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respond to Professor Scott Palmer, while agreeing with him that there
are great differences, say, between Uruguay and Guatemala, I would
maintain that these Spanish-speaking countries have more in common
than otherwise, and that they certainly share more characteristics with
each other than with any other country on earth, and that there appears
to be no reason to suggest that this will cease to be the case in the near
future. The same, of course, applies to countries using the English lan –
guage; the United States and Australia, distant and diverse though they
are , have much more in common with each other than otherwise, and
this will almost certainly continue to be the case for a very long time to
cOJne.
As Peter Berger emphasized, change often overrules even the more
solid assumptions of cultural determinists. Switzerland used to export
mercenaries, some of which are still guarding the Pope. Cultures do
change, and it is fascinating to try and find out how and why this oc–
curs. I believe that in Latin America the symptoms are there that suggest
that we may be crossing the threshold of one such momentous transfor–
mation. For the first time in the history of the Spanish-speaking peoples,
so many working-class Catholics acting freely, without any duress or
compulsion, have embraced evangelical Protestantism. This is truly an ex–
traordinary occurrence in a cultural tradition over which the Catholic
Counter-Reformation has presided unchallenged for the past centuries. A
comparison of Spain's Golden Age with the industrial modernity of the
English-speaking peoples indicated that, glorious and brilliant though it
was, the Spanish moment did not generate many exportable cultural
artifacts. Bull-fighting did not travel well outside the empire , nor did
castanets. It is even possible to think that the modified guitar (originally
Persian), and the word "liberalism," may well be among its most memo–
rable contributions. The contrast is telling with the English Industrial
Revolution which has flooded the world with a tidal wave of cultural
artifacts that shows no signs of abating, but which is renewed and diver–
sified every day. Hence my comparison with the Hellenistic moment,
when the known world became Hellenized at a time when Athens had
decisively and permanently ceased to be a major power. There is no
doubt that Latin America is adopting many of the artifacts of the indus–
trial modernity of the English-speaking peoples, and it is not impossible
that this will constitute a definitive aspect of the cultural transformation
to
which I have referred. Whether this growing list of cultural artifacts
should also include evangelical Protestantism is a matter worthy of
leisurely discussion.
Edith Kurzweil:
Thank you. We have not yet heard from Robert
