Every March 20, coinciding with the spring equinox, the International Day of Oral Narration is celebrated . It has also been called Storytelling Day , as people from different parts of the world tell real or inherited stories from the popular imagination spontaneously or through storytelling events, with a predetermined theme.

Between March 18 and 20 of this year, this time in virtual mode due to the epidemiological situation, the Primavera de Cuento s International Oral Narration Festival takes place , the edition of which is dedicated to the Cuban teacher of storytellers Mayra Navarro .

The José Martí National Library of Cuba (BNCJM) prides itself in its almost 120-year history of having contributed - in multiple ways - to the cultural development of the largest of the Antilles. As an institution that safeguards and processes the Cuban bibliographic heritage and the most representative of universal knowledge, it sets its sights on information services and the investigation of its funds and collections, but at the same time it serves as a cultural center where the arts, the music, literature, and how much expression encourages the intellectual growth of readers.

In the same way, it has laid the foundations for oral narration in Cuba , both in the training of professionals and in the publication and adaptation of texts from Cuban and universal literature, especially that aimed at young generations.

On December 14, 1959, Dr. María Teresa Freyre de Andrade –first director of the José Martí National Library since the triumph of the Revolution– inaugurated the institution's Youth Library. A short time later, in view of the growing demand for publications of children's literature for educational centers, at the request of Dr. Freyre, the Philological Department of Children's Narratives was created, known to all as "the Philological". The experience of the director in the Youth Library of the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club in the late 1940s, with the delivery of lectures on oral storytelling, gave way to the conception of the aforementioned department.

The poet Eliseo Diego was appointed head of the Philological Institute, together with a group of specialist women, including María del Carmen Garcini, Mayra Navarro, Mirta Muñiz, Mercedes Murieda, María del Carmen Núñez and Alga Marina Elizagaray, although the latter was incorporated later.

In the basement of the Library, next to the Juvenile department, the poet had his lair, who along with his team opened a path for the development of oral narration in Cuba. One of the main purposes was the adaptation of children's and young people's literature for use in schools and libraries across the country. In addition, the task of training teachers and librarians in the art of storytelling prevailed, an activity that has its own theoretical and technical codes.

In this sense, from April 1 to 5, 1963, in the afternoon-evening hours, the Philological Institute held the First Seminar for Storytellers and Adapters of stories at the José Martí National Library. The photographs in the BNCJM collection show the young narrator Mayra Navarro teaching classes to a group of mostly ladies, gathered in the Seminar Room of the institution.

This first experience was insufficient given a growing demand for training, for which the following year they planned a Narration Cursillo. The organizers published the following note:

Given the interest that currently exists in the country for oral narratives, the Philological Department of Children's Narrations of the José Martí National Library has organized a course to prepare narrators and adapters of stories and legends. This course has been limited to a quota of 40 students, who have been selected through aptitude tests, consisting of the oral narration of a story and a written comprehension test. The course will begin on Wednesday, June 17, 1964 at 6:30 pm, with an approximate duration of two months. The objective of the organization of this course is purely cultural, aiming only at the technical preparation of the participants and without entailing job opportunities for them ¹ .

María del Carmen Núñez (Menchi) brings us closer to the work of Philology and at the same time evokes the expertise and talent of her colleague Mayra Navarro, who came to the Library as a teenager:

El Filológico carried out research and adaptations on the stories based on works of Cuban and universal literature. Eliseo did the research and we adapted the works, which he then reviewed before being published. We were a small but very valuable collective. I remember Mayra Navarro who started out when she was fourteen and turned fifteen at the Library. We celebrate the party at the National Library. She was very serious, very responsible, I couldn't believe she was fourteen years old. He had a prodigious memory, and a natural grace for oral narration ² .

Likewise, the testimony of the researcher and philologist, Dr. Alga Marina Elizagaray, expresses the usefulness of the project and her admiration for Eliseo Diego:

I learned a lot alongside Eliseo and other colleagues such as Mayra Navarro, Menchi, Wichi Guerra, and María del Carmen Garcini. We did a beautiful and necessary job: we adapted stories by great authors of world literature, we wrote versions. Eliseo was the promoter of creating narrators and preparing the material to be able to narrate better. Those were our happy ³ years .

Of great importance in the pursuit of oral narration was the publication by the National Library as of 1966 of the  Texts for Narrators Collection , which included two main titles in several volumes:  Adaptations of stories for first and second grade children; third and fourth grades, and fifth and sixth grades ; and the valuable text in six volumes  Theory and Technique of the Art of Narrating .

The space "Story time", organized jointly by the Philological and the Youth department, integrated the practical experience of all that oral storytelling movement promoted by the BNCJM. Students from the community schools and users of the Youth Library met. Menchi says that “it was held in a small room that had a carpet on the floor. The children sat on the carpet or on cushions, and when there were many of them we did it in the theater ».

Once the Philological department merged with the Youth department, due to the transfer of Eliseo Diego to Uneac in the mid-1970s, the space "Story Time" continued to be developed by said department for decades.

Although oral narration in Cuba, and especially the movement of storytellers is in good health - with the imprint of Mayra Navarro as one of its main architects and muse - the seed that the José Martí National Library sowed in pursuit of children's literature and the narration constitutes a key piece of a cultural process that deserves to be remembered.

Let us also point out the importance of a discipline that encourages from an early age the need to listen carefully, stimulates a taste for literature and for oral expression as a language tool. May these letters serve as tribute and recognition to the pioneering work of the great house of Cuban books in the formation and consolidation of the art of storytelling, a beautiful and necessary experience for the preservation of the memory and cultural traditions of the peoples.

Grades:

1. Narration workshop. Libraries Bulletin, Year ll, No. 3, May-June 1964, p. fifteen.
2. Interview conducted by the author with María del Carmen Núñez, at her home, Havana, November 20, 2020.
3. Author's telephone conversation with Alga Marina Elizagaray, April 12, 2020.