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Aurora School, located in Santa María, in the province of Catamarca, Argentina, is the land of the Calchaquí. The primitive man found shelter there and the farming and pottery making indigenous cultures settled there, 11000 years ago. The department of Santa María is situated in the Pre-cordillera (middle range chain of high mountains) of the Andes, in the midst of the Calchaquí Valleys, at 1950 mts above sea level. This territory is subdivided between the 3 provinces of the Argentine Northwest: Catamarca, Tucumán and Salta. Longitudinally it extends along meridian 66 between parallels 24° and 27° (south latitude). It's area is approximately 5740 km² and it includes small rural villages which make up the Santa María municipality.

In 1962 the 1st Argentine Mariápolis is carried out in Santa María: a gathering of people belonging to the Focolare Movement founded in 1943 in Trento (Italy) by Chiara Lubich.
At present, it congregates people from the 5 continents, of different cultures, races and religions and whose aim is to build a more united world; it has been present in Argentina since 1960.
Greatly impressed by the spirit of this charisma, the experience of fraternity lived by a group of "Santamarians" remained since then engraved in their souls. During these years, this seed grew deep roots in the hearts of these people, even spreading to small settlements scattered out at 4000 mts of altitude, among simple but wise people who managed to grasp the novelty of this Movement .
In 1970, the small flowering community adopts Chiara Lubich's invitation to "live the needs of those who are close to us as our own, in solidarity with their pain, giving all and even being ready to die for our own people".

On this basis, with few means but wholeheartedly, a small school is started, in a borrowed 4 x 2 mts room made of sun-dried mud bricks, to teach craft techniques to the most humble.
The students ages vary from 7 to 80 years old. The activities (take place) in a family atmosphere which positively influences learning and awakens talents. Above all it's a school of life and one can already observe it's first fruits.
Every fruit grows on a tree with deep roots; we'd like to tell you about one of the "roots" of this school.
Everyone in Santa María has known Elvira Moya, "Doña Vila", and in one way or another has received specific help from her.
She came up with the idea and started the School of Arts and Offices now known as "Aurora de un Mundo Nuevo" ("Dawn of a new World"). Greatly moved by the social reality of her people, she shared this strong feeling with the rest of her community and thus began the school, in which each person contributed with what he did best.

The first lesson was given on October 7th, 1970. As there were no table or chairs, a wooden plank was placed on the earth floor where Vila, kneeling, taught her pupils who stood around her. Perhaps this gesture may reveal something of her force and simplicity and her irrepressible desire to overcome every obstacle.
As in every initiative, an unforeseeable circumstance always arises: in 1985 the building they used had to be returned to its owner.
This caused a recess in the School's activities but almost immediately a piece of land (approximately 500 m2) was received as a donation. This conclusive event is seen as a clear answer that stimulates us to go ahead with the school.

Thanks to the effort of many people who share our ideals in all Argentina, to the money which arrived from the least thought of places and with the help of the AMU (Azione per un Mondo Unito, a NGO, non-profit private association recognised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who proposes co-operation for the development of countries, specially the under-developed ones, spreading the "dialogue culture between people" throughout the world) we managed to buy the adjacent plot of land, another 600 m2. With the help of a group of adults and the youth from different Argentine cities, two small classrooms of 4mts x 2,50mts and 4mts x 6,50mts were built, where all the lessons took place.
In 1990 the AMU presented the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs a 3 year project for the period between March 1995 to March 1997. This was approved in 1993.
During these 3 years many additions were made to the original building: a big room for the theoretical classes, 3 classrooms for technical laboratories, a library, 6 bathrooms with showers and a small storeroom, offices for the director and secretary, an internal gallery with a corner allocated to a small permanent exhibition, 2 internal yards, 2 external galleries with 2 external yards, a room for dying wool and finally the electrical, gas and water installation for all the building.
And so, the School, a big brick building which can be seen through a green iron fence, harmonises with the splendid yellows, oranges and reds of the mountains behind it.

The main assumption is that handcrafts and manual activities in general, even today constitute a way of "making" culture which is felt strongly by many "Santamarianos", and a unique professional opportunity for the youth of the place.
On the one hand the intention of the School, is to teach handcraft techniques to the youth; on the other, to contribute with the craftsmen already working as such, to perfect their crafts; lastly, to help the potential user of handcraft products to perceive the significance of these as ways of expression and to find a new place for artisans in society.

. The general aim would be to revive "The Millenary Calchaquí culture". When a tapestry is woven or a vessel is shaped, an intellectual activity develops, with all its effects, as handicraft making is a way of making culture, specially if the artisan is stimulated to continue with his own profession and has the possibility of being perfected and up dated.
Making handcrafts also means speaking to the world and of the world, to communicate to themselves and to others a message, a life style, or the fragments of a cosmology, maybe a simple one (although it's not always so) but still always a part of an existing identity.
It is exactly what is happening at the Aurora School, as local craftsmen have begun to collaborate with the local youth who have received an essentially occidental academic artistic formation. The artists do not exchange experiences with the purpose of enhancing their own productions; they work together uniting their own efforts to create something new, capable of giving aesthetics to the way a mestizo people live and express themselves,
These are just new attempts, but reflect a deep cultural authenticity and have managed to make this project take the most interesting course.

Santa María has headed towards the future, but to do it efficiently it needs to know what the future is really like, also knowing its present and its past, with no denials or discriminations, and so find a culture capable of showing all its elements, be they Europeans, Indigenous or Mestizo.

Aurora School wish to thank at:

Susana Ambroggi, Ruben Quiroga, Luis Maturano, Manuela Cornale, Giuseppina Azzolina, Lia Brunet, Elvira Moya, Clara Marino, Bernarda Ladetto, and to all those that collaborated with this project in these 30 years.

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