Tag: Uruguay stamp

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.

The countries of South America were sparsely populated after independence. There was little incentive to pledge to the new governments as citizens in spread outposts were on their own when trouble came. Uruguay hit on a path out of this, take in large numbers of immigrants and allow them to build for themselves and you a new economy. 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.

Todays stamp shows a country trying to build a separate identity. The Army was perhaps the most durable institution. This is a conservative influence and that can be seen in a stamp displaying a coat of arms. The population of the time was over two thirds immigrant, so the coat of arms probably did not mean much, but hey talk to your army recruiter and get into the spirit.

Todays stamp is issue A36 a 10 Centesimos stamp issued by the Republic of Uruguay in 1889. It was part of a 24 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used. A stamp mistakenly printed on both sides is worth $20.

Uruguay was growing quite quickly in the late 19th century. There was a wave of immigration mainly from Italy and Spain. They mainly settled in Montevideo and that city was growing even faster than the country as a whole. What was growing even faster than the number of people was the number of sheep. There were three sheep for every person and merino wool became an important export.

What was also becoming big was the production of tin cans of corned beef sold worldwide under the brand Fray Bentos, the port where it was processed and shipped from. Corned beef had before been largely Irish with production for export. The potatoes famine saw a decline as land was shifted to food for Irish to eat. The production in Uruguay was controlled by a Scottish firm looking to replace Irish corned beef. Corn refers to corns of salt used in the curing. It was a low cost preserved meat that fed many during the industrial revolution and through the World Wars adding much prosperity to Uruguay. In the 1960s, production of Fray Bentos left Uruguay after a series of typhoid deaths in Scotland were traced to the corn beef and the untreated Uruguay river water used in the cooling process. The water contained too much human waste.

As one can imagine, the politics of Uruguay was less than stable. The army had arraigned a grand compromise between the more conservative white party and the more liberal colored party. The party names are not racial. The Presidency was held by the coloreds and certain government departments were reserved for the whites. This was not really stable and there were regular rebellions and intrigues. When President Maximo Santos was shot in the face in an attempted assassination, he wisely chose early retirement and a European tour. His abandoned mansion in Montevideo was taken and still serves has the headquarters of a government ministry. His former country house now also serves as a museum  for disappeared persons from 1970s military rule. I hope the museum also remembers the disappeared former President and first owner Santos.

Well my drink is empty, and I am afraid all this talk of corned beef has killed my appetite. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.