Keshpe: the blessing

In the ancient Andean tradition, keshpe is a special gift, something unique, a blessing from nature. It is like a revelation, from the simplest to the most complex: one is eating a plate of peas when - suddenly - he stumbles upon one that has not been cooked, which is very hard and shines with a different color. That is a keshpe. A stone, a plant, a wind ... "It is my luck", we say.

I never thought that a keshpe could also be a human. Until today.

Almost 20 years ago, Jesús Quispe (the last name Quispe comes from keshpe) was integrated as the first volunteer Coordinator of Rural Libraries in the remote community of Pión; In a short time another colleague replaced him and we no longer heard from him. That sector of our Network was then without coordinator for a long time, until just a few years ago, Jesus called me to ask if he could return. When we met, he said to me:

- I have cancer, teacher, but I will be able to.

And yes it could.

He walked through each of his communities, encouraging: “Read! There is no such thing as this! ”

He traveled two whole days to Lima to receive therapy. One of those days he calls:

- Professor, can we form Rural Libraries in Huánuco?

"Jesus," I said, "Huánuco is another region and it is very far away!"

- It's just that I am here with several friends, undergoing chemotherapy, and I am telling them about our Rural Libraries. You want to see how excited they are! And one from Huánuco was already encouraged to form them in his community.

Jesus (as the Carpenter's Son was called) Quispe (from Keshpe: the blessing) was inexhaustible: he did not want to miss any Network Assembly; formed more than 20 libraries; he filled his Rescue Notebooks with what the elders of his community had taught him ...

A couple of months ago, the doctors discharged him.

"Professor," he said, "I have already spoken to my compadre Segundo Custodio so that he assumes the Coordination.

Today is 18th May. Doña Eva, his beloved wife, just called me to say that Jesus has died.

In the midst of this drowning sadness, I am convinced: the earth, blessed Mother, sent Jesus Quispe Delgado to enlighten us, to teach us, to encourage us. To give us an example of what it means to emerge and keep walking, despite our troubles.

Alfredo Mires Ortiz,

Network Coordinator

Jesús Quispe, brother

At the first Assembly this year, Jesús Quispe, our brother from the Pión area, was missed a lot: he could not arrive due to new tests and other medical treatment he had in Lima.

All the attendees gathered in this community meeting of our Rural Library Network took a photo and sent a loving greeting, to remember us all together. We would see him again soon, we thought… But today, Monday 18th May 2020, Jesus set out on his eternal walk and we were left with the deep sadness of not seeing, hugging and hearing him once again.

The death of Jesus intensifies our sorrow for the departure of other loved ones who are members of this ayllu Network: Juan Medcalf, Sarah Heery, Oscar Garay, David Osoro ... Each of them is a star that lights up the dark for us and a void that we never stop filling with your memories!

Jesus, present!

He taught us a lot, brother Jesus: with simplicity, humility, patience and, above all, with good humor. Today he has become an impulse to keep going, despite the pain we feel for his absence.

He has always been and will continue to be a great example. And how can we not follow, if he always arrived punctually to the Assemblies, challenging the long journey; and sang and laughed with us; if despite his ailments he walked enthusiastically to visit and form new libraries, carrying books and collecting culture; if he never stopped calling to greet us and send his greetings to other brothers and sisters. He used the hospital wards to share stories. He became a light of hope for many; he trained many and always accompanied us.

Today, this library family mourns his departure.

But we are also proud to have our brother here with us.

Guatemala, Portugal and Cajamarca

The National Library of Peru invited our brother Alfredo Mires Ortiz to participate in a discussion, via the internet, entitled: The nearby library, close to the community, coordinated by Gonzalo Oyarzún and in the company of two other speakers from Guatemala and Portugal.

We highlight some essential elements that Alfredo referred to in his reflection:

- The temptation to circumscribe the gaze and our dedications to the area of ​​our chapels. With this he was referring to the excess of importance that libraries can have as buildings, downplaying what is happening outside, which, for the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca, is found in the land and the rhythm of peasant life, "in our communities, as a people, as a nation, as a collective".

- He indicated: “the readers in the communities where we are are not users: they are our family, they are real and concrete friends and companions. They are not “target population” or “beneficiary population”.

- He said that "the mere mechanical transfer of foreign content disavows endogenous knowledge." He called for the recognition of our own culture. Because it is essential that “our libraries are inhabited by the knowledge of the whole world, but from everyone, and, especially, from us. If not, libraries are piously colonizing."

It is always enlightening to listen to Alfredo: thanks to him and to those who do not forget their important role in Peru and Latin America.

The video is available at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPf7hlBHa0 

Our actions define us

More than two months have passed since we entered isolation or quarantine.

Endorsing all measures is not only a matter of self-care: it is to show solidarity with those who are most vulnerable. But something is seriously failing in the solidarity of the entire country ...

Our relatives who are on the farm do not have what they need at home to spend these days: some products have went up in price and there is no transportation to sell products in other places. That worries us: as the year has not been good with the rains and the frosts have already started, the crops will surely be lost.

If we all became aware and were more sensitive to this situation, we could improve. Especially after being the cause, too, of this terrible disaster.

May the gods and humans want our solidarity to shine brighter at this time.

Pandemic and community

In April Alfredo Mires Ortiz, Executive Advisor to the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca, was invited to participate in a cycle of conversations via the Internet: "Covid-19 under debate: Perspectives, contexts and subjectivities", with the theme "Pandemic and community".

He specified what community implies: “a form of perception based on vital links with the whole environment. A sense of affiliation in which mountains, rivers, humans, animals, plants, stones, stars, winds, and souls share the same umbilical cord and, as such, interact and complement each other. ”

In turn, he recounted the history of viruses, pandemics and diseases that have decimated our peoples since the European invasion. He recalled that the Indians were the fuel for the Spanish colonialist productive system: "Here the plague that killed the most was greed, permanent aggression, the destruction of traditional kinship patterns, and the imposition of a system based on exploitation, dispossession and contempt."

Alfredo outlined what community kinship implies: “affinities and communions, coherence and consequences, eurythmies and memories; fraternity and communications; tunes and comradeships; rooting and junctions; concordances and correspondences; idylls and caresses.”

Thank you, partner, for your teachings and clarity!

"The dead do not commit suicide"

Esteban Pavletich manages to build a dramatic and intense novel that has the mountain city of Huánuco as its geographical axis, and the story of Don Apolinario Torrejón who, through his newspaper, was recounting the sufferings and misfortunes of those who were forced to work on the hacienda “El Triunfo”, centre of agricultural exploitation and, at the same time, prison and empire of oppression and impiety, belonging to the leader Aníbal Morand.

Pavletich's work manages to show with genius and social criticism the circumstances in which hundreds, thousands of our brothers lived: Indians, mestizos, cholos, humble and simple people, on the hacienda; at the same time he manages to describe the characteristics of the rough and rugged geographies of Peru, the jungle, the mountains; It also shows some customs of the Andean peoples when playing “jaraijarai”, an indigenous diversion used to liven up wakes; or the detailed descriptions of the coca chewing.

You are invited to recognize and read more about this great Peruvian author!

Radialists

José Ignacio López Vigil is a radio communicator and trainer. Together with his sister María, journalist and writer of testimonial and children's literature, founded radialistas.net (based in Quito, Ecuador), “a production center serving all continents, which contributes to the democratization of communications from the perspectives of gender, citizenship and defense of Mother Earth”, as they themselves sustain.

There are various radio programs, critical and awareness, based on the social reality of Latin America. Among the best known are 'Un paisano told me', as well as the '500 years' series, based on Eduardo Galeano's book The Open Veins of Latin America.

Rumi Mires, a volunteer for the Network, grew up as a child with these radio series: he listened to them over and over again, got to know them end to end, and, growing up, subscribed to radialistas.net.

For a number of months now, Rumi has been studying for a master's degree in Quito and had the opportunity to meet and get to know José Ignacio López Vigil, a long-time friend of our Network and our brother Alfredo.

Rumi was delighted with this meeting and also received as a gift a copy of Killaricocha, a radio production that focuses, in many ways, on the struggle of the people of Cajamarca against extractivist predation.

Rumi has shared this production in the Reading Circles of the Network: an impressive experience.

Thank you, Rumi; Thank you, José Ignacio and radio players!

Recital by word

Our sister Marleny Oliveira, Coordinator of the Network in the province of San Ignacio, extended the invitation to participate in a virtual poetic recital to commemorate Language and Book Day, on 23rd April.

Our brother Alfredo was invited to this virtual meeting, who shared some couplets of his “Resuellos - Coplitas de andar vive”:
"Where does the sentry 
of the world's oxygen lie?
-in his burning garden,
in the deepest pain"
(Bagua, for 5th June)

For P. Juan Bottasso

Following the publication of nº 6 of “Decires y Escritos”, with the title «The Earth in Heaven - Homage to P. Juan Bottasso», Sr. Wendy Cotter, CSJ, a friend of our colleague Alfredo, wrote a comment about her reading that - with her permission - we share here:

"Thank you very much for sending me this moving tribute to Father Bottasso, who also reveals something of your own journey, a journey that Father Bottasso would consider wonderful and bearing so much fruit.

Your tribute made me want to listen to Father Bottasso and I looked for some speech he could have given, some recording. I find him charismatic and so learned, so rooted in reality and understanding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQo-lRFdvHE 

This video was recorded on December 20, 2018, almost exactly a year before his passing. Father Juan died on Christmas Eve: there is a great symbol there.

It is the night when our hopes for a savior are finally fulfilled: a new life saving lives.

He seems like a person who affirmed and supported, celebrated the gift of life and freedom and respect for each person, each people. His tribute told me what inspiration he was, and as an inspired person, that same inspiration can be passed on to everyone.

A hug

Wendy ”