The literary contest encourages teenagers to write, publish and read. The initiative began in 2019 within the Municipality of Yerba Buena. The slogan of this edition, which expires on August 5, calls for proposing a futuristic vision for that city of Tucumán
Literature, and the love of reading and writing are fundamental pillars of the lives of the children who make up “Gente de Acá”. This is what six of them say: Moon Sage and Guadalupe Aguero who are 17 years old; Jose Benjamin Salazar, Santiago Meone and Sofia Sanchez of 15, and Felicitas Sanchez at only 12 years old. These teenagers are united by belonging to the Petrona de Adami Municipal School, also known as “Abejitas”, and their status as writers of some of the productions of “Gente de Acá”, a literary project of the Municipality of Yerba Buena aimed – for now – to students from educational institutions in that Tucumán city.
The “Gente de Acá” creative contest has been held every year since 2019 to publicize the voices of youth authors. Based on a specific theme chosen by the organization, high school students give free rein to their imagination. This year the call expires on August 5 and the slogan is ”Utopias and dystopias: imagining Yerba Buena in 100 years”, that is, 2124. The winners’ texts will be published in the book of the sixth edition of the cycle . This first experience of collective publication leaves a mark inside and out. This is proven by the fact that some of the young writers of “Gente de Acá” have been invited to speak about the project at the Tucumán Book Fair that concluded last June 16.
ADMIRING THEIR WORKS. Felicitas Sánchez, Guadalupe Agüero, Sofía Sánchez and Luna Sabio commenting on their participation in the project. / Photo: Antonio Ferroni (LA GACETA).
“Writing connects me with other realities: I feel like I live in many worlds,” says Sofía Sánchez in a dialogue in the LA GACETA Editorial Office. She is a faithful participant of “Gente de Acá” since she has participated in the initiative since the first edition. She has known about the project since she was in diapers. The first result of the call was an anthology with chronicles of real people from Yerba Buena. “Books are like my best friends, sometimes we get exhausted from the daily grind and they take us to other places,” says the young woman.
Sofia’s case is funny. The first time she entered the contest she didn’t write her email correctly and her text was labeled as “unidentified author.” The mistake turned out to be fortunate because, in this way, the author was able to break the fear. “It was my way of crossing the barrier of prejudice that many kids my age have,” she explains. From her perspective, anonymity can be an alternative for those who want to join, but do not dare to do so, perhaps because they are ashamed of what others will think and give their opinion.
Democracy and pandemic
“I participated for the first time last year with the thematic axis of 40 years of democracy. They had given me the opportunity before, but I didn’t accept for fear of failing,” Santiago Meone is honest on the same side. For him, writing is a very personal matter, which is why he does not usually share it even with his closest friends. When they saw him on television doing an interview about the book “Gente de Acá”, they were surprised by the unexpectedness of the situation and then supported the author. “That it has been published gives me confidence for the coming years. I want to continue writing in the following editions,” he says with a smile on his face.
One aspect that stands out about the contest is that the axes and the results are really profound. As Santiago commented, last year’s topic was “40 Years of Democracy.” The interested young people had to investigate the events that occurred during the last Argentine military dictatorship, a period that most of their parents did not live through. This is not the situation of José Benjamin Salazar, who wrote about the personal history of his father at this time. The text is titled “The wound that Argentines carry in their hearts.” “I am excited to be able to convey and show the angle of the people who suffered at this moment. Reflect on the rights that we acquired in these 40 years, and the privileges that we have today and that did not exist before,” he says.
DEEP TEXTS. Victoria Desjardins, director of education at Yerba Buena, along with José Benjamín Salazar and Santiago Meone, who stood out in last year’s book for 40 years of democracy. / Photo: Antonio Ferroni (LA GACETA).
According to Felicitas Sánchez, writing is a way to escape from this reality and explore different worlds. She entered the pageant last year when she was 11 years old. Her story was selected for the compilation on democracy and the military dictatorship. “I researched how my relatives lived at that time,” she says. And she assures that she will continue participating in successive “People from Here.”
The health emergency of covid-19 was another of the slogans developed in the project. Guadalupe Agüero, who is in her sixth year at the school, participated in that edition. “Writing about the pandemic while it was happening and we were all locked up was healing because I was able to understand many things,” the young woman details. For various reasons, she was unable to return to “Gente de Acá” in subsequent years, but she wants to appear in the 2024 contest. Guadalupe specifies that the slogan that invites us to imagine Yerba Buena in 100 years is allowing her to have a different look at reality. . She now realizes things that she didn’t see before. “To this day I continue to write. It helps me express myself when I’m bad, although when I’m good I also do it,” she reveals.
Luna Sabio goes to sixth grade like Guadalupe. She found out about the contest in the year it was created and published her first text there when she was 12. “It seemed like fun to write a chronicle about Yerba Buena,” she says. Like her partner, she was not able to participate in the following editions of “Gente de Acá”, but this year she will return. Her friends also didn’t know that she was involved in this project: they found out about it when her school announced that she was going to give interviews about the book. “Some told me that they want to be in this year’s edition,” she says. She encourages young people who don’t dare because “what you can’t say, you can write.”
Write to feel
“It is important to know that this is not just a contest, but a space for children and youth voices,” he says. Victoria Desjardins, Director of Education in the Municipality of Yerba Buena. The official anticipates that big projects are coming. “Next year we are going to implement ‘People from Here and People from There’ because we will invite kids from other municipalities to participate,” she anticipates. Victoria is in charge of spreading the initiative through the Book Fairs: for her it is essential that what these teenage authors write is read. Just as there is no financial compensation for authorship, the volumes of “Gente de Acá” are delivered free of charge. “This is part of a government policy that has education as a priority,” says Desjardins.
Perhaps the best description of what this program is and aims to achieve is in the prologue of the first edition: “’Gente de Acá’ invites young people to write to name; name to know; know to know; know to let see; let see to start looking; start looking to live; “dwell to live and live to feel.”
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