In the first part, I will describe briefly the intuitive relevance of Professor Markos Mamalakis' “Theory of Sectoral Clashes” to the Mexican case. In part II, I will briefly comment on aspects of the theory which are relevant to empirical verification. And finally, in part III, I will attempt to derive and test some of the empirical implications of this hypothesis.

Con este número se inicia la publicación de una nueva revista dedicada al intercambio continuo y sistemático de información referente a investigaciones que se están llevando a cabo en la actualidad en América Latina en los campos de las Ciencias Sociales y las Humanidades.

This article is concerned with the problem of reading and interpreting the Argentine literary magazine Sur, which was published regularly between 1931 and 1970 (and irregularly thereafter) as an elegant fusion of fiction, poetry, philosophy, plastic arts, and social commentary. That a magazine should be chosen as a research topic reflects the reality of Argentine literary life in the twentieth century. Such publications offered many writers their main opportunity to put forward ideas in the forms of works of literature and critical or general essays. Most magazines lasted for very few years, but Sur, thanks to the quality of its contributors and the sound financial base of its founder, Victoria Ocampo, was to have an important influence on several generations.

The construction of binational hydroelectric plants on the Paraná River at Itaipú by Brazil and Paraguay and at Yacyretá and Corpus by Argentina and Paraguay reflects unprecedented cooperation and integration among these three nations, with far-reaching consequences for the future economic, social, and political development of all the Paraná River hinterland. The Paraná River Basin, or River Plate Basin, is among the five largest water systems in the world, second in size only to the Amazon Basin in the Western Hemisphere. With a length of 2,796 miles, it includes three main rivers, the Paraná, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and their tributaries. It covers an area of 1,980,000 square miles and contains a population estimated in 1980 at more than eighty million people. Brazil takes the largest share of the Basin at 45.9 percent; Argentina has 28.19 percent, and Paraguay has 13.1 percent, with the remainder held by Bolivia and Uruguay. Brazil's share of the basin comprises some of the relatively more progressive and industrialized southwestern, southeastern, and southern states of Mato Grosso, Goiás, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. In Argentina, the provinces adjacent to the Paraná River contain 60 percent of the country's population and support 85 percent of its economic activity. Until the completion of a paved road and the international bridge over the Paraná River in the 1960s that permitted direct access to the Atlantic coast of Brazil, Paraguay's communication with world markets depended exclusively on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers.

Un lector asiduo de ciertos géneros de la literatura sobre el reciente desarrollo económico y social de Latinoamérica podría rematar en la conclusión de que “aquí no ha pasado nada,” Su aserto descansaría en el examen de algunos problemas y expresiones centrales de la temática regional de los últimos lustros. Ejemplo ilustrativo: la infatigable presencia de restricciones externas e internas que militan en conjunto contra el desarrollo: segmentos de ellas mudaron tal vez énfasis e importancia, pero el escenario, los personajes y el guión permanecen en general sin alteración. Continúan, en otras palabras, las oscilaciones caprichosas del comercio exterior, la fragilidad financiera, la debilidad-ingreso del mercado interior, el subempleo y la pobreza crítica, las rigideces institucionales.