Meaning
What does Donde Esta La Biblioteca mean?
Donde Esta La Bibilioteca is an elementary Spanish sentence, literally translating to “Where is the library?”.
It is notorious in the United States for being one of the first sentences learned in Spanish class, which led to it turning into a meme, being oddly specific with little versatility in its use.
The question was eventually also referenced in several movies and TV series, including Community on NBC, as well as Deadpool 2.
Origin
What's the origin of Donde Esta La Biblioteca?
In the second episode of Community, titled Spanish 101, which first aired on September 24th, 2009.
During the end credits of the episode, the characters Abed and Troy (portrayed by Danny Pudi and Donald Glover, respectively) freestyle rap incoherent Spanish words that rhyme.
One of the phrases included in the freestyle happened to be “Donde Esta La Biblioteca.”
Fans of the series immediately picked up on the joke and image macro memes, as well as GIFs, rapidly began appearing online.
Spread & Usage
How did Donde Esta La Biblioteca spread?
“Donde Esta La Bibilioteca” was quickly picked up by fans of Community, who made memes and remixes of the rap and shared them on social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and 9GAG. The meme became so popular that it even spawned merchandise, such as t-shirts and mugs, featuring the phrase.
During the 2010s, the meme has only seen a steady rise in popularity and was even featured in several other media products, such as music and movies, including the 2018 sequel of Deadpool, where it can be heard in a telephone conversation, only to be translated by the protagonist with a fake, and highly profane meaning.
“Donde Esta La Biblioteca” is still a popular meme, both among native Spanish speakers as well as people who learn Spanish as a second language, and it is likely to stay like that.
External resources
- Fandom – Community Wiki
- Reddit – r/OutOfTheLoop