"The hunter of stories"

A few weeks ago “El cazador de historias” (The hunter of stories) arrived, the posthumous wanderings of our brother and colleague Eduardo Galeano.

Helena Villagra, Eduardo’s companion to the last breath, made sure it got to us.

"One writes without really knowing why or for what, but I suppose it has to do with what one deeply believes in, with the themes that reveal it.

I tried, and I'm still trying to discover of the women and men animated by the desire for justice and the will of beauty, beyond the boundaries of time and maps, because they are my countrymen and my contemporaries, who were born where they have born and have lived when they have lived. "

Thus says Eduardo, whose spirit is still hunting, writing and walking.

Thank you, Helena.

Abel's Challenge

Abel Vasquez is a member of the Community Program and Coordinator of Rural Libraries in areas of Sócota and San Luis de Lucma, in the province of Cutervo.

Here he tells of his wanderings:

For me reading is an encounter with books, but it is also an encounter with the environment, with reality itself.

Reading books can be a bit easier, but reading nature, reading reality is a bit more difficult because it means going to meeting her 〚nature〛.

For this reason the presence of the Rural Libraries is a huge contribution to our lives, both personally and professionally. Because from the Rural Libraries we learn not only from the amount of books to which we have access, but also from the experiences told by the readers themselves, from the experiences recounted by the long-standing coordinators.

And we also learn from those who travel and write the texts that speak like us. Here we must thank our friend Alfredo Mires, who has such advanced work with our communities: this has helped me so much.

The biggest challenge we have, I think, is how to survive amid the bombardment of other communication systems, such as television and cell phones, for example.

Now here is the challenge: in the midst of this we can still encourage the people to read. And so we must seek out some strategies of how to encourage reading and growth, because people now read very little.

This invites us to improve our capacity to find ways to encourage reading. That is the challenge.

We miss “Ñaupa”

There’s no shortage of cats that cross our roof, passing through the neighborhood.

But one came to stay: he came down who knows how and we found him already installed, as if he owned the place.

Still tender, loving and trusting, he came to integrate himself: no owner came to claim him, so a few days later he was baptized with the name "Ñaupa".

He took no time to fatten up as he spent the day having breakfast, going from office to office, from room to room, participating in meetings, arriving timely for coffee breaks or communal meals.

But he also read (or so he made us believe): living among books, presumably, he had no choice.

A few days ago he went for a turnabout and has not returned.

We are worried about him. He is a member of the team.

If you see him, please tell him that we are missing him.

 

“El duende del laberinto”

And it has gone to press: “El duende del laberinto” (The Labyrinth Owner), a collection of 96 microstories written by our colleague Alfredo Mires.

Father Juan Bottasso, who prefaced the book, says that these stories have been written like in Oriental wisdom, "with aphorisms, short stories, apodictic phrases, which surprise and are recorded in our memory".

Soon we will be sharing it with our communities.

"The Labyrinth Owner is a concentration of years and years of experience, matured in the permanent contact with a wise people who have suffered."

- Father Juan Bottasso

Libraries in San Marcos and Cajabamba

We went visiting the community of Chuco, with our beloved friend Pascual Sánchez, one of our oldest and dearest librarians. Pascual recalls when he used to walk 12 hours to visit one of the rural libraries under his charge, in the community of El Chorro, walking up mountains and into valleys, carrying his saddlebag full of books.

Pascual has passed on that love to his son, Manuel, who has taken up the baton from his father as library coordinator, and to his granddaughter Sonia, whom made the endearing appearance in the film Libros y Nubes about Bibliotecas Rurales.

Our next stop was in the community of San Isidro with our friend Antonio Vilchez.

In the evening he gathered his family and his community to share in the All’pata Paguikun, the Offering to the Earth. We thank the earth, the mountains and the deceased, using the blessed coca leaf, sugar and alcohol to do so. We remember all that the earth provides us with, sustains us with, and through this offering we show her our respect and gratitude. After the offering we form a reading circle, taking turns, young and old, men and women, to read stories from our book “The Storyteller”.

The next day we meet with several of the librarians that Antonio coordinates with. Agustin, from the community of Canish, travelled 4 hours on foot to be there. The librarians spoke of how they encourage each other to read – sharing and recommending books, helping each other as readers just as they help each other as farmers.

On the road to Cajabamba we stopped to visit Fausto Salirrosas, librarian from the community of Huamaní. There are 22 librarians that Antonio coordinates with. A portent of volunteering.

The written word unites and inspires from mountain top to valley, especially when the written word carries the wisdom of our elders and illuminates the way for our children. 

Schools with Libraries in Cajabamba

We visited three schools which have a library full of our books.

In the Tangalbamba community all have access to the library. The teacher Carmen Malca Bocanegra promotes the recuperation with the students and their families, while Professor Crhistian Wilmer Sánchez facilitates reading and registers the borrowing of books.

In the Pingo community, the teacher Miguel Rodríguez Roncal is responsible for the library in the school and assumes his role as a promoter of reading - animated and accompanied by all the teaching staff of his school. Among several innovative ideas, Miguel tells of his plans for a reading festival for parents.

In the highlands, crossing the river Crisnejas, is the Corralpampa community with its school run by the enthusiastic and inspired presence of the teacher Soledad Alvarez Placido. The children at this school have taken the recuperation to a new level, producing their stories on recycled paper made by themselves.

We were delighted to see our books displayed on shelves around the playground and happy children grouped to read.

However in many parts we also see the lack of willingness on behalf of the State to improve reading. The mere fact of being forced to do something steals its magic. And on top of that, when the content is so far removed from your reality, it is almost an act of oppression trying to promote it. The children become more disconnected from learning, they lose their passion and their innate desire to read.

Fortunately there is the will and the example of these extraordinary teachers who inspire reading.

Bibliotecas Rurales books introduce us to the wisdom and wonders that took generations to form. Another way to inspire children to celebrate their roots is to involve them in the rediscovery and preservation of their ancestral tradition, to give them the opportunity to be researchers and authors.

The Co-Libris in San Luis de Lucma

The Co-libris continue reading and speaking in San Luis de Lucma, in the province of Cutervo. A few weeks ago we were lucky to meet them: this group of student readers continues in the struggle, accompanied by Mr. Abel Vasquez, coordinator of our network in the area.

The Co-libris project aims to promote reading among children and young people and encourages them to carry out the recuperation of their community traditions.

The young people invited our friend Alfredo Mires to open the conversation. He addressed the ways we can be manipulated to consume information at the expense of our own culture, the need to go back and look at ourselves again – to look towards the inside of us. "An educated person is not a person who forgets his roots, but who remembers and celebrates them".

The young people were also excited to hear about the experience of the recuperation of the oral tradition of Cajamarca. Alfredo established five key factors for the success of the recuperation: will, persistence, preparation, respect and approach techniques (the various strategies, for example, Nights of Recuperation).

This whole process can be enriched by reading. Thus, each book read is an act of creation: "When we read a text the writer writes anew in us. To read is an act of rebellion against the attempts of the system to extinguish or reduce us".

In reading, writing, drawing, creating, we keep our essence alive.