The Right to Imagine: Reading in Community with People and Stories / Gente y Cuentos

Extract

In Córdoba, Argentina, a library of books once banned by the military junta's censors (1976–83) now resides at a center called the Espacio para la Memoria (“Space for Memory”). The site, where prisoners were once held and tortured, houses workshops inviting schoolchildren to think about this terrifying period in their history. Under the junta, even children's books were banned, and after reading a few of these titles with the children who visit the center, the workshop leaders ask them why they think the books were prohibited. One of the reasons the censors gave for prohibition was that these books offered “unlimited fantasy.” To explore this idea, in one workshop the kids sang the song “The Backward Kingdom” (“El reino del revés”), by the well-known Argentine singer María Elena Walsh. After hearing the charming lyrics (birds swim, fish fly, babies have beards, 2 + 2 = 3, etc.), students brainstormed to generate their own inside-out or upside-down examples. One child mentioned raining up, another suggested that big kids nap while little kids play, and a third proposed cars driving on the sidewalk while kids play in the street. Upset by this disorder, one of the children exclaimed, “No, that's impossible!” until the boy who imagined cars on sidewalks explained, “But we're just imagining!” His classmate responded, “Oh, okay, in that case it's possible.”