From Trash to Books, from La Boca to the World: Women cartoneras in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The article focuses on the challenge to the cultural industry and the book market posed by the Argentine cooperative publishing house Eloísa Cartonera, active in Buenos Aires since 2003. The name itself represents a provocation, because it brings together a ‘poetic’ feminine noun with a prosaic adjective. This is how the word cartonera acquires a new meaning, indicating not only a publishing style but also a cultural and political attitude, which transforms the cartonera woman into the inspiring muse of a literary, cooperative and solidarity project.