Cultural philanthropy and political exile: the Ford Foundation between Argentina and The United States (1959-1979)

Abstract

This article aims to reconstruct the role played by a giant of American philanthropy-the Ford Foundation (FF) - in Argentina starting from a very critical moment for Inter-American relations during the Cold War: 1959. The research is based on an extensive amount of archive sources, including specific information about the grants given by the foundation to hard science professionals in order to escape the political emergency of the mid-Sixties. This contribution will be divided into three parts (i) a brief introduction to the main goals and strategy of the FF and strategy in Latin America in light of the imperatives of the bipolar conflict (ii) the role played in supporting social sciences and organizing resettlement programs (iii) the several contradictions in the process of welcoming these scholars in the U.S. academies.

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“…In the same line of thought to what they had for post-independent India, Ford saw their role in Latin America as to implement programs “rooted in modernization theory as a direct response to the emergence of communism in the western hemisphere” (Holmes, 2013: 56). The political instability of the region prompted Ford to formulate interests, and as per the record of Silvert (1959, as cited in Calandra, 2019), urgent need for support was felt by Ford for Argentina’s political plight ahead of setting up Ford’s Latin American offices in 1961. What was different from the experiences of South Asia was that Ford realized neither public nor private entities could become stable partners in Latin America and decided to work with independent institutions such as Torcuato Di Tella institute.…”

“…What was different from the experiences of South Asia was that Ford realized neither public nor private entities could become stable partners in Latin America and decided to work with independent institutions such as Torcuato Di Tella institute. Under such an adversarial political environment, Ford ended up playing a sponsoring role in “exile procedures for a number of academics and intellectuals from Argentina to the US under the authoritarian governments of the 1960s and 1970s” (Calandra, 2019: 454). For example, the assistance to Torcuato Di Tella Institute was in the form of fellows’ dispatch to Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs for the study of economic planning (United States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 1965).…”