A few weeks after Vice President Victoria Villarruel called Dolores Reyes’ Cometierra (“Eartheater”) “pornographic,” the 2019 novel has climbed to the top of Argentina’s main book sellers’ rankings, even outperforming the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature Han Kang.

Cometierra, about a young woman whose compulsion to eat dirt gives her visions of murdered and missing people, has been a subject of controversy since a group of school parents in Mendoza reported a teacher who included the novel in their literature class earlier this month. The issue spiralled when high-ranking government officials, including Villarruel, accused Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof of spreading “pornographic literature” in public schools through a government program called Identidades Bonaerenses. The program, which began a year ago, is responsible for distributing 100 fiction and non-fiction titles to thousands of schools and libraries. 

Along with Reyes’ Eartheater, members and supporters of the ruling La Libertad Avanza coalition have denounced other works included in the program. Among them are International Booker Prize finalist Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s The Adventures of China Iron — a feminist reinterpretation of the Martin Fierro poem — and Sol Fantin’s Si no fueras tan niña, which were accused of containing pornographic content aimed at “sexualizing children.” The latter recounts the abuse the author suffered at the hands of a religious community leader. 

“The people of Buenos Aires don’t deserve the degradation and immorality @Kicillofok is offering them,” wrote Villarruel on X on November 7. “Stop sexualizing our children, kick the people promoting these nefarious agendas out of the classrooms, and respect the innocence of children!”

“Not with our kids!” she added. 

Buenos Aires province’s Culture and Education Director Alberto Sileoni has been quick to defend the program, confronting right-wing journalists like Eduardo Feinmann, who referred to him as a “degenerate” during one especially heated interview.

A former education minister in Cristina Kirchner’s administration, Sileoni has argued that the books in question are only distributed as educational tools and are not mandatory reading. He has also clarified that these titles are suggested for high school students aged 16 to 19, and that they contain a disclaimer stating that their use in the classrooms should be monitored by a teacher. 

“This is literature, not pornography,” he told Feinmann, theorizing that the campaign was actually aimed at banning sexual education in public schools. Sileoni added that this education has been essential in helping children come forward and report instances of sexual abuse.  

Tensions escalated on November 11 when an alleged foundation called Dr. Natalio Morelli filed a criminal complaint against Sileoni for “abuse of power and corruption of minors.” Foundation president Bárbara Morelli said in a radio interview that these books should be banned from school libraries because attendees are in what she called “cognitive ages” and that “children need to read books that educate.” 

“If they want to read fiction, they should do that at home,” she added.

In a post published on X that same day, Vilarruel said that anyone promoting “gender ideology” is a “degenerate,” and those in favor of “sexualizing children” are potential pedophiles. 

Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof — a father of two boys — responded to the controversy on November 17 by posting a picture of himself on X reading Eartheater. The other books in the spotlight were on a table next to him. 
“Nothing beats a rainy Sunday when you want to read some fine Argentine literature. Without censorship,” he posted. 

Villarruel quoted the post, responding that the books exalt pedophilia. 

“The book you have on that table called Si no fueras tan niña is the story of a 14-year old girl abused by a 30 year-old adult. Are you really using that tragedy to put shit inside the heads of Buenos Aires province’s children and teenagers? Don’t mess with our children!,” she wrote.

Reyes, Cabezón Cámara and Fantin will join almost a hundred renowned and best-selling Argentine writers on Saturday, November 23, at the Teatro Picadero in downtown Buenos Aires for a collective reading of Eartheater. Among the authors scheduled to be there are Claudia Piñeiro, Juan Sasturain, Martín Kohan, and Fabián Casas. Similar events to support the authors will also take place across the country.

“It’s very dangerous to enable these anti-democratic methods of censorship, harassment and slander against any artistic expression,” Eartheater publishing house Sigilo posted on X.  

“Freedom is a different thing.”