May Patagonian writing and readers, also from the region, meet. Let a community be formed. That is what language teachers Natalia Grossenbacher, Mariana Rizzuto, Ludmila Cabana Crozza, Laura Dimarco, Valentina Natalini, and Milagros Ponce De León, all from the Roca Teacher Training Institute (IFDC), proposed. A kind of crusade to not only strengthen the ties between those who capture stories and those who enjoy them but also and above all, between those who study in that place and then become teachers who, in turn, sow Patagonian writing and reading and guide their future students along that path. A wheel.
The project began almost by chance, in 2022, when the actress, director and playwright Maite Aranzábal presented “El lirito de nácar” at the IFDC. The teachers saw in this back and forth with the educational community an opportunity to generate greater knowledge and interest in what is produced in the region to teach in the region. That year, Aranzábal’s book was followed by the presentation of “Twenty-Five Days of Rain,” by María Inés Cantera and María Martha Paz with the publishing house La punta del ovillo, and then “Chraf Quimun (sharing knowledge)” from the “Patagonian Authors” Project. ” of the intercultural extended day school and annex garden No. 155.
“We want the Institute to be an open cultural space, so that the future teachers that we have as students have access to that cultural framework. “We want to bring regional writers closer together, create that space for Patagonian writers and those who read to meet,” summarizes Grossenbacher.
Rizzuto, who this week presented a beautiful children’s album book, together with the designer Marina Hernalz, “Our days”, published by the Rionegrino Editorial Fund (FER), is enthusiastic about everything that is produced in the region: poetry, children’s books, fiction, chronicle. Stories that talk about the region, although not always, and that in this way become a mirror for those who read them or need them to teach, as teachers. “Our students, who are thinking of themselves as teachers, are interested in that because it is not exclusively about stories from other places, but from here, with our elements, our language. “It is something that builds identity.”
“It is the production of content on local topics,” adds Grossenbacher, who lists many of the books that have been presented and that comply with that logic: Mario Figueroa’s children’s publications; the well-known “Messages to the Rural Settler”, by Jorge Piccini; “The role of the archive”, by Pilar Pérez (comp.), the book by María Inés Cantera and María Martha Paz.
If 2022 marked the starting point, 2023 and so far this year have deepened the path. The IFDC became the place where, month after month, authors came to talk about their books, not only with students but with the community. “And that is germinating,” says Grossenbacher. There are students who like to write, and seeing and listening to the authors encourages them too, enriching themselves with the experience.”
In 2023, there were nine presentations: Juan Páez and his literary and investigative work; “Stories Plates II”, by Silvia Sánchez; the literary, theatrical and musical show “What appears (in the wind that whistles what you hear)”, by Daniel Lugones, Mariel Valy and Betina Labrune; “Messages to the rural dweller”, by Piccini; “Mistletoe”, by Cabana Crozza; “The role of the archive”, by Pilar Pérez (comp.), “The grandmothers tell us”, by the Fiske Menuco Identity Network; the oral narration show “The Threads of Memory”, by Belén Torras, and “Quelonia” by Graciana Miller and Mariela Marini.
For the remainder of the year, the presentations of “El Sueño de Luisina” by Mario Figueroa are already scheduled; the presentation of the play “A cry of the heart”, by the Municipal Theater Workshop; “Microbiana” by Mariana Calcumil, the collection of poems “Nenas”, by Carina Nosenzo.
The students now joined the presentations, helping in the organization and committing to a project that enriches everyone. The wheel they set in motion, to join paths, seems to move.
