"The biggest pride I have is that the years pass and ex-pupils greet me in the street: ' teacher..., librarian...:' What another award can be better than being remembered? I do not have better outcomes that that of waking up in the children the love for the reading and that they are interested in coming spontaneously to the library", says this woman with sincerity nad modesty, which almost does not allow her to tell me about her recognitions in the head municipality and the province during 19 calendars dedicated to the early lessons for "los que saben querer", as expressed José Martí.
BRILLIANCIES
The Apostle has served to Clara as inspiration in the arduous task of giving light to the sparkling minds of children. "Martí is special to wake up in the children the taste for the books. That's why I came with the idea of linking him of certain way with another very common passion, the baseball. Here there is an education mean in the shape of baseball player that has some holes for put questions on areas not so known about the life and work of the National Hero to compete and the activities pleased very much", she added immediately that the love for Martí was bequeathed from her father, Segundo Cruz Legrá, the first elderly with a Master's degree in Latin American culture.
"My mother was who motivated me to be a librarian. I studied two years in the former School of Teachers and since then I do not imagine another way of living that it is not this".
After a journey that included a secondary basic school in Najasa and five elementary schools in Camagüey, including her current school, three school years ago that Clara turned to the "Tasende". There studies her daughter, who also has taught to this woman the worth of her profession. "My girl has learning disabilities, and I believe that the story telling, the description of posters and, especially, the perseverance that gives this work have served to me to help her.
AGAINST THE DARKNESS
"A librarian cannot lack the love for the books" she said to the journalist in search of the formulae to do art week after week approximately to 200 children of 4th and 5th grades. At once, to explain, came the anecdote: "In Pepito Tey, where I also taught like teacher in a group of 5th grade I had two twin brothers that did not like the books, but they were very amusing, that's why I designed a sayings contest and they did not resist to participate. They did not read any more Bohemia and Mujeres magazines because they could not. In the end they won and among the teachers we buy a pigeon for each one, because they loved these birds. This was the beginning of another stage of their lives".
Her preference for the smallest, which leads her to change voices and pets in her classes, does not prevent this librarian, who feels like a teacher, from sweetening those of major grades. "The taste for the books does not wake up with a simple activity, it is necessary to innovate, and more in this epoch where the book competes with the TV set and the computer. But the victory is possible, it is demonstrated by our winners of the contest ¨Leer a Martí¨, our members of the special interest club of library and those of the philatelic one, where with the stamps the children cheer up to investigate.
The creativity in favor of the reading as forming source of values inspired her in years as difficult as 1995 and 1996, when she worked in the primary school Marta Abreu. "The children had the hobby of collecting of cases of soaps, of caramels, chewing gums. The bad thing was that they even were trading these things. I had the idea of making an exhibit of stamps, postcards and snails. That week the classes of library consisted of speaking on the different types of collections and the children took their collections."
The gratitude for the tie of her family with her individual growth, Clara reflects it in an original way. "For every Fair of the Book we prepare the families a few suggestion letters with the books that we consider to be useful. Another sample of the tie of the family and the library is the help that they give us to avoid any loss. A mother helped me to create loans ballots because I invented some kind of card, which I named Better spontaneous reader. This way we control better our services."
To love the reading and the good conversation are the councils of this woman for her companions and for the interested parties in her profession. "The 500 monthly pesos do not compensate the effort, because in the primary level they do not pay the double section to us; in the library I do not have electrical light; there are mistakes with the magazine Bohemia and with the entry of books of story... In spite of everything I feel realized because this is the work that I like. Here I will retire", and the conviction of her voice says everything: before the absence of lighting she arranges her light, conscious of that this firelight of the spirit is the essential one in her library, because only this light invites to the vital growth that comes with the reading.
Translated by BA in English Language, Manuel Barrera Téllez
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