Taking form, making worlds : cartonera publishers in Latin America

A publishing phenomenon and artistic project, cartonera was born in the wake of Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis. Infused with a rebellious spirit, it has exploded in popularity, with hundreds of publishers across Latin America and Europe making colorful, low-cost books out of cardboard salvaged from the street. __Taking Form, Making Worlds__ is the first comprehensive study of cartonera. Drawing on interdisciplinary research conducted across Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, the authors show how this hands-on practice has fostered a politically engaged network of writers, artists, and readers. More than a social movement, cartonera uses texts, workshops, encounters, and exhibitions to foster community and engagement through open-ended forms that are at once artistic and social. For various groups including waste-pickers, Indigenous communities, rural children, and imprisoned women, cartonera provides a platform for unique stories and sparks collaborations that bring the walls of the “lettered city” tumbling down. In contexts of stigma and exclusion, cartonera collectives give form to a decolonial aesthetics of resistance, making possible a space of creative experimentation through which plural worlds can be brought to life. "Cartoneras are community-based publishing collectives that make low-cost books out of waste materials in contexts where paperbacks can cost over a month's minimum wage. The first of its kind, Eloísa Cartonera, was born in Buenos Aires in the aftermath of the 2001 economic crisis. As many families lost work, many turned to other ways of supporting their families by picking through trash for objects to recycle, including cardboard. The founding members of Eloísa began to buy cardboard from these cartoneras with the idea of using it to create hand-painted books (typically priced for the middle class and higher in Latin America) at an affordable price. Cartoneras have their own specific aesthetics, much like zines in the US and Europe, while also finding ways to experiment with, and potentially break down, some social markers between and social institutions and systems"-- Provided by publisher