Life Histories Project team launches first volume
M. Fieweger schrieb am 14.11.2014
Tengo que escribir: la vida de César Pavón, contada a Diane Staats (I have to write: the life of César Pavón as told to Diane Staats) is the title of the Life Histories Project team’s first published work. The Life History Project is one of many activities in which the Fundación Casa Palabra y Pueblo (House of the Word and the People) is involved. The book was published by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
The 154-page volume documents the life of farmer-father-poet-community journalist César Pavón, who has lived in Intag since birth (except for a brief period working in Quito), whose formal education ended after his graduation from sixth grade, and who cannot imagine a life without writing. In effect, the volume´s appendix includes a ten-page bibliography of César´s works―poetry, in large part―many of them published in Periódico ÍNTAG, a community newspaper to which the poet contributed during the medium’s eleven-year existence.
Diane Staats, former station manager at the Siempre Verde Reserve and volunteer with the Casa Palabra y Pueblo, wrote the text, which includes many verbatim passages taken from more than ten hours of recorded interviews, transcribed by women from Íntag and the author. Diane has succeeded wonderfully in her principle aim: assuring that the voice readers hear is César’s.
The book features a prologue emphasizing the importance of César’s mother, aunt, and daughter in his life, and a poetic epilogue, both by Álvaro Alemán, director of the Literature Department at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. It also includes an introduction to the Life Histories Project and insets offering the historical context for the periods in César´s life, by Mary Ellen Fieweger, project coordinator.
Readers interested in a taste of the Spanish-language work can read the first chapter by following this link: http://bit.ly/1GVRA1W. In the meantime, the Casa Palabra y Pueblo´s Peace Corps volunteer, Amy Woodruff, is working on an English-language version which will be available one day in the form of an e-book. The pdf of the complete Spanish-language version is now available. Readers interested in ordering Tengo que escribir, please contact us at: intaglifestories@gmail.com.
The 154-page volume documents the life of farmer-father-poet-community journalist César Pavón, who has lived in Intag since birth (except for a brief period working in Quito), whose formal education ended after his graduation from sixth grade, and who cannot imagine a life without writing. In effect, the volume´s appendix includes a ten-page bibliography of César´s works―poetry, in large part―many of them published in Periódico ÍNTAG, a community newspaper to which the poet contributed during the medium’s eleven-year existence.
Diane Staats, former station manager at the Siempre Verde Reserve and volunteer with the Casa Palabra y Pueblo, wrote the text, which includes many verbatim passages taken from more than ten hours of recorded interviews, transcribed by women from Íntag and the author. Diane has succeeded wonderfully in her principle aim: assuring that the voice readers hear is César’s.
The book features a prologue emphasizing the importance of César’s mother, aunt, and daughter in his life, and a poetic epilogue, both by Álvaro Alemán, director of the Literature Department at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. It also includes an introduction to the Life Histories Project and insets offering the historical context for the periods in César´s life, by Mary Ellen Fieweger, project coordinator.
Readers interested in a taste of the Spanish-language work can read the first chapter by following this link: http://bit.ly/1GVRA1W. In the meantime, the Casa Palabra y Pueblo´s Peace Corps volunteer, Amy Woodruff, is working on an English-language version which will be available one day in the form of an e-book. The pdf of the complete Spanish-language version is now available. Readers interested in ordering Tengo que escribir, please contact us at: intaglifestories@gmail.com.
You could volunteer in Intag and write the next volume in the series!