I was born and raised in a small town called Puña, in the northern region of Cajamarca. I became a teacher in the same rural grade school where my father first registered me; I spent twenty-four years working in the same school.

It has been a great honor for me to be a teacher, a leader in the teachers’ union, a farmer, and a rondero [member of a volunteer neighborhood patrol], where we’ve fought crime, delinquency, and many problems facing our rural communities.

Since I was young, I have always fought to get an education. My parents are illiterate. My father barely writes a line that he uses as a signature, my mother doesn’t know the letters of the alphabet. I am one of nine siblings. It was a great accomplishment for me to finish high school, which I did thanks to the help of my parents and my brothers and sisters.