Discover how a small mountain library in Colombia is preserving Kankuamo traditions, empowering youth, and keeping indigenous culture alive for generations.
Stories are never just stories. They are cornerstones of culture and life. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live, Joan Didion said.” “[Storytelling is] built into the human plan,” offered Margaret Atwood.
The team at Kankuaka Library certainly agrees with this. The Biblioteca Publica Kankuaka, in Atanquez, Colombia, has become a beacon for indigenous culture, keeping long-standing narratives alive for new generations to engage with. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Kankuaka and the team, but they’ve stayed the course. And in doing so, they’ve achieved something remarkable here in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.
The Beginnings of the Kankuaka Story
The story of the Kankuaka Library began quickly. In 2013, the town of Atanquez received a shipment of books from Colombia’s National Network of Public Libraries. Not knowing what to do with them, the townspeople left the shipment untouched until they heard that someone was coming to take the books back.
Spurred into action, a man named Souldes Maestre and his friends got to work. They unwrapped the books, found a place for them in a local community center, and declared the library open.
When a government official showed up, she was unconvinced. It wasn’t a library in her eyes, but it was a start. She decided to give them more time, along with a collection of library furniture and more books. They did not let her down – Maestre and his team got the library up and running, and they never looked back.
From Inauspicious Beginnings to Award After Award
It didn’t take Souldes Maestre and his team long to get their act together. Pleased with the new tables, chairs, and books, they threw themselves headlong into their work.
They were recognized for their efforts almost immediately. In 2015, only two years after encountering a skeptically raised eyebrow from a visiting government official, the library was a finalist for Colombia’s National Library Award. Only two years later, in 2017, they emerged victorious. Atanquez’s Kankuaka public library was officially on the map.
Since then, the library and the team have been recognized by several national and international bodies. This is a truly exceptional library, serving its local community beautifully. But is there something more going on here? What makes Kankuaka stand out from the crowd?
Keeping the Flame of Indigenous Culture Alive
Around 10,000 people live in Atanquez, most of whom are members of the Kankuamo people. This part of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains is specially designated as the Kankuamo indigenous reserve.
This makes the work of the Kankuaka Library all the more important. It serves as a medium for the stories of Kankuamo elders and ancestors, and as a central hub around which the culture and the community can rally.
In this sense, the center at Atanquez is much more than just a library. It is a cultural lifeline and a point of connection between past, present, and future.
The library certainly offers books, but it also gives young people the opportunity to hike up the mountain and sketch the age-old petroglyphic artwork that exists on the high hillside. It hosts storytelling sessions and workshops that forge connections with traditional practices, and it weaves culturally significant stories into stop-motion animations, ready to be shared, discussed, and engaged with.
It does everything that we’ve come to expect from a library, and so much more. It’s no wonder the library and its team have won multiple awards; the service they perform for Atanquez and the Kankuamo is nothing short of incredible.
Reinforcing Cultural Identities
“For us, the concept of memory is not like a museum, something that can be seen, but rather represents survival,” former Kankuamo chief John Robert Torres Maestre said in 2022. “If we do not have that memory, if we do not have those stories, we cannot continue to be Kankuamos.”
This truly underscores how important the library and its programs are to people in this vibrant, thriving, yet still at-risk community. And younger generations are eager to become the torchbearers of this tradition.
“They show us as another part of who we are,” 13-year-old Sahian Maestre said, following a trip to see the petroglyphs. “They tell us about the past and explain how indigenous people saw things. It is also another way of seeing each other, and how our ancestors believed each of us is connected.”
The Kankuamo culture has faced real challenges over the years. In recent decades, many people have left the reserve and, with it, their culture. More recently, however, they are returning – re-igniting the flame of culture and identity. Of course, the Kankuaka Library is helping make this happen.
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John Burns
John has been writing ever since he was small, and is delighted to be able to make his living as a writer now he’s not quite so small. Literature has always been a big part of John’s life, and he loves sharing this passion with readers from all over the world.
