Adriana Kupijy Vargas is a 20-year-old woman who established a community library in the Sierra Mixe of Oaxaca, in the municipality of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec.
Kupijy (which means ‘flower that ascends’ in the Mixe language) is a student of pedagogy at the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Acatlán of the UNAM.
Her father is an artist and her mother is a teacher of indigenous special education, so she has a great approach to literature.
It all started because in college she felt strongly about putting into practice all the knowledge learned in her classes. In fact, Adriana says that she went through a crisis in which she became too frustrated. She wanted to support her community and thought:
“What am I studying for, if I am not generating anything for my community or my environment?”
It was then that she decided to ask for donations in social networks, although she never imagined that the response of the people would be so great. In the beginning, her goal was to get 500 books; nevertheless, she obtained more than 4 thousand.
It was not a simple task. Kupijy was in charge of transporting the donations she received in Mexico City and her sister from Oaxaca.
Then, they devoted themselves to selecting books in good condition, cleaning them and classifying them. The library opened in January of last year and is located in Ranchería Las Tejas, Oaxaca.
Among the donated books there are encyclopedias, novels, textbooks, and poetry. But her project is not going to stop there; She is already managing the creation of another library in the neighboring ‘Las Flores’.