking for alternatives to deal with difficulties.

Thank you companions for your presence, your trust and all the effort to support reading, community and the value of our culture.

'Tinku' of the launch

A few weeks ago, in our institutional premises, we had the valuable presence of the Cajamarcan public who showed their appreciation for our work and their enjoyment of our books, in the presentation of “Coplita de los coplares- The singing of songs in peasant verses, inspiration of and authored by our brother Alfredo Mires, and the presentation volume 22 of our Peasant Encyclopaedia: "The why of the when." These presentations were entrusted to teachers Milton Gonzales Tafur and Yolanda Corcuera, who presented the gifts of these publications in a very lively manner and with great solvency.

For us, as an educational-cultural movement, each presentation of new books does not mean releasing more bibliographic material “to the market” as a commercial opportunity: for us, the most fruitful gain is the reading of these books, the traces they leave behind in each reader, both in the rural communities and in the cities, the recognition of the communities, the learning that children and young people obtain, the inheritance that we receive on each page from our people, from the people who know most.

Our Network sees the birth of each book as the hope of improving the world, recovering the dignity of people and perpetuating Andean knowledge.

Thank you very much to those who are always with us.