Two Great Pioneers of Inter-American Cultural Relations

Abstract

States and Spanish America, albeit marginal to my field of specialization, has interested me for over a quarter of a century.* Economic reciprocity as well as political bonds between countries, although mutually advantageous and necessary, are usually dictated by national interests and based on material advantages. Both have been the cause of serious conflicts and wars, and the history of these two types of relations between the United States and Latin America is no exception to the rule. Commercial interchange between countries is healthy and reciprocally beneficial when they are governed by mutually free consent and equitably agreed upon; but economic control of a country by another leads inevitably to political domination, and both of these controls to discord, animosity and hate on the part of the exploited people for the exploiter. When the principal sources of a country's wealth are in the hands of absentee ownership and manipulated by remote control from a distant and all-powerful empire, the unavoidable consequence is always ill will and rebellion on the part of the subjugated people. The history of the Roman, the Spanish, the English, the Dutch and French empires are eloquent examples of what I mean. Another case in point is the latent rebellion-more economic than political-which is to be found today in the countries dominated by Russia. Unfortunately such is also the case, to a large extent, in many parts of Spanish America vis-a-vis the United States at present. Cultural relations on the other hand represent a type of bond which is always constructive and fosters understanding and friendliness between peoples and governments. For this reason I have endeavoured in my own humble way during the thirty-four years I have been on this campus to foment intellectual intercourse between the Anglo-Saxon and the Hispanic cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Consequently, rather than a summary of my own work or my very modest contribution to this cause-neither of which merits recapitulation here-I would like to share with you tonight my admiration for the two notable poets-one on each side of the border-who pioneered this unexplored field since the first quarter of the nineteenth century. During the colonial period, cultural relations between the Hispanic and the AngloSaxon countries of the Hemisphere hardly existed. There were sporadic and meager commercial contacts but intellectual curi-