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.”