Unravelling Puerto Rico Philately - Part 1 - RMPL

Part 1 of Unraveling Puerto Rico Philately starts with a brief history of the island beginning in 1493 with its discovery by Columbus. Postal markings, postage stamps and postal stationery, relative to Puerto Rico are covered in this segment.

[@freddiegutierrez8199]

That guard house is not in La Fortaleza. That is located al El Morro Castle, at the entrance of San Juan bay.

[@RMPLDenver]

Thank you, Mr. Gutierrez for taking the time to look at the video and for your correction. Agreed, the guardhouse is on the Castillo San Felipe de El Morro, aka El Morro. The referece to La Fortaleza was an oversight on my part.

[@RMPLDenver]

Hello Mr. Gutierrez After writing you earlier in regards to your comment, I decided to reinvestigate my use of "La Fortaleza" vs. "El Morro" for the location of la Garita (the Sentry Box) in the video. I soon came to realize the root of my misunderstanding/mistake.. I investigated the SAN JUAN NATIONAL MONUMENT, a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Nothing of note exsted relative to La Fortaleza in its title or historic antecedents I did not realize that the National Monument consisted originally of three forts (La Fortaleza was added years later) constructed by the Spanish at the entrance to San Juan Harbor. I checked further, and learned that In 1982, UNESCO designated a 22nd World Historic Site in the United States at San Juan, named "La Fortaleza and the San Juan National Monument." I had always thought that the Garita was located on La Fortaleza, and that the UNESCO designation signified that the named fort was "LaFortaleza". My confusion was compounded by my belief that La Fortaleza stood at the western most promontory of the San Juan peninsula, whereas in reality it is the more recenly constructed fort of El Morro that stands there (as is the case with the El Morro of Havana, Cuba). The 1937 U.S. stamp commemorating Puerto Rico is entitled La Foretaleza and clearly shows two Garita sentry boxes. I, consequently, fell into a misunderstanding/mistake noted by you in your comment. Thank you for clarifying this misunderstanding/mistake I have held for a number of years, never having visited the San Juan National Monument because of the very crowded and narrow street conditions on the peninsula. . . . Regards. Sergio Lugo

[@gutierfa]

@@RMPLDenver Don't worry about this. You're doing an excellent job by sharing this philatelic information, and this is only a slight thing. The "garitas" (sentry boxes) that you see in the 1937 stamp are close to La Fortaleza, but are actually part of the city walls that run nearby, which also have sentry boxes, but they're not part of La Fortaleza. Besides, the fact that "La Fortaleza" translates to "The Fortress" adds to the confusion by allowing it to be mistaken by "El Morro Fortress", which is surrounded by sentry boxes. Come visit San Juan someday. You'll love it. Thanks for your excellent work. Regards, Freddie Gutiérrez

[@byronmitchelliii1713]

I must congratulate Mr. Lugo on his presentation but at the same time I believe that taking into consideration that the total amount of stamps issued by Spain for use in Puerto Rico are less that 200 he should have ilustrated all of them. Also here are a few mistakes which could be easily fixed or edited. For example the 1868 Ultramar or Antillas issue used in Puerto Rico included the 5 Centimos stamp of which there are plentiful covers to sustain their use. Anyway I hope this will give way for more collecting interest in Puerto Rico stamps.

[@RMPLDenver]

Thank you Mr. Mitchell for your comments on the video. In the editing process, we had to make a number of choices to keep the presentation within reasonable time limits. As you can see, the video came to 53 minutes. Numbers of Spanish releases were reviewed, but not included as a consequence of their design redundancy (except for their valuation) within the issue. That editing process also forced me to defer a number of facets of the philately of Puerto Rico into a part II continuation Examples such as the 5 centimos 1868 Ultramar on cover are intended to be included in a more extensive discussion of postal history. Similar to your desire, I also hope the video (videos) will lead to greater interest in Puerto Rican philately. It has been fascinating to observe the growth over the past 20+ years in the number of items listed on the internet for Puerto Rican philately, particularly on ebay. While those numbers have proliferated, many of which are questionable or trivial, their availability in a digital format has made for a significant increase in my appreciation over that time span. Articles in whatever form (including video discussions) have expanded my appreciation, as well I hope for others. Regards, Sergio Lugo

[@gutierfa]

Where can we find Part 2 of this excellent documentary?

[@RMPLDenver]

Hello Mr. Gutierrez: Thank you for your kind remarks. Responses below: (1) If you look on the RMPL page on KZbin, you'll see 35 videos we have produced for the worldwide audience of stamp ollectors, postal historians and the general public. A team of two of us began these nearly 8 years ago, namely Joe LaNotte as videographer and I as writer. We are occasionally joined by hosts who are unafraid to jump into the mix of arguments we have on the simplification of each video. Soon, you will;; see the 36th video; subject GERMANY: ITS OFFICES AND ITS COLONIES. Each of these videos take up enormous amounts of time between Joe and I; on average 500 to 600 hours by each of us on every one. We devote that amount of time to language simplification, reducing language to understandable phraseology for the novice and intermediate collector, as well as the general public, matching imagery to the scans being shown, smoothness of transitions, smoothness of visual shots of the host, background noise discussion, taking retakes over and over again, integrating music and many, many more items. The GERMANY: ITS OFFICES AND COLONIES will involve the highest level of our accomplishments, in large part because of two donations from RMPL members that allowed us to acquire super advanced video and audio equipment and also allowed us to match narrative with video down to nano bits of seconds. I started on the second part of the PUERTO RICO VIDEO MONTHS AGO, but have made little progress since then as we designed, refined, upgraded the GERMANY video. If you noticed the tail end of the present video, you'll find a raft of items intended to be included in Part 2, but I can only consult with myself on those Puerto Rican items. Fortunately, I've been a Puerto Rico collector all my adult life and have built up a large stock of PR material in many arenas (weakest arena is pre 1850s stampless covers). Fortunately, I have access to the holdings of the RMPL, as well as the world catalog of the member libraries of the on-line catalog of the American Philatelic Research Library. I was a member of the Sociedad Fiatelica de Puerto Rico (having visited there at least once), but as the newsletter shrank in size and content and interminable problems accessing its website, I gave up membership about 2 years ago. Bottom line - I've now lined up nearly 5 videos for production with various individuals; Part 2 of the Puerto Rico video is in that quay, and Joe keeps on bugging me to do it; but I'm also being pressured to put up part's 2 and 3 of the Himalaya video, and more than likely will be pressured to put on a second video for the Germans on Zeppelin Mail. One of the one's that has taken a backseat for going on 3 years is a music video on BAGPIPES on STAMPS, and I have delayed one by Yamil Kouri on the Interaction of the Spanish Empire's Provinces in the formation of states in the United States. I'd like to do this latter one in both English and Spanish, but I very well know the difficulties associated with bi-lingual productions (see videos from ROMPEX LATIN AMERICAN SEMINAR of 4 years ago on (1) the Cancellations of British Guiana (Spanish language version Los Matasellos de.........) and (2) the Postal History of Lima (La Historia Postal de Lima).. (2) In my life time, I've been to San Juan five times, on trips around the island and to my family's ancestral grounds in Penuelas, Puerto Rico. There's a reason for the Enchanted Island name of the island, that I always stress to friends and acquaintances going to PR that they not overlook. Huge changes to the island since my first trip there in 1971, when all I could find was one radio station in English and an english language version of the Herald Tribune newspaper. I always recount three jokes and/or observations about my trips to PR; which I'll repeat here and hope no one takes umbrage: First, in Colorado a town by the name of SALIDA is at the exit of an 8,000 foot high mountain pass in Central, Colorado. While driving once on the "interstate" to Ponce and to Mayaguez from San Juan, my wife suddenly asked why there were so many SALIDAs on the highway, mistaking the Colorado town name for the exit signs of PR. Second, on the occasion of my father's death and burial, funeral arrangements were held in Penuelas. There the family gathered and I had occasion to speak with my relatives in Spanish about what had happened at the San Juan airport with the retrieval of my dad's casket. The family rolled over laughing and kept on telling me that it was about time that some Americans pulled the rug out from under Puerto Ricans. What had happened was that I had parked illegally, and the police office came over to issue me a warning. He, of course, spoke to me in Spanish, and I understood him perfectly! In my flawless English without a trace of a Spanish accent, I answered him - Sorry, no speakee the Spanish." The police officer was totally flabbergasted, and me and the family had a grand laugh that evening at the wake. San Juan is a lovely town and I've always enjoyed staying there. Unfortunately, old San Juan is impossible to navigate via auto, and finding parking is tougher than extracting a hen's tooth. We've managed to get to the Capitol, and to the eastern defenses of El Morro, and the endless giift shops. But that's been it (other then the aforementioned visit to the SFPR headquarters). El Yunque, la Cordillera, Cabo Rojo and the Windward Passage, as well as seafront seafood restaurants and mountain communities and their Friday and Saturday night dancing have been wonderful places to go and visit and have a drink (un trago). Those places have consumed the better part of 90% of our time on the island vs. the 10% we're able to scrape through in San Juan. It's one of these jaunts that reflects my third comment. When you travel to the Areicebo Observatory (I know it's no longer feasible to see because of the damage of 3 years ago), it's almost like magic for me as it reminds me of Wisconsin countrysides, through which I've travel led on numerous, numerous occasions. In one of the jaunts to the caves near Areceibo, I commented to my wife how I was amazed at how many mainlanders occupied the northwestern corner of PR, spreading out from Rincon. I called it "America's revenge on PR" By the Way: American born soldiers stationed in PR during WW II were known as "Continentals" according to my dad who served in the war for the duration (1940 to 1945), as did his two brothers (hermanos) as infantrymen in Europe when they all enlisted to get out of the poverty of PR. (3) My dad and his brothers (mi tios) always recounted their days growing up in PR. None ever had any problems with English as that is what they were instructed in and all became extraordinarily bi-lingual. . Pop would recount to me the dangerous night driving he had to engage in on the military highway (now the interstate) between San Juan and Ponce as he ran rum between the 2 cities at ages 16 to 18 in the 1930s. My dad was always called upon by the MPs to break up fights between continentals and Puerto Ricans that were stationed in Cuba over the greatest single thing that led to bar room fights - Cuban women!!. My uncle Alexandro always reminded me that he (alejandro) always had to keep my father immersed in the water spray of hoses when they were 10 to 12 years of age in the late 1920s to keep him from getting burned to death in the fires lite in sugar cane fields during the harvests. As you might have gathered, my family were guajiros, and they all made it out of PR to lead fruitful and successful lives in their respective occupations and professions beyond field work. And the music is still ingrained in me, keeping and maintaining 33 rpm records of the 1940s and 1950s can always be heard in my house, together with the dancing of my wife and I - she with her Scandinavian hopping to polkas and waltzes and me with my swaying to the sounds of Caribbean music. Regards. Sergio Lugo