THE SERIES OF READING BOOKS FOR LATIN AMERICA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLICY OF THE INSTITUTE OF INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS (USA)

Abstract This article analyzes a series of reading textbooks produced in the 1940s, in the context of the North American policy for Latin America, known as the "Good Neighbor Policy". The production of these textbooks resulted from an agreement signed in 1944 between the Education Division of the Inter-American Educational Foundation, Inc. (renamed, in 1947, as Institute of Inter-American Affairs, IIAA) and the Ministry of Education from Guatemala. The goal was, however, that this series of reading textbooks was used in the other countries of South America and Central America. The analysis of the seven textbooks shows that there was a close correlation between the contents presented in them and the objectives of the cooperation programs, clearly revealing the civilization intentionality of the United States for the countries from Latin American.