Gran Columbia became Columbia as region after region broke away. Not the kind of thing that happens to a place that is successful. There were two visions of how to right that ship, a conservative vision put forth by landowners and the Catholic Church, and a liberal one that embraced overturning the old order. 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.
A fairly dashing man personalizing his portrait with a signature. Pretty good for a twice failed Presidential candidate. His conservative party and the frequent military juntas were perhaps not at the time putting their best face forward. The conservative leader, President Gomez had been successfully vilified as a monster and waiting his turn as Foreign Minister with higher ambitions was Valencia’s son. A great time to remember a dashing father who had never had a chance to display his own incompetence as President.
Todays stamp is issue A251, a 25 Centavo stamp issued by the Republic of Columbia on October 20th, 1951. It was a single stamp honoring poet and politician Guillermo Valencia who had died 8 years previous. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Guillermo Valencia was born to a wealthy family. He was a politician and diplomat rising as high as Governor of the Province of Cauca. Unusually for a conservative political figure, he was also a poet. Further unusually, his work was part of the modernist school of poetry that involved much fantasy and escapism. He put out a magazine in Columbia that provided an outlet to other poets and artists. As he got older and perhaps to burnish his political credentials among his fellow conservatives, he took on more work translating European masters into Spanish. He ran twice for President 1917 and 1930, but both times he was passed over for the more liberal candidate.
The conservatives were viewed differently in Columbia in Valencia’s time. Today the relative success of Columbia compared to the relative failure of former provinces with lefty governments like Venezuela and Ecuador burnish the reputation of Columbia’s modern conservative Presidents. In Valencia’s time it was different. The loss of territory was blamed on the conservatives as they were seen as a reemergence of Colonial time with powerful landowners and Catholic clergy acting to keep up Spanish colonial style rule without their competence. Periods of conservative rule lead to violent opposition from the left. The then President Gomez, vilified has a monster, saw his personal home, a restaurant he had built, the Presidential Palace, and his political newspaper offices burned by opponents. At the end of his elected term, he was forced into exile in Spain. What a bunch of losers.
Gomez from exile managed to work a deal with the liberal party that politicians from the two parties would take turns as President and the two parties merged into a National Front. This worked from 1956-1974 until the left began to form splinter parties and eventually armed struggle. In the early 1960s, Valencia’s similarly named son had a turn as President.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what road would have more quickly turned things around. Definitely not one of the roads tried. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.