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Bernot, Rafael A. (fl. 1961) Project for the economical development of Mexico and Latin America

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05723.01 Author/Creator: Bernot, Rafael A. (fl. 1961) Place Written: Mexico City, Mexico Type: Document Date: May 1961 Pagination: 1 v. : 37 p. ; 30 x 25 cm. Order a Copy

Co-authored with Renan E. Perez Rivero. Published in Mexico City, Mexico in May 1961. President John F. Kennedy signed a note "For Jim," using his personal stationary, which is pasted at the front of the binder. Items contained in green leather binder with "Mexico, Alliance for Progress" stamped at the bottom of the front cover. Included are two color photographs placed in an inside pocket; one of a tickertape parade in Mexico and another of John and Jacqueline Kennedy with unknown Mexican government officials (GLC05723.02 and .03). Bound copy of report created by the Mexican government in response to Kennedy's Alliance for Progress program, which sought to improve government and civil society in Latin America. This proposal focuses on developing sources of agricultural wealth and the abolishment of poverty and ignorance in Latin America. Maps and tables included after the report.

The Alliance for Progress - Alianza para el Progreso - was described by President Kennedy as "a vast cooperative effort, unparalleled in magnitude and nobility of purpose, to satisfy the basic needs of the American people for homes, work and land, health and schools - techo, trabajo y tierra, salud y escuela." The Alliance for Progress initiative focused on maintaining democratic government, on industrial and agrarian development, and on more equitable distribution of wealth. The initial reference to the Alliance for Progress by John F. Kennedy was in an October 18, 1960 campaign speech in Tampa Florida. The program was officially launched on March 13, 1961 in front of the Ambassadors from Latin America in the East Room of the White House. The speech was broadcast in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English throughout the hemisphere by the Voice of America.

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 1917-1963

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