Practice: Salvadoran Political Poster

Let’s analyze another item from UCSD Library’s Latin American Political Campaign Ephemera Collection.

Below is an item entitled, “Diputada Karina Sosa, San Salvador.” Let’s apply the primary analysis tool to generate some information about this item! Remember to look at the object itself but also the bibliographic information available in its record.

https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/embed/bb10592433/0

Observe

• What am I looking at? The bibliographic information in the item’s record tells me this is a political poster from El Salvador. The text translates to “Deputy Karina Sosa, San Salvador, with the people for a better future.” (“Deputy” maybe translates better as “legislator” in a role like a Member of Congress in the United States.) The flag is of the left-wing political party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
• What do I notice first? I noticed that the K in her name seems to be written in, as if the poster mistakenly printed her name as “Carina.” There’s also too much spacing between the K and the A.
• Who is the creator of the source? The FMLN and Karina Sosa.
• When was the source created? The bibliographic information states it was created between 1984 and 2009.
• What is being documented? This is a poster advocating for Karina Sosa for Deputy (in San Salvador? representing San Salvador?)
• What stands out to you about the source? The photo is in black and white whereas the rest of the poster is in color.

Reflect

• What can you say about the creator of the source? The FMLN is a major political party in El Salvador, but I don’t know anything about Karina Sosa. There is a Wikipedia article about a Karina Sosa, although I do not know if it’s the same person. This person either was or has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador (Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador) since 2012 and was re-elected in 2015 and 2018. There is no information about her political positions prior to 2012. This person was born in 1976; if she is the same Karina Sosa, that would make the poster creation date closer to 2009 than 1984!
• Why do you think somebody made this? Who do you think the audience was for this source? This poster was created to support Karina Sosa and encourage the public to vote for her. The Latin American Political Campaign Ephemera Collection has several other FMLN posters in this style, so the party was advocating for several candidates simultaneously.

Question

• What election is this poster from?
• Is the Karina Sosa from Wikipedia the same from the poster? Did she win this election?

This is a brief primary source analysis for this item. What other observations, reflections, and questions do you have?