Teeya, An Urban Wayuu
The author tells how the story originated on the traditions of the people included in the IBBY Honour List 2006.
Iwa, the protagonist of your story, during his imprisonment recalled the legend of the spider Waleket, "where the old saying that the Wayuu learned to weave." Tell us about your community's oral tradition, who transmitted the ancient stories to new generations?, What time and space? To answer I refer to my childhood, I was and remain a privileged Wayuu. As a child listening to jayechis (edges) of my grandfather and his incredible stories, that really was incredible. In the settlement were two booths Paradise, that of my Uncle Ramon and my Aunt Rosa, in both children and grandchildren listened my grandfather.
was a very nice, was a very happy childhood, with thorns that they stuck my feet, but very, very happy. He is no longer live but even my grandmother, Mama Pitoria (Victoria). She claims to have 105 years and their "stories" memories "are beautiful, in addition to it, like many seniors, she likes to listen. When I can not hear because of distance, at any arbor of La Guajira where to find me whenever I talk to old people and children close queestán. Treatment of oral infecting still there, that's one of my business: the new generation listen, listen to the traditional way, in a booth in the afternoon, sweet corn drink water. For any questions they do, I say just ask Grandpa.
grandfather speaks, without interruption, only sighs, fears and laughter. Old people like to tell, I like to be heard, but the younger generation hardly like to hear, almost do not ask. Now you know why I feel like a privileged Wayuu, I am full of "memories" treasures "that my grandparents gave me, give me even with his words, and you can not imagine how I want every child Wayuu appropriating all that and that Waleket legend, for example, survives.
Why did you decide to write instead of sending your heritage word of mouth? I decided to write it because I thought the daughter I have not yet. Because I see how many of our traditions change and others disappear. The act of writing makes me think that the literature reinforces the oral tradition of indigenous peoples or vice versa, the oral tradition reinforces the literature, is its foundation. Today in my receipt and La Guajira (by the way of recognition of my book in IBBY) speaks of the little girl and still do not know, because it is not. There is a copy in the library of the Bank of the Republic, look, read it, then go where old and I wonder if my version of the Legend of Waleket, is correct, some old people say no, others say that more or less, others who are. So I ask: Does the literature reinforces or oral tradition? If not, put my community to investigate, which do not conform with the version that my grandparents told me to put the old to tell their versions, that they were told. In a way, which I've written mine become the most successful version.
How did this story? Did you go through this rite? Is there now as before? arose when I got to visit the ranch Cucurumana. In those days, beginning the closure of a girl, I wanted to see pero no pude porque no hago parte de su clan,ella es Uriana y yo soy Pushaina, eso por una parte, y por la otra, yo no pasé por el encierro, y las mujeres wayuu que no pasan por el encierro son consideradas, según los viejos, Irama: ciervos eternamente infantiles y rebeldes. Fue por eso que no la pude ver, me comuniqué con ella a través de una rendija de la puerta. En esos días yo también estaba organizando la Feria Wayú en Barranquilla, ella ya había ido y quería repetir la experiencia, pero no pudo. Lloró, lloró muchísimo.
Las mujeres de tu comunidad que han leído el cuento, ¿qué piensan de él? Les parece interesante Wayuu that has not passed through the closure talk about it with great authority, with many domains, and describe it, told from the perspectives of two girls, one that passes through the enclosure and does not like and one that does not pass I find it fascinating that all this ritual, she draws the unknown and forbidden, being mixed and not Wayuu.
What does being a Wayuu XXI century? To me it means opportunities and privileges. Being an Indian today, when globalization affects us all, we are related, is of total importance, in what sense?, In our identity. Despite the changes that this century has brought our identity reaffirms, today the Indian likes to be indigenous, that is the Indian century.
Is it common for women in your community go, study and write like you right? whether or not that unusual, is that not everyone has access to higher education. For me the really valuable is that if someone in my community comes out and studying, working and earning money, they also do social work with the community. Scholarships for indigenous peoples in Colombia, and if these grants were intended for the Indians and not to young people posing as such with the help of their parents and those in power, our Indians have access to education. Who achieved such access would be multiple of what they learned. Here the problem is not opportunity but justice.
Wayuu Here are many sisters who are lawyers and are dedicated to their profession, some writing but have not released his creations, perhaps out of fear, fear that I had at first, but then I let go. I am a rebel and nothing makes me sad.
Why did you decide to be an urban Wayuu, how you see your community? Do you carry some consequence? I'ma urban Wayuu, and I maintain, though many of my community do not like the term "urban." Will we no, this categorization, as it exists, and I'm not alone. The difference is that I like the city but do not forget my mount, I like to walk barefoot, eat with your hand, be free, but most of my life I have lived in the city and in a frenetic city as Barranquilla. My mountain is my mount but I like the city, Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, finally, I like the urban.
This story first received a distinction in the literature prize Atlantic Comfamiliar 2003 and then one of the most important awards given in the world of books for children and teens: join the list of honor IBBY 2006. What does this mean for you?, What your people? means I'm doing things right, that despite swimming against the tide and find many obstacles, Maleiwua (God) grants victory to perseverance. My record won an award, and not got in my department or my community but in a list where only the best in the world comes, that means also important are the indigenous peoples of America. Means commitment and now recognized nationally and locally, I'm happy, very happy. My community is happy, what I see when I get compliments when I come to ask me the book and wonder if I really like them Pushaina (Pushaina is one of the most numerous clans of La Guajira). I have been recognized not only me but all, absolutely all of my community.
Estercilia Simanca Pushaina, Teeya Wayuu language, was born in 1975 in the hamlet El Paraiso Caicemapa indigenous reservation (Lower Guajira). He writes stories and poetry, is a lawyer and works for their community in different instances. With the closure of a small girl was a finalist in the Literature Prize Comfamiliar XI Atlantic (2003) and participated in the IBBY Honour List 2006.
The closure of a small girl Iwa has moons that separate it from his childhood while performing the rite the Wayuu become a princess. Tells us their feelings, dreams and learning during the long night of three years in learning the traditions of his people. Also memories of his childhood in a Catholic boarding school, and nostalgia for a boy. Her voice weaves another woman Wayuu, whose memories of the closure of Iwa complete the story of the small, evoking a different world: the women of an indigenous people of La Guajira, Colombia, which is in its traditional strength to experience the world today.
The Wayuu are an Indian tribe, belonging to the Arawak ethno-linguistic family, live in the department of La Guajira, Colombia and Venezuela, our language is the Wayuunaiki and still preserve many of our customs and ancestral customs. Men are pastoralists and goat breeding (goats) and cattle, the Wayuu who live near the sea, engaged in fishing (apalanchis) and women, mostly, are dedicated to making beautiful and colorful crafts, learning to do during a ritual called "closure."
The closure is one of the most important rituals in our culture, and that's where the girl Wayuu a new stage in his life. The closure is a period of preparation in the transition from girl to woman, in ancient times would last years, it depended on social status of the child, Today can last weeks, days or nothing.
The proximity of another culture is first, exchange and mix of ways of seeing the world. Represents, on one hand, opportunities, and access to education that many children had Wayuu with the arrival of the Capuchins to the peninsula of La Guajira, in the first Indian boarding schools that were and are still preserved, but also "fracture "means the same destination of education meant the prohibition of some of our customs. We were forbidden, for example, talk Wayuunaiki and Wayuu women "have money", the missionaries told us to not be exchanged for goats, necklaces, cows, ignoring the true meaning of "dowry" among us, not simply that women have an economic value but it is something valuable that is given to the woman's family to be protected and multiply, so meets your needs and those of their children if widowed or divorces her husband. The Capuchins imposed the new marriages were Wayuu by the Catholic rite, when in my community do not know what it meant.
Miscegenation means today, paradoxically, be more Wayuu, more authentic. I note with pleasure as children of "alijunas" with Wayuu Wayuu are more mixed, more Wayuu children of Wayuu with Wayuu. I do not know how we have had ethnic shame that our parents and grandparents lived, because of the discrimination that violated them, so that new generations will feel proud and worthy of Wayuu. Discrimination still exists, so there is no one feels discriminated against. It is natural that the mixture resulting in the loss of some elements of our culture, but others survive, and the importance we give to dreams, our language, Wayuunaiki (of course with either word in Castilian), our blankets , which are always long, with another innovation which now show the Colombian designers in the major gateways Europe are not far from the innovations that have made women stores crossbred Maicao blankets.
By: Maria Cristina Rincon and Janeth Chaparro
Magazine: Reading Sheet
New
Fundalectura
Jissis Ed, with Miguel Angel López Hernanández (Premio Casa de las Americas, Cuba, 2,000), Victor Bravo Mendoza (Writer Guajiro) Simanca Estercilia Pushaina, Vicenta Maria Pino and Jhonz Siosi Zarate. 
in Ipapure grazing their goats and sheep. 
in Ipapure grazing their goats and sheep. 
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