Description：

Filled with passion, rhythm, and stories of life, love, and loss, mariachi music is an integral element of Mexican American culture that has found fans around the world.

Each of the five new stamps features a musician dressed in traje de charro, the traditional outfit of mariachi performers, playing one of five iconic mariachi instruments: guitar, guitarrón, vihuela, violin, and trumpet. The geometric shapes in the background of each stamp are a nod to Mexican villages where mariachi music originated. The digital illustrations started as rough sketches on paper, with the textures and colors added digitally. The artist used vibrant colors that evoke Mexican culture and capture the buoyant yet nostalgic feeling of mariachi music.

“Mariachi” refers to several things: to the music itself; to an individual musician or an ensemble of musicians; and, used as an adjective, to anything identified with the music, be it dance or costume or culture.

Though mariachi’s exact origins are obscure, it appears to have begun in western Mexico, where itinerant musicians made their living traveling from village to village to perform. The music of early mariachi included folk traditions from Spain, Mexico, and Africa that melded to create a new indigenous musical form, the son, which developed various regional styles.

While mariachi music had been in the United States for many years, by the 1960s, American churches, schools, and universities began to develop and sponsor mariachi programs that produced new generations of musicians and enthusiasts. Immigrants to various parts of the U.S. created vibrant regional mariachi cultures that widened the appeal of this traditional music to new audiences. In addition, the American mariachi movement is being disseminated by first, second, and third-generation Mexican Americans as a way of expressing ethnic pride and of staying connected to their heritage.

Mariachi bands traditionally used the round-backed guitar called the vihuela, which gives the mariachi music its rhythmic vitality; the guitarrón, which is a bass guitar; and the Mexican folk harp, the arpa. By the 1940s and 1950s, the modern urban mariachi sound emerged with the expanded instrumentation including violins and trumpets. Today, ensembles continue to broaden the use of instruments, with some groups adding six to eight violins, two to four trumpets, an accordion, and the arpa, which had fallen out of use but has made a comeback among professional groups.

 

In recognition of the importance and widespread appeal of mariachi music and culture, in 2011, UNESCO added them to the list “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”

Rafael López designed the stamps and created the art. Derry Noyes art directed the project.
 
These Forever®stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.

Made in the USA.


Product Spec：

Issue: Mariachi Stamps
Item Number: 482300
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Pane of 20 (5 designs)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: July 15, 2022 Albuquerque, NM 87101
Art Director: Derry Noyes, Washington, DC
Designer: Rafael López, San Diego, CA
Artist: Rafael López, San Diego, CA
Modeler: Sandra Lane / Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Press Type: Gallus RCS
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 18,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor, Block Tag
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.84 x 1.42 in./21.336 x 36.068 mm
Overall Size (w x h): 0.98 x 1.56 in./24.892 x 39.624 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 5.92 x 7.775 in./150.368 x 197.485 mm
Press Sheets Size (w x h): 11.84 x 23.325 in./300.736 x 592.455 mm
Plate Size: 120 stamps per revolution
Plate Numbers: “B” followed by four (4) single digits in two corners
Marginal Markings:
Front: Header: “MARIACHI” • Plate number in bottom two corners
Back: ©2022 USPS • USPS logo • 2 barcodes (482300) • Plate position diagram (6) • Promotional text


Shipping Information:

Shipping Method: USPS First Class & USPS Priority Mail.

Handling time: Usually around 2~3 business days.

Delivery time: Usually around 3-5 business days.

If you have any question or concerns, pls contact us via email first, we will reply in 24 hours and resolve your problem.

Please put your order detail: order number, recipient name in the message, so that we can find out your order quickly.  

Thank you :)

Support bulk purchase, more favorable price!