| Summary: | In 1769, the Bourbon administration incorporates the colonial mail to the structure of the State in order to improve the communications and connect Madrid, the main Spanish American capitals and villages. During the following years, the empire left its communications in the hands of different actors who irregularly dispatched the correspondence. By studying the Chilean case, we analyze the communication and integration process between the capital, Santiago of Chile, and the southern border of the General Captaincy before and after the reform. We observe the role played by mailmen (tenientes de correo), and others actors, as mediators of texts through two primary sources: a logbook of a dispatch trip to the southern border in 1768, and a record generated by the mail administration that describes a conflict between a mailman – a newly created official – and the Corregidor of Curicó.
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