The origin of the Midwest Association for Latin American Studies is found in the decade of the 1950s, at which time the Pan American Union fostered the establishment of five regional councils for Latin American studies. In April 1958, the American Council of Learned Societies suggested the creation of a national organization to coordinate the activities of the numerous separate groups in the United States concerned with Latin America. During November 1958, a symposium on Latin American studies was held in Chicago, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Newberry Library, with the assistance of the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress. A second conference on Latin American Studies in the United States, financed by grants from the Creole Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, followed at Sagamore, New York in August 1959. This conference decided to establish the Association for Latin American Studies (ALAS), and an organizing committee was named at Sagamore. It was agreed that ALAS would also aid and encourage regional conferences for Latin American studies. The organizing committee met in Denver, Colorado, 1 October 1959, at the time of the Seventh UNESCO Conference and set up an interim executive committee for ALAS consisting of Preston E. James (Syracuse University, Geography), chairman; A. Curtis Wilgus (University of Florida, History); Robert Wauchope (Tulane University, Anthropology); and Harvey L. Johnson (Indiana University, Spanish-Portuguese), secretary-treasurer. Council members of ALAS included A. W. Bork (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale).