In your own handwriting: in the digital age, letters unite 800 children from rural and urban Uruguay

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In October, Aaron Álvarez went for a walk in Montevideo and visited a park that had a giant castle. The giant castle, this 9-year-old boy wrote, belongs to the president of Uruguay. “I don't know why the president has a castle called the Suárez residence,” he continued in a handwritten letter. Aaron's concern reached Guadalupe Vélez, 12 years old, a student at rural school 73 in Maldonado, in the east of the country. “A castle!” Guadalupe read incredulously. “A castle?” Her companions asked. The eyes looked for some answer in the teacher, who told them about the century-old mansion located on Suárez Street in the Uruguayan capital, where the leaders have resided since 1947. The president's castle, according to Aaron's summary.

Since mid-2023, Guadalupe has been corresponding with Aaron and Isabella Otero, 9 years old, two third grade students at school 124 in Melilla, in Montevideo. “It was the first letter I wrote in my life,” Guadalupe tells América Futura. The seven boys and girls who share a classroom with her also participated in the epistolary adventure. “I wrote how my father takes honey from the hive,” says Florencia Dayuto, 9 years old. Sergio Rodríguez, 8, points out: “I told how olive oil is made.” “We talk about the land [marcación del ganado]”, comments Evaristo Moreira, 11 years old. They also described the mountains that surround the school, the endless yard they have to play in, the birds they identify just by hearing their song, and the wind that blows almost non-stop.

“The motto is that everyone write what they want, that it is not prescribed and that they express themselves freely,” explains Mónica Sosa, teacher at school 73, located a few kilometers from the peaceful Pueblo Edén de Maldonado. The handwritten letters travel to Montevideo and the responses arrive from the capital within the framework of the project Handwriting, which periodically connects students from rural and urban schools throughout Uruguay. “I hardly intervene, I barely guide them,” says Sosa. In this initiative she rules curiosity, writing without haste. And in the process, patience is trained, the teacher highlights, a rare commodity in times of instant messages, digital keyboards and automatic corrections.

By hand it was promoted from Salto, a department in the northwest, with the purpose of generating ties between rural children and those who live in the city, teacher Inés de Lisa, project coordinator, tells América Futura. In May 2023, his 21 students from the Laureles rural school wrote letters to children from El Pinar, in the south of the country. “The little ones were very excited; It was totally new for them to write a letter by hand informally.” At the end of the year, Handwriting It already had the participation of almost 800 children in 43 educational centers in Uruguay, which Lisa has linked voluntarily with the help of social networks.

“The main value of this project is that it generates empathy, trust and knowledge of what is different,” explains by phone Carlos Guinovart, agricultural engineer and plastic artist, who is behind this initiative together with Lisa and Gabriela Zabaleta, cultural promoter of El Pinewood. “This feeling is shared not only by the children and teachers, but by everyone who knows the project. When we have needed help, we have gotten it very quickly,” he emphasizes. This is the case of the Uruguayan Post Office, exemplifies Guinovart, a public company that is responsible for collecting and delivering letters for free. “It's a long chain of favors,” he points out.

When they received the letters from their peers, the children of the Maldonado rural school were surprised to read the number of activities that the city's schoolchildren have. “There are different rooms, they have workshops and many schedules,” says Evaristo. Seated next to him are Indiana García, 12 years old, Tiziano de los Santos, 8, and Renato García, 7. These two are the youngest of the group and the most fans of the universe of video games. Anyway, they drew and wrote their letters. Along with them, Anthony Casañas, 12 years old, confesses: “I like to talk more.” But when it was his turn, he became involved in writing, he shaped his field stories and learned to become familiar with pauses, periods and commas. His sentences were so long that they left the reader breathless, they say, laughing.

“The lyrics are part of the construction of an identity; “There are no two people with the same handwriting,” notes Lisa. The teacher mentions other fundamental aspects for the development of children, such as imagination, motor skills and concentration, also favored by this project. In the process of writing with pencil and paper, she summarizes, motor skills necessary for other areas of life are developed. In that sense, she continues, the cursive writing they practice triggers functions in the brain that are not activated when writing in another way. “That's why the handwritten letter is a challenge, an adventure,” she says.

In conversation with América Futura, Gabriela Zabaleta, promoter of the project, highlights another of the effects that it had Handwriting in his students at El Pinar: the enjoyment of time without rushing. “It is that time that enables slow writing, that captures attention and justifies waiting for the answer.” It is a novel experience, he says, for children who have grown up in the immediacy of electronic devices. His colleagues agree and prepare to continue the adventure for five more years. Also Aaron, after visiting the “president's castle,” gave his opinion on Handwriting: “At first I found it boring, but I started to like it. Writing letters is the most fun thing in the world,” she says.