La primera impresión que acude a mi memoria pensando en Berni es la de un viaje que realicé a Rosario en compañía de su mujer y de su hijo. Berni estaba a la sazón en Europa y nuestra visita tenía como motivo inaugurar en el Museo Castagnino de esa ciudad, una muestra de los grabados que habían obtenido para Berni el galardón más alto que otorga la Bienal de Venecia. El recuerdo aludido se vincula sin duda al hecho de que Berni es de Rosario y que, aunque vagamente, conservo en la retina algún paisaje suyo cuando el artista casi adolescente reflejaba las impresiones del campo santafesino: el cielo claro, los trigales, la opulencia de la llanura reventona de cosechas, un aire de prosperidad agrícola que envuelve al viajero durante la travesía de esta región, el ganado gordo, el sol brillante, el paisano bien alimentado. Una trayectoria elíptica hasta las villas miseria que ocupan una de sus más recientes etapas pero en las que se conserva de algún modo la exuberancia de una riqueza natural que sin duda acompaña a Berni desde la niñez y que ha quedado estampada en su subconsciencia con la fuerza de un tatuaje.

Why is there grave ideological division in some societies and an overwhelming consensus in others? Miserable living conditions as opposed to high material standards? Inflation or economic stabilization? The immigration of “radical” workers and the inflow of extremist literature as opposed to the maintenance of a “homogenous” population and, perhaps, censorship? Capitalist exploitation and the class struggle as contrasted with socialist competition and classlessness? Although some of these economic and political counterpropositions might, if carefully analyzed, yield helpful answers to the question posed, such phenomena are often symptomatic of deeper dislocations in society. One of these deeper dislocations which can, in the opinion of this writer, provide real understanding of ideological division involves the maturation process as it occurs in individuals, in the family, and ultimately in society as a whole. It is the thesis of this article that when the maturation process is unduly slowed or interrupted consensus in society may be sacrificed and social crisis may result. Analysis is developed around a social-psychological framework and consensus in society and in the labor relations system is explored from this point of view.

The economic history of Uruguay from the turn of the century up to the early 1950's is characterized by economic growth, by extensive governmental involvement in economic activity, and by an ardent secularist faith in the welfare state ideals of the great José Batlle y Ordóñez and the Batllista tradition which lived on after him. Its small size, stable democracy, and apparent aloofness from the problems of the rest of the continent have earned la Republica Oriental del Uruguay such sobriquets as the “Switzerland” or “Utopia” of South America. Beginning in the early 1950's, however, there were signs that this country which had for so long been a model laboratory for progress and reform to its crisis-ridden neighbors, was itself about to face a crisis. The economic dimension of the Uruguayan crisis is that the annual per capita gross national product (currently about 500 dollars) has not risen for over a decade, and has in fact declined slightly in the last several years.

The Central American Economic Integration Program, commonly called the Central American Common Market, was initiated in 1951 by the Central American governments and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), The stated objective of the movement is “to overcome the limitations and obstacles to Central American development arising from the limited resources and market expansion opportunities which characterize the economy of every Central American State.” The hope is that these ends can be promoted through liberalization of intra-regional trade and other forms of economic co-operation.

In Latin America, international rivalry over aviation followed World War I. In its early form, it consisted of a commercial scramble among several Western European nations and the United States to sell airplanes and aviation products and to establish airlines in Latin America. Somewhat later, expanding European aviation activities posed an implicit threat to the Panama Canal.

Before World War I, certain aerophiles had sought to advance the airplane as the panacea for the transportation problem in Latin America. The aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont of Brazil and the Aero Club of America, an influential private United States association, were in the van. In 1916, efforts by these enthusiasts led to the formation of the Pan American Aviation Federation, which they envisioned as the means of promoting and publicizing aviation throughout the Western Hemisphere.

No es fácil escribir una historia política y social del Paraguay, país de compleja psicología, pero, naturalmente, al través de un minucioso estudio, pueden quedar totalmente aclarados sus facetas ideológicas, sociales y políticas. No pueden diferir demasiado nuestros criterios si todos pensáramos ciñéndonos a la lógica. Por desgracia no es muy intensa nuestra vocación por la lógica, frente a nuestros propósitos primarios de hacer influir y pesar nuestras personas y —por otro lado— ensalzar y descabezar ídolos. La demagogia siempre ofrece una ciencia más barata pero mil veces menos real. Con todo, digamos que la historia es un edificio al que no debemos despojarle de sus cimientos, pero sí colocarla al trasluz de una especie de “Rayos X” de la historia sin tomar “caballos de batalla” demagógicos. Pensamos hacer en esta obra un enfoque imparcial y analítico sin preconceptos que nos impongan un interés político.

Deseo aclarar ante todo —para tranquilidad de mis lectores— que en ningún momento pretendo en este artículo arrastrarlos a la áspera cuesta de las definiciones. Nada más lejos de mi intención que el ensayo filosófico o la interpretación sociológica, venerables disciplinas cuya profundidad siempre me produce vértigo. Quizás sea el vértigo que sentimos ante lo desconocido, ante lo que escapa a nuestras posibilidades de captación.

Lo único que puedo prometer es intentar situarme en un ángulo objetivo. Trataré, pues, de ser lo más imparcial posible. Nada se pierde con intentarlo. Tal vez no lo consiga y esto no quede sino como una buena intención, una de esas buenas intenciones que empiedran el camino del infierno. No es fácil empresa el salirse de sí mismo. Y así, en mi condición de argentino que se refiere a sus compatriotas, a sí mismo, en una publicación de otro país, no sé hasta qué punto podré despojar a mis palabras de la impresionable subjetividad y elevarlas a la helada región de las afirmaciones impersonales. No sé incluso hasta que punto desearía hacerlo, en caso de que pudiera.

In Latin America, where elections are usually something less than expressions of the popular will, it is significant that in Chile one of the most decisive political decisions was resolved at the ballot box. Of two-and-a-half million votes cast, Eduardo Frei, the Christian Democratic candidate, received 56%. The Socialist-Communist coalition candidate, Salvador Allende, received 39%, while Julio Duran, the candidate of the former foremost electoral party, the Radical Party, received slightly less than 5 %. With the exception of the usual bribery charges and the emphasizing of the fact that illiterates who compose 25% of the population (and who are mostly lower class) are excluded from voting, even the Communist daily El Siglo editorially commented that Frei won the popular mandate. This was both a personal triumph for Frei and a political vindication for the Christian Democratic Party which began in the late thirties as a split-off from the old traditional Catholic Conservative Party.

The idea of a seminar that would contribute as much to the understanding of the country or area studied as to the individual disciplines participating is still one of those interesting projects that very rarely materialize. I can only provide knowledgeable discussion on the contribution that literary criticism can make to the larger objective of the study of Latin American society and culture. I am of the opinion that the insights of literary analysis can be very useful to my colleagues in the social sciences, but the adaptation of material from a discipline that is dealing with the imagination in its most elaborate expression, in the last analysis, must depend on each specialist's willingness to confront the subjective vision in man as a part of the human experience.

Boom and collapse characterized the history of the Brazilian rubber industry. Its rise and fall followed a pattern well established by dyewood, sugar, gold, diamonds, tobacco, cotton, and cacao. The story of these industries points out one of the major themes in Brazilian history: the recurrence of economic cycles during which one product of the soil dominates the development of the entire country or a large part of it. This cyclical development prompted the Brazilian economist J. F. Normano to conclude: “The history of Brazilian economy is a sensational record with amazing fluctuations. It is a history of the appearance and disappearance of entire industries.” A team of American economists sent to study the economy in the late forties concurred.