Will Latin America Continue to Adhere to the West?

Abstract

The Americas, North and South, Anglo and Latin, are close to each other in their discovery, traditions, and cultural and philosophical climate, despite differences be tween the dominant settling nations. The spirit of independ ence, the willingness of the colonies to revolt against their mother countries, is characteristic. The aspiration to personal freedom and political emancipation has been common to the citizens of the Americas since the earliest struggles against colonial domination. Liberal ideas developed in Europe or the United States have been received in Latin-American life. A striking difference in conscious emphasis between Anglo- and Latin America is the Latin-American emphasis upon spiritual values, as opposed to an emphasis upon material or pragmatic values, the contrast of Ariel and Caliban, but a harmonious contrast between North and South. The role of Latin America at the United Nations has been to favor and support the eman cipation of all peoples, defending the right to self-determina tion, respect for human rights, and equality among creeds and races, all of which is only a development of Western doctrines in their highest moral, philosophic, and even religious aspects. The Atlantic, far from dividing Latin America from the West, facilitates interchange at a moment when tendencies have arisen toward supranational groupings of states. The eco nomic and commercial interests which once brought the dis covery of America now open new prospects for increasingly close and fruitful interchange between the Old World and the New.—Ed.