A man found the footprints of the prophet in the sand and began to follow him.
Further on he met another man coming in the opposite direction:
- What are you doing," he asked him, "Don't you know that the prophet is going this way?"
- "I don't want to follow him", answered the other man, "I want to know where he came from."
Alfredo Mires Ortiz
In: El duende del laberinto
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On how the Ñaupa got its name and the recreation of ancient images:
On many occasions, when I asked in the people in the rural areas who had made the cave paintings, petroglyphs, sanctuaries or ceramics, the older villagers would answer: "That was done by the Ñaupa". In Quechua, the Ñaupa is the ancient one, the oldest, the grandfather of the oldest. That is why I decided to give this name to the character and the graphic recreation I have carried out.
This process of recreation tries to be extremely respectful of the original plastic art. And it aims to highlight the extraordinary heritage that our elders left us, as well as to emphasise the identity of our peoples in their constant struggle to protect nature and to champion their dignity.
Although we published the first iconographic reproductions in 1991, these recreations began to see the light of day in 2011, accompanying the edition of 'The Letter from the Seattle Indian Chief' that we worked on in a version for children. From that experience we saw that it was possible to vivify the symbols that our ancestors had left us in order to bring us together.
Alfredo Mires Ortiz
in: El Ñaupa
On 20 February 2024, Doña Paca Roncal passed away in the city of Trujillo. Doña Paca, wife of Don Miguel Rodríguez, a very close friend of Alfredo, and her son Miguel, coordinator of the Rural Library at the Pingo-Cajabamba Educational Institution, have always been very close to us. The Rodríguez Roncal family is a reference point for culture, books, rock art and a lot of love. Our deep condolences, we accompany them from the heart. We will always miss the kind and affectionate presence of Doña Paca. "Hugs from many arms".
As students and teachers of the Sucse Secondary School in the community of Sucse, district of Sócota, motivated by the generosity of God, our apus, our mamapacha - who sustain us and give us food - we decided to pay a beautiful tribute to water on its day, knowing that Water Day is our day because of the importance it has in our lives.
We gathered in the courtyard of the Institution and made an offering to the earth, with a reading and a brief reflection on the treatment of water, by teachers Heli Tenorio and Abel Vasquez, and, to end the ritual, we toasted with a glass of water and the delivery of books to all students.
From the distant Medellín, in the mountains of Antioquia, I heard the echoes of a network, the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca. I heard the voices from Peru, but above all from the rural areas, from the countryside. This path of promoting reading is not built alone, it is necessary to read to others, to read for others, to fall in love with others, to recount to others. As soon as I heard about this work in Cajamarca, I fantasised about finding out more about what it was all about. So far their peasant library has a great variety of numbers; that is, a great variety of voices, because this has been the work of loving and delicate listening so that these threads of voices are not carried away by the wind, but persist and resist on the pages for them to read, so that others can continue to read them.
That place, back in Cajamarca, sounded somewhat mythical, because one of its main figures, the one who carried the baton for a long time, is one of those beings who are hard to find. An all-rounder, a journeyer, a curious person, a man respectful of his land and his knowledge, a listener, a lover. It would be wrong to say that we did not know Alfredo Mires. That is not true. He decided to go to other lands earlier, probably to continue collecting voices, and so he left us a tremendous team and he exists in each one of them. In the house, in this house, in each of the details that inhabit it, he is there, his spirit is there. It is impossible not to mention him from time to time. At breakfast with Karina who tells me about his good humour. At the table with Lola, who tells me of his love for his neighbourhood's pan de agua "Bring me a pancito de agua", Alfredo used to say to her. Of the respect and admiration with which Don Javier speaks when he mentions the memory of Alfredo, and Rita, his partner in crime, who breathes that tranquillity that comes from having shared so much with him. Alfredo is in the meeting room where the assembly is a political act, with affection, where decisions are taken because they listen to each other. What a tremendous gesture, they listen to each other. And I, who try to make people listen, talk, read and write in every experience, find myself with this enormous display of life.
Infinite admiration will continue for this collective of warriors, dreamers, steadfasts, who continue to believe that it is necessary to keep this house standing, this house that exists and is replicated in each of the libraries where the seed was sown and that now germinate, beautiful, small, with a shelf full of colourful books, with people who, between the work on the land, the hard work on the land, feel it necessary to go and meet with the books. They continue to make circles of words, paying tribute to the earth and respecting the memory of all those who have gone before them. Long live the books, love for the land and affection for the words that do not run out, that do not die.
Jaime Roldán
In the Rural Libraries Network, as our dear brother Alfredo Mires said, we avoid bureaucracy as much as possible; thus, the processes we follow are minimal, simple and understandable. A clear example is the procedures for opening new libraries when communities request them: a simple request and the signatures of those who want the library in their community; adults, young people, children and the elderly.
It is therefore difficult to understand why state and private institutions are riddled with cumbersome, incomprehensible procedures and documents. It is hard for them to understand and accept the simplicity with which a volunteer works, even more so if he or she is a community member.
Fortunately, in our wanderings, we always find people and organisations that accompany us and help us to clarify many of these procedures, which are legally indispensable.
Since a few months ago, and starting a new administrative period in Rural Libraries, we have been accompanied by the accounting firm Consulcont, in the persons of Rodolfo Urteaga and Monica Narvaez. We would like to thank them for their perseverance, for the pleasant moments we have shared and for the encouragement they give us with their guidance, which helps to strengthen the administrative aspects of our Network.
These are hot times in the city of Medellín, Colombia with temperatures between 29° and 33° degrees Celsius most of the day; with no hopeful sign of a little rain to give some respite to the bountiful amount of little trees and plants that live in this city.
It was only a few days ago that, while walking through the university, I came across a water fountain that I had never noticed before. When I looked at it more closely I could see that someone had written on it the following sentence: "water will be gold in times of drought".
I couldn't help but be moved and shed a tear, remembering my beloved Cajamarca. Remembering our constant struggle for water, for life, for our people and for justice.
Almost twelve years have passed since the beginning of the series of mass demonstrations against the "Conga" project, which - as it is still "suspended" to this day - intends to destroy 238 hectares of wetlands and lagoons. These lagoons and wetlands not only provide water to thousands of families who live from agriculture and livestock farming in the Cajamarca páramo (wetland ecosystem) and, at the same time, feed the entire city of Cajamarca, but are also invaluable for the sustainability of the ecosystem of the area.
Almost twelve years have passed since, in those protests, I saw my ten-year-old self facing, for the first time in my life, walking through the Plaza de Armas of my birthplace, defending my ideas and those of my people, surrounded by armed police and military, ready to shoot anyone they considered a threat to the "progress and development" of the country.
Today I feel, once again, the streets of my people full of hats and flags, of cries for justice and freedom, of the clamour of the land itself, defending its life through our voices.
And it is no coincidence to hear so many saying "it's too hot", "the weather is not like it used to be", "years ago this weather was rainy weather". It is no coincidence, it is the loud and clear roar of the forests cut down and burned, of the fish left without rivers, of the mountains left without water, of the air that enters our lungs grey and polluted.
But today I also feel hope that it is not true that "only after the last tree is cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will we realise that gold is inedible."
I wish it were sooner, I wish it were today....
Mara Mires Mocker
Alfredo Mires traveled the Apu Qayapuma for several decades, to the point where he knew by heart the location of each painting and the paths to reach them. He walked, went deep into the Apu and spent many nights to investigate in depth the relationship of each drawing with the environment, with the change of light and temperature. He spent entire days there, where our grandparents lived, to observe what happened during the time of rain and drought, because all that influences, he told us, nothing looks the same, everything changes according to the circumstances.
He investigated each space of the "Puma convenor", with the limitations of the Peruvian who dares on his own and whose budget, many times, is only his own spirit. And like this he went also to other places.
When he went to the communities, he would ask the community members who had made the paintings, the sanctuaries, the petroglyphs, the ceramics. The people answered him, he says, that Ñaupa had done all that. For that reason, he also tells that he decided to baptize with the name "Ñaupa", the recurrent character that he found in the callanas, those pieces of ceramics that are found in any sacred place of the Andes, and also in other representations of the Cajamarcan rock art. Based on these investigations, Alfredo completed and recreated El Ñaupa graphically, giving it a social, cultural and political meaning (El Ñaupa T1, p.8).
I don't dream the empty dreams
of lost paradises:
I dream what the dead
dreamed to be alive.
Alfredo Mires
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We were already looking forward to the beginning of February - not because of Carnival, but because the first training meeting of the Community Program was on the horizon. We imagined a special meeting, something more "for the soul", to reposition ourselves, to look inward and to start this new year with courage.
As the people responsible for the Program, it is also our task and our commitment to take care of the caregivers, that is to say, the rural coordinators who accompany the children with projectable capacities and their families in their homes and communities.
Diana and Jaime accompanied us for a whole day - a day that was made short by how entertaining and fun it was to learn new possibilities of reading and writing. We are already looking forward to bringing all the news to the children in the Community Program and thus improving our Reading for Others skills.
At the end of the day, Diana and Jaime took us into the magical world of our inner selves - dancing, smiling and sharing through music, movement and silence.
Thank you, Diana and Jaime, for being and for being with us.
Rita Mocker
On 23rd February we had a virtual meeting with the teachers of our Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions. Not many people had connected, but the group was select and the conversation flowed.
In our reading circle -by those coincidences that are not coincidences- we read El libro y la madrugada - The book and the dawn (from: Esa luz de más adentro - That light from further inside), the introduction written by Alfredo Mires for Los seres del más acá- The beings from over here, in 1988. I will always be surprised by this "absent presence" of Alfredo in our lives and on our path.
Almost at the end of the meeting we asked teachers for help: to write for our social networks. We know that they, from their schools, have a lot to tell and to share.
Then, teacher Clemencia Paredes sent me a photo via WhatsApp, where they were celebrating the end of the 2023 school year with a joijona, a custom she learned in Rural Libraries. And she sent me this greeting: "Thank you, Rita, for showing us Alfredo's footsteps, to follow the route he traced in life."
A beautiful message to remember the birthday of a wonderful person.
Rita Mocker
It seems that the Ñaupa has a lot to do with the mythical Andean feline. So Alfredo Mires tells us:
The myths of origin in the Andean world emphasizes the presence of the mythical feline as the "beginning of the lineage". The symbolic role of the jaguar and the puma is fundamental, also associated with lightning and the personification of "natural phenomena" (...).
In any case, looking at images of pumas or jaguars, it is not difficult to think that the character of the iconography in question coincides with the mythical feline. Although they will always be assumptions, the coincidence of eyes, "smile" and ears can give rise to the character represented.
It is obvious that, even being the puma, the character is -in general-, humanized, which would ratify the filiation and unity between nature, human community, time and deities in the religious-cultural base of the Andes.
If we follow the curvature of one of the callanas (earthenware), we could deduce the number of images that the original plate would have contained: there would be 24 characters that, with their pairs, would become 48, the 'perfect' number of the yach'aq (wise men, teachers or 'sorcerers'). When finding so many callanas in the ritual spaces, the question is whether the plates and bowls would not have contained offerings to placate the felines (a practice that is still observed today in the countryside to avoid aggression from the species).
Alfredo Mires in: El Ñaupa
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As farming families we celebrate the arrival of rain because it is synonymous with life. With it, hopes are reborn and, therefore, when the first drizzles begin we go out to greet them, we welcome them - there will be bread on our tables - we say.
Our grandparents teach us to take care of and respect nature and to prepare ourselves to receive the rain, and sometimes, because of carelessness, unfortunate situations occur. So it happened that, one fine day, the rain filtered through the roof of the space where we store our books, it was close to midnight; so we had to put them in a safe place despite the sleep that invaded us at that time. Questions, worries, sayings, projects were being born in the middle of the running; at times we were overcome with sadness: so many efforts had gone to waste. But we encouraged each other -when it rains everyone gets wet, after the storm comes the calm, every cloud has a silver lining. And we also reflected: it is a call to be better prepared, let us not lower our guard in the care of the dear house, the puquio books call us to read them, Qayaqpuma transmits strength, let's review our stories- and then each title inspired us.
In the middle of the night the family talked, read, messaged each other, and we confidently awaited the arrival of good volunteers to give us a little help. We lost many books, but yes, help did arrive - and the commitment to take care of this great legacy that our great comrade Alfredo Mires humbly left us, was strengthened.
Thank you, sacred water, for making these rebirths possible.
The hummingbird deity in Amerindian and the winged god in universal mythology.
This is the book in which Alfredo Mires shows his extensive and meticulous research with which he practically pays homage to this fantastic, mythical and real character, the hummingbird.
In the prologue, Don Grimaldo Rengifo says that Alfredo has raised and brought to the present, the company of the legendary Nazca Hummingbird. In this book, Alfredo presents us with testimonies, stories, verses, images and even morphological details, so varied, of this marvellous being. He tells us where to find them and by what names to call them, according to the place where they lives and reign.
In this research, published in 2004 by Bibliotecas Rurales, we can discover what the quindecito, as Alfredo lovingly calls them, means for his own life and for the life of the community. It shows the presence of the winged deity, particularly the hummingbird, in American mythology. The research presents myths and other references in which the hummingbird appears as a sacred principle, as well as the role in contemporary iconography and the result of the direct observations that Alfredo himself made of the hummingbirds, in his daily contemplations. It also rescue traditions: tales, myths, legends, poetry and images, from different authors and artists, and, of course, also his own, because Alfredo always enjoyed drawing quindecitos, elaborating sketches, creating and recreating.
To learn more and to enchant us with the hummingbird, Alfredo left us a beautiful legacy: Así en las flores como en el fuego.
On 16th December, as students and teachers of Sacred Heart School in Jaen, we gathered with joy to make the second reading walk a reality. It was great to share moments of reading with first grade students. The chosen site surrounded by greenery nourished our spirits and favoured concentration. We read different numbers of the Cernidas of the Rural Libraries of Cajamarca: Barro bendito, El pueblo del abuelo, Piedra adentro, Prenda querida, Empezó a andar, El pan nuestro, among other interesting Cernidas that are close to our customs inherited from our elders and that make us live, remember and not forget the essence of everything that surrounds our daily life at home, in the countryside, at school, in the neighbourhood and in the community.
Finally, it was also an extraordinary moment to remember Alfredo Mires Ortiz, co-founder of Rural Libraries, who left us the precious legacy of reading, the rural library and other projects that open our minds and teach us to live in fraternity and learn more every day to be a better person and therefore, a better citizen.
Thank you Alfredo, your memory is nestled in our hearts.
The grandfather of grandfathers: that is the ñaupa.
The ñaupa is the oldest ancient.
The ancestor.
The most ancient ancestor.
Ñaupa means the one that was, but
also means the one that will be.
Of the past and of the future.
The past. The future.
The one that is ahead, like a dream,
the one that is going to be.
Ñaupa is oneself and the others.
We are Ñaupa.
Alfredo Mires
For at least 2000 years, a character has been constantly reproduced in Cajamarcan ceramics. The callanas or pieces scattered in the huacas or sanctuaries in the mountains bear witness to this presence.
The character wears a smile -sometimes with teeth, sometimes without-, has an oval head and has different proportions and shapes: with hair -upward or downward- or without it; with short or long ears or without them; with dot, circle or double circle eyes; with scrolls or tufts or without them.
In the Andean world there is no individual, the isolated person: the word suq that names the one is the same that refers to the other. One is another. Perhaps this explains another characteristic of the character: he usually has a similar one inside himself, as if he were his inner self or his centre. This is ratified in the fact that when he is not with his arms up, he is also intertwined with others.
But the character is not only in ceramics. In the rock art -the most remote manifestation of the culture- they are also present, which would demonstrate their continuity. In the cliffs of the Apu Yamalán -whose marks could be no less than eight thousand years old- we have found a similar image, of great size, painted in red.
Alfredo Mires
in: El Ñaupa
Dear readers,
in the last few months, after the death of Alfredo Mires, we have noticed the improper use of his books, texts, images and recreations. As an association and as a family we hold the copyright of these publications and we are trying to protect them in different ways. Sharing this text -the introduction of "El Ñaupa"- is one of these ways.
Thank you for disseminating, for sharing, for learning and for helping us to protect the intellectual and artistic heritage of Alfredo, as well as of the community members who participated in the production of the books of the Network.
When we hear the word "assembly", the memory of a long, tedious and tiring meeting may come to our mind, like those we often had at our children's school... or have, still.
Fortunately, in the Rural Libraries Network, this concept is totally different, since it is a "government" and decision-making body, with representatives of the communities where the libraries are located.
We begin each Assembly asking for permission and the blessing of our land, of the Apus and of our deceased. We entrust them with the success of our activities and the care of our families who stay at home. We look for different ways to review the history of our Network and the values that a volunteer should show, because from time to time it is necessary to remember our beginnings and our raison d'être. We also read together and evaluate how we are doing in the exercise of reading to understand what we read, to give our opinion and to discern.
We participate in the book exchange party. We enjoy together the moments of meals, we laugh with each occurrence and memory. We pray remembering those who have already gone and left us all this legacy, especially our dear Alfredo, we ask him to continue guiding us along the path he showed us years ago.
We take a moment to review the tasks that have been done and the tasks that are still pending. We look together for the solution to some difficulties that we committed ourselves to solve in the time that we see each other, before we return to our communities.
The days pass quickly and it is time to say goodbye. We all return to our homes and communities, with new books and the task of insisting on reading, "because we are stubborn", as Alfredo used to say.
This is what a General Assembly in the Rural Libraries Network is like.
This year, we are already preparing for what is to come because in April we will have our first Assembly.
