On the 7th and 8th of May 2019, a workshop in the city of Guatemala was offered to librarians, educators, and members of the artistic community as well as staff from the Guatemalan government and representatives from other organizations including Bibliotecas Riecken, IBBY El Salvador/Biblioteca de los sueños; Libros para niños, Nicaragua; Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica and the Centro de Derechos Sociales de la Persona Migrante (CENDEROS). The workshop was attended by 52 people with “Cooperación Alemana en Guatemala, GIZ” supporting 12 participants for travel and accommodation which meant that educators from indigenous groups were able to come to the city and several books in different Mayan-root languages were included in the readings. Organized by the Instituto de Investigación y Proyección sobre Dinámicas Globales y Territoriales of the Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala, Dr Magda García Von Hoegen, researcher at this Institute, and her assistant, Mirena Martínez worked with the Mexican team to organize, deliver and record the research-based workshop “Literatura infantil, lectura y espacios seguros: un maletín de apoyo para mediadores”. During the two days, Mónica Zárate (Ministry of Culture, México) and Cutzi Quezada (Universidad Iberoamericana, México) delivered the workshop developed by the Research Workshop on working in critical contexts of post-conflict displacement. Dr García shared the experience and findings of her research project, “Tejiendo la voz: arte como plataforma de diálogos interculturales” (Weaving the voice: Art as a platform of intercultural dialogues) where the processes of creativity and art are used for social cohesion and transformation. Participants carried out activities including storytelling, annotating picturebooks and created videos.
For a full account of the workshop (in Spanish), go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyb1rPMXaIw&t=334s
