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The Politics and Semiotics of the Smallest Icons of Popular Culture: Latin American Postage Stamps

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Jack Child
Jack Child*
Affiliation:
American University
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Abstract

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This article uses an interdisciplinary approach to present and analyze information on the smallest manifestations of popular culture in Latin American countries: postage stamps. The disciplines involved are semiotics (the linguistic study of signs), history, politics (internal and international), and popular culture. The project studies how these postage stamps carry significant messages, including expressions of nationalism, politics (national and international), propaganda, and cultural identity. The article begins with an overview of Latin American postage stamps, with an emphasis on internal and international politics. The latter category focuses on several cases of inter-country tension in which postage stamps have played a role.

Resumen

Resumen

Este artículo utiliza un enfoque interdisciplinario para presentar y analizar información sobre las manifestaciones más pequeñas de la cultura popular de los países latinoamericanos: las estampillas de correo. Las disciplinas involucradas en dicho enfoque son la Semiótica (el estudio de los signos, sus relaciones y significado), la Historia, la Política (nacional e internacional) y la cultura popular. El proyecto estudia cómo estas estampillas están cargadas de mensajes significativos incluyendo expresiones de nacionalismo, propaganda política (nacional e internacional) e identidad cultural. El artículo comienza con una revisión de las estampillas latinoamericanas para luego establecer que ellas constituyen un valioso objeto de estudio bajo la rúbrica de “cultura popular”. Luego de presentar un marco semiótico para el estudio de las estampillas, el autor describe ejemplos específicos de estampillas latinoamericanas enfatizando especialmente las políticas nacionales e internacionales envueltas en el diseño de las estampillas. Esta última categoría se enfoca sobre varios casos de tensión entre distintos países en las que las estampillas han jugado un rol importante.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , 2005 , pp. 108 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the University of Texas Press

References

1. David Scott, European Stamp Design: A Semiotic Approach to Designing Messages (London: Academy Editions, 1995).

2. Dennis Altman, Paper Ambassadors: The Politics of Stamps (North Rydeg, NSW, Australia: Angus & Robertson, 1991), 1. Also Eduardo Escalada-Goicoechea, Exposición mundial de filatelia Granada: Colecciones Iberoamericanas (Granada: Ministerio de Obras Públicas, 1992).

3. Jean Franco, Critical Passions (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 169.

4. Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson, Rethinking Popular Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 1–9.

5. Franco, op. cit., 169, 179.

6. Altman, op. cit., 3.

7. Thomas Inge, Handbook of American Popular Culture, 3 vols. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1978, 1980, 1981).

8. Harold Hinds Jr. and Charles M. Tatum, Handbook of Latin American Popular Culture (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985), xi.

9. Ibid, xii.

10. David Bushnell, “Postal Images of Argentine Proceres: Selective Myth-Making,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 1 (1982), 91–105. Also personal communication with Professor Bushnell, November 2002.

11. Hinds and Tatum, eds., “Instructions to Contributors,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, vol. 7 (1988), v.

12. Frank Nuessel, “Territorial and Boundary Disputes Depicted in Postage Stamps,” in Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 11 (1992): 121–41.

13. J. Bryant, “Stamp & Coin Collecting,” Handbook of American Popular Culture, vol. 3, 470.

14. Arthur Asa Berger, Signs in Contemporary Culture (New York: Longman, 1984), 1–2.

15. Winfred North, Handbook of Semiotics (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1990), 41.

16. Argentina, Provisional Presidency, Decree of 17 July 1957, quoted in Revista de la Sociedad Filatélica Argentina (1958), 30.

17. New York Times, 30 March 1985, 5.

18. El Nacional, 9 October 1997, http://www.el-nacional.com/.

19. Clarín, 8 October 1997, “Una estampilla para el Che” (www.clarin.com.ar).

20. Novedades EMEDIA on line, 13 September 2002.

21. Centro Filatélico Dr. Gray. Boletín Informativo, #55, March 1965.

22. American Philatelist, “Brazil: Designation of Republic Flag,” 4, no. 4 (1899), 108.

23. Revista de la Sociedad Filatélica Argentina, “Noticias (Decreto del 2 de enero de 1957),” (January–June 1957), 35.

24. David Bushnell, “Feminismo Filatélico,” Boletín Americanista, 37 (47) 77–89 (1997).

25. Antonio Deluca, Sellos y otros valores postales y telegráficos argentinos: Origen y desarrollo de cada emisión, vol. 1 (Buenos Aires: Dirección General de Correos y Telegráfos, 1939-1941), 299.

26. Carlos Stoetzer, Postage Stamps as Propaganda (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs, 1953), 7–8.

27. H. D. Mitchell, “Philatelic Coffee Advertising in Costa Rica, 1921–23,” Nineteenth American Philatelic Congress Book (Yorktown, VA: American Philatelic Congress, 1953), 115–124.

28. Linn's Stamp News, “Brazilian stamps to smell like coffee,” 24 December 2001, 2.

29. Los Angeles Times, “Colombia Stamp Tribute Too Candid – U.N. Rejects It,” 1 November 1986, sec. 1, page 4.

30. On a personal note, the author traveled to the Falklands/Malvinas and Antarctica on two of the “expedition cruise tourist ships” shown in the series: Explorer and World Discoverer.

31. For commentary on the stamps and political aspects of the soccer World Cup, see New York Times, 19 March 1978, II, p. 42, and Tom Ryder, “World Cup Soccer,” Minkus Stamp Journal XIII, no. 3 (1978), 6.

32. Michael Laurence, “Modern Inflation Covers,” Linn's Stamp News, 15 October 1990, 3.

33. Discussions at the XI Latin American Studies Association Congress panel on “Power Politics and Geography in Latin America,” Mexico City, September 1983.

34. This section relies on the author's past work on conflicts in Latin America, especially Geopolitics and Conflict in South America: Quarrels Among Neighbors (New York: Praeger, 1985). The work of Nuessel, op. cit., was also helpful.

35. Damilo A. Mueses, “Falsificaciones de la Serie del Mapita,” El Filatélico, #85, 1991, 3.

36. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, Panama: the Creation, Destruction and the Resurrection (New York: McBride, Nast & Co, 1914), 247.

37. David G. McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: the Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1977), 325.

38. James G. Bradsher, “The Diplomatic Story Behind a 1939 Guatemalan Stamp,” American Philatelist, October 1984, 1024–6.

39. Ernest A. Kehr, “The Great Paper Wars,” Scott's Stamp Monthly 1982, no. 1, 124.

40. Jack Child, Geopolitics and Conflict in South America: Quarrels Among Neighbors (New York: Praeger, 1985), 92–98.

41. “Ecuador-Peru emiten sellos,” Spanish Newswire Services, 23 May 2001.

42. Albert F. Kunfe, Who's Who on the Postage Stamps of Bolivia (Washington, D.C.: Organization of American States, 1959).

43. Zinn's Stamp News, 15 March 1993, 8. See also “La Filatelia al día,” El Filatélico, 1991, no. 85, 7.

44. Zinn's Stamp News, 23 December 1991, 20. The issue of the London Daily Telegraph was 2 September 1991.

45. Brian Moorhouse, “Bolivia and Brazil: The Two Sides of the Acre Dispute,” The Mainsheet, November 1994, 8.

46. Jose J. Marques Marinho, Amazonia: Nossos Sellos (Manaus, Brazil: published by author, 1981), 14–23; Brian Moorhouse, “Bolivia and Brazil: The Two Sides of the Acre Dispute,” The Mainsheet, November 1994, 8.

47. New York Times, 12 September 1937, Sec. 12, p. 8.