Hay un lugar histórico en la obra del Padre Bernabé Cobo, que no ha podido ser ignorado de los investigadores de nuestro pasado social. Dice así refiriéndose al Pueblo de Santiago del Cercado, barrio de Lima, erigido como reducción para el doctrinamiento y la protección de los indios tributarios, mitayos y yanacones que acudían a ella:

En este escrito se pretende examinar, en la medida que el espacio disponible lo permita, la situación de la agricultura mexicana y las perspectivas de su desarrollo, que afortunadamente ya se ha iniciado con resultados alentadores, no obstante la presencia y la subsistencia obstinada de importantes problemas, cuya solución llevará tiempo, tal y como se ha necesitado un lapso, que parece demasiado largo, para obtener los primeros resultados de la reestructuración agraria, iniciada en 1917, al reconstituirse la convivencia mexicana, con una nueva filosofía en la cual se aunan la decisión para romper las trabas que estorbaban al progreso agrícola, con el firme propósito de conferir una función social indudable a la nueva productividad, basada forzosamente en renovadas formas de tenencia de la tierra.

La tierra, como factor geográfico y objeto de ocupación y de apropiación por parte del hombre, ha ejercido una influencia muy grande en las sociedades humanas. En un principio, marcó las rutas seguidas por las bandas trashumantes de seres humanos que peregrinaban con el propósito de hallar una región propicia dentro de la cual pudiesen subsistir, porque esas bandas seguían generalmente los rumbos más accesibles y que, a la vez, les ofrecían los alimentos necesarios.

En la época de la economía recolectora la tierra es, para los incipientes grupos sociales, simplemente una zona dentro de la cual se mueven constantemente en busca del diario sustento; pero desde entonces empieza a perfilarse el territorio del Estado, porque defienden esa zona de incursiones extrañas. Cada grupo trata de conservar aquella en que subsiste recogiendo los frutos silvestres, aprovechándose del agro y de los animales adecuados para satisfacer sus necesidades como algo exclusivo. Esas primeras luchas van estableciendo el habitat de las diversas hordas, si bien de límites móviles e imprecisos.

It is hardly necessary to assert that the armed forces have been important factors in the historical development of the nations of Latin America. By bringing into association men from all parts of the national territory, by posing as the incarnation of the national spirit, and by teaching patriotism and exalting national virtues, they have been a significant influence in overcoming regionalism and localism. By providing an avenue for advancement for members of lower social strata, they have encouraged social mobility. In many countries they have contributed to the transition from traditional to modern societies through their work in constructing communications systems, their emphasis on general and technical education within their ranks, and by their demands for industrialization.

Historically, the Middle and South American countries have been of interest to the United States primarily as sources of raw materials and foodstuffs. Until recently, most large U. S. investments went into the development of these products and of the transportation facilities necessary to move in machinery and supplies, and get out raw materials. The development of sugar plantations and mills in Cuba, railways and mines in northern Mexico, oil wells in Venezuela, copper mines in Chile and Peru illustrate the process. And, of course, this investment and the exports arising out of the investment, gave a great stimulus to sales of U. S. goods.

The period from the 1870's to the mid-1920's was the classic period of economic development in Latin America and witnessed a tremendous inflow of people and investment capital. Movements of immigrants, capita], and goods constituted an indissoluble trinity. Much of our literature on Latin America reflects a nostalgia for this golden era.

As nacoes, como sociedades políticas, vivem sob o império de interésses vitáis, que criam reações emocionáis e convições racionáis, edáo ao povo e á sua lideranga um comportamento unitario histórico. Todas elas tém aspiragoes permanentes que sao fruto do processo histórico, das características do povo e da etapa do desenvolvimento económico.

É no processo histórico que se revelam novas energías espirituais, forgas económicas em expansáo, vitalidades políticas que podem manifestar e garantir a perspectiva de expansáo das aspiragoes nacionais, no campo interno ou internacional, maiores ou menores conforme a capacidade do povo, da lideranga e da fórga económica.

“To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge — to convert our good words into good deeds — in a new alliance for progress to assist free men and free government in casting off the chains of poverty.” Con estas palabras en su discurso inaugural el joven Presidente de los Estados Unidos de América se comprometió a unir el Hemisferio en una alianza para el progreso.

The role of the Colombian military in politics is a recent development in that republic's history. It is also basically ephemeral, with few historical or traditional antecedents, such as those, for example, of Mexico or Venezuela.

Most of the successful battles which freed Colombia from Spanish domination were fought by non-Colombian armies led by Venezuelans. The end of the independence period (1830), found Colombia throwing off a Venezuelan army officers’ government (that of General Rafael Urdaneta) imposed by force, and destined to be short-lived because it violated the unwritten Colombian constitution, as well as its written charter.

The Spanish consulado — or Catalan consolat de mar — emerged from the medieval economy of Mediterranean towns. From a simple maritime court, its prototype in thirteenth-century Valencia, the Consulado evolved into a permanent tribunal with appellate as well as original jurisdiction in mercantile disputes. Ultimately, the consular court constituted one of three divisions of the guild merchant. The matrícula, or guild membership, comprised resident merchants who met various qualifications of age, property, and vocation. In annual assemblies the guildsment elected the judges of their court, usually a prior and two consuls. The prior and consuls were at once judges, active merchants, and members ex-officio of an executive council or junta. This governing body represented the merchant class in negotiating with other groups, especially public officials. It administered customs and taxes, enforced trade regulations, carried out public works projects, and in many other ways intervened in the economic life of the community.

The writer will attempt to draw attention to major like and unlike elements in the cultural patterns of Brazil and the United States, with an eye to mutual understanding. Obviously, this constitutes a task of considerable magnitude, and much reflection was required in order to decide which of the many possibilities should receive attention. Finally, it was decided to center on the following four aspects of the general subject: (1) the diversity of patterns of living in the United States, and the even greater diversity of ways of life in Brazil; (2) the higher degree of social differentiation in the United States, in comparison with contemporary Brazil; (3) the similarities and differences in patterns of living which result from the class structures found in the respective societies; and (4) the effects upon general social and cultural patterns of the institutions which have played the most important roles in producing the distinguishing characteristics of each of the societies: in the case of Brazil, the great patriarchial family or kinship unit, and in the case of the United States, the public school.

In that remarkable little book, so deftly argued and so elegantly phrased, which he wrote about anthropologists and coincidentally Peasant Society and Culture, Robert Redfield made more than one wise observation, but one was both a promise and a suggestion. Noting that peasant society in one sense consists of two connecting halves, he remarks that “we may be able to see a sort of link or hinge between the local life of a peasant community and the state or feudal system of which it is a part.”

The recognition and disclosure of connections in the extended relations of indigenous peoples — especially those who comprise major elements of modern states — is surely one way in which anthropologists, from the peculiar advantage of their ethnographic tradition, can contribute something of method and point of view to the study of large, compound societies and cultures.

The year 1959 was a crucial one for Venezuela. Politically, it marked the end of an era of military dictatorship. Economically, with the appearance of a world surplus of oil, it marked the termination of a period of prosperity unique in type and unparalleled in degree. This turning point in the destiny of the nation would seem to be a fitting time for an appraisal of Venezuela's recent growth record.

Such an appraisal reveals the fact that during the past twenty years Venezuela's remarkable economic gains were brought about by a unique combination of growth factors. Some of these Venezuela possessed in common with other Latin-American countries. But others, in particular those of a spatial and temporal character, have been singularly its own.

Com a recente assinatura, em Montevideo, do Tratado da Zona Latino-Americana de Livre Comercio, é natural que nos países que o subscreveram ocorra cuidadosa análise com vistas a determinacáo das vantagens e desvantagens déle decorrentes.

Tal é o caso no Brasil, onde está o referido Tratado merecendo acurado exame, sobretudo no Congresso, que deverá pronunciar-se a seu respeito dentro em breve, segundo se espera, aprovando-o ou rejeitando-o.

Trata-se de um esquema de política comercial sem precedente nesta área do mundo, propiciado — é certo — pelas circunstancias do comercio entre sete países (Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguai, Perú, México, Paraguai, e possivelmente a Bolivia), mas cujo ensaio só se tornou possível depois de se haver proposto a idéia da integracáo económica da América Latina, idéia essa hoje mais conhecida como o Mercado Regional ou Comum Latino-Americano.

The population of the 20 Latin American Republics has jumped from approximately 132 million in 1945 to an estimated 196 million in 1960. This is an over-all increase of 48.7 per cent, or an average increase of 3.3 per cent a year. By way of comparison, the United States has had an over-all population increase of 25.8 per cent or 1.72 per cent per year during the same 15-year period.