Sanitation Worker Builds Free Library from Salvaged Books

Everybody has their moment, and everything has its place, as our sages teach in Pirkei Avot. The sanitation worker José Alberto Gutiérrez from Bogotá, Colombia likely never heard this teaching, but he has undoubtedly lived by it.

Most sanitation workers see their role as beginning and ending with cleaning up the cities’ garbage. But Gutiérrez wasn’t satisfied with just that. Twenty years ago, he found a copy of a famous classic book that had been thrown away and decided to save it from the landfill. The act of saving the book left him with such a good feeling that since then he has diligently collected every reasonably good book discarded in the trash. As it turns out, there were quite a few: over the past two decades he has gathered no fewer than twenty thousand books.

Gutiérrez didn't plan to collect the books for his own benefit. He lives in southern Bogotá, a poor area where most children (and adults) can’t afford books. The books he found in the trash over the years are stored in his home in southern Bogotá, forming the ‘Power of Words’ library, which he manages for the community residents. Every weekend, his house fills with locals seeking books for study or pleasure.

Meanwhile, Gutiérrez’s home has become overloaded. Recently, he began sending books to other impoverished areas of Colombia, where libraries and books are rare and much desired. The BBC, which reported on Gutiérrez’s unique story, noted that former fighters in Colombia, preparing to re-enter civilian life, have reached out to him for books to aid in their new beginnings—and he has generously obliged.

The many books he has collected over the years have changed him as well. This coming summer, as he turns over fifty, he plans to take his high school exams, which he skipped when he was younger.