Good news from Namora!

On Friday, 10th July, we met with the teachers at I.E. Segundo Briones to share some great news:

We are now part of the Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions Network - BRIE Cajamarca!

Thanks to this initiative, the school has received a valuable collection of books that will be used by teachers in classroom libraries, strengthening reading skills among our children.

As a professional, I am filled with joy and commitment to be part of this beautiful project that strengthens reading and the bond with our rural communities.

Haydee Limascca

Librarian and reading mediator in Namora.

All' pata paguikun

I have always believed that gratitude is a good way to go through life. Life presents itself to us in different ways: vast, unsettling, sailing through the dawn, crossing the darkness, with joys, with sorrows, with flashes, with shadows. And we must be grateful for this time, our time on earth.

That is why we are grateful for this book, for this offering; its pages reveal its importance, the importance of giving thanks to the Earth, to our Apus and to our Ancestors, because they are part of our fabric, of our spirit.

Of the few certainties we have on our journey, one of them is the earth that breathes and nurtures. Sometimes when you get lost or forget, the only thing that welcomes you is the earth, the only comfort is that Apu who knows your journey and knows it because of the favours you give him, because he carries your breath; so too, when the questions are deep, we talk or ask our ancestors, who are always there, even if we sometimes don't feel it or forget it. 

This offering sums up everything that is important in life. We are grateful that this great Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca has been able to share this book with us, to remind us of this joy, which is "giving thanks and offering".

Mauricio Pérez

You fly

hawk

and I

contemplate

your wings

nostalgaing

the sadness

of my feet

on the earth.

Alfredo Mires Ortiz

en: How to go to bed undecided and wake up to take the risk.

Don Pascualito, how much we will miss him!

Pascual Sanchez Montoya from the community of Chuco in San Marcos, was born on 24th March, 1947 and passed away on 19th July, 2025. 

The great, the humble, the wise, the loving and in love with rural libraries is no longer there in his little house in Chuco, with his wife Doña Juana, his children and grandchildren. His body is gone, but his soul, bright as the sun, will always be in the heart of this librarian family that learned so much from him. Infinite thanks to Pascualito for always being and remaining with us. 

We want to acknowledge his life and teachings, through the following words said by him back in 2017: 

The objectives of libraries "have been ambitious, very healthy, for all the peasants that did not have the opportunity to have books at home, was this great opportunity, (...) because I said just as I have this insatiable desire to read, that everyone had; I wish society would change, I wish there was more awareness, I wish there was more love for our land, more love for our plants, for our little animals, because with that one can feel happy; loving, helping, serving and sharing. It is the greatest happiness that a human being can feel, the greatest satisfaction, because that is what we were born for, to serve and not to be served..."

Don Pascual as a legendary librarian of the Network was very clear about his presence in this world, he told us: 

"Of course we need the service of others, that is welcome, but more than being served (one) must be a servant, there is the challenge, and there is the greatness of a country, when there are people who think so, better to serve than to be served, better to help than to be helped, better to give than to receive; that is the challenge."

In addition, Pascualito emphasized that: "we must be all love for our neighbour; and by neighbour I do not mean only human beings, my neighbour is also my dear dog, my neighbour is also my dear horse, my neighbour is also my dear sheep, they are all my neighbours. Because everyone needs to live, just as I need to live, they also need to live" (Pascual Sánchez, 2017, interview)

Hasta siempre, Pascualito.

Our books for Latin America

More than a month ago I was invited to a conversation at the Pilot Public Library in Medellin, Colombia, to talk about the Rural Libraries Network, our legacy, our work, our challenges and our dreams. 

The library is actually called the Medellin Pilot Public Library for Latin America and was founded in 1952 by UNESCO. It was Alfredo Mires, our co-founder, who initiated a close relationship from the Network with several libraries in Colombia, among them the “Pilot”. Alfredo always told us how amazed he had been with this experience. And when Alfredo passed away in 2022, the Pilot Public Library paid him a heartfelt tribute. 

As I entered this beautiful library in June of this year, the friend who greeted me took me directly to a very special shelf: there were our books, Alfredo's and the Network's other children. And there I was, with tears in my eyes, because of so much affection and so much admiration that the beautiful people of this giant of librarianship have for us.

Thank you, friends, for this reception and recognition. 

Rita Mocker

Yearnings

Blessed are those of us who have enjoyed the wise words of our grandparents, those words that come at the right time, to encourage, cheer, learn and continue walking; life goes on, they told us; and in the pain, those voices resound seeking to calm us down. 

Today we mourn the departure of our companion and guide Pascual Sanchez Montoya from the community of Chuco in the province of San Marcos. Surely he is already reunited with our comrades Alfredo, Juan, Luis, Sarah, Oscar, Fidencio, Antonio, Andres, David and other librarians who have gone ahead of us.

And picking up that beautiful word of don Pascual - yearning; this family yearns after such honourable characters; who have left us a legacy of humility, dedication, patience, solidarity, companionship, courage, love, respect for our brothers, for mother earth, for our culture and for our elders.

We will continue to listen to your words, Don Pascualito, we will continue to read them, we will always keep you in mind.

Our comrades, may these yearnings be a reason to honour his memory.

In front of the mirror

Micaela is our kitty, the great guardian of the house, a member of the Network; she enjoys drinking water in the rainwater harvesting pond. Each time, she takes some time to look at her reflection in the water mirror and with her little hands she caresses it with delicacy.

Micaela with her attention, as well as many other little animals, teach us to value the goodness of nature, to enjoy it, but above all to be grateful and to treat it with affection.

It is a call to humanity and especially to the librarian family to stop our careers and look at ourselves in the mirror, in the mirror of nature: to know what we are involved in, what we are doing with so many gifts that Mother Earth gives us and if we are contributing to take care of her and protect her.

May it also motivate us to look in the mirrors of our libraries, may we continue to read nature and may our books be the mirrors that invite us to reflection and responsible action. 

Books and reading under the trees

This June 22nd we went to the community of Sapayut, Sócota, Cutervo to celebrate a zonal meeting of our libraries in the communities. 

Although the community had offered us the community house for this meeting, our brother Abel Vásquez, who organized the event, had arranged for us to meet in a small field. The place was spectacular: an open field with green grass under some trees near a little house in the countryside that also offered us fresh water and a bathroom. It could not have been better.

Almost thirty people had gathered, some from nearby communities, others from farther away. Our librarians and coordinators arrived, but also some of our BRIE (Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions) leaders, local authorities and readers.

We began our day with an offering to the earth; then there were different participations on the history and organization of Rural Libraries and then a discussion on the question: "I read: what, why, when, with whom, for what and where?"

Later we presented the books of the Network in the form of a mandala and ended with a reading circle.

Lunch was waiting for us, prepared with local ingredients. And then we made a small book exchange so that the librarians could take some new books to their communities.

We left happy, with nourished minds and happy hearts.

See you next time, family!

Territorios Narrados: the shared heartbeat of a living word

Between mountains that speak and rivers that remember,

the word travelled wrapped in memory and hope.

It was not only a book that crossed the border:

was a living history, a sowing that walks.

In the framework of the international internship "Territorios Narrados: Formación LEO, Perú-Colombia", held between April 21 and May 5, 2025, Lesly Espinoza, LEO promoter and librarian of the 'Red de Mototecas del Centro Cultural Valle Colorete' (Cajamarca-Perú), delivered a selection of books from the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca to the 'Biblioteca Comunitaria La Bellecera', located in the Cabecera del Llano neighborhood, in the municipality of Piedecuesta, Santander-Colombia. 

The delivery was part of the LEO-OLE Binational Meeting, in an act full of affection and meaning: books that do not seek to be sold, but to take care of the memory of a people. Born from the field, from the hearth, from the conversation with the land; written by teachers, wise ones, community members and the teacher Alfredo Mires, collected in the Proyecto Enciclopedia Campesina (Peasant Encyclopedia Project) and other publications that the community has decided to tell and share.

This act was much more than symbolic: it was a bridge between two reading territories that share a common vision of reading as a communal, affective and political practice. La Bellecera, like the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca and Valle Colorete, sustains its processes from collective work, self-management and rootedness with the territory. Therefore, the books will not only be part of the collection, but will actively circulate in workshops, meetings and shared reading spaces, provoking new memories, questions and links.

For Valle Colorete and the Network of Mototecas, this delivery is a sowing of a bond: words planted in sisterly soil, with the hope that they will flourish in new reading hands. It is also a firm step towards the construction of a binational project that intertwines reading, orality, writing, memory and community between both territories.

This exchange is not just a gesture: it is a heartbeat that unites hearts and geographies, an invisible alliance woven with threads of memory and hope. In each book delivered, in each word read, revives the voice of those who tilled the land, of those who guard ancestral knowledge and of those who dream of a future woven from identity and mutual care. May these pages, crossing mountains and rivers, become deep roots that sustain new shoots of community, resistance and love for the shared word.

Lesly Espinoza

Valle Colorete, Cajamarca, Peru

Repair Café

A few days ago we received this note from our friend Kathy Doust, from Nottingham, England. Kathy is the sister of Fr. John Medcalf, founder of the Rural Library Network, and since our beginnings in 1971 she has been supporting our activities.

Repair Cafés are meeting places where we can contribute to sustainability. In recent years, they have sprung up all over the UK. They fix appliances, lawnmowers, clothes, bicycles, anything, even jewellery. I often sharpen my gardening tools there. They also do electrical testing of any appliance, all for a small donation. It depends on the expertise of the volunteers. It's to keep people from throwing away appliances when they can be repaired. I remember the time two students brought their vacuum cleaner to be repaired, but it turned out that they only needed to empty the contents of the bag.

Here in Nottingham, the Repair Café is held every two or three months. We also offer coffee, cakes and information about a project that benefits from the proceeds. Today's charitable contribution was for Rural Libraries. Soon we will share with you the funds raised.

Many greetings, much love

Kathy.

Thank you so much, dear Kathy. We could not go on without people like you, like you. Your support and solidarity touches us deeply. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.