Cuadernos del Congreso por la Libertad de la Cultura : anticomunismo y guerra fría en América Latina

Abstract

Born in Europe’s Cold War context to counterbalance the Peace Movement communist propaganda, the Congress for Cultural Freedom published a number of social and political analysis journals (Der Monat, Preuves, Encounter, Tempo Presente...) which were characterized by both their antitotalitarianism and their intellectual rigor. Of all these journals, Cuadernos del Congreso por la Libertad de la Cultura (1953-1963) is undoubtedly not only the most polemical but also the less known. The fact that it was primarily staffed by Spanish ex-communists and that it transposed antitotalitarian issues to the Latin American continent, which was dominated by US economic neocolonialism and political interference, might explain why it is generally considered as a mere US propaganda journal. Cuadernos was, nonetheless, able to establish itself in Latin America’s complex reality and if it found itself in a difficult position sometimes it was because it refected the choices Latin American democrats and liberals had to make during the Cold War. One cannot but acknowledge that it maintained its anti-communist stands without giving up its critical independence towards the US.

Keywords

• Cuadernos del Congreso por la Libertad de la Cultura
• Congress for Cultural Freedom
• intellectuals and Cold War in Latin America
• antitotalitarian journals
• latino American anticommunism
• Cold War