Suppose I have a son. And that boy or girl listens to the harangues of an angry country in the background, goes out into the streets and feels the uncertainty, reads the graffiti with social complaints, looks sideways at the newscast with new deaths and disappearances.
How do I explain to that son what is happening in this country if even I do not fully understand it myself? I start by looking for words like justice, democracy, human rights, freedom of expression … they seem just concepts or dreams that were not fulfilled. I need to land them, make that child feel that somehow they do or can exist. So I need to tell you a story.
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I start with I am afraid , by Ivar Da Coll (Babel). In this one, Eusebio is afraid of the monsters that he thinks he imagines, but that are actually made of what surrounds him: from brooms and pots, to news of displacement, kidnapping or extortion. Without saying a single one of these great words, Da Coll makes the reader find comfort in the act of counting and in the embrace of a good friend.
I continue with the Books for Tomorrow collection, from the Media Vaca Publishing House, with the titles How democracy can be, This is how dictatorship is and There are social classes. Forty years after its publication in Spain they are still valid in these times and in this country. In them I read: “Democracy is like a game in which everyone plays. And they play at freedom ”,“ the dictatorship is like a dictation: a man says what to do and the others do it. Just because “,” all men are equal. But there are things that make them unequal: force, power, money and culture ”.
I advance with Anarchy Explained to Children, by José Antonio Emmanuel (Milserifas), to dream of another possible world: “May the book be your best friend, your advisor, your guide. We will never know enough. Whoever adds science, adds anarchy ”,“ above this chaos of ignominy, raise your eyes to the beauty of life ”,“ in the ideal world, sow ideas, spread thoughts, write and act ”.
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I add to the list the pop up version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Kókinos), The village: stories to think about the country (Diana Ospina and Nicolás Chirokoff, Clickarte agency), Little story of a disagreement: citizenship for children (Claudio Fuentes and Gabriela Lyon, Ekaré), Tales to untangle tangles (Fundación Secretos para Contar) and Grandmothers with identity: the story of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and the restored grandchildren (Carla Baredes and Ileana Lotersztain, Iamiqué).
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsTo that son or daughter I would read these and other books so that they know that they are not alone in their feelings, so that they know that they can always ask and find their own answers to whatever is happening.
* In collaboration with Librería Babel, Bogotá.