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Description

This mid-20th-century pictorial map of the Americas—titled Mapa de América: Razas, Indumentaria, Banderas, Escudos y Producciones—was issued in Barcelona as a promotional piece by Chocolates Jaime Boix, a Spanish confectionery brand. Designed in a vibrant illustrative style, the map offers a sweeping and idealized portrayal of the ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity of the Western Hemisphere.

The map is dominated by large, colorfully dressed human figures placed across the American continents, each representing one of the eighty-one numbered “razas que pueblan América,” or “races that populate America,” listed in the upper-right legend. These range from Inuit and Hopi in the north, to Zapotecs, Quechua, Mapuche, and Guaraní in the south. Many are identified with recognizable regalia or regional clothing. Each figure is accompanied by symbolic illustrations of livestock, wildlife, crops, or manufactured products, highlighting the principal industries and resources of each area—wheat in the Pampas, oil in Venezuela, bananas in Central America, copper in Chile, and so on.

A grid of national flags and coats of arms appears in the lower left, covering all sovereign countries in the Americas at the time, from Canada and the United States to Haiti, Brazil, and Argentina. The oceans sport whales and fish, while the legend at lower right provides a key to the economic and natural resource symbols used throughout the image. These include agriculture, forestry, petroleum, fishing, and industrial goods, along with symbols for important ports and capital cities.

Though produced as a commercial advertisement, the map presents a snapshot of midcentury cultural geography as understood (or imagined) in Francoist Spain. The iconography reflects the era's inclination toward fixed ethnic typologies, romanticizing indigenous peoples while flattening national and regional complexity. Yet its aesthetic charm, bright palette, and encyclopedic composition make it a compelling artifact of postwar visual culture and global commodity marketing.

The signature “Cervelló” at lower right identifies the artist, evidently a commercial illustrator active in Spain during the 1940s and 1950s.

Condition Description
Some wear at the edges and minor soiling.