Vulgar illustrated Spanish-language fotonovelas depicting the rape, brutalization and murder of women don’t seem appropriate for stocking on the shelves of public libraries.
Yet an unknown number of the books, which feature lots of nudity, have shown up on Denver Public Library shelves.
Fotonovelas are very popular in Latin America and often carry story lines taken from soap operas. Some are romances; others have Western or adventure themes. The books in question clearly aren’t mere soap operas.
The Denver library has stocked illustrated volumes, which resemble American comic books, in other languages besides Spanish for about 13 years, according to library spokeswoman Diane Lapierre.
Last week, in response to uproar fueled by talk radio host Peter Boyles, the library pulled all 6,500 fotonovelas from shelves in a dozen branches to review their content, she said.
“The ones brought to our attention are only a handful, probably less than 10,” Lapierre said, although she couldn’t say if there were only 10 volumes or 10 titles with multiple copies. In any event, these books are a very small part of the DPL’s 2.5 million-item collection.
Lapierre said the books are obtained from a vendor in New York, and the library’s guidelines “should have prevented this type of content from coming through, but obviously some did slip through.” Asked if library staff leafed through new acquisitions, Lapierre said they did not. “Stickers are put on the covers, and they’re put out in the branches.”
Every public library has to strike a delicate balance while providing a wide variety of material for a wide variety of readers. That balancing act sometimes means saying no to some books. Clearly, the library needs to fine-tune its procedures for keeping stuff like this off its shelves.
What may prove to be a modest breakdown in library book-buying procedures has also become a continuing flap on talk radio and seems fueled in part by a persistent campaign of complaint by anti-immigrant activists about the DPL’s increasing services to Spanish-speakers.
The library needs to persist in its mission of serving all of Denver’s citizens, but it also needs to quickly fix mistakes and own up to missteps.
