The Second International Congress of Historians of the United States and Mexico met at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas, November 3–6, 1958. The Congress was sponsored by the University of Texas, the American Historical Association and the Texas State Historical Association, representing U.S. scholars, and by the University of Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the Academy of Historical Sciences of Monterrey, representing Mexico. Included on the program were distinguished anthropologists and historians from Spain, France, Britain, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States. In addition special representatives from almost every United States and Mexican university attended the sessions of the Congress. Among those present were José Locarra and Guillermo Cespedes of Spain, Philippe Wolff and François Chevalier of France, Geoffrey Barraclough of Britain, Claudio Sanchez-Albornoz of Argentina, José Honorio Rodrigues of Brazil, A.R.M. Lower of Canada, Sir Keith Hancock of Australia, Edmundo O'Gorman, Antonio Castro Leal, and Daniel Cosío Villegas of Mexico, and Frank H. H. Roberts, Charles J. Bishko, Ray Billington, William Hogan, John S. Galbraith, Robert S. Lopez, Boyd Shafer, and Arthur Whitaker of the United States. Associated with the Congress was a special exhibit of books from the university presses of the United States and Mexico and also an unusual exhibition of Mexican art gathered together from private collections and museums from all over the United States.

For the first time in its history, the National University of Colombia has a Department of Sociology. Organized temporarily within the Faculty of Economic Sciences, the new department is directed by Orlando Fals Borda, a Colombian sociologist trained in the United States, author of widely known studies of Latin American peasant societies, and since January 1959 Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture. The department starts with fundamental courses and contemplates giving degrees after the fourth year. Fifty-six persons applied for admission in the first year.