Cartonera

Cartonera is a social, political and artistic publishing movement that began in Argentina in 2003 and has since spread to countries throughout Latin America and, more recently, to Europe and Africa. The founders, Washington Cucurto, Javier Barilaro, and Fernanda Laguna started Eloísa Cartonera in Buenos Aires in response to the 2001 economic crisis during which the Argentine peso plummeted to one third of its value. The tough economic conditions led to an increase in the number of cartoneros, people who make their living collecting and selling salvaged materials to recycling plants.

Browsing through cartonera books created by Eloísa Cartonera.

Cartonera books from Eloísa Cartonera.

Cartonera books are made from cardboard bought from cartoneros at three to five times the price set by recycling plants. The cardboard is then used to create covers for short books of prose or poetry. Each book cover is hand painted and sold on the streets at the cost of production in order to increase access to literature. This method of publication has provided the opportunity for unknown authors to be published, as well as for renowned authors to reach a more diverse audience. Beyond selling affordable books, the cartoneras promote literacy and the democratization of literature through workshops and book fairs which bring the greater public in contact with literature. The cartonera publishers also involve the community in the process of book creation and distribution through a cooperative learning experience which pushes aside educational and socioeconomic divides among participants. The books are generally published in small editions of 100 or fewer; however, popular texts are kept in print or printed through neighboring cartoneras.[1][2]

Although the cartoneras publish books in print form, information about the publishing houses themselves is often available electronically through their webpages, blogs, and wikis, or through online newspaper stories, interviews, and journal articles. While digital mediums are often used to write about cartonera, the books themselves are art-objects steeped in the smells and smudges of tempera paint and rough scissor-cut edges. Some cartonera books are now being preserved, most notably through the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cartonera Publishers library collection and database, but the majority of the editions continue to circulate (as they are intended to do) and will disintegrate within ten years due to acid in the cardboard. As with other digitized databases and guides, the list below includes some of the presently known cartoneras, a number which is always shifting.