Efrain Barradas Mexican and Cuban Film Poster Collection

Born in the Dominican Republic, Ramón Figueroa moved to Mexico in 1989 and immediately "fell in love" with the culture of his new home. He took advantage of the "incredible variety and beauty" that Mexico offered and his interest in "all things Mexico" became a great source of enjoyment and excitement. He was moved by the "degree of sophistication" evident in Mexican popular culture and, in a letter, Ramón Figueroa pinpointed this period as the "start of my collecting" at first acquiring Mexican masks and pottery until 1994 "...when I moved to posters."

He made almost all of his poster purchases on EBay and, through this service, made contact with collectors ("...wonderful people who appreciate this art form for more than monetary reasons...") around the globe. Dr. Figueroa describes his collection as "... a great expression of a time when Mexico made an investment in popular culture as a way to promote the values and virtues that would unify society and consolidate the power of the system..." and he believes "...there is research to be done on the Mexican poster as an example of the aesthetic cohesiveness of government sponsored art in Mexico before the sixties."

The initial Mexican poster collection grew to include Cuban film posters as a response to "the same influences I experienced growing up" in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Figueroa writes: "After the revolution, Cuba became a social model for the people of my generation, and Cuban culture, which has always been a great force in my country, grew even more dominant. As was the case in Mexico before 1960, the Cuban revolutionary government became a great sponsor of popular culture for propagandistic reasons. The power of the cultural products of the Cuban revolution in Latin America is undeniable"

Dr. Figueroa has made a presentation at Millsaps College, in Jackson, Mississippi, addressing the subject of state-sponsored art (comparing the Mexican and Cuban posters in this collection). He summarized by saying: "It is very interesting that as different as the Mexican and Cuban posters are visually, their images are indicative of similar sociopolitical forces."

Ramón Figueroa was studying for his Bachelor of Arts degree when he first met Dr. Efrain Barradas at University of Massachusetts-Boston. Dr. Barradas was a faculty member at UMass Boston and Dr. Figueroa recalls the impression and impact his teacher had on his future as an educator, collector and historian. After seeing the beauty of Dr. Barradas' personal collection of Puerto Rican posters and witnessing his passion for collecting, Ramón Figueroa realized "Collecting could be more than the marvelous pieces he had on his wall."

The possibility of acquiring this impressive collection of Mexican and Cuban film posters for the University of Florida Department of Special and Area Studies was first proposed by Dr. Efrain Barradas to Richard Phillips (Head Librarian in the Latin American Collection) and James Liversidge (Curator of Popular Culture Collections) in the summer of 2006. He imparted the wishes of his former student and current teaching colleague, Ramón Figueroa, to find a worthy home for this large collection where it would remain intact and well-preserved. Dr. Barradas negotiated the transaction between Gainesville, Florida and Jackson, Mississippi and the collection was gratefully accepted, by the University of Florida, in the summer of 2008.

The Efrain Barradas Mexican and Cuban film Collection is named in honor of (in the words of Ramón A. Figueroa) "a professor who not only taught me about academics, but also helped me expand and refine my interests in popular culture."