Our Network embodies the Cajamarcan tradition made of books and hearts, everlasting sources of ancestral wisdom of our Andean pacha.
Here, the recognition and affection for Antonio Vílchez, coordinator of the San Isidro sector, in the San Marcos province, and Santos Rodríguez, from the Cortegana sector, in the Celendín province.
Full gratitude to them and their families for their company and work, for their joy and commitment.
Thanks to the support of Professor Abel Vásquez, a member of our Network, the Julón Pérez families, from San Luis de Lucma, and Julca Fernández, in Sócota, Cutervo province, now have their books.
They have already made their first family reading circle!
Welcome dear families to this ayllu of the Network.
On 7th July, our brother Alfredo shared a very nice space, given the participation of three children: Débora Pinedo, Pablo Benítez and Fran Chavarría, from the community of Cascajal, in Chimbote, Ancash region.
They talked about the stories of our peoples. Here are some ideas offered by Alfredo:
- Oral stories develop our health, help our spirits. Because physical illnesses are worse if our spirits are low. The spirit is vital and the stories are an extraordinary food for the soul, for well-being.
- The stories born in our land, if they are told to us by someone, it is giving us a gift. With this we are consolidating, welding the unity that we should have as a family. Whoever tells us a story gives a fortune to our soul.
- Stories improve communication and at the same time allow us to settle where we come from, from there comes our charm, our pachaque (love).
- From end to end, this land is very rich in stories, in life experiences and imagination, in inventing worlds based on our world. When we collect the stories we are recovering the health of the communities. The strength to sow and the joy to reap.
- The stories have survived because of the honorable efforts of our elders. By collecting the stories we are honoring the memory of our grandparents: returning to support the reasons for their struggle. By recovering knowledge we are recovering the land where they were born, the land that fertilized them.
Simple and silent, this is our Rural Libraries Network. Our noise is made by our books and the saddlebags that carry them from one community to another. Our noise is made by the gaits of the community members, the children who read our stories, the families who read around the stove. Our noise is made by the written words and the communities from which they emerge.
And that internal noise is recognized.
On this occasion, we receive with pleasure and gratitude, the motion of congratulations granted by the Council of the Inter-American School of Librarianship of the University of Antioquia, given in the city of Medellín, Colombia, on 12th July of this year. This motion reads, to the letter:
“For its dedicated librarian work in its 50 years of existence, which with its community work has accompanied the formation of reading groups, the application of what has been read, the production of bibliographic material typical of the population, and the construction of a culture of peasant communities that promote traditional knowledge."
From Cajamarca, we are recognized by this gesture of solidarity that is consistent with the principles of a university that promotes reading and appreciates the efforts of other organizations, such as the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca.
Thank you, friends from the University of Antioquia, in Medellín.
