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School portrait. La Calera del Prado (Valley of Carranza), 1966. Courtesy of Miguel Sabino Díaz.

As a child, I have known elderly folks who could not read or write, though not many, to be honest. When asked to sign a document, they would affix their index fingerprint. Some had attended school for at least enough time to learn the four basic arithmetic operations and write their name, others not as long. Being able to write one’s name had its importance, and a beautiful penmanship with a flourish made it all the more admirable. In the course of my ethnographic researches, I sometimes come across old paper documents passed down from generations before me and see shaky, dubious handwritten signatures with nothing but a simple line under the name. The huge effort made by the signatories may well be perceived. (more…)