The Biblioburro

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a small rural town in Colombia, one man mounts books on the backs of donkeys and takes to the hills. This is how he operates his bookmobile, aka “Biblioburro.” For more information about where to support Luis Soriano’s Biblioburro, visit booksforchangeusa.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want to know what living in the countryside is like, just asks Luis Soriano.
0:10.6	He lives in a small rural town in Colombia called La Gloria.
0:15.6	Well, look, I, of the Gloria, I learned what the
0:18.8	children of the city could learn when I was a young.
0:21.3	La Gloria taught me things
0:22.7	a city kid would never know.
0:24.4	I learned
0:25.0	a different kinds of birds.
0:27.0	I learned how to identify
0:28.1	bird's nest,
0:29.4	how to recognize their sounds,
0:31.1	how a mountain sounds
0:32.8	at night,
0:33.5	how the crickets sing
0:34.7	at night,
0:35.6	when it's bee season,
0:37.3	or when it's time for the iguanas to lay their eggs.
0:44.4	La Gloria sounds like one of these places Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez was writing his books.
0:52.2	Many of the people who live in La Gloria are hardworking campesinos.
0:56.0	Most are dedicated farmers who work in the fields growing fruits and vegetables.
1:00.0	Luis grew up playing in these fields, but he's taken on a different path.
1:04.0	He's an educator, and he also runs a bookmobile.
	...

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