Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-18
BY CORINNE FRAZIER.


Affairs at the University of Virginia.
Muna Lee (Mrs. Luis Munoz Marin).
director Of the Bureau of Information
and Public Relations of the Inter-
American Commission of Women, de-
livered an extremely interesting and
enlightening address at the opening
session of the round table on our Latin
American relations, which contained
much Of interest.
Many Of the agencies which are
helping to draw the Americans closer
together either work so quietly that
the general public rarely hears Of them
or else are individually small, SEEM
1ngly Of little Importance. though OF
great magnificance when one discov-
ers how numerous and how constant
and how effective these factors aTe."
said Miss Lee, opening her discussion
of the cultural interchanges between
North and South America, which she
has observed during her stay at the
University of Porto Rico, where she di-
reefs the Bureau of International Re-
lations.
"Since Porto Rico is Spanish -Ameri-
can in its past, Anglo-Saxon in its
present, and, I trust, in the deepest
sense, Pan-American in its future, I
shall note briefly some of these unof-
ficial cultural interchanges as we in
University OIL fLlCO LldNC SCeu
them actually at work on the island.
THE university, with its bilingual and
bi-cultural program, has been especi-
ally active in fostering such inter-
changes, and, to use time-honored
metaphor, we have been able to OBJ
serve, through the press of the Amer
icas, how the ripples have continued
widening from every pebble tossed into
the Caribbean.
Some Of you may remember. for ex-
ample, the accounts of the bi-lingual
University of Porto Rico, which took
place this Spring. On that occasion
the young men from Yale, North
American all Of them, spoke brilliantly
In Spanish against imperialism, which
was defended by the Porto Rican de-
baters. On the following evening, these
latter youthful American citizens, whose
native language is Spanish, attacked
imperialism, in English. in their turn,
and were answered by the Yale group
1.-THE delight and interest of the
audience, and their equal pleasure in
both groups of debaters, were apparent
ut every moment.
THE four days during which the
young visitors from the North were In
Porto Rico were of real Importance,
both on account of the impression which
they left and because of the impression
which they carried back North with
them.
1--WE have a regrettable tendency, in
most parts of the modern world
70 underestimate the importance of
methods Of cookery. Yet how often in
ternational misunderstanding is compli-
Gated by preparing the right food in the
wrong way! The University of Porto
Rico Is doing its best to forestall any
further such complications as regards
the Americas by preparing a series of
bulletins on tropical foods, under the
direction Of its department Of home
economics.
I'VE have in the tropics many fruits
and vegetables which should be a val
liable addition to your diet; you have
many which we need and are beginning
to acclimatize as we'll as import. More
over, recipes should be both inter-
changeable and adaptable. Our adap-
tat1ons Of Northern recipes might amuse
you at times, Just as we are amazed to
see you making salads out of alligator
pears. We use the alligator pear for
almost everything else, but the mere
thought OF adding more oil to that OIL
lest member of the vegetable kingdom
seems to us eccentric beyond words.
Have you ever cut it into little cubes
end scattered them over a clear SOUP,
with which they blend deliciously? Try
them that way next time in the interest
OF international understanding.
The purpose of the University of
Porto Rico has been not merely to in
troduce what is best from our univer-
sity system in the States, but to con-
serve the rich Hispanic culture Of the
Porto Rican past-to make the island a
point OF confluence of these two mag.
A1f1cent currents.
ut is North American university
Is a Spanish-American environment
We feel each of these two factors to
be an advantage. To the university
have come, for instance, some of the
greatest figures in the intellectual life
OF contemporary Spain-men such as DR.
Tomas Navarro Tomas, America Castro
and Fernando de los Rios. I mention
them not merely for their own emf
nence and the benefits they have con-
ferred on our university, but in order
to speak Of an important cultural
agency developed by Spain, whose ex-
ample In this the United States would
do well to adopt
Spain has never reconciled herself
TO the loss Of her Spanish-American
colonies and in many ways, indeed, has
never lost them wholly. And now Spain
has decided to reconquer them-not as
colonies, not as territories, but as the
1nheritors and developers Of that cul-
ture which made the golden age of
Spain magnificent beyond any other
as agents Of this reconquest the Insti-
tuciones Culturales Espanoles, the
Spanish Cultural Institutions, are being
established through the Hispanic world.
Ours in Porto Rico was the third to be
established; they exist also In Chile,
Argentina, Santo Domingo. Mexico,
Cuba, New York and elsewhere.
Their purpose is purely cultural;
they take no part, no interest In poll
tics, commerce, nor anything other than
the conservation and growth Of what is
legitimately Spanish In Spanish Amer
lea. The Cultural in Porto Rico, for
example, has been generous In giving
the aid which has made it possible for
our university, young school con-
1ronted with great financial difficulties,
to number among its faculty those men
I have mentioned, and others: men
who have filled chairs at oxford, Cam
bridge, Columbia, Hamburg and Vienna,
and whom we could not have called to
US for years to come without this aid.
zone Of them, explaining their role
In this hemisphere, said simply, we are
missionaries and all who have been
benefited by their mission will, am
sure, agree with me in hoping that
such missionaries may continue to
come; and to wish that the United
States might establish similar cultural
agencies. -
"If we had a cultural center for the
United States in each of the countries
mentioned, distinct from politics and
commerce, q center like these Spanish
Culturales which ask nothing but an
opportunity to contribute to the enrich
n1ent Of the national life. am sure
we should feel the benefit In every way
even commercially and politically. I
might add that these are not establish