Opening doors, awakening dreams: La Puerta Abierta in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala
How can there be books by Maurice Sendak, Anthony Browne, Erik Carle and shelves and shelves of other wonderful picturebooks in a guatemalan village where the 75% of indigenous population cannot read?
Santiago Atitlan spreads itself, a bit messy and dusty, along Lake Atitlan's bright cobalt blue, framed and shielded by 3000 mt high volcanos.The most populated among the lake's villages, is also the less touristy and the one that most keeps its indigenous soul.
Almost all the inhabitants belong to the Maya Tz'utujil ethnicity and speak the same-named language. At present day, twenty-two modern Maya languages are spoken in Guatemala.
The elderly don't understand spanish, the children learn it at school as a second language, the majority of the adults speak some of it.
In this context, school is often abandoned, mostly by girls who have to help at home, or never really attended, by the little workers who walk to the fields at sunrise. Like in the whole rural Latin America, reading and, as a consequence, books are very uncommon.
I stayed a few weeks in this village, during my two-months travelling through Mexico and Guatemala. Here I had the chance to meet a group of people that work everyday with the aim of spreading the gift of reading and literacy.
La Puerta Abierta is the little miracle these people created: a primary school and kindergarten, a library, a community centre growing according to the needs of Santiago Atitlan.
The history of the escuelita, like everyone knows it, is touching: everything started from few bookshelves in a room, collected by Amanda - a primary school teacher from the USA who came volunteering in Guatemala one year and never went back.
Families were invited to enjoy books, hear stories, participate in weekly activities; the library grew and the families participated more and more, so that bigger spaces and more volunteers were needed.
Schools began to solicit visits of La Puerta Abierta's volunteers, and then started the Biblioteca Movil [Travelling Library] a program that is still bringing books and story-telling to remote schools in the area.
Estimulaciòn Temprana [Early Stimulation] was a program that offered pre-school kids with their mums a weekly gathering with readings, playing, songs and activities. Soon, even mums with newborn babies or still pregnant women were coming!
Families were so enthusiastic so that they began to demand a first grade class for their children: after a few years, this desire was fulfilled and today La Puerta Abierta has a first grade class and two kindergarten classes. The families pay a fee to cover the expenses and the teachers, still it's not comparable to a private school; besides some grants and scholarships, a sort of time-bank is working, to make the school more accessible to every family.
Moreover, a huge part of La Puerta Abierta are the completely free programs still working and growing: the Estimulacion Temprana, the Biblioteca Movil, the Club de Lectura [Reading Club] for teens, visits to the elderly centre (where short stories by international authors are translated in Tzu'tujil) and - the most recent challenge- the training of public schools teachers.
All these activities share the same aims and motivations: to benefit the local community by spreading literacy and reading, through creativity and critical thinking, at any age.
During my days at La Puerta Abierta, I spent time with Amanda and the teachers, the children and the families, I went with Isaias and his Biblioteca Movil to remote schools, I played like a child and i received gifts.
This is how I got to know better this meaningful project, in order to design the new logo that will be used from now on - and that soon will be even painted on the wall :)
Happy to leave a little footstep beside me, I left Santiago Atitlan and went on travelling, with the desire to tell this beautiful story.
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
kaledo-art