Hoping to stimulate undergraduate as well as graduate students of the University of Houston and residents of the city to consider critically and constructively our country's relations with Latin America—their knowledge seemed to be limited to a tiny bag of clichés relative to Fidel Castro, military dictatorships, ownership of the Panama Canal, Mexican braceros, etc.—Harvey L. Johnson, professor of Spanish and Portuguese and acting director of Latin American Studies at the University of Houston, arranged a one-day conference on 19 March 1966 that featured two lectures and discussions led by members of the faculty plus a luncheon address, “The Epic Poem of Latin America” by Rafael Squirru, Argentine poet and critic and director of the Cultural Division of the Pan American Union. At a general meeting, the coordinator of the program raised the question about founding a council of Latin American studies for the southwest. Wholehearted support was manifest. In November of the same year, a three-day conference, sponsored by Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, and coordinated by Richard A. Johnson, its director of Interdisciplinary Area Programs, focused on the subject “The Confluence of the Cultures of the Americas.” Among the speakers were the Honorable Fulton Freeman, United States ambassador to Mexico; Luther H. Evans, director of International Collections at Columbia University; several distinguished professors from various Mexican universities; and Howard F. Cline, director of the Hispanic Foundation. At the close of the conference an informal meeting was convened, with Richard A. Johnson serving as chairman, for the purpose of considering the desirability of establishing in Texas a regional association of Latin American studies. A motion to create it carried, but in the general discussion regarding the implementation of the proposal it was decided to await the outcome of the final decision to be reached at the conference scheduled for April 1967, at the University of Houston. Although the organization was postponed, the group recognized, nevertheless, the need to have a committee appointed to draft a constitution and bylaws prior to the meeting in Houston.