If you were in Mexico in the 1830s, where would you get paper from? The simple answer is that you probably wouldn’t – about 88% of people could not read or write back then (global literacy was 12% in 1820). Even if you could write I am guessing paper would also have been prohibitively expensive for the average person.

But if you were in the government or the Catholic church you might get paper from a “gringo” paper company (though the term “gringo” for an English speaker in Mexico wasn’t quite in use yet). At least that is my casual observation from looking at historical documents during my genealogy searches a few years back. Documents like baptismal records or (civil) birth records were often hand-recorded in leather-bound books/ledgers. Sometimes (though not often) these books had seals or insignia on them to indicate their origin.

Below are two that I noted at the time:

Darthez Hermanos de Londres

• It is a bit hard to see but there is a drawing of a car and below it reads “coche de vapor” or “steam-powered car”.
• Are those the real Darthez brothers? It looks like the brother on the right is upset with the one on the left – perhaps they argued over who gets shotgun in the steam car, or if they should make an appearance in the Trader Joe’s fearless flyer.

Wylie Cooke y Cia.

• Bonus points for the eagle!
• I don’t know why but that snake doesn’t look so scary, at least compared to the cactus and that beast of a bird
• San Luis Potosí is a city in a state by the same name in central Mexico