By: Polinestor Huamán Tineo
Lecturer specialising in Communication.
In today’s world, we find ourselves fragmented by the frenzy of the media and digital consumption. In the face of this, the preservation of collective memory and oral tradition stands as a fundamental act of cultural resistance. The tenderness of “Uncle Lino”, masterfully captured in literary form by the poet Mario Florián and rigorously recovered and analysed by the Cajamarca-based researcher and writer Alfredo Mires Ortiz, goes beyond being a mere collection of mischievous tales or anecdotes of local customs. Mires Ortiz’s work confronts us with a communicative and anthropological phenomenon of profound significance: the construction of Andean identity through humour, irony and the spoken word.
1. Identity and school practice
To speak of identity and school practice is to bring together two realities that urgently need to be reconciled. On the one hand, identity represents our living memory, popular ingenuity and the lifeblood of our culture, embodied in the figure of ‘El Tío Lino’. On the other hand, school practice has all too often become trapped in routine, repetition and imported content that ignores the pupils’ immediate environment. Explaining this relationship means recognising that schools cannot continue to teach with their backs turned on their community: educating with a sense of identity is not merely a decorative touch, but the indispensable foundation for shaping citizens who are critical thinkers and deeply rooted in their community.
2. Approaching the text
Firstly, the pupils were invited to form a circle in the classroom. After I had told them about family customs, stories and experiences, one of them asked: “Teacher, why don’t you write it down in a little book?”. I replied that I was already working on it and that it wouldn’t be long before it was published. Another student asked: “How did you learn the stories, songs, poems and dedications?” The answer sprang from my memories: “Because my parents used to tell them to me whilst we were working on the farm, tending the animals, during our travels or at dusk, when we would sit round the fire for supper.”
In light of the general observation that family communication has nowadays been displaced by the all-consuming use of mobile phones, I posed the question: “What should we do, then?” The unanimous response was to ask our relatives to recount stories from the past that we know very little about.
At that point, I showed them the works of ‘El Tío Lino’ and asked if they’d read them. When they said they hadn’t, I shared some details about his life and we read one of his stories together: ‘El relámpago del Tío Lino’ [The Lightning of Tio Lino]. Their enthusiasm was such that we agreed to purchase the books for use in class.
3. Bringing Uncle Lino’s oral storytelling and wit to life in the classroom
To familiarise ourselves with reading, we placed the books in the centre of a large circle. With the aim of encouraging active listening, moving beyond passive reading and interpreting the author’s humour and irony, we employed various strategies: body movement, breathing exercises, gestural drawing, role-play and creative writing designed to help students overcome their fear of public speaking and re-evaluate their cultural identity.
Subsequently, each pupil freely chose a text to read, applying the stages of reading comprehension (before, during and after). After a period of silent reading, we moved on to reading aloud using the ‘La papa se quema’ activity. At the end of each reading, the group applauded and the reader shared the reasons for their choice and their reflections on the text.
As part of this phase, students were asked to write a short story under the title: ‘Writing like Uncle Lino’. Furthermore, a proposal was made to preserve family memories through intergenerational dialogue, with the aim of compiling local sayings, tales, stories and anecdotes. These will be presented in written or digital format to create a collaborative book entitled: “Preserving Our Roots from School”, thereby connecting with the pioneering work of Alfredo Mires.
4. Conclusion
Alfredo Mires Ortiz’s work on ‘El Tío Lino’ transcends its literary function to become an invaluable educational tool. It offers us a vital lesson for the present: the urgent need to preserve and re-evaluate our regional memories in the face of the homogenisation brought about by globalised mass culture. In an environment where the media standardises narratives, turning our attention to authors such as Mires Ortiz serves as a reminder that the richness of our society lies in its harmonious diversity, a pure reflection of clarity and freedom.
