The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

1 5 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yof varying scholarly rigor. The two most respected primaryschools in the center of town educated their studentsin “reading, writing, Christian doctrine, math, drawing,manners, and morals.” In addition, several schools forgirls offered classes in “reading, writing, counting, cooking,keeping house, and many other manual skills appropriatefor the fairer sex.” 15Residents of the town of Orizaba itself were as engagedas circumstances permitted with the larger literarycommunity of Mexico. Especially after the rapid growthof the periodical press in Mexico during the nineteenthcentury, 16 orizabeños relied to a great degree on the postalsystem for contact with the larger intellectual communityof the nation. They often found themselves frustrated withan understaffed and underfunded post office.The postal regulations instituted by the Bourbons in1794 remained the foundation of Mexico’s postal code until1883. 17 The Bourbon administrators created two principalpostal administrations with this set of laws: that of Veracruzand that of Mexico. In 1821, Mexico’s newly independentgovernment eliminated the first eleven provisionsof the Bourbon regulations but left the larger organizationof the postal system intact. Orizaba numbered amongone of four principal post offices operating under the mainpost office in Veracruz. Campeche and Mérida also hadprincipal post offices as did Xalapa, Orizaba’s mercantilerival to the north. However, where Campeche, Xalapa, andMérida had three or even four full- time postal employees,Orizaba had only two. The budget of the Orizaba post officewas less than half that of the Xalapa post office, despitetheir similar size and location. 18 This disparity grew in largepart from Xalapa’s prominent commercial role during thelate colonial period as the site of Mexico’s only trade fair. Inaddition, Xalapa served as the major travel hub for those intransit from Veracruz to Mexico City.While regular mail service was reinstituted in Mexicoin May 1823, postal patrons continued to face delaysand unreliable service throughout the first half of thenineteenth century. In 1838, mail arrived in Orizaba biweeklyon Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the townlacked direct mail communication with Veracruz. Thoseletters bound for the port, according to Segura, “had topass through Nopalucan and Xalapa and, for this reason,are much delayed.” By 1854, sufficient progress had beenmade on the route between Orizaba and Veracruz thatweekly mail service existed. 19 Five years later, residentsof Orizaba could both send and receive mail three daysa week. 20 The ability to both dispatch and receive correspondenceon Sundays—the only day on which this waspossible—alluded to the anticlerical bent of the nationalgovernment at the time.However, in the years of political instability usheredin by the beginning of the French intervention in 1862,the postal system suffered near financial ruin. Accordingto postal employee Manuel Aburto from late April to November1862, “the revenue of the post office was insufficientto cover our salaries and other costs, forcing us toleave nearly all employees unpaid.” 21 When the post officefailed to return sufficient revenue, the responsibility ofcovering expenses often fell to the postmasters themselves.In 1863, postal employees working in Orizaba appealedto the government for financial assistance in at least twoseparate instances. In October, the postmaster requestedthat the expenses of correos extraordinarios be transferredfrom the post office of origin to the central post office inMexico City. 22 A month later, the same official petitionedthe government for assistance in paying rent owed fromApril to November 1862. “At that point in time,” wrotethe official, “this office had no income at all.” 23 The postoffice was in such financial straits that French officials reducedtheir staff to just two: the postmaster and a postalinspector. 24However, the indigence of postal workers in Orizabadoes not necessarily indicate that individuals were notusing the post office during this period. Rather than postingmail, orizabeños were eagerly anticipating it. Afterthe installation of Maximilian of Austria as emperor ofMexico in 1864, the demands for postal service by boththe new government and civilians increased markedly.Maximilian wanted to stay in closer contact with provincialoutposts, and civilians sought to apprise each other ofdevelopments through letters and the growing number ofnewspapers in Mexico. As a result, the frequency of mailservice between Mexico City, Orizaba, and Veracruz increasedto six times a week. 25 However, postal employeescontinued to be poorly paid and poorly monitored. In1864, the postmaster of Córdoba wrote to officials inMexico City complaining that, “Being that mail is nowbeing sent and received daily, both from above as well asfrom below, the duties of this office have quadrupled andI am stretched to my limit in dispatching with them. Thismakes it imperative that I have someone to help me.” 26He wrote again the next year appealing to authorities formore pay since “within a short while” mail service fromCórdoba was set to include Coscomatepec, Huatusco,xalapa, and the tierra caliente. 27 Authorities relented atthis point and granted the overworked civil servant a raisein salary to 400 pesos.