Search

Hollywood, and Disney in particular, played a key role in inter-American relations during the mid-20th century. Hollywood cinema became an important weapon of cultural diplomacy in the context of the Good Neighbor Policy and later during World War II, and it aligned itself with the main diplomatic guidelines issued by Washington. Cinema was widely disseminated throughout Latin America, which helped to consolidate the US message in the region. Thus the close ties between the Hollywood film industry and the State Department is made clear, which became particularly close with regard to Latin America thanks to the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs during the conflict. In this context, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs played a key role in creating a two-way street between Latin American culture and US audiences, as well as presenting the United States as an ally to trust.

This chapter takes on the ideological dimensions of the Peace Corps’ extension. Its labors unfolded amid deep disputes that affected its efforts. To the degree that the Peace Corps’ efforts complemented local private and public initiatives, they generated support. Alternately, given the Cold War ideological framework that informed the paradigms of social intervention, they also generated rejection and suspicion. All these factors shaped the experiences of many volunteers and led to extreme situations in which specific projects and volunteers were expelled from universities and even from countries such as Bolivia and Peru, which barred the program altogether in the early 1970s. Nonetheless, the Peace Corps continues today. It has evolved over time, adapting to new political, social, and ideological contexts.

This chapter examines volunteers’ first community work experiences, before arriving in Latin America, in poor neighborhoods of cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., as well as in communities in Mexico and Puerto Rico, where a considerable number of volunteers in the 1960s received training. The chapter dedicates special attention to New Mexico, where the University of New Mexico became a principal training site for volunteers bound for Latin America. The chapter also takes up volunteers’ involvement in community efforts associated with the War on Poverty launched in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This preparation in the United States points to the contradictions that sprang from the Peace Corps’ ostensible mission of helping poor countries in the Third World transition to modernity. Countries such as the United States were supposedly modernity incarnate, but revealed themselves as less than completely modern.

This chapter studies the type of community development programs and projects in South America before and after the arrival of the Peace Corps in the 1960s. This discussion complicates the unidirectional North-South narratives around development and sheds light on the challenges that the Peace Corps volunteers encountered. The young Americans often confronted unexpected contexts in which the ideological visions and partisan politics, as well as the changing political scenarios during the decade, compelled them to adapt and negotiate their own social intervention paradigms. To this end, the chapter discusses experiences in Chile, Colombia, and Peru. It also provides a succinct view of programs promoted by the Catholic Church in South America. These programs organized by the church and other actors working from within South American did not run parallel to the Peace Corps’ efforts. On the contrary, volunteers collaborated precisely in these local programs and dialogued with the plans, paradigms, and local visions of community development.

After covering the historiography around to the Peace Corps, the chapter discusses the book’s main contributions and central arguments. In particular, it highlights the thesis that the Peace Corps Volunteers acted as intermediaries who occupied a kind of “middle ground” within the framework of the global war on poverty. In contrast to unidirectional narratives about the Peace Corps that focus exclusively on volunteers in terms on objectives designed in Washington, D.C., analyses of experiences on the ground show that actions designed and implemented within the so-called Third World led volunteers to mediate between objectives proposed both in Washington and South America.

This chapter approaches volunteers’ training as a means to examine the paradigms of community social intervention that the Peace Corps intended to enact. The chapter discusses how characteristics common among different programs reinforced the distance and cultural asymmetry with South American societies. It then discusses the formative spheres and their functionality in order to analyze the main changes that occurred through the decade. These changes sprang from the combination of interactions within local societies, criticisms lodged by former volunteers, and contributions by different actors who circulated their ideas. The final part of the chapter explains the result of these interactions: the shift toward “in-country training” that moved preparation of the volunteers to inside the host societies.

espanolEste articulo analiza el papel que tuvieron distintos tipos de imaginarios en la valoracion y apoyo al desarrollo hidroelectrico sudamericano durante las decadas iniciales de la guerra fria. El argumento central es que mas alla del impulso y valoracion positiva de este tipo de obras, asociado a la necesidad de contar con una fuente energetica barata que apoyara los procesos de desarrollo industrial y modernizacion en distintos paises sudamericanos, hubo tambien un andamiaje sociocultural de apoyo a las hidroelectricas, poco explorado, pero muy significativo. Este se relaciono con las formas en que la sociedad imagino y valoro este tipo de tecnologias. Dichos imaginarios se relacionan con el control de la naturaleza para beneficio de los seres humanos, el nacionalismo tecnologico y el consumo electrico, los cuales son analizados considerando proyectos puntuales llevados a cabo en Chile, Colombia y Peru. EnglishThis article analyzes the role that diff erent types of imaginaries played in the understanding of and support for hydroelectricity in South America during the early decades of the Cold War. Th e central argument is that, beyond the promotion and positive perception of this type of public works as an inexpensive source of energy needed to fuel industrial development and modernization, an understudied but signifi cant sociocultural structure of support drove hydroelectric projects in diff erent South American countries. Th is structure emerged from how society imagined and valued hydroelectric technology. Th e article analyzes imaginaries related to the control of nature for the benefi t of humans, technological nationalism, and the consumption of electricity in specific projects carried out in Chile, Colombia, and Peru.

This article deals with discussions and debates about the relationship between music and silent cinema in Chile. During the 1910s and 1920s music altered cinema's functionality. It shifted from the role of enlivening cinematic spectacles to a more complex one in which the challenge was synchronizing the content of images with appropriate music. The analysis here makes clear that this was part of a global phenomenon that included Chile. This becomes evident through analysis of Erno Rapee's 1924 compilation that synthesized cinematic musical practices that are possible to trace not just in the United States but in different Chilean cities.

Este trabajo considera el fenómeno de la censura cinematográfica en Chile durante la primera mitad del siglo XX. El argumento central, elaborado a partir de documentación recogida en Chile y los Estados Unidos, es que lejos de ser un fenómeno estrictamente local, la censura cinematográfica chilena se debatió y aplicó a la luz del diálogo y participación de numerosos y variados actores internacionales. Esto fue posible gracias al predominio hegemónico global del cine hollywoodense, lo que facilitó la articulación transnacional de la discusión de la censura cinematográfica en Chile.

espanolEl articulo da cuenta del desarrollo historiografico relativo a la Revolucion Norteamericana de las ultimas decadas. Se destacan las tensiones interpretativas de dos lineas historiograficas que no han logrado un mayor grado de complementacion. Por una parte la de trabajos que privilegian el analisis de las motivaciones de grupos y comunidades locales durante la Revolucion y por otra los que enfatizan miradas internacionales y transnacionales que suponen la existencia de una nacion durante la Revolucion. EnglishThis article provides with an account of the historiographical development related to the North American Revolution during the last decades. It stresses tensions derived from two of the main interpretative streams, both of which have not reached a complementary dialogue. On the one hand there are works where motivations to participate in the Revolution by small groups and communities prevail in the analysis. On then other hand there are historians who apply an international or transnational approach to understand the Revolution. The latter suposses the existence of a nation during the Revolution, which seems problematic. portuguesO artigo relata o desenvolvimento historiografico relativo a Revolucao Norte-americana das ultimas decadas. Destacam-se as tensoes nterpretativas de duas linhas historiograficas que nao alcancaram um maior grau de complementacao. Por um lado, aquela dos trabalhos que privilegiam a analise das motivacoes de grupos e comunidades locais durante a Revolucao e por outro, aqueles que enfatizaram olhares internacionais e transnacionais que supoem a existencia de uma nacao durante a Revolucao.

Doctorado en Historia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Programa de Posgrado en Historia