The ways in which societies change and adjust to change are determined largely by cultural and historical factors, by long-standing customs and traditions. Cultural values differ widely from one society to another; each solves its problems according to its own values, and value systems, though they may work well for one society, cannot be expected to work as well for another. This is true even of colonies that become independent nations, although the characteristic stamp of the common mother country remains visible. What is unique in the case of Spanish America is the inability of the new nations to shed this stamp, despite determined efforts to do so. To understand the process of change of any country or group of related countries such as those of Spanish America, it is necessary to examine the major cultural characteristics and values, and to consider social and political action in relation to these, rather than to any external standard.

When it assumed office in 1921 the Harding administration found itself confronted with the problem of arranging the withdrawal of American troops from the Dominican Republic. Terminating the American presence in that country was part of the administration's policy of improving relations with Latin America, and both Warren G. Harding and Charles Evans Hughes were strongly committed to this goal. They believed that abandoning armed intervention in favor of advice and counsel would foster good will in Latin America and ultimately benefit the United States by enabling it to garner the trade and support of the region. The president and secretary of state also contended that such a policy could stabilize the area and thereby render the military interventions of the past unnecessary. Thus withdrawal from the Dominican Republic was part of a larger policy.

Argentine neutrality during World War II with its suspicious leanings toward fascism has become a cliché in inter-American relations. As far as the United States was concerned at that time, the Argentine Republic was the black sheep of the hemispheric community, the only nation that failed to cooperate wholeheartedly in the crusade against the Axis. The famous State Department “Blue Book,” so conveniently published prior to the Argentine general elections of 1946, spelled out the aid and comfort the Nazis had derived from Argentina's neutrality. By only the narrowest margin did Argentina avoid being drummed out of the hemispheric organization and barred from membership in the new United Nations.

It seems strange, therefore, to recall that it was the Argentine government that first suggested, in the spring of 1940, that the nations of the Western Hemisphere discard the posture of traditional neutrality in the face of the spreading conflagration in Europe, on the grounds that it was anachronistic and did not protect their interests.

Until quite recently, the study of Latin American politics existed in a relatively primitive stage. A crude empiricism, occupied with the straightforward description of events or formal institutions, was relieved only by occasional global generalization of an impressionistic character about the informal characteristics of politics. However, substantial advances have begun to be made in the last few years in the direction of more systematic elaboration of theory to account for the distinctive characteristics of politics in the area, and we have begun to see the confrontation with each other and with the data themselves of rival theoretical explanations. Needless to say, this mutual confrontation of rival interpretations is a healthy sign for the deepening of our understanding of Latin American politics.

For the leaders and people of every new state of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, independence has brought about a dramatic awakening with respect to the conceptualization of their position in world affairs. The loosening of ties with the metropolis, which had been the primary aim of the struggle for independence, suddenly appears in a double perspective. On the one hand, it contains the threat of distintegration of the established social and economic order and, on the other hand, it opens prospects for new bonds and opportunities. After decades or centuries of predominantly bilateral relationships between colony and metropolis, historical links are confronted with the pressures resulting from geographic proximity .The diversification of foreign contacts is a phenomenon of the very recent past. The leaders and inhabitants of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Niger, Trinidad and Venezuela, or Guyana and Brazil are only now realizing the full impact of their relationship as neighbours.

Una crítica superficial, más combativa que filosófica, ha puesto de moda un irrevocable desdén para el pasado. Se le condena sin misericordia, como si fuera el origen de todos los males y el manantial de todas las injusticias. Se le niegan sus rasgos de bondad o de hermosura, exhibiendo con morbosa delectación lo que tuvo de perversamente sombrío. Se echa en olvido cuanto le debemos, para gustar la ilusión de que en nuestras obras no palpita una sola molécula de los que nos precedieron en la senda angustiada del vivir. Sin embargo, nada significamos, ni nada perdurable nos es dado realizar, desvinculados de ese conjunto de fuerzas misteriosas y espléndidas que las generaciones han ido acumulando a través de los siglos, y que los iconoclastas se empeñan en destruir con la torva piqueta que sabe del polvo de los escombros, pero no del goce inefable de los momentos creadores.

In 1817, Henri de Saint-Simon won the nineteen-year-old Auguste Comte over to his views concerning the lamentable condition of post-revolutionary French society and the necessity for a radical scheme of reform, and it was during the political turmoil of the second quarter of the nineteenth century that Comte, intending to reorder society through the application of scientific knowledge to social ills, presented his philosophy of positivism. Comte's project was nothing less than a blueprint for universal reform that would not only save France from ruin but would also, hopefully, rescue all of humanity. In its entirety the Comtean doctrine included a philosophy of history, a theory of knowledge and pedagogy, a method or logic of science, a positivist ethic (the so-called "subjective synthesis"), a socioeconomic plan, a theory of government, and a type of secular faith which he called the Religion of Humanity.

Diplomatic relations between Chile and the Soviet Union were reestablished in 1964, increasing to five the number of Latin American countries with which the U.S.S.R. carried on diplomatic intercourse at that time. Two of these, Uruguay and Mexico, have a long record of “nonintervention” in diplomatic negotiations, e.g., recognition and diplomatic relations are almost pro forma, with little, if any, implied judgment of the nature and character of the opposite number's government. Brazil, a rather special case, reestablished diplomatic relations in 1961, at the beginning of the Quadros-Goulart flirtation with the Soviet Union. The Cuban case hardly deserves further consideration, having been discussed exhaustively in literally a score of publications. But the Chilean situation illustrates the juncture of evolving Soviet assessments of the Latin American political scene and the accompanying Soviet trade, aid, and diplomatic and cultural programs. The advent to power of the Christian Democratic regime of Eduardo Frei Montalva calls attention to significant maneuvering and probing in Soviet foreign policy.

On July 2, 1967, Mexican voters elected representatives to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the national legislature. By law the Chamber is completely renewed every three years, and members cannot succeed themselves. Throughout the country, the elections took place smoothly and without serious disturbances. The State of Yucatán, remote and isolated from the major political and economic centers of the country, quietly participated following an election campaign that was reserved and orderly.

In the Renaissance, colonization and exploitation followed soon after travel and discovery. Spaniards and Portuguese were the vanguard of this movement in the Atlantic world, and it is not surprising that the city was among the institutions brought by them as part of their cultural heritage. What makes the story of the urban conquest of Latin America particularly interesting are the specific configurations of society in the cities of empire and the conscious use of the city as a symbol of imperium.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the functions and social organization of two of these cities, Mexico City and Salvador da Bahia, and to demonstrate that despite a variety of often striking differences, the social structures of both reflected similar solutions to the common problem of integrating newly-created groups into an already structured society.

The intriguing character of Caribbean history has fascinated many. The epic story of Spanish discovery, conquest and empire is deeply rooted in these ancient island sands. Haiti holds a unique attraction, because, for years, she was a French island in a Spanish sea and was the first Latin American republic to gain independence. On January 1, 1804, after the leadership of the inspired Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haiti emerged a free nation. Twelve years later, Venezuela's valiant Simón Bolívar, deeply committed to the independence struggle on the mainland sailed to Haiti and requested help. There, he met one of Hispanic history's most dynamic personalities, the guerrilla warrior, Francisco Xavier Mina. Until now, the story of their rendezvous and the events surrounding it has remained one of history's many secrets.

La figura egregia del patricio puertorriqueño Eugenio María de Hostos ha resultado ser en los últimos años objeto de innumerables estudios los cuales han aumentado la bibliografía de este hombre de dimensión universal.

Una fase de su vida, sin embargo, ha sido pasada por alto. A pesar de que encontramos estudios y ensayos sobre sus ideas políticas, pedagógicas, sociológicas, filosóficas, moralistas, literarias y revolucionarias, no encontramos en esta extensa bibliografía ningún intento de examinar el pensamiento militar en Hostos. Esta dimensión militar hostosiana es para mí una de las manifestaciones más activas del “hombre completo”.

Será mi propósito en este breve ensayo demostrar el impacto del pensamiento militar como influencia y como parte integral de este “inquebrantable espíritu”.

The ability to read and write in some language is of fundamental importance and is usually considered one of the prime indicators of the social and economic accomplishments and potential of a nation. The Ecuadorian scholar Gonzalo Rubio Orbe declares that "among the minimum and elementary requirements of the cultural capacity of the population for general development, and, in particular, economic development, nothing less than the elimination of illiteracy can be demanded."

The main purpose of this article is to outline and discuss the role and potential importance of multi-national enterprises in the process of Latin American integration. As such it is essentially a reflection upon work done at the Institute for Latin American Integration (INTAL) by the author, and upon the opinions and impressions gathered through conversations and interviews with businessmen, politicians, técnicos, and public and private personalities from many Latin American countries during 1966 and 1967. It is a compilation of viewpoints and major assumptions, and its main purpose is to open up the field for further discussions and research—indeed, to serve in this manner as a future guideline in action programs. Finally, it should be said that this paper reflects the style of thinking as well as the prejudices that its writer, a political scientist, has brought with him.

Fidel Castro has had a more profound effect upon the course of Latin American affairs than any other individual in recent times. Castro's socioeconomic revolution combined with his political opposition to the United States and his charismatic personality have all contributed to granting him an historical importance of the first magnitude within Latin America. Castroism (or jidelismo to the Latin Americans) embodied much that was longed for by the frustrated Latin American intellectuals and masses. There is no doubt that the impact of Castro has lessened notably since the 1959-1960 period but there is also no doubt that he has contributed significantly to the fundamental altering of policies in Latin America, and he remains a force that must be reckoned with.

The traditional approach to Latin American studies has been through the historical account, emphasizing specific leaders or epochs of a given Latin American nation in change, based on the assumption, mostly implicit, that each of these events may be considered as a unique phenomenon, subject to individual interpretation. This diachronic approach can well serve as a fruitful point of departure for systematic empirical investigations into border Latin American cultures. The contribution of a generalizing science such as sociology need not be suspected of an abortive rebellion against these established and accepted procedures. Rather, an empirical inquiry into the similarities and differences between border Latin American culture and our own gives a new dimension to the field of Latin American studies previously unavailable. This paper will attempt to illustrate the type of possible contributions of border research by using recent empirical studies.

Don Augusto Pescador es, indudablemente, una de las figuras más influyentes en el campo de la filosofía en Bolivia. Y decimos una de las figuras porque junto a su nombre hay que citar a Guillermo Francovich, Roberto Prudencio, Rubén Carrasco de la Vega, Huáscar Cajías, Mario Miranda Pacheco, Luis Carranza Siles, Manfredo Kemp Mercado, Nicolás Fernández Naranjo y otros. Empero, en el caso de don Augusto Pescador, se da un caso especial, porque siendo de nacionalidad española su mayor desarrollo, madurez, difusión e influencia los tuvo en Bolivia.

Don Augusto Pescador Sarget nació en Orihuela (Alicante), España, en 1910; después de sus estudios de enseñanza media estudió filosofía en la Universidad de Zaragoza obteniendo el título de Licenciado en Filosofía. Más antes estudió Derecho en Madrid sacando el título de Abogado, profesión que no la ejerce, dedicándose más a la docencia; así como obtuvo el título académico de filosofía en Orihuela. En España alternó la docencia con algunas representaciones oficiales al servicio de su gobierno en algunos países europeos.

La Constitución reformada de 1860 dejó a Buenos Aires, nuevamente, sin capital. La Constitución de 1853 había convertido a Buenos Aires en capital de la república; pero los reformadores de 1860, como es sabido, tuvieron sus razones para postergar la señalación de una ciudad como capital del país. El estudio de estas razones corresponde a otras páginas. Aquí consignamos la protesta, la indignación de Alberdi. Sus principales escritos que se refieren a este hecho aparecieron entre 1875 y 1877. Tienen la valentía de costumbre. Son la voz del hombre que había propuesto a Buenos Aires como capital, que la había visto convertida en cabeza de la nación y, de pronto, encuentra otra vez al país sin capital, como en tiempos de Rosas. Mitre y Sarmiento, según Alberdi, habían sido los culpables de este retroceso. Los dos habían sido el azote de la nación y de Buenos Aires. La reforma reaccionaria de 1860 había restaurado el régimen económico con que Rosas había despotizado y empobrecido al pueblo de Buenos Aires durante veinte años. Rosas había vuelto el país al tiempo de los virreyes. Florencio Várela había demostrado que Rosas había restaurado el sistema virreinal.