In 1910, Mexico celebrated 100 years of independence from Spain. So figures from the movement get their due in the form of a stamp issue. Among them the first female to be featured on any Latin American stamp. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This is another overly formal and impersonal Latin American stamp featuring a long gone figure. Leona Vicario was a young adventurous women of independent means who helped her country break away from Spain out of love for it and her man. This issue is from a long time ago and a different culture, but there should have been some way to include this history on the stamp. The 2010 200th anniversary Mexican issue does a better job with Miss Vicario.
Todays stamp is issue A37, a two centavo stamp issued by Mexico in 1910. The stamp features Mexican independence figure Leona Vicario and was part of an 11 stamp issue in various denominations on the centennial of Mexican independence. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
Leona Vicario was born to a wealthy Spanish merchant and his Mexican born wife. They died when Leona was 18 and she inherited their vast fortune. She bought a villa next door to her uncle but was free in a way that few women were in her time. At her Royalist uncle’s suggestion, she became engaged to a Spanish lawyer. When he transferred back to Spain without marriage, she took up with a pro independence lawyer named Andres Quintana Roo over her uncles objections. He was involved in the struggle for independence. She took up his cause and made donations and acted as a messenger for the movement.
When Leona’s activities were found out she fled and married her lover. At her uncle’s suggestion she returned to her villa but was detained by the Spanish authorities. With help from the rebels she was able to escape but this time she had her property confiscated. To partially make up for this the revolutionary Congress granted Leona a pension. Post independence she worked as the first female journalist and her husband was a prominent politician and judge. A Mexican state was named after him and Leona’s profile has graced a version of the Mexican 5 Peso coin. The two are buried together at the Independence Colum in Mexico City.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering how different Miss Vicario’s life would have been if her first intended hadn’t transferred back to Spain without her. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.