Casa La Blanquera Museum - Typographical Press

Following in the wake of my last publication on the Bell Tower of the Church of San José de Mapuey, and in the eagerness to describe the objects of great historical relevance that are exhibited within the facilities of the Casa la Blanquera Museum, in this opportunity we will discover the details from an ancient printing press that was used in the XIX and part of the XX.

As a curious fact, the first printing press that arrived in Venezuela was in September 1808; and already in August of that same year, the first printing workshop was created whose first edition was the "Gazeta de Caracas". Its owners were Mateo Gallagher and Jaime Lamb and in the edition of the newspaper nothing less than the illustrious Andrés Bello.

The political leaders of the time knew of the great power that journalism could mean, so having the gazettes was a mechanism to influence the social and political life of the country.

Towards century XIX, a greater number of businessmen discovered the commercial and economic potential of the journalism and immediately the first publications arose.

The worst decade for journalism was between the years of 1840 -1850 specifically in the Guzman government. Very strict laws were enacted to limit freedom of expression so many editors went to jail and their magazines and seminars were suspended and in the worst case closed.

The history of printing and journalism begins in Cojedes in 1856 under the auspices of Dr. Guillermo Tell Villegas, an and eminent public man, Being this Acting Governor of the Province of Cojedes, who, given the lack of such significant machinery as a factor of progress, contracted a printing press with Colonel Juan D'Sola, citizen of Valencia, which was installed in San Carlos. printing through this, the first newspaper in this city, called La Gaceta de Cojedes.

In the successive, a relative proliferation of these artifacts both in San Carlos and in different corners of the state, allowed the dissemination of ideas, concepts and news to services so much social, political and especially cultural interests of the Cojedes region during the nineteenth century and part of the twentieth.

stands possible to emphasize the population of El Baúl, which shares with San Carlos the merit of being a precursor in the installation of another printing press that same year of 1856. In the middle of the year 1893, in El Pao, General Ángel Díaz Arana, was the journalistic pioneer when he installed the first and only printing that existed there.

The press to which this publication makes reference is of the HOE brand, model WAS-HINGTON and is exhibited in the CASA LA BLANQUERA MUSEUM as a characteristic object of a permanent collection, since it was printed the Paoeño newspaper "EL ARTESANO" in said year , under the direction of General Diaz Arana himself according to the story.

The purpose of showing this equipment inside the museum's facilities, it's with the aim of making material reference of a part of our cultural past, this press was rescued and brought from that population (El Pao) in the same conditions in which today it is appreciated , the rescue was made under the management, of by then regional governor Dr. Egor Nucette H. in 1970.

By Luis Gerardo Sanchez