Recital by word

Our sister Marleny Oliveira, Coordinator of the Network in the province of San Ignacio, extended the invitation to participate in a virtual poetic recital to commemorate Language and Book Day, on 23rd April.

Our brother Alfredo was invited to this virtual meeting, who shared some couplets of his “Resuellos - Coplitas de andar vive”:
"Where does the sentry 
of the world's oxygen lie?
-in his burning garden,
in the deepest pain"
(Bagua, for 5th June)

For P. Juan Bottasso

Following the publication of nº 6 of “Decires y Escritos”, with the title «The Earth in Heaven - Homage to P. Juan Bottasso», Sr. Wendy Cotter, CSJ, a friend of our colleague Alfredo, wrote a comment about her reading that - with her permission - we share here:

"Thank you very much for sending me this moving tribute to Father Bottasso, who also reveals something of your own journey, a journey that Father Bottasso would consider wonderful and bearing so much fruit.

Your tribute made me want to listen to Father Bottasso and I looked for some speech he could have given, some recording. I find him charismatic and so learned, so rooted in reality and understanding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQo-lRFdvHE 

This video was recorded on December 20, 2018, almost exactly a year before his passing. Father Juan died on Christmas Eve: there is a great symbol there.

It is the night when our hopes for a savior are finally fulfilled: a new life saving lives.

He seems like a person who affirmed and supported, celebrated the gift of life and freedom and respect for each person, each people. His tribute told me what inspiration he was, and as an inspired person, that same inspiration can be passed on to everyone.

A hug

Wendy ”

Ñaupa says!

Courage/ spirit/ cheer up!

Reading and coming together

Here at the headquarters of the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca, for weeks we have been reading as a family to enliven the afternoons, drink coffee, listen and travel. We started with a book by Luis Sepúlveda: ‘An old man who reads love stories’ and with him we went to the Amazon jungle and we were with the Shuar.

Then, by the hand of ‘My name is Gandhi’, we traveled to India with Mahatma or Big Soul; We went with him to London and South Africa, we were at Phoenix Farm and we joined his non-violent struggle; we join forces with his spinning wheel to demonstrate independence; We were in prison and died with him on January 30, 1948.

With Emilio Salgari we were ‘The exiles from Siberia’. We traveled with those who were accused of being nihilists and sentenced to be imprisoned in Siberia. We were among the Cossacks guarding the Tsar, experienced the taranta (rigid car with wheels), the Yenesei river and the Irtich, the chains of the prisoners and countless geographical references and Siberian landscapes, we felt the cold and ice, the fatigue, the danger, hope and love.

Later, through 'Warma Kuyay', by José María Arguedas, we returned to the Andean landscapes of Peru, the Chawala hill, the paca-pacas, the charango, the couplets of love and heartbreak, we saw the abusive power of the landowner Froylán and we understood the meaning and depth of the love of little Ernesto.

We travelled through lots of places through the stories of Eduardo Galeano in his book ‘Women’, texts that highlight the voice and action of comrades who, through their integrity and flight, have made history and process. In Nicaragua, in the Somoza dictatorship, with Luz Marina, the maromera, or Mónica Baltodano, the commander of the Sandinista struggles; in Bogotá with Patricia Ariza, a Colombian artist who "was on the list of those condemned for thinking red and living red"; We toured the Amazon river with the Conlapayaras; with Nanny, leader of the Maroon community in her fight against slavery in Jamaica, and with many other women and many other stories and contexts of panic, war, dictatorships and violence, winding paths of love and freedom.

With the terrible story of Julio Ramón Ribeyro, ‘The Gallinazos sin Plumas’, we lived the story of Pascual, the pig; Grandpa; Pedro the dog and Efraín and Enrique, and we realized, once again, the helplessness and suffering of many who peer around the corners of the rubbish and garbage dumps of today's cities.

For now, we are still on a trip through Germany, with the book 'Krabat and the devil's mill', by Otfried Preussler, among apprentices of black magic, friendship and suspense, we spend our days travelling to other places, to a thousand characters, to many stories and geographies, to many learnings!

Thank you to the Rural Libraries family, because the magic of being here is just being together.

The pandemic and us

I want to tell something, not because I've been asked to say it, but because I am living it directly, I am seeing it with my eyes and mind in our rural area, in our territories, which encompasses everything that exists.

It is the changes that are occurring in a very accelerated way, of the love for the soil, for the production, for loving our farms and our country houses, with no difference in age. All of us who come from the rural area, at least from Bambamarca, are giving importance to our provenance roots, to all our customs. And many of us are recovering what we had badly abandoned or forgotten.

We peasants who, in recent times, were beginning to be more urban –for its attractiveness of fashions, nearby pharmacies or more media services, for not wanting to walk a long distance–, now with the Coronavirus, we are changing how we look at our reality, to love our nature more, and realise that money is not everything, even less - individualism.

In these days we not only talk, but we are with the idea of ​​the importance of minga (collective and voluntary work) in our work, and we talk about exchanging products and putting our agricultural tools into action with our arms. And here's to our fields, our farm, our food, our medicinal plants, and the wisdom our grandparents taught us!

We have reinforced this especially with our youth, who now see the horizons of our farm, even if they are of a small area.

With this I do not want to alarm anyone, but now how many migrants are worried about returning to their place of origin.

I speak this not to boast, but to see in a positive way the problems that we have to face, as we do not know how long it will last, nor the consequences that will come with the changes.

How interesting!

Lino Gálvez Blanco,

Community of El Ahijadero, Bambamarca

Quarantine and crops

Today I found an empty bag of Tolima coffee in our kitchen. Alfredo had left it, as if waiting for something. The coffee was brought to us by a friend and it was very delicious. I looked at the packaging and thought, "This can also be of use."

Since the time quarantine began and we have had to carry all our food on foot, we are more aware of the containers, of reusing and recycling. And that is great learning. Something positive that is emerging from the pandemic!

In our house we have always separated the garbage. We have had our compost for many years, we reuse the water from the shower, we collect the rain water to water the garden. But now we are reinforcing these measures of foresight and care for the land.

I started collecting even the smallest remnants of soap to make liquid soap. Later, Alfredo built - with pieces of wood - a box to store the potatoes; They have been kept there from the beginning of the quarantine, without chopping, without spoiling, without wasting energy and, in addition, there is room to store the sweet potatoes, the corn and everything that fits.

Alfredo also started with vegetable crops; For seedlings, he used recycled plastic containers. Then he planted corn, beans and potatoes in small spaces in our garden.

One day we were wondering what to do with the Tetrapak and we thought that they can be used to plant, for example, lettuces. Today the idea of ​​planting caihua in the coffee container was born. We're already running out of compost soil with so much planting!

And the very idea of ​​sharing the harvest is so pleasant.

As circumstances also encourage us to do more things with our hands, I started knitting socks again. With the scraps I still had at home, I was able to make a pair of multi-colored socks for Mara. She now wants to learn to sew. Let's see how her project of patchwork fabric pants comes along!

And Rumi already has a stamp project, in addition to his caihuas plot…

Rita Mocker

It is good to disinfect the soul

These days it is almost an obligation to think, to talk, to deepen our existence, of how nature - for example - has so much strength ... and some humans believed that they had so much power.

Our duty is to become aware of what we are doing in order to improve the situation and work on being better every day more than yesterday, because the destiny of all depends on our actions and behaviors.

In these times of social distancing, of uncertainty, anxiety, fears, may we do not lack faith and gratitude, for what we are, for what we know and for what we have.

After this stage that we are living, we also continue to value the work and effort of the farmer. And not to forget it for the needs of consumerism in the modern world. That now we have become extremely dependent to survive.

It is sad to have to suffer some calamity or event to just understand how great and valuable it is to live. Let's enjoy the simple things we have: that will make us closer, more natural, more human.

A comunera