{"product_id":"12154","title":"1944–1945 Pen-Pal Postcards to a Cuban Student at the University of Havana from Brazil, Canada, Venezuela","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn offer is a group of three postcards from three distinct countries, all written to a young Eduardo Morilla Macias of Gervasio 107, Havana. They were sent to Eduardo from international contacts who reached out to him in response to his advertisements requesting pen pals to correspond with him in \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“Spanish, English, French, Portuguese or Esperanto”.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo of Eduardo’s advertisements were found in digitally preserved period sources: one in the April 1943 issue of the comic magazine \u003ci\u003eFantastic Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e, and another in the January 1946 issue of \u003ci\u003eFlandra Esperantisto\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1943, he identified himself as a 17-year-old \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“who wants to correspond with American young people.” \u003c\/i\u003eBy 1946, Eduardo is identified as a student in the Law and Social Sciences department at the University of Havana, seeking to correspond with \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“activists”.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe postcards were sent to Eduardo (or Eddy, as one correspondent calls him) from Porto Alegre, Brazil; Maracaibo, Venezuela; and Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. All three postcards are written in Spanish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn December 22, 1944, a correspondent named Yolanda wrote to Eduardo from Brazil, thanking him for his letter and apologizing for the delayed reply due to school exams. She tells him she is sending a postcard \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“que estampa o cine imperial donde todos los domingos la petizada se reúne”\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e[“showing the Cine Imperial, where every Sunday the young people gather”].\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn June of 1945, Eduardo received a postcard from Paulina Verdes of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The card bears an \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“EXAMINED BY CENSOR”\u003c\/i\u003e marking. Paulina references an ongoing exchange, writing: \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“¿Ha recibido Ud los periódicos que le he enviado…?”\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e[“Have you received the newspapers that I sent you…?”\u003c\/i\u003e], and comments on the weather: \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“Temperatura muy fría y fresca. Nada de calor.”\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e[“The weather is very cold and cool. No heat at all.”].\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe final, undated postcard (context places it in the late 1940s to early 1950s), is from Elana in Maracaibo and speaks to the image postcard’s image of Teatro Cine Landia. She addresses him as \u003ci style=\"mso-bidi-font-style: normal;\"\u003e“Eddy”\u003c\/i\u003e and notes that the Cine Landia is not the principal theatre of Maracaibo, but that the Teatro Baralt holds that distinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese postcards document the results of a targeted effort by a young Cuban to establish international correspondence during the 1940s, with evidence of sustained communication across multiple countries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is little formal documentation of Eduardo Morilla Macias, but evidence from his advertisements suggests he was born circa 1926 and later studied in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Havana. This places him at the University during Fidel Castro’s time there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb style=\"mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;\"\u003eCondition:\u003c\/b\u003e Postcards are all in Good condition. The Canadian postcard is missing an image, but it is not clear whether the card was sent to Morilla that way, or if the image was removed later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSources\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eFlandra Esperantisto: Tijdschrift voor Esperanto-Onderwijs en-Propaganda.\u003c\/i\u003e “Ed. Morilla [Classified advertisement].” Volume 13, no. 110 (January 1946): 1.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eFantastic Adventures.\u003c\/i\u003e “Correspondence Corner [Classified advertisement].” Volume 5, no. 4 (April 1943): 206.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Katz Fine Manuscripts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51748272570674,"sku":"12154","price":325.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0617\/8612\/8618\/files\/0012154_1.jpg?v=1788891456","url":"https:\/\/katzfinemanuscripts.com\/products\/12154","provider":"Katz Fine Manuscripts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}