[speaker001:] Good morning.
[speaker002:] Good morning. Uh, okay, go ahead.
[speaker001:] , no, no, go ahead.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I understand the topic this morning is, uh, our policy in Latin America and, you know, what we've been doing down there. So, uh, as you indicated you don't have too much input into the area it, it just so happens that, uh, our daughter-in-law is Panamanian, and, uh, we have been in Panama and I have worked in El Salvador and, uh, we visit Mexico occasionally, so, [LAUGHTER], yeah, we, we do have a little information on it here, but, uh,
[speaker001:] Oh, very good, because actually, um, when I was in college I visited Mexico several times, I was in the Peace Corps and, um,
[speaker002:] Oh, uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker001:] Peru, but, but recently I have been following the Middle East rather than,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Central America [very faint].
[speaker002:] Yeah, it does seem to have quieted down there just a little bit that's, that's for sure. No, I, the U S policy, uh, towards Central America as far as, uh, well, I kind of go back to, to the El Salvador thing because Texas Instruments had a, a plant down there for a while, and I worked in there for a little while, and at that particular time, let's, let's see, that was seventy-three, seventy-four kind of before the, the, uh, the Civil War really picked up down there, and U S policy at that particular time there was, of course, military assistance to, uh, to the government itself, you know, anything that's, that's anti-Communist, you know, we kind of had a tendency to be pro [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] It don't matter what their excesses were, and I believe at the time that I was down there, that, uh, the government, uh, the Salvadorian government you know, really gotten out of hand yet, the, uh, right wing death squad type situation I believe that, that was beginning to form but I don't, I, I wasn't really aware of it's being, you know, terribly, uh, you know, at the time that, that I was down there, I think that really kind of developed a little bit later on, but, uh, our policies seem to be pretty much one of, uh, you know, trying to setup businesses down there and use the one resource, anyway, that Salvador had, [throat clearing], plenty of and that was people.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] We didn't seem to be going in and taking anything out of the country other than just it's, it's labor,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] because everything that T I did anyway we, we shipped in and it was worked on down there, assembled, and then sent back here, so,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, did that have,
[speaker002:] I didn't feel that we really ex-, exploiting them any.
[speaker001:] Um, so, you don't, you don't feel that, that we were, um, exploiting in the sense of we were benefiting and they weren't.
[speaker002:] No, uh, in the particular incidence that I was aware of, now T I wasn't the only ones in there, Playtex was in, there was, uh, several other companies,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, uh, of course, we kind of concentrate on, there wasn't much to take out of the country I felt like we're going in and taken all their, um, their gold or oil,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] or bananas or coffee or anything like that, because, uh, it just, the only thing that they had a great abundance of was, uh, you know, human beings [LAUGHTER] and, uh,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh. Di-, did we tend to, um, change their attitu-, attitudes like sometimes when Americans go into foreign countries they tend to flaunt American things, Americanism, um, consumer products, T V, the whole works.
[speaker002:] Yeah, I understand what you say. There was a, uh, the time that I was down there, I stayed quite a, a bit at the, uh, uh, one of the big hotels San Salvador. And at the time I thought there ought to be a law against American tourists. Because they, for the most part, tend to be the most obnoxious as a, as a group, and I saw this in Panama also,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] uh, oh, you know, it's, it's the, uh, the almost stereotype, you know, flowery shirt, shorts, camera hanging around their neck, you know, demanding this, that and the other thing, you know, we're, we're here, and we want this, and we want that, and that sort of thing, that's, that's the stereotype that's very strong down there, you know, the, the, the, you know, that sort of thing, I, I, I believe those of us who were working down there, got a little bit more appreciation for, you know, the local, uh, culture I really don't believe that we were quite that bad, but yet they were having to deal directly with, uh, you know, with the, uh, the local people.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, but boy there is a, there is a bad, uh, uh, you know, the old brash or ugly American-type,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] situation. And I saw incidences in the hotel where I just wanted to go over and crawl in the corner and say, oh, my God those are, those are not Americans [LAUGHTER] they can't be.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] But there are and, uh, of course, now I, I do have to, I remember one case where we had some Canadians in there who were every bit as bad, but I mean, it, I think it's just kind of the North American situation. In Panama they've been used to Americans down there for so darn long but I didn't see quite as much of that sort of thing, as Panamanians are just about as [LAUGHTER], as, uh, as as Americans, as far as, uh, creature comforts, you know, they're, uh, they're, they're every bit, uh, I, I know, when, my, my son was in the Air Force and he was stationed in Panama, and he married a Panamanian girl, and when she came up here, uh, you know, she's, y-, kn-, except for the language situation, some of the cultures she's just about an American,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] you know, is as far as T V and, and, you know, the, the moneymaking part of it and all that, matter of fact if anything, she's worse.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] But, uh, uh, it, it just, there's little enclaves down there where, you know, Americans have a lot of influence and the local population kind of, um, you know, sort of accepts that, but I've also seen the other side of it, too.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker002:] Well, you were in Peru?
[speaker001:] Yeah, I was in Peru, but, um, I, there weren't, as I recall, or at least I wasn't aware of that many Americans there except for a very heavy concentration of Peace Corps volunteers,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker001:] this was when the Peace Corps first are started,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and it was one of the big targets and, um, I don't, I don't think, at that time, at least, Peace Corps was, uh, an obnoxious group in the sense that, that we were very controlled regarding number of days off and,
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] and you couldn't just, take up, take off and leave your group and go explore and, and things like that,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] but, and I was working actually in the savings and loan program, so, that was quite specialized, although I was living in the slums, I was really working with the middle class.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [very faint]. What, uh, what area did you live in?
[speaker001:] I was up in Arequipa.
[speaker002:] Oh, okay yeah.
[speaker001:] And, um [very faint],
[speaker002:] I've heard of it.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh [very faint] so.
[speaker002:] Well, is, are they, is Peace Corps still active down in there?
[speaker001:] I don't have any idea, um, probably not, I mean, there were thir-, I was, uh, Per-, Peru thirteen, which meant there were twelve groups before mine,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] that had gone in and, and some of them were quite big in the sense they were community development, and they were building schools and doing co-ops and things like that, health, um, inoculation and, and things.
[speaker002:] Oh, has those influences lasted do you know whether the, the things that, that you and your groups before you did, did those, did those live on or were they reabsorbed or how,
[speaker001:] No, no, I believe they did because, um, some of, some of the, the Peace Corps, uh, that I knew of, did marry Peruvians,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker001:] and have been back and every now and then some news filters in that they went to see some of the old things, and of course, the savings and loan program, um, that was, that, you know, that, that just continued to grow. In fact, after my group, I mean, we were just a very small specialized group, too, to get that going and spread and then, of course, Peace Corps bowed out of that because that's, uh, uh, something that nationalized very quickly.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And the same with the co-ops.
[speaker002:] Well, that's, that was kind of the, the aim wasn't it, to get it started and then have it,
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] taken up by the, oh, okay, o-, so, you know, well, that's, I had wondered sometimes, I knew that there was a lot of, a lot of effort and a lot of work went into a lot of that, and I just wondered if, if it lasted, and if it took, you know, like,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker002:] uh, r-,
[speaker001:] Yeah, I've, you know, some of the programs I would have concern about like, um, the language teaching, you know, I mean, why should we push English,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh [very faint].
[speaker001:] and a lot of people were down there teaching English and when they talked about Hungary or someplace, one of the eastern law countries requesting Peace Corps to teach language, you know, to me that's a little bit marginal. I did teach economics at the university one night a week, and the textbook was in English, but basically I taught it in Spanish,
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] because, I mean, I really didn't see the point in their knowing stuff rotely and writing it on a test.
[speaker002:] Yeah, my brother-in-law teaches at, uh, Northern Illinois University and they were in China, here a couple of years ago, and he was over there at, uh, the University of Shah and, and teaching...