Libros para Pueblos
©Janet Stanley 2002

I once overheard a woman at a party, mixing her idioms as many of us bilingual speakers do, say “I just don’t understand the fascination that some people have with “helping” the poor. Viven como quieren. Están felices.” They live the way they want to live. They’re happy. This may have just been a daring effort to liven up the conversation but it made me think. The attitude of “poor but happy” is a form of subliminal armor, unwittingly adopted by good people as a shield, a psychological survival weapon. This mental buffer is especially alluring here in Oaxaca where the gut-wrenching scenes of poverty are everywhere. We are overwhelmed; any effort we make to combat it seems humble and paltry. The “poor but happy” myth allows us to endure in everyday life, permits us to accept the poverty as annoying but inevitable.

I recall the words of this woman as I enter the playground of an impoverished elementary school in a small village just outside of the capital city of the second poorest state in Mexico. I have come with Tom Dunham and Jim Breedlove, two Americans that have made Oaxaca their home and refuse to accept the delusion of inevitability about the difference that one person can make. Together with the help and support of the Oaxaca Lending Library they have embarked on a jubilant venture called Libros para Pueblos, Books for Villages.

A soccer ball whizzes by as the participants of a game see us and run up, greeting the men by their first names, shaking hands and telling jokes. Jim and Tom are well known and accepted here. An ever-growing circle of children of all ages bobs around us as we cross the packed earth clearing between classrooms and approach the entrance to the space that has recently become the library of the school.

Libros para Pueblos, a small group of friends who love to read, is putting lending libraries into some of the poorest schools in the central valley of Oaxaca. Their goal is not to teach children to read but rather to engender a love of reading: the excitement that one feels when he opens the cover of a new book, takes a deep breath and escapes into another world, far away from the drone of his everyday life, experiencing that which cannot otherwise be experienced.

In the early days of the program Libros para Pueblos built small bookshelves and stocked them with 40 Spanish language storybooks.

These were placed in pre-schools and primary schools. However, it soon became obvious that this was not enough. The children needed more books, a separate space set aside for a library and at least one class hour a week that was devoted to reading for pleasure. Finding or, sometimes, even building a separate place for the books has been a challenge involving strapped parents and families who have managed to find a way to buy building materials and construct with their own hands whatever was necessary to make the library a reality.

The teachers and staff of the schools enthusiastically run and support the program but someone from Libros para Pueblos regularly visits each location and works with the locals to maintain and improve the facility.

Today we are visiting the first school where a separate library space was actually installed: Primaria Vicente Guerrero. It is located in a community where, in the past, people made their living by going through the garbage and refuse of the city dump. Most of the children here have never seen a book in the tiny, tin hovels in which they live. Many of their parents do not know how to read. There are no libraries or bookstores in the village.

Each class has it’s own assigned period to use the library and right now it is the turn of the first graders. Pandemonium greets us as we step into the room. Little people are moving around everywhere, climbing over each other to get to their favorite books. Joyfully there is no rule of silence here as each neophyte reader sounds his words out loud, surrounded by several classmates mouthing along. Tom and Jim seem to disappear and I have to drop my range of vision down to six-year-old level to find the men. Each is with a different group, listening to them, joking, pointing out new words, a new book. There is jostling and laughter as the children eagerly compete to read.

As the program grows there are new concerns. Repair and replacement of worn out books are welcome because they are visible signs of the success of the program but it is an ongoing expense. It takes a lot of books to satisfy six school years of an inquisitive mind so expansion and growth of the existing libraries must be considered if they are to stay alive. Each book is handpicked and reviewed to avoid giving a commercial, political or religious slant to the program. There is a long waiting list of schools hungry for libraries. All of this takes time, dedication and money.

Today however, these are far away concerns. Reality is what is happening as a first grade class at Primaria Vicente Guerrero takes it’s regularly scheduled library period. Amid the exuberance of the children, the avidity of Tom and Jim, and the pride and smiles of the teachers I realize that I am witnessing a true interchange. Inside this room there are no mental shields separating the participants, no rationalizations to justify inequalities. The differences of age, culture, education and financial income all vanish into a tantalizing brew of enthusiasm that is shared by all. Just life, but life at it’s best. I wonder to myself: “Who are the givers here? Who is receiving?” The answer to both questions is “everyone”.

There is a saying that we share with Mexicans. One that answers the unspoken query of the woman at the party and sums up what is happening in this tiny, new library:
¡Alegría es la recompensa!
Happiness is it’s own reward!

“Libros para Pueblos” is funded entirely through private contributions and has no paid employees. At this time it takes around $1000 American dollars to initially provide books for an elementary school. If you know of a school or an organization that would be interested in sponsoring a library in a primary or secondary school in Oaxaca or if you are interested in making a donation or receiving more information please contact:
Tom Dunham
Apdo 1351
68000 Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Mexico
Tel/Fax: 011 52 951 517 5641
E-mail: anatomic@spersaoaxaca.com.mx

All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to:
Oaxaca Lending Library Foundation
(Write “Libros para Pueblos” on the memo portion of your check.)