The first President of Uruguay was in and out of office and exile and is in some peoples thinking guilty for the massacre of the Charrua Indians. Not quite the legacy one might hope of a county’s founding father. Then you should remember that the people decided actively to embrace the monsoon to end Brazilian rule. Well they did that. 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.
When a country is formed by embracing the monsoon, you might expect the leader to have some anarchist flair. Yet here we have Uruguay showing President Rivera in the standard fake Napoleon get up so common to Latin America. Our founders must be founding fathers in the USA sense?
Todays stamp is issue A190, a 20 Centesimos stamp issued by Uruguay on May 29th, 1962. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.
In colonial times, it was agreed between Spain and Portugal to divide what was known as the Oriental Province between the two Empires. The area of modern Uruguay was the part given to Spain. The area was sparsely populated but the nomadic Charrua Indians who thought the colonials white, not oriental. After Spanish abandonment, the area became known as the independent Banda Oriental under a General Artigas. Cattle rancher Fructuoso Rivera joined Artigas’s army, himself rising to general. In 1820 the by now independent Brazilian Empire invaded and much or Artigas’s army went into Argentine exile. Rivera returned to his ranch.
Argentine cattle ranchers were very much threatened by Brazil’s move and funded a rejuvenation of the Banda Oriental army. Rivera met with his former comrades and agreed to be a part of it if they made a comeback. In 1825 33 “Orientals” landed at Arenal Grande beach and picked up additional figures from the countryside on a march to Montevideo. Those landed were not all from Oriental Province, some were Argentine and one was even from Mozambique. In Montevideo, the group declared independence from Brazil and allegiance to Argentina.
Brazil then declared war on Argentina. The war lasted 3 years and was eventually mediated by British diplomat Viscount Ponsonby. It was decided that Uruguay would be independent and affiliate with neither Brazil nor Argentina.
Rivera served three times as President although he was often at odds with many of his former comrades. Relations with the Charrua Indians declined as they felt their land was being intruded on by cattle ranches. In 1831 Rivera lead the army to attack the Indians in what was an antihalation. In 1834, Uruguay sent four Charrua Indians to Paris to be part of a circus freak show of a died out race. None of the four ever made it back to Uruguay alive. The race may not have totally died out. In 1989, a group was formed that self identified themselves as members of the Charrua nation. Uruguay allows Charrua identification on their census, and 700 claim it. Wonder if they are lobbying to start a casino.
Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.