It’s time for an update, and where to start? How about the launch of our first trilingual book to be published by a university press in Bolivia. The event takes place in all three languages.
Imagine a couple from the Yampara ethnic group who arrive at the former presidential palace in Sucre, Bolivia. They’ve arranged to hold a press conference here, to take place in the morning so that some family members can be back home in time to graze the sheep. They’ve persuaded even their shyest elders to attend, because today they’re announcing the publication of their first book, written in Quechua, Spanish and English, and it is dedicated to their parents.
The palace is intimidating, but not to these intrepid authors.
Wearing their finest homespun clothing (a punishable offense when they were children in gradeschool) Tata Casto and Mama Julia walk with their elders and adult children over the dizzying tilework and up the grand staircase.
The largest salon is opened for them and a staff member spreads a tablecloth at the front of the room, which they immediately cover over with their traditional Yampara weavings.
After all, this first book of theirs celebrates the ways that their parents taught them life lessons through their weavings, especially the q’inqu or zigzag with its traditional rainbow illumination down the center.
The room fills with members of the press, the State’s Commissioner of Culture, and with faculty and students from the local Universidad San Francisco Xavier.
Tata Casto speaks with conviction and emotion: “In this book we relate just a little of what our parents have taught us. It’s about our own family life, our own community life, our life as persons in the natural world. It’s about how my father taught me important lessons while plowing this land and how my wife received an education through weaving with her mother. We haven’t conducted research in books, or on the internet – we have researched our own lives.”
The manuscript, photography, design, editing and layout of this book was produced entirely through volunteer labor. Yachay Simi donors made it possible for the book’s graphic designer to travel from Peru to the launch to get to know the authors and their family in person. I’m proud to have coordinated an international, interdisciplinary team in tandem with Tata Casto and Mama Julia. Getting team members together in one space was a major achievement that will make future collaborations much easier. We’re already working on volume 2!
If you’d like to attend or host a talk about our work with Andean communities, please get in touch! Virtual readings and opportunities to purchase the book in person are also an option. All proceeds on the first twenty copies sold in the US will support needy children at the public school in Ayllu Puka Puka, while remaining proceeds will reimburse the authors. Contact me at yachaysimi@gmail.com
Thank you – gracias – PACHI!
Yachay Simi (Wise Language) 