Upon reading “The Politics and Semiotics of the Smallest Icons of Popular Culture: Latin American Postage Stamps”, by Jack Child I was intrigued. It was my first time reading a scholarly article evaluating different facets of what postage stamps mean to a particular community and the messages they hold otherwise. In this case focusing on semiotics. Child, discusses how stamps are a sign of nationalism that was influenced by Europeans and later the USA, however Latin American countries have such a diverse range of postage stamps that they tell a story about the particular area.  I found it interesting to read about the particulars that go into the design of a postage stamp. Something that I definitely have not given much thought to in the past, however will be more in tune with in the future, upon reading the article. As an aside I am surprised that stamps would be considered such an important part in terms of popular culture, however thinking about it more this makes a lot of sense. The stamp deals with a particular areas identity and something that a lot of people can appreciate and align with from that area in terms of being familiar with the designs on them. I liked that Child listed different categories that were considered to be part of popular culture while making an argument that stamps are in under this category. It made sense because as someone could see there are many different things that right off the bat one might not think of but upon looking into it realize that it is a big part of cultural identity for many. I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of what I thought popular culture to be before was music, performers, trends, and popular shops, without actually considering many other integral things that make a society into what it is. Charles Sanders Peirce was talked about in the article in terms of his contribution to the field of semiotics. Deriving meaning from not only written words as well as other things such a meanings and signs in movies as well as what we are looking into now being Latin American postage stamps. An index, sign and symbol are all important things that play into semiotics. Looking into this in regards to stamps one can see that the country of origins is usually stated on it, as well as different colours that hold significance to the country of origin, and different drawings or pictures of historical figures, artifacts, landmarks etc. Definitely going to be paying more attention while looking at postage stamps from now on.