\PUBLIC ART & LITERACY\ Bibliobandido
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Artistic Director: Marisa
Jahn 'Bibliobandido'
is a public art project, legend, and mobile book-making workshop
transported from village to village by burro ('biblioburro'), bike
('bibliobici'), or bag ('bibliobolsa'). Developed by REV- in collaboration
with
the community of El
Pital, located in Northern Honduras, the Bibliobandido
workshop ('Taller Bibliobandido') promotes literacy and self-publishing
in a region whose
infrastructure has been decimated by both
Hurricane Mitch in 1998
and instability under the current presidential regime. |
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You might have heard about mobile libraries on the backs of camels, trucks, horses—or even the infamous ‘Biblioburro’ that roves around rural Columbia. But in June of this year in El Pital, a village in rural Honduras, a masked bandit calling himself the Bibliobandido ambled through town in broad daylight, mounted on a burro. Onlookers screamed, smiled, or ran to hide.
During the monthly story hour, a group of kids discovered that the maudlin character left a notice on the library door that read, “I am the Bibliobandido. I am ravenous for stories, and stories give me sustenance. Those that don’t feed me…beware!” |
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No one knew what to make of this warning but the village kids right away went to work, drawing their recollection of the bandido to both warn others and to give a description to the cops who were busy pulling aside suspects that bore any resemblance to the intruder.
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Another group of youth wrote stories investigating what might have been the bandido’s plausible motives. One youth speculated that the bandido probably picked up his scare tactics in a bandido school; some created a Bibliobandido-themed menu; others speculated what stories might have been "all jumbled up" inside the bandido’s stomach (Pinochio, Cinderella, or fables about ants, stinging ants, leaf cutter ants, etc.). In order that they be spared from his incredible appetite, those that wrote stories wrote their names down in the small notebook found in the Bibliobandido’s vestpocket so that he would know for sure who had made their offering.  |
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The following days, kids in various villages put up signs alerting those coming to town of the bandido as a possible danger.
The legend of the Bibliobandido spread like wildfire, and copycat bandidos began appearing throughout the region. Some were quite convincing but most lacked the same gravitas as the original.
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For now, communities along the Cangrejal River in Northern Honduras continue to write stories and have been successful in appeasing the Bibliobandido.
But
who knows where or when he might next hunger… |
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