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The Latin American Studies Association: A Summary Survey with Appendix

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Howard F. Cline
Howard F. Cline*
Affiliation:
Hispanic Foundation, Library of Congress
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On may 7, 1966, a representative group of scholars who were invited to Washington, D.C. for a meeting sponsored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies (of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council) and the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress, formed the Latin American Studies Association. The members of the Latin American Research Review Board, representing the institutions contributing to the support of the Review, were among the scholars invited to this meeting. When, on May 12 it was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia with a “perpetual” term, the new Association became a legal entity, a tax-exempt, non-profit professional body created by scholarly area specialists to meet their particular and growing needs.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , Fall 1966 , pp. 57 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. The Chairman of the Research Review Board and the Executive Council of the Latin American Studies Association on May 26, 1966 requested the writer to prepare this summary. He acknowledges, with appreciation, helpful comments from several colleagues, among them Cole Blasier, Frederick Burkhardt, Robert N. Burr, Robert Carmin, Tom E. Davis, Melvin J. Fox, Charles C. Griffin, Lewis Hanke, Robert Heussler, Irving A. Leonard, Marshall R. Nason, Earl J. Pariseau, Norman P. Sacks, Richard P. Schaedel, Bryce Wood.

2. “Articles of Incorporation, May 12, 1966.”

3. Howard F. Cline, “The study and teaching of Latin American history in the United States since 1898,” in Latin American History: essays on its study and teaching in the United States, 1898–1965 (2v., Austin, Texas [In press] University of Texas Press), edited by Howard F. Cline. Howard F. Cline, “The Conference: a fecund decade, 1954–1964,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 45: 434–438 (Aug. 1965).

4. Preston E. James, “Report on the Sagamore Conference, August 26–29, 1959,” (Syracuse, N.Y., 1959, mimeo), p. 2. I have not examined any original records of the 1934 meeting.

5. Clarence H. Haring, “Preface,” Handbook of Latin American Studies [for 1935] (Cambridge, 1936), 1: xi–xii. The April 1935 Committee included C. H. Haring, Chairman; A. S. Aiton; John M. Cooper; Carl E. Guthe; Max S. Handman; Lewis Hanke; Herman G. James; Preston E. James; C. K. Jones; Chester L. Jones; Sturgis E. Leavitt; Raye R. Platt; Robert S. Platt; Clark Wissler. Later it was enlarged by addition of M. J. Andrade; Charles W. Hackett; A. V. Kidder; A. L. Kroeber; Irving A. Leonard; P. A. Martin; Robert Redfield; J. Fred Rippy; James A. Robertson; William Spence Robertson; Carl O. Sauer; and Alfred M. Tozzer.

6. James, “Report … 1959,” p. 2.

7. Charmion Shelby, “The Handbook of Latin American Studies: its first fifteen years,” Revista Interamericana de Bibliografía, 1:89–94 (abr.–jun. 1951). “Handbook of Latin American Studies, nos. 1–20,” Handbook of Latin American Studies, 21: xi–xvi, and in each issue, “Editor's Note,” for changes.

8. Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for 1939 (Washington, 1940), pp. 1,439–440; ibid. 1940 (Washington, 1941), pp. 61–78. The Hispanic Activities of the Library of Congress (Washington, 1946).

9. Robert Redfield, “The Joint Committee on Latin American Studies,” Notes on Latin American Studies, 1: 3–6 (April 1943). Edited by Ralph L. Beals, this publication ceased with No. 2 (October 1943). Redfield was Chairman of the Joint Committee from March 1942 through February 1944, at which time Lewis Hanke replaced him, until the Committee was discharged June 30, 1947.

10. The Joint Committee consisted of ten members; 32 other specialists regularly served on its major committees (Personnel; Research; Publications), and many others took on special assignments, Redfield, “Joint Committee,” p. 3.

11. Redfield, “Joint Committee,” pp. 4–5. Many of the Committee's achievements are also documented by Lewis Hanke, “The development of Latin American studies in the United States, 1939–1945, The Americas, 4: 32–64 (July 1947).

12. Redfield, “Joint Committee,” pp. 3–4.

13. James, “Report … 1959,” p. 6, notes that “after the invasion of Africa [1942] attention to Latin America sharply decreased; and between that time and Mr. [Richard] Nixon's visit to South America in 1958, Latin American problems were given the lowest priority, and public interest in that part of the world all but disappeared.”

14. Cline, “Study and Teaching of Latin American history [1966].”

15. Beginning with No. 11 (1948), the Library of Congress assumed financial and other responsibility; shortly thereafter with No. 13 Harvard University Press ceased to publish the Handbook, which since No. 14 (for 1948, published 1951) has been issued under cooperative arrangements between the Library and the University of Florida Press, Gainesville. See above, Note 7. Lewis Hanke resigned as Director of the Hispanic Foundation, 1951, and was replaced by the present incumbent, 1952.

16. Howard F. Cline, “American Council of Learned Societies Conference on Latin American Studies, April 23, 1958: Report, with a recommendation” (Washington, 1958, mimeo), p. 4.

17. Cline, “ACLS Conference… 1958,” p. 6.

18. Howard F. Cline, ed., Latin American Studies in the United States: Proceedings of a Meeting held in Chicago, November 6–8, 1938, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Newberry Library (assisted by the Hispanic Foundation, with working and related papers), Hispanic Foundation Survey Reports of Teaching and Research Resources and Activities in the United States on Latin America, No. 8 (Washington, 1958, multilith).

19. ACLS Conference … 1958, p. 40.

20. “Grants for Latin American Studies: a new program of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies,” SSRC, Items, 13/3:31 (September 1959). In addition to Bryce Wood, staff member of SSRC (which administered the program), the first committee included Sanford Mosk, chairman (deceased, replaced by Robert N. Burr); Frederick B. Agard, Henry P. De Vries, Wendell C. Gordon, Irving A. Leonard, Charles Wagley, Robert Wauchope.

21. SSRC, Annual Reports, 1939–1960 (p. 39); 1960–1961 (pp. 45–46); 1961–1962 (pp. 45–46); 1962–1963 (pp. 41–43); 1963–1964 (pp. 41–42); 1964–1965 (pp. 44–45).

22. James, “Report… 1959,” pp. 9–12.

23. Records of ALAS are deposited in the Hispanic Foundation. From these records and as participant on ALAS Executive Board, the above sketch on ALAS has been prepared.

24. NDEA Title VI grants are covered in Lyman H. Legters, The National Defense Education Act and Latin American Studies (Austin, Texas, n.d. Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas); his “NDEA Support for Undergraduate Language and Area Studies,” Liberal Education, 51: 278–283 (May 1965); Donald Bigelow and Lyman Legters, NDEA Language and Area Centers (Washington, 1964. Office of Education), pp. 27–32. Luso-Brazilian Programs were initiated 1959–60 at New York University and Wisconsin, followed in 1961–66 by Latin American graduate programs at U.C.L.A., Columbia, Florida, Texas, Tulane, Wisconsin, Yale, Cornell, Illinois, NYU, Stanford. Undergraduate programs were founded at Miami (Florida), Antioch, U. of Virginia, New Mexico, and U. of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).

25. Dr. Carl Spaeth (Stanford) was engaged as Consultant to ITR, with Dr. Robert Heussler as Ford Foundation staff member; on various occasions, Howard F. Cline was invited to join their missions, as an unpaid adviser and observer. See below, Note 27.

26. First University grants included Texas, a consortium of Chicago-Iowa-Illinois, Florida, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, California (Berkeley), Yale, Tulane.

27. Robert Heussler, “Recent stirrings: a note on the Seminar on Latin American Studies, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, Summer 1963,” The American Behavioral Scientist, 7:33 (September 1964).

28. Charles Wagley, ed. Social Science Research on Latin America: Report and papers of a Seminar on Latin American Studies in the United States held at Stanford, California, July 8—August 23, 1963 (New York, 1964. Columbia University Press). In progress is a volume, to be published in Portuguese, Spanish and English, on social sciences in Latin America, papers of a conference held in Rio de Janeiro (March 1965), at which distinguished Latin American scholars critically examined the Wagley volume.

29. “Conference on the Status of Latin American Studies in the United States, February 9 and 10, 1961, UCLA, Los Angeles, California” (Los Angeles, 1961, mimeo). In attendance were Ralph L. Beals; Wendell Bell; Frederick Burkhardt; Robert N. Burr; Mario Cassinoni; James S. Coleman; Henry P. De Vries; Fred P. Ellison; Russell H. Fitzgibbon; Risieri Frondizi; Keith Glennan; Juan Gómez-Millas; Wendell C. Gordon; Kenneth Holland; John B. Howard; James F. King; William W. Marvel; Robert G. Neumann; James A. Perkins; Joseph M. Stycos; Anisio Teixeira; Antonio Barros Ulhoa Cintra; Charles Wagley; Robert Wauchope; A. Curtis Wilgus; Alfred C. Wolf; Bryce Wood; Franklin D. Murphy, Chairman of the conference.

30. The meeting on May 26, 1961 had the following outside participants: Floyd Lounsbury; Sidney Mintz; William Nicholas; John Plank; Charles Wagley; Bryce Wood; Robert Byrnes; James Coleman; Abraham Weisblatt. I am indebted especially to Bryce Wood and Melvin J. Fox for details on the fellowship programs.

31. The Management Committee consisted of representatives from the following universities: California (Berkeley); California (Los Angeles); Columbia; Harvard; Minnesota; Texas, under chairmanship of Schuyler Wallace, of the Ford Foundation Foreign Area Fellowship Program. The Program it managed will terminate in Fall 1966, with certain of its features retained by the programs of the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.

32. Foreign Area Fellowship Program, “Conference on Latin American Studies, Cuernavaca, Mexico, December 2 and 3, 1964” (New York, 1964, multilith). See esp. “VI. The exchange of information pertaining to Latin American studies,” and Appendix C, “Proposed informational review of Latin American research,” and “VIII. Formation of a Latin American Studies Association.” About 35 persons, including staff, attended.

33. The Joint Committee on February 2, 1965, named a Subcommittee on Associational Matters, consisting of John P. Augelli, chairman; Charles W. Anderson; Howard F. Cline; Tom E. Davis; John P. Harrison, and later Frank Dauster, and voted funds for a meeting of the Subcommittee. John P. Augelli, “Preliminary report of the Subcommittee on Associational Matters of the SSRC-ACLS Joint Committee on Latin American Studies,” [July 18, 1965] (Typescript copy, Hispanic Foundation, LASA Archive files).

34. “Minutes of the organizational meeting of the Latin American Research Review Board and Constitution of the Latin American Research Review Board, June 14, 1965,” (Ithaca, N.Y., 1965, mimeo).

35. Details of the meeting appear in The Latin American Research Review, 1/2:168–169, 199–200. (Spring 1966).

36. The Ad Hoc Committee on the Formation of a Latin American Studies Association included Oscar Fernández, chairman; Charles D. Ameringer; John P. Harrison; Frederick B. Pike; John V. D. Saunders; Kempton E. Webb. It submitted its report on October 8.

37. The recommendations by the Ad Hoc Committee were approved by voice vote of the group. The Constitutional Committee thus named included Richard M. Morse, chairman; Richard N. Adams; John P. Augelli; Cole Blasier; Norman P. Sacks.

38. The SSRC-ACLS Joint Committee, at its meeting on November 12, 1965, discharged the Subcommittee on Associational Matters, whose chairman, John P. Augelli had at Cornell been named to the Constitutional Committee.

39. Constitutional Committee for the Latin American Studies Association, “Memorandum on intent and procedures (revised April 17, 1966)” (New Haven, 1966, multilith). While not bound by it in detail, the LASA Executive Committee has accepted this “Memorandum” as a provisional guideline.

40. “The Constitution and By-Laws of The Latin American Studies Association” Appendix.

41. Results of the secret ballot were election of Kalman H. Silvert, President; Richard N. Adams, Vice-President; Members of the Executive Council: Stanton Catlin; Howard F. Cline; John Englekirk; Féderico G. Gil; Kenneth N. Karst; William P. McGreevey; Kempton E. Webb; Alternate Members of the Executive Council: Robert E. Quirk; Raymond Vernon. Seven rather than six members of the Executive Council were chosen, to bring that body to its stipulated nine members, as no retiring President would be on the Council for its first year.

42. Richard N. Adams, “Minutes of the Executive Council … New York City” (typescript, LASA Archives) … Results of the lottery for Council membership terms were, for 1 year: Stanton Catlin, William P. McGreevey, John Englekirk; for 2 years: Howard F. Cline, Kempton E. Webb; for 3 years: Féderico G. Gil, Kenneth N. Karst. The Council also agreed to ask John N. Plank to act as Treasurer; until other arrangements can be made and until organizational matters of the secretariat and incorporation are completed, the Director of the Hispanic Foundation is acting as Secretary, pro tern.

43. Richard N. Adams, “Minutes.” The verbatim transcript of the Constituent Meeting (May 6–7, 1966), and other similar documents concerning LASA and its formation are housed in special files in the Hispanic Foundation, which is acting temporarily as secretariat for LASA. The final text of the LASA Constitution and By-Laws appears as the Appendix.

44. Omitted have been some developments which, in the author's view, were marginal to the main lines of national evolution. The Academy of Latin American Studies, for instance, came into being about 1960, with A. Curtis Wilgus and Robert McNicoll as its U.S. members; its official organ, Journal of Inter-American Studies continues publication at the University of Miami (Coral Gables). An Institute of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies, organized by Ronald Hilton at Stanford about 1961, had a short life, about which the author has no information.

45. Similar optimistic views are stated at length by a Ford Foundation official, in Melvin J. Fox, “Universities and Latin American Studies,” in Cline, Latin American History (1966).

46. All interested individuals and institutions are invited to apply for membership. Direct correspondence to Robert A. Potash, Department of History, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., Chairman of the Membership Committee.