Our channel

On 31st March a new way of communicating with family and friends was launched. Here is our channel, which tells a little about us and because, in addition, its presence encourages and strengthens us in these difficult times:

Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTg8LyGETtYzYhNkO_GraiQ

Writing our history - Cajamarca Rural Libraries Network:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIuvaD924Yc

Writing our history - Cajamarca Rural Libraries Network / sub. English: https://youtu.be/hP2IzzC8Iyw

Writing our history - Cajamarca Rural Libraries Network / sub. deutsch: https://youtu.be/58NmZuObLAM

Alfredo Mires Ortiz - Conversation: Community and Pandemics:

https://youtu.be/wdmR5v_XVxQ

We Are Us - Community Program: https://youtu.be/1dJMw-_jGJc

The Courage to Read - Part 1: https://youtu.be/LcSPUzi3Aiw

The Mountain of the Soul - part 1: https://youtu.be/txlQyGX1sxg

Another voice sings - song / tribute. Rural Libraries of Cajamarca:

https://youtu.be/iLSJkq-Ohwk

50 years of the Network: Offering to the earth from the Apu Qayaqpuma:

https://youtu.be/3Wi5KPEFzx

1971-2021: Tribute to our Network - 4

Everything about her is celebration and reverence. Our Network is the nest and ferment of the ancient and primal sacred vision of the world and existence. Through her we have learned, remembered and never stopped making offerings, cultivating and maintaining altars to our deceased, venerating and thanking the earth for the essential presence of our elders, of our wise women and men who have known how to forge the memory of our Andean people.

The Network is herself the center and point of extension of each practice, each act, each task in the countryside, each reading, each voice and each book as a ceremony, a ritual, a full encounter of all with all.

Tribute to courage and drive - 4

This time a recognition and tribute to our veteran Quechua librarian José Isabel Ayay Valdez and his children, as well as his brothers and the Chilimpampa community. They, from the memory of Mrs. María Santos Valdez, the yach’aqmama of the community, have accompanied with their integrity and courage the journey of the Network; they have offered their immense wisdom and firm presence.

All our thanks and love.

Reading for others

Convened by the CREBE (Basic Special Education Resource Center) of Cajamarca, our brother and sister Alfredo Mires and Nathalia Quintero were present for four virtual sessions in April, conducting the "Reading for others" workshop. This space was the time to meet with teachers and families, to reflect on what, for what, where and how to read for others.

More than a workshop on reading techniques, the Rural Libraries Network emphasizes the importance of critical and ethical reading; reading not only books, but also contexts, places and realities. It addresses the differences between deciphering words and understanding them, as well as the weight, color and sound of words, the various readings and places of reading, among other elements.

Our Virtual Library of the Network (BIVIR) advances

Little by little we are amplifying efforts to enlarge the Virtual Library of the Network, our BIVIR. Through messages on WhatsApp we have shared various reading materials: some to inspire reading, others are short texts that illustrate a topic of interest; some more to read our stories; still others that report on health, education and other topics.

We hope that in these times of social confinement, technological devices will be used as a means to read more and, even better, to share and talk about what has been read.

We thank the librarians, teachers of the Rural Libraries in Educational Institution and friends, for the enthusiasm and commitment to continue reading books, posters, signs and, above all, to read our reality and not forget that we are together.

Soul to the air

Dear Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca, the great author and friend of yours, Eduardo Galeano, tells us in his book “Mouths of time:

"According to some ancient traditions, the tree of life grows upside down. The trunk and branches down, the roots up. The crown sinks into the earth, the roots look up to the sky. It does not offer its fruits, but its origin. It does not hide the most endearing, the most vulnerable, underground, but risks it out in the open. It gives its roots, raw, to the winds of the world.

-They are things of life- says the tree of life."

While reading these lines, I had to think about you. Now you are celebrating your 50th anniversary of Rural Libraries: awesome! And for all these decades you have done just that: you lived and offered your origin. You have spread your roots in the sky and have been exposed to winds and storms. Without uprooting. Your vulnerability is also your infinite strength that lives every day in the communities of the Andes and far beyond.

Your fruits are offered through your paths and in the form of your beautiful books, your words, your uniting steps.

You have been a role model, inspiration and guardian of life for these 50 years, and more before as well.

Thank you very much, dear friends, for living with such wisdom and generosity of sharing. And thank you also for your beautiful friendship.

We have known each other for 20 years and I am happy for the many more decades to come, in which you will follow your path, leave traces, stretch your roots and embrace the future.

You taught me and a lot of people so much about "the things of life."

Many congratulations and hugs to you! Have a huge party, everyone together: far or near, we are all going to be there in some way.

Forever,

Kyra Grewe, from Germany

Rosabel

A few days ago we received photos of La Providencia (in Sócota, Cutervo): there was a gathering of bulls and a donkey; animals that were already large, tame and beautiful.

Igor Irigoín, who sent us the photos, has been a coordinator of the Community Program for some years. At this time he accompanied Rosabel, a girl with infantile cerebral palsy and, thanks to Igor's efforts and the family's careful dedication, Rosabel made great progress, both in her motor skills and in her emotional, intellectual and personal development. 

The memories are fond ones - for us and for the family. The naturalness of the mother, the dedication of the father, the spontaneity of Rosabel, the company of the siblings, are always present in our memory.

As part of her rehabilitation, and with the help of friends in Germany, we managed to get Rosabel a donkey. That was necessary for her to be able to mobilize because walking has been difficult for her until now.

When Rosabel grew up, the Community Program applied, as a rehabilitation proposal, to get a bull for Rosabel to breed, care for, and grow.

In the Andean tradition, the acquisition of animals that are left in the care of children and continue growing, is part of daily education and also leads to economic independence.

And so it is: the team of bulls in the photo that Igor sent us is the fruit of Rosabel's upbringing and constitutes part of her personal and family sustenance.

But above all, it is an example of the teachings and wisdom of the countryside.