Join us on Thursday, November 15, at 12:30, for a discussion with

Mary Roldán, Dorothy Epstein Professor of Latin American History, Hunter College, CUNY Graduate Center

Foundation(al) Fictions: Corporate Philanthropy, the Catholic Church, and the Alliance for Progress in Colombia

Efforts undertaken by the private sector in the U.S. and Colombia to promote partnerships between private enterprise and non-governmental groups, with the support of the Catholic Church, prompted the unprecedented creation of private philanthropic foundations between 1960 and 1967. Using the specific case of the Colombian mass-media based education and rural leadership training network, Radio Sutatenza/ Cultural Popular Action (ACPO), I examine how private, non-denominational philanthropic foundations became the principal conduits through which international development loans and funding sponsored by agencies like the Alliance for Progress and USAID in the 1960s and 1970s were funneled to education, health, housing and technical training programs affiliated with the Catholic Church and aimed at pre-empting the spread of communism.

We will be meeting at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, room 5401