"The book among us"

A few months ago I resumed my tasks as a volunteer for the network. I have been supporting the processing of statistical data regarding readers in our libraries, for which we have the files provided by the coordinators and librarians on the comings and goings of their readers.

In these registers (sometimes filled out even by children who manage the rural libraries in their families' homes), apparent spelling "errors" can be found regarding the titles of various books. For example, it is very common for La minshula y otros cuentos, the twentieth issue of our Biblioteca Campesina collection, to appear registered as La minshulay, which shows the cultural weight of our readers when they come into contact with books, since it lets us know not only that books have been read, but are also an important part of the communities where they are read; they have been adopted with the nomination of the readers themselves.

While transcribing these files into our digital system, I came across a title that seemed especially strange to me: The Book Among Us. I entered the book registration system, I looked for this name and nothing appeared ... I looked for the registration number and it was then that I realized the apparent error: in March 2010, the Network published a conference that our brother Alfredo Mires gave in a Librarianship Congress in Colombia, on the impact of our work on the peasant communities of Cajamarca. It is called The Book Among the Children of Atawalpa, and it was that text to which the register of readers referred.

I was astonished, because replacing - perhaps with a certain naivety - the expression "the children of Atawalpa" by a simple "we", has an immense cultural value and weight. This showed me that, despite everything that happened and continues to happen with our Cajamarcan culture, the descendants of the great Inca master and amauta are still alive and aware that, united and encouraged by the value of our own culture, we forge ourselves as a community.

Rumi Mires