1971-2021: Tribute to our Network - 2

In its bosom our memories and ancestors are sheltered. In its archives is the essence of everyone's voices: elders, women, children. In the Assemblies there is the heart of our entire family. In its books the names and stories of our people are captured. In its headquarters are the hands of the commoners. The Network is in each community, in each dear house with its books, in each reading circle, in each carefully worked farm, in each lagoon, in each apu, in each field and river, in the pumas, foxes and ulluays. In each hummingbird, in each flower, in each soul and heart of this great embracing ayllu.

We party and celebrate

Alfredo had his birthday and for us, the family of the Rural Libraries Network, it is a reason to party and celebrate.

We celebrated his day with sincere affection, although this year we had to do it through virtual greetings and hugs from a distance; but, yes, with a good green broth for breakfast and a beautiful and tasty Ñaupa cake.

And we celebrate the "Makings" of him, as he himself tells us in his book "Resuellos", the makings thanks to which he is who he is:

My chest is made of fertile land

Fertilized with memories

and I am seeded with the future

with the seeds of heaven.

The earth does her part

and water her daily ration

to form the mortar

of this life of solidarity.

In this family of the Network we give thanks for the "workings" with which Alfredo was forged: thanks to life, to water, to earth, to memories. And thank you also for all the wonderful beings that spring from that workmanship: solidarity, love for others, desires for justice. Thank you for his tenderness and also for his firmness, for his passion and his love of reading. But above all, thank you for him being himself and sharing himself with all of us.

Lola Paredes

And we are getting ready

There is not long left now 'til we celebrate 50 years of the Network, and although we will not be able to meet due to the complicated situation we are going through, we are all preparing with something: with readings, with stories, with books, telling anecdotes, encouraging each other with calls. We are waiting more than ever for the birth of new books, the arrival of new materials and thus we share this poster, which is already going out to the library communities.

Solidarity and smile

At the end of January, the Community Program of our Network received the generous donation of two wheelchairs from the Basic Special Education Resource Center: CREBE, Cajamarca.

With CREBE staff, for many years, we have been united by alliance, friendship and a common cause: we are volunteers in an effort of solidarity and justice for children with projected abilities.

Two children, with these wheelchairs, can now enjoy greater mobility and independence. At the same time, it provides their families with care in daily life: a child from Shillabamba who suffers from a degenerative disease and another from Rejopampa who was born with infantile cerebral palsy.

From here, we already imagine and celebrate the happiness of these families and the smile that we manage to bring to the faces of the children and their families.

On the path

With great respect and appreciation, we take a look at the effort made by us, the community members, who, proud of our peasant knowledge and practices, have been rescuing and sharing to preserve this culture that is alive and that forms our life.

Despite the presence of often adverse scenarios, this community of the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca gives us an opportunity to know, to free ourselves, to share, to be participants in the changes that we have been learning together and which we continue building together.

Always prioritizing books and reading is not a simple educational matter, it is always betting on a good and healthy future, free from prejudice, with deep ideas, linked to the roots, and striving to continue growing along this path.

Keeping on learning

I am Polinestor Huamán Tineo, from the province of Jaén, Cajamarca. I am a teacher and I am very grateful to be able to participate in this great project that is being developed, which is in the light of all of Peru and the world.

For me, reading is the main and essential part and the cultural axis for the integral development of the person, because reading allows us to fully develop the entire personality of every human being: of children, adults, adolescents, young people and the elderly. And it also feeds the cultural baggage that we have.

I have been able to realize how reading works here, a didactics and a strategy that includes questions and comments. And how that reading is fed and reinforced through songs. It is very important because it helps to get the message of the reading.

In addition, there is the reading of the texts born from the rescue of the cultural tradition of the living peoples of Cajamarca.

We have a lot to learn and continue forward.

They are talking to us

It has been several days since it has rained and we are worried: the sun is burning strong, the wind is thundering, frosts are falling, the plants and animals are suffering. We also know that it depends on our crops whether there is bread on the table.

Today, our brother Alfredo, looking at one of our little plants, told us:

- Look: it's a family, they're talking, it's a beauty!

And it seems that Mica, our librarian kitten, understands it too, because she is attentive to that conversation.

Nature speaks to us day by day; despite our oversights, she always tries to converse with us.

Hopefully we can regain that ability to listen and learn that our grandparents had and still have.

Tribute to courage and drive - 2

The tribute and full affection to our legendary librarians Pascual Sánchez Montoya from the community of Chuco, in San Marcos, and Andrés León Gallardo, from Contumazá: our recognition and admiration, our undying affection and gratitude.