>> Elva Ambía: My name is
Elva and I am the director
of Quechua Collective
of New York.
And I am also, I was also
appointed as an ambassador
of the Quechua language
in New York.
It's the first time
I'm saying it.
Why Qoricha came to be.
My inspiration came because
I wanted two children
from different cultures to, to
get to know each other from,
you know, in their own
languages and how they learn
and share their own cultures.
Well, I wanted these two
children to have that experience
of getting to know each
other in sign language
in whichever way they
were able to communicate.
One of them is, of course, from
Ocobamba, and the other one is
from Lima, Perú
who was visiting
with his parents to Ocobamba.
Well, in our school, when I
was a child, in our school,
there were some stories,
mostly stories like, you know,
the old time stories of the
children like Blancanieves.
I don't know what else
it was at that time.
Books that actually
I could not relate
to because they didn't look like
us, like me or anybody I knew.
So actually I didn't
like these books.
I wanted to be more realistic.
Ever since I was a child, I
wanted to to be more real.
So I actually did not read that
many stories in my childhood.
The reason that I
started writing stories
in Quechua was because,
see I live in Brooklyn.
And in Brooklyn there's
this central library,
library of Brooklyn, and I was
kind of active in that library.
So this library was
trying to form a chapter,
I don't know what you call it.
I mean, a group of
people were interested
in having an international
section
so they can bring
different books
from different parts
of the world.
And I was part of
that at that time.
And I was very glad
because I wanted to see
if we could bring books in
Spanish and also in Quechua.
And this Quechua language was
not even known by anybody.
So I wanted to get people to
know this language that exists
in Perú and other
parts of the world.
But something did happen in
Lima with the rest of my family
and not in Lima, in Queens.
And I moved to Queens
for a while.
Maybe, I stayed in Queens
for about five years.
And when I came back
after five years,
I visited the library
thinking that I will find books
in Quechua in this
part of the library.
I was very excited.
And when I got there, I
looked and looked everywhere
and I could not find any book.
I only found one
small little book
that was called the
Survival Quechua book.
But that was very
small, this this small.
And I was totally so so
disappointed and actually angry
because I couldn't find
any books in Quechua.
So I decided to ask my
family from Peru and Bolivia
to send me books in Quechua
so I can donate these
books to the library.
So when I started, when I got
the books and I took the books
to the library, they
rejected them.
They say that we don't have
the budget to deal with this.
So I'm sorry, we cannot take
the books and this and that.
So much that I went a few
times to the library and spoke
with the director, spoke
with few other people
and we finally got
them to accept about,
I think about 30 books.
All in Quechua.
So I was very happy about that.
But then, what are we going
to do with these books?
Nobody will know about
these books anywhere
if we don't talk about it.
So we came up with the idea
of having one Raymi Andino
to introduce the existence of
these books in the libraries
and the people could, you
know, read these books
and at least get
to know these books
that they are available
to to the community.
And we had our first Raymi
Andino, that was on 2012.
At that time we had our first
Raymi Andino with music done
by Inka Kusi Sonqo at that time.
Now, Inka Kusi Sonqo
is known as Inkarayku.
So we had nice music from
the Andes, Mestizo music,
Quechua music, and
I was part of it.
And we created this
wonderful activity
and introduced the
books and we talked
about what Inka Kusi
Sonqo was all about
and what these books were all
about and stuff like that.
So since then on, we started
working with Inka Kusi Sonqo
and we created Quechua
Collective.
We still working hard trying
to create more, more books
and stuff like that in
three languages now.
Qoricha was also in three
languages at that time.
It was a very big,
great experience working
with some people
who supported us
at that time, some
people from NYU.
And we created also events
to to teach the language,
Quechua language.
And we had our Raymis
two to three months.
And we had also one event
that really was very much
enjoyed by the community.
It was our bingo night.
Bingo night was the purpose
of this activity was to open
up the Quechua language
and learn the numbers
in Quechua while we
were playing bingo.
So, we did all of these things
and and I was very very happy
to do these things with
a lot of supporters.
I was born in Apurímac in this
community where the majority
of people spoke this
language, Quechua.
And while we were in Chincheros,
Apurímac my parents were
very active in the community.
My father was one time nominated
or elected to be judge in town
and people will bring their
complaints and their concerns
to him and to solve the problems
between, you know, husband
and wife, between their
people, the hacendados
who people used to work for.
And, you know, there
were, you know.
And my father was very
much respected and all
of these activities
happened in Quechua language.
And I was just a child,
maybe about five years old,
and nobody will even notice
me, but I was there listening
and watching what was going
on in the town with people.
And I just love to
hear this language.
Quechua for me, is a
wonderful wonderful language
and it's a language
in which I was born.
It's the language of my
ancestors, it's the language
of my parents, my grandparents.
All my family, my relatives,
my great grandparents,
you know, spoke this language.
So I was very much familiar and
curious to know more about it.
At the year old, they took me to
Lima, and from Lima immediately,
they took me to Chincheros.
So my whole life, up to 14
years of age, I lived there.
And I was very very happy there.
I mean, all my childhood
that I spent there was just
so wonderful because, you know,
under the beautiful blue sky
and the pure air, you know.
And, where where I was free to
go from one place to another
and harvest any fruits or
vegetables that were there.
That's why I love these things.
I love the fruits, I love the
vegetables, and I love animals
because I also raised
my own chicken,
I raised my own piggies,
and I was very happy.
I lived there a wonderful,
happy childhood
with my sisters and my family.
So, there I loved to, I
learned to sing with them,
with the community, from the
community listening to them.
And, yeah, the music is
very much deep engraved me,
because my father
used to play music.
He used to play the
mandolin and guitar.
And, you know, people
in Chincheros love
to do parrandas, you know.
Carnival times, they will go on
the streets dancing and singing,
and it was just wonderful.
And that's what I, what I
learned from this community.
It's our heritage.
I'm not going to say that I
don't appreciate all the things
that I learned and I took from
New York and the United States.
However, I miss my country.
I miss my town where I grew up.
I miss my family, my culture.
I miss all of that.
And up to now, I'm still,
you know, I still miss it.
And I go back to Peru
every occasion when I can.
The beginning, when I started
working with Quechua and people
that I met in the way, I
thought that Quechua was dying,
because that's the way
people in government,
people presented the Quechua.
Quechua is a dying language,
and this and this and that.
But since that time until now,
I have seen a transformation.
I have seen a movement of
people who love this culture,
Peruvian culture, a
culture from the Andes
And more and more people
are traveling to know Cusco,
Apurímac, Ayacucho, everywhere.
And I think Quechua
is never going to die.
Not to, I'm working
hard to preserve it.
But, we're creating books, we're
creating revitalizing by doing,
you know, singing,
dancing, and writing poems,
writing riddles,
writing stories.
And I I think people are
more and more appreciative
about this language, no
matter where you come from.
I think we are not just people
from Peru or Quechua speakers.
We are embracing anyone who
is interested in getting
to know this language
and culture.
So we will continue working
as hard as we can to continue.
To do that, to do that.
To welcome everybody.