I launched a project at the Isabel Bunch de Cortés Municipal Children’s Public Library, focusing on memory recovery and oral history at the ‘Monseñor Misael Gómez’ Municipal Care Home in Pacho, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
Among the literary selection I chose to enliven this gathering, I brought along a booklet given to me last year by Rita Mocker: *El Shingo enamorado y otros cuentos* (Shingo in Love and Other Stories), by the Rural Librarians of Cajamarca, Peru, part of the *Biblioteca Campesina* collection.
What a moving experience it was to read these stories. The older adults listened intently, laughed, and, little by little, the stories began to bring back their own memories:
— Something similar happened to me.
— Miss, those stories make me laugh.
— Back in the days when I used to go out dancing…
And then I realised that the reading had served its purpose: to open the door to memory.
At the end, several people wanted to share their own anecdotes and stories. The reading gave way to conversation; conversation, to memories; and memories, to words.
Because every older person holds a book that isn’t written on paper: their own story.
Today I would like to thank the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca for the time, dedication and care with which they have collected so many rural stories and shared them with the rest of the world.
Stories that travelled from the countryside of Cajamarca to Pacho and which, when read aloud, became living memories once more.
Bibiana Lucía Moreno
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