Participants in a book making workshop showing off their finished projects Participants in a book making workshop showing off their finished projects

Make a Cartonera Book with Paloma Celis Carbajal

 

In these hands-on workshops led by NYPL librarian Paloma Celis Carbajal, participants made their own cartonera books—books with handmade covers constructed with recycled cardboard and other unexpected materials—while learning about the impact and cultural history of this book-making practice in Latin American and the Caribbean.

The contents of the book included six texts—essays and poems—on protest by graduate students in the Department of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies who read their work aloud during the session.  The volume was edited by faculty from the University Libraries; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; and Department of Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies.

Paloma Celis Carbajal serves as the Curator for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies Collections at the New York Public Library. Previously, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison she founded and developed the most comprehensive cartonera book collection in the world and created the Cartonera Publishers Database. 

The workshop was presented in conjunction with our exhibition Libros/Arte: Handmade Books from Latin America & the Caribbean which was on view August 7 – December 4, 2023. 


Cartoneras Workshops Books Checklist

The artist’s name and medium for each object on the checklist refer to the cover artist and cover materials, respectively.

The contents of the books’ printed interiors are identical and were edited by UAlbany professors Dr. Alejandra Bronfman and Dr. Ilka Kressner. The project was co-coordinated by UAlbany librarian Jesús Alonso-Regalado. 

 

Contents: 

Alejandra Bronfman and Ilka Kressner: Introduction: Six Pieces of Protest Now

Barbara Sutton (in collaboration with students in Global Politics of Women’s Bodies (AWSS/ASOC 515)
Ildefonso Apelanz: De trabajo cartonera…
Ruth Murcia: I Saw Them Leave
Carmen Eugenia Nieves: Sorceress of Hurricanes
Arturo Lua Castillo: To Dream Is to Protest
Bianca Zazzarini-León: Fragmented Under the Moon

Jennifer Juarez
Writing Protest Now, 2023
Cardboard, tissue paper, pen, glue, pipe cleaners 
12 x 6 3/8 x 3/4

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Colleen Clark-Apelanz
America/Resistencia, 2023
Cardboard, collaged magazine paper, bubble packaging, ink, twine 
9-5/16 x 7-7/8 x 3/4

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Bruna Holanda
Resistencia/Resistance, 2023
Cardboard, wood, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, collaged magazine paper, marker, lanyards 
9 x 7-1/2 x 1-1/4 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Arturo Lua Castillo
Escribiendo Protesta Ahora, 2023
Cardboard, wood, felt, construction paper, pen, marker, sticker, lanyards, collaged magazine paper
9-1/8 x 6-1/2 x 9/16 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Vaasu Taneja
¡Protesta Ahora!/Protest Now!, 2023
Cardboard, ink, colored pencil, construction paper, thread
8-15/16 x 6-1/2 x 1/2 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Ruth Murcia 
Resiste/Resist, 2023
Cardboard, marker, ink, thread, twine 
9-1/4 x 8-1/2 (including fringe) x 5/8 in; thread strap 35 in

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Emiliano Torlasco
Writing Protest Now, 2023
Cardboard, construction paper, ink, marker, thread, collaged paper
9 x 6-1/8 x 3/8 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Deborah LaFond
Family Owned? Butterfly Made, 2023
Cardboard, tissue paper, collaged magazine paper, marker, colored pencil, yarn
10-3/4 x 7-7/8 x 3 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Ildefonso Apelanz
Proyecto Cartonear: A crisis tonera - Palabras in the borderland – leer/escribir Protesta y Resistencia, 2023
Case: grocery bag paper and collaged photocopy paper, marker
12 x 8 x 3/8 inches
Book: Cardboard, collaged magazine paper, tissue paper, bottle cap, marker, colored pencil, pipe cleaner, earbuds with 3.5mm cable 

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Ildefonso G. Apelanz Jr.
What Is Resistance?/ ¿Qué es la resistancia?, 2023
Cardboard, tissue paper, tape, marker, bubble packaging 
9 x 7 x ¾ inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Tassiana Moura de Oliveira
Resist!/Re$i$tir ou nada, 2023
Cardboard, wood, marker, ink, lanyards, thread, twine
9-1/4 x 7-1/2 x 5/8 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Cheyenne Watson
Resistencia/Resistance, 2023
Cardboard, construction paper, marker, thread, crayon, tissue paper
9-3/8 x 6-1/2 x 1/2 inches 

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Barbara Sutton
Resistir – sonar- transformar/Real Utopias: Dream, Transform, 2023
Cardboard, tape, lanyard, ink, marker, collaged paper, thread
9-3/8 x 6-5/8 x 5/8 inches

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Ulises Ponce
En papel, se escribe: obras de Resistencia/Paper Is for Writing: Works of Resistance, 2023
Cardboard, tape, twine, thread, marker ink, wood

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Carmen E. Nieves
¿Resistencia?/R Is for Resistance, 2023
Cardboard, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, ink, marker construction paper, colored pencil
9-1/8 x 6-1/2 x 3/4

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Barbara Sutton
Escribiendo Protesta Hoy/Writing Protest Now, 2023
Cardboard, construction paper, thread, ink, marker
9 x 6-1/2 x 5/8 in

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Ilka Kressner
Resistance: Writing Protest Now, 2023
Cardboard, ink, pipe cleaners, thread, twine
9 x 6 x 1-1/4in

Handmade booklet with cardboard cover

Supported by the University Auxiliary Services at Albany and the Jack and Gertrude Horan Memorial Endowment Fund for Student Outreach.