The goblin of the labyrinth

Today, April 1, I read to my students, in a fourth grade classroom, two texts by Alfredo Mires that are part of the work El duende del laberinto y otros cuentos medulares: El vino and El amor III (The  goblin  of the labyrinth and other medular stories: Wine and Love III).

I then asked them for their interpretations and there was silence. I read again in order to encourage them and one of them said: "Love allows us to esteem the other, to value them, their existence is necessary. The vaccine mentioned in the text is to live without love, a barrier that removes sensitivity". Another student said: “Love leads us to suffering, you cannot love without suffering”, and his classmate expressed that “Love acts as a barrier to hate, it allows us to relate, unite and love each other”.

I insisted that they interpret the text “Wine” and, almost at the end of the class hour, a smiling young girl said: “Wine refers to the capacity of transformation, like the grape that goes through a process and transforms into something good, so we can transform ourselves”.

I felt, once again, happy for the enriching experiences that reading generates.

Thank you, Alfredo.

Elizabeth Olano

Teacher and head of a BRIE

Comic strips

From narration to comic strip

As part of an academic activity, a few weeks ago, a group of children from a local educational institution, read some of our stories to transform them into comic strips. The choice of the stories was totally free, as is the distribution of the content, because it is better to give them the freedom to choose the details and allow them to show their creativity.

It was very nice to see what criteria they used to choose their stories: the one that is scary, the one that is funny, the one that talks about the Virgin Mary of the town. In short, there is a lot of variety in our story booklets, for all tastes and readers' desires.

The result was a colourful panel, with drawings appropriate to their age and an enriching demonstration of their ability to summarize and present each story so that it can be understood in a few words.

Respectful of the precious work of these children, we have asked permission to present the “sample buttons”.

Assembly that encourages

On April 25 and 26 we met in Cajamarca to hold the assembly of the Rural Libraries Network at the beginning of the year. Librarians, coordinators of the Network, those in charge of our BRIE (Rural Libraries in Educational Institutions) and the team from our central office gathered to train us, evaluate our work in the field and make agreements about the work of Rural Libraries this year.

This time, the attendance at our assembly was very good; meeting, greeting and spending a couple of days together always encourages us a lot.

We returned home happy because we learned a lot, both from the training provided by the Network's headquarters and from the presentations given by our compañeros in the countryside on topics such as Andean religiosity, Rondas campesinas, procedures in cases of family violence and agriculture.

We agreed that, in the next assemblies, we will continue with this type of presentations of the peasant members of the Network, but we will also prepare ourselves to know better the books that we publish and thus know how to better encourage our brothers and sisters in rural areas.

Sergio Díaz Estela, from Masintranca, Chota

IV

Lord,

what are you if not

all dreams?

We poor people do not say

“Tomorrow I will be this

or that”.

No.

We exist

and by existing we make

the world less

unworthy,

less messed up

the history,

sweeter

the life.

And life, Lord,

is free,

we have it as a gift.

We do not plan

we palpitate

we do not die of heart attack

we only dream.

So, Lord,

we legitimize you.

Alfredo Mires Ortiz

in: How to go to bed undecided and wake up to risk it.

Reach out your hand to the grandchild without letting go of the grandparents'

In the process of rescuing the wisdom of the grandparents, our brother Alfredo Mires said a phrase that we like very much, which is part of our books and posters of the Network, a phrase that calls us to reflection and action: Reach out your hand to the grandchild without letting go of the grandparents'.

In our recent Assembly we were overwhelmed with emotion to see our fellow librarian Marcial Rumay Cortez from the community of Shidín - Cajamarca arrive. Don Marcialito had stopped participating in our meetings for health reasons, yet this time he arrived in full spirit and also accompanied by his granddaughter Marisol Rumay, who grew up with the books of the Network. The girl who attended the library and who felt and feels proud to recommend our books, is now a university student, who values the efforts of the Network for the promotion of reading, recognizes our journey and accompanies us.

May Marisol be a sample of those seeds that so many coordinators of the different communities are taking care of; and may those seeds continue to grow and tell the wisdom of our grandparents.

From mountain to mountain

We set off for our destination, Cajamarca, a city in the mountains of Peru, carrying only the clothes we needed to make room for our protagonists: books!

So we left, leaving the dawn of the Aburrá Valley behind us.

Lima would be our first stop, where our friends welcomed us and we did a little sightseeing, but the heat sapped my strength and my spirits.

With the Sunday breeze, I arrived in Cajamarca; my body and spirit were relieved to see Rita, and the joy of meeting my friend cured all my ills.

From then on, I felt like part of the family, a feeling that lasted throughout the trip. They opened their home and their hearts to me, and we shared everything: work, food, transport and the hotel. We followed the planned route amid laughter, conversation and anecdotes. From the first exchange of ideas, our differences were erased, because the goal is the same, only the way of doing it changes. For my part, I shared my gifts and experiences, so that knowledge would flow and not remain on a shelf gathering dust, hoping that it would reinforce the knowledge of the friends who accompanied us and motivate both children and adults to read and write.

Along the way, I learned the value of their customs, that their ancestral knowledge has much to offer us. Above all, I value their ability to preserve their precious culture, their beautiful homes and, above all, their important values, which I saw every minute, kind people, always willing to give their best, greeting you with a shy smile. I am not only taking away what I have learned, but also a few extra kilos, which represent the appreciation of the people of Cajamarca, Cajabamba and the families of the children of Malcas.

All that remains is for me to ask you to continue with such wonderful work, to continue fostering the connection between parents and children through books and preserving the ancestral knowledge that can offer so much wisdom to the world, so that we can all continue to grow together.

I am very grateful to life for bringing me together with Rita Mocker, and to her for introducing me to the Cajamarca Rural Libraries Network, such a meaningful project where I was able to share everything from my knowledge to my laughter.

With love and affection, your Colombian friend,

Leidy Yohana Vélez Santa

Reading in the countryside

In April, we welcomed our daughter Samay Nikoll and some of her friends from the National University of Cajamarca to our home. They had come with the sole purpose of learning how our rural libraries in the countryside work.

At the end of March, these friends had attended the 54th anniversary celebration of the Network in Cajamarca. There I was able to talk with them, and that had sparked their interest in the work of Rural Libraries in the countryside.

So we welcomed all these lovely people into our home, thinking about how to explain who we are and what we do in our libraries in the communities. We decided to hold a reading circle with them, but we thought it would be nice to do it in a special place, and we chose the apu El Mirador.

To get there, we had obtained some mules, and one fine morning, we all rode on horses to the apu. There we celebrated our offering to the earth and then held a reading circle with some books we had brought with us.

At lunchtime, we took out our picnic and shared a delicious meal. While we were doing these activities, some locals approached us to ask what we were doing there. So, in passing, we were able to promote our libraries, our books and reading.

Beautiful experiences like this encourage us a lot – and encourage others too.

Sergio Díaz Estela, from Masintranca, Chota.