have read with much interest the article 'Christopher Columbus is
Dead' in last week's Spectator, in which the case is argued for the de- LeloPment. of Latin American studies in this country. M. Cohen is well known to academic circles and to the lay public alike as a writer and trans- lator of distinction in Hispanic subjects. His views On Latin American studies, however, call for some serious
comment since they seem to be based on
!Inadequate knowledge of the teaching of Spanish to our universities in general, and of the attention given to Latin American studies in particular. The record should be set straight: we are told that in Bristol is it now possible to take a degree °Panish, Portuguese and Latin American studies, °ugh Glasgow has set Latin American papers as Part of their two-year honours course. In other universities there are optional papers in history.' In' fact, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies (in different combinations and varying pro- portions)
form the elements of honours courses at following universities and university colleges:
iPingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Oxford and Sheffield. At Newcastle the department is one of ,5Panish and Latin American Studies,' and also at lIvernool there is a full dual course in Spanish and Latin American studies. Portuguese is also taught at Belfast, Durham and Nottingham, and is to be introduced at Hull. In these circumstances what can one make of Mr. Cohen's remark about 'our still very backward Portuguese studies'? It is true that the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies has published no article on a Latin American sub- ject during the past six years. This most certainly is not a reflection of editorial policy, but rather of the fact that few British Hispanists are at present carrying out original research in the field (and this in turn reflects the almost total lack of ftinds for study and travel in Latin America). The 'occasional book review on any Spanish American subject' in this journal during the same period turns out, on inspection, to have been almost one in four of all books reviewed (the figures are eighty-eight out of 383). Another point of clarification concerns the statement that 'There is, however, little ex- change across the New World frontiers, and even less with Spain itself.' Surely Mr. Cohen knows that books and journals published, for instance, in Mexico and Buenos Aires are readily available to our universities, that there is an even greater flow of such publications into American academic channels, and that there are several , reputable North American journals dedicated to Latin American studies.
In Spain itself the Madrid intellectual monthly. Insula (which last March published an interview with Mr. Cohen), reserves at least one of its ample pages to recent Latin American' books, while the Escuela de Estudios Hispano-americanos in Seville has for years now been publishing monographs (by Spaniards and Latin Americans) on the rich mat- erial from the Spanish American archives in that city. These few facts show, I feel, that Mr. Cohen has argued from insufficient evidence. The total situa- tion, which, like all intellectual endeavours, can be improved upon. has many pOsitive features. FRANK PIERCE Hughes Professor of Spanish Sheffield University
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