The First International in Latin America

Abstract

For the past half century, the strength and even the reality of the First International in Latin America has remained a moot point for historians. In his1964 contribution to the Colloque International sur La Première Internationale,Uruguayan historian Carlos Rama attempted to document the existence ofInternational Working Men´s Association (iwma) branches in Martinique,Guadaloupe, Havana, Río de Janeiro, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Santiago.So weak were the documentary evidence that the Rev. Paul Droulers (s.j.), oneof the participants, asked him if in Latin America, as in other places, the International had not been but a myth.Rama understood value of myth in theSorelian sense and replied that, indeed, the International represented for theworkers the hope of finding in Europe support for their struggles.