[1][2][3] The initiative for Eloísa Cartonera was taken in 2001 when the Argentine economy was in crisis and people went on the streets to earn money.

In these years the culture sector found itself in a deep crisis, because books and artifacts were sold in reduced quantities.

[1][2][3] Due to this situation writer Washington Cucurto and plastic artists Javier Barilaro and Fernanda Laguna started making art books made from waste cardboard.

[1][2][3] Established as well as upcoming Latin American writers have donated novels, stage plays and poems, with the result that ten years after its foundation more than 200 titles have been published.

Examples are La casa de cartón (The Cardboard House) of Martín Adán, El pianista (The pianist) of Ricardo Piglia, El todo que surca la Nada (The Everything that Cuts the Nothing) of César Aira and the bilingual volume of verses of Haroldo de Campos.