Eloisa Cartonera

Eloísa Cartonera is a work cooperative placed in the neighborhood of La Boca in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. They produce handmade books with cardboard covers. They purchase this cardboard from the urban pickers (“cartoneros”) who pick it from the streets. Their books are of Latin American literature.

It all began with the crisis of 2001 – as some say “we are a product of the crisis,” or that we “aestheticized misery”. Actually, it was nothing like that.

They were a group of people who came together to work in a different way, to learn new things through work, to build up a cooperative, to learn how to subsist and manage theirselves, to work towards a common good. Like many of the movements and collectives born from these insane times, they organized into a cooperative or a small assembly group, as there were also neighborhood and community groups, all sorts of social movements. People, workers and neighbors, there they were.

Through all this time they rejoice on the fact they were able to put so much love into the work they did. The previous catalog already contained 100 titles – and today they are already reaching 200. They’re the most varied and entertaining works of literature (poetry, short stories, short novels, theater plays, literature for children) from Argentina and siblings countries.

Visit Eloisa Cartonera in Argentina