Now a Concerned Educator

 

Foreword by Stephen Gill, Dr-Canada

 

 

María Cristina Azcona from Argentina wears several hats. She is a poet, psychologist, fiction writer, editor and researcher. She is also involved in peace organizations, like the IFLAC (The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace), for which she is one of the directors. Azcona founded Bilingual MCA, a non-profit organization, to promote bilingual literature for peace, and edits an e-zine for the promotion of peace by bilingual poets worldwide. She also organizes poetry readings for the members of this organization, who visit Argentina.  

       In addition to her involvement with these and other activities related to peace and the creative arts, she has authored several books most of being collections of poems. She contributes her literary outputs regularly to international journals and magazines.  I read her work often in these outlets.  She has been honored with many awards. 

       It is not her awards that matter— it is rather her concerns for peace.  Her obvious message in poetry and prose is to live and let live. This serious timely message keeps providing a fodder to her imagination. As an educational psychologist and peace maker, she is aware of the fruits of peace and the dangers of wars. This is the centre of her writing.

       As a skilled jeweler, María Cristina Azcona knows how to transform her words into a unique form and with the colors and brush of her imagination she presents not only the hands and feet of peace, but also its heart. She brings out the inner realities of the world of today, and shapes them into the beauty of nonviolence. This keeps the fire of her imagination burning.

       María Cristina Azcona surprises me with her new book, in which she assumes the role of a concerned mother, guide and a responsible teacher. The book is about counseling children. She has organized important steps to take in order to use literature for the growth of a child into a mature citizen of peace. Some sections of this valuable book are directed towards peace education, and resolution of conflicts through the use of arts and literature. She combines her skills as a poet, professional studies as a psychologist, and her own personal concerns, to explain how the ambrosia of peace can be tasted through listening, reading and lyrics.   Some important chapters are about education at home, parental roles with talented children, social peace through education, culture and peace, and social poetry.

 

       Being a poet for peace, also from the profession of teaching, and now as a director of the Children’s Aid Society in my hometown in Canada, I am also involved with children.  Without preparing them for the future, human efforts to build an edifice of peace will not be of a lasting nature. That is why the General Assembly, in its resolution of ten principles, recommends observing a day every year to promote the welfare of the children all over the world. This resolution was adopted on November 20, 1959. Observation of this day varies from nation to nation. The Government of Canada designates the 20^th of November as the Universal Children’s Day. The United Nations and UNESCO also observe the same day as Universal Children’s Day.

       These recommendations of the General Assembly recognize the need to protect children from racial, and other forms of discrimination, and against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. These recommendations also recognize that children need an atmosphere of affection, understanding and of moral and material security to grow up in. As I say in my poem “These Children”, children “have yet to learn/ to deal with the muddy pellets of abuse/ or the ice of neglect/ while maturing into the oaks/ of exceptional might.” Therefore, children need guidance and a home of peace and love.

       I feel pleased to invite readers to enter from any portal of this book, to see the beauty of the pen, imagination, skill and professionalism of María Cristina Azcona.  The powers of her observation, as well as the inner realities, are other matchless features of this book.

  Entrants will find meaningful gems arranged in a style that is individual and charming.  A Guide to Find Peace cannot be ignored by parents, teachers, librarians and anyone who is engaged in building a better future for humankind.

       Obviously, María Cristina Azcona wears several hats. However, these hats have been textured with the beautiful rainbow of peace.

 

Stephen Gill, Dr.

Canada

December 20, 2007

(www.stephengill.ca)