Peru, like so many other Latin American countries still had a feudal style society well into the twentieth century. With the growth of national universities, there came a batch of new leaders, the connected’s children in reality, that sought to speak for the mass of indigenous and overturn the applecart. In Peru, this urge was defeated. 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.
The top of the feudalist system have things very well. Put in place under colonial times, but then feeling disconnected and even taken advantage of by their distant mother country. The elite elect to break free and go it alone. If you look at the stamps of the Peru of the time all you see is colonial architecture and people serving in puissant armies dressed with more flash than any Nazi. It is no wonder that the new generations chafed in the grandiosity that so lacked achievement.
Todays stamp is issue A 15 Centimos stamp issued by the republic of Peru in 1936. It displays the Avenue of the Republic, a grand boulevard laid out before the republic in colonial era Lima. It was part of an 18 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.
What to do with the sons after the first is always an issue in feudal societies. The first son will inherit the estate that cannot be divided and daughters are useful to marry off for gain. The traditional answer was the Church or the army for the superfluous sons. Latin America after independence had chosen to subdivide into many weak nation states. Part of being a nation state was having a new university in the capital. The education combined with a precarious career track is why often the university becomes a hotbed of activism for change from these resentful, superfluous sons.
Peru was incredibly unstable. During 1931, there were 5 Presidents. There were deadly rivalries but all the leaders came from the large landowner class, the latifundistas. Outside looking in were the products of the University of Peru. These people had developed ideas of bringing in socialism that would raise the status of the masses of peasants whose toil supported the current system. This support for the lower classes was mainly theoretical, the movements being controlled by those with much more Spanish blood than found in the mass of peasants.
The left wing movement coming out of the university had two perhaps unlikely leaders. who as with Peruvian tradition were initially allies then later bitter rivals. Victor Haya de la Torre was a homosexual leftist who tried to expand the University to offer more opportunities to peasants and then used his notoriety to form a populist political party. Jose Mariategui was more a docturnal communist that traveled extensively in Italy and Austria making connections to local fellow political travelers. He was more the intellectual and his works tried to show a new “shining path to Peru’s future.” This future was communist, but he insisted not based on European models but based on Peruvian indigenous traditions. That must have been why he spent so much time in Europe. He was not a politician from central casting. He was quite short and handicapped by a amputated leg.
Peru was a republic in theory and as such there were elections from time to time. Usually there was no clear winner, with more room for intrigue. The movements started by the would be politicians above sometimes even won the elections. That does not mean that they were allowed to serve. There was always jail and exile, something both leaders did have experience with. The feudal system was not going to yield without a fight. In 1979, Haya de la Torre was actually allowed to take office as President after 6 decades in politics. By then he was on his deathbed but he had time to sign a new constitution, that did not do much for the economy but at least got the army out of the government.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the indigenous peasant class in Peru. Perhaps at some point someone will inquire as to their thoughts on how the country is to be governed. Crazy talk, I know. Come again for another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.