11
universality character: the University, - in this case in particular, the University of La
Cantuta.
37.
On July 6, 1953, the University of La Cantuta opened its doors; its name
derives from the fact that “it was built in an ancient town that had the name of the
Incas heraldic flower, which is cultivated along the Mantaro valley, with red and
yellow tints.”14 The above mentioned University prepared future teachers for
practicing in schools (high school level) of the country, that is, it had a social and
teaching function (although it was already taken by military forces since May 21,
1991).15
38.
But apart from the teaching and social function that it represents in each
country, the University would hardly be realized without the supranational function beyond the State - that belongs to it by an intrinsic demand. 16 At present, broad
ways of communication and understanding are available for the new generations,
more than in other times, for exchanging ideas, the refinement of the concentration
capacity, discernment and criticism, intergenerational dialogue (between professors
and students), to look for the construction of a fairer and better world for future
generations. We are summoned to rethink the whole conceptual universe within
which we are trained, in our vision of both the international and national system, of
the public institutions, starting with the State itself in a democratic society.
39.
It is inadmissible that armed forces invade a university campus in the most
possible arbitrary way. The campus is the space for free thinking, where the
production and circulation of ideas must be preserved and cultivated. Along the
centuries, the University was awarded the characteristic of alma mater ("madre
nutricia,” alma -soul- from Latin alere, which means feeding and growing), as a
generator and promoter of ideas and knowledge, so as to engender and transform
the human being by means of the knowledge, for him to be able to give answer to
the challenges of the world in which he lives. The armed invasion is not the only way
of aggression against the University as it was conceived along the centuries 17, but
maybe it is the roughest aggression against the production and free circulation of
ideas. In this case of La Cantuta, as already remarked, the State security agents
invaded the university campus and broke in the houses of professors and students to
14
Efraín Rúa, El Crimen de La Cantuta - La Desaparición y Muerte de un Profesor y Nueve
Estudiantes que Estremeció al País, 4th. ed., Lima, Universidad La Cantuta, 2005, p. 41.
15
Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH), De la Tierra Brotó la Verdad - Crimen e
Impunidad en el Caso La Cantuta, Lima, APRODEH, 1994, p. 9.
16
As it is known, the Universities appeared in the European continent during the Low Middle Age,
cultivating essentially scholastic reasoning and debating methods. By the end of the 14th Century, the
concept of University approached this of today; during Renaissance, the term Universitas acquires the
present meaning . The feeling of universality was encouraged by the use of Latin, by the culture of
universal knowledge (to be spread everywhere), and by the gradual search of authors of every culture. As
time went by (until the 18th Century), Universities looked for their legal autonomy.
17
Another form of aggression, which has regrettably become normal in our shadow times, is the so
called “privatization” of public Universities as “State policy” (in a dreadful inversion of values). As a
defender of public University (thus belonging to an extinguishing species), I consider teaching as a public
asset, to be conveyed from generation to generation, and not goods to be sold to whoever can pay more.
At present, in the neighborhoods of Latin-American cities, there is a “Private University” next to any
bakery, willing to “teach”, or, rather, to inform on anything, as long as they are well paid (with due
respect for the bakeries which provide us, at an affordable price –almost a giveaway price-, our daily
bread).
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