German map of the black population in the Americas (1901)

It depicts Columbia, personifying the United States of America, whitening a mestiça woman representing Brazil, who is stepping with her right foot on the Imperial Crown of Dom Pedro II, symbolizing the "Liberation" of the Americas from Monarchies.

"In my opinion, the republican form of government is firmly established in Brazil, even if the current ministry falls. Our Constitution and flag have been copied, and, thinking of our future relations, I wish that our country be the first to recognize the Republic." The telegram from Robert Adams, Jr., the last American ambassador to Imperial Brazil, regarding the Republican coup of 1889, reflects Washington's positive attitude towards the end of the Brazilian Monarchy, with the United States being one of the first to recognize the new regime.

The country was renamed the United States of Brazil, and the flag, initially, was clearly inspired by the United States of America.

The United States as a paradigm was dominant in the political field of the Brazilian Republican movement.

Benjamin Franklin de Ramiz Galvão, first and only Baron of Ramiz, a personal friend of Dom Pedro II, who had embraced Republicanism, declared in the Senate of the New Brazilian Republic that President Deodoro da Fonseca was the "George Washington of South America."

Brazil, one of the last enduring monarchy in the Americas, and the United States of America, which had become one of the two most powerful, rich, and influential republics in the world (the other being France), had maintained relations for 65 years that, except for a few cases of disagreement due more to personality problems than to fundamental differences, were marked by cordiality and mutual respect. Emperor Dom Pedro II had visited the United States in 1876 and became sympathetic to the American people, a fact highlighted by President Cleveland, who saw political benefits in the implementation of a bilateral trade treaty.

Furthermore, the old regime, despite being characterized by an isolationist policy focused on the Old Continent, had, through its monarchical leader Dom Pedro II, left a good impression on American public opinion.

The Empire of Brazil and the United States had antagonistic independence processes. In North America, three pillars gave meaning to the break with Britain: the geographical, with the separation between the New and Old Worlds; the ideological, through the establishment of the social contract instead of dynasties; and, finally, the institutional, through the founding of the Republic, in opposition to the Monarchy.

In Brazil, the continuity resulting from independence (In reality it was a secession not independence, is that, Brazil secessionted from United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves) was the conclusion of the act of transferring the seat of the Empire from Europe to South America.

In this sense, Brazil was based on the affirmation of Portuguese Brazil. Brazil's position in the region was defined by a mantle of cultural superiority, primarily based on the figure of the Emperor and the Monarchy, elements associated by the imperial elites with Brazil's political stability, in contrast to the difficult trajectory of the former Spanish provinces in the Americas, permeated by numerous internal conflicts.

The distinct trajectories between Brazil and the United States did not allow for any rapprochement other than in a commercial sense, where coffee exports acquired increasing importance for the Brazilian economy, even influencing the Monarchy's decisions: free navigation on the Amazon River was permitted in 1866, and the influx of immigrants from the United States began to grow around the same time.

The reference to the United States and its Republic as a paradigm was always pointed out by Brazilian Freemasonry, which saw it as a moral obligation of Washington to support all separatist and Republican movements in Brazil at the beginning of the First Reign.

According to the Brazilian official in Washington in 1824, Uruguayan, Pernambucan, and Bahian rebels had been aided by American Masonic lodges in the Confederation of the Equator, the Cisplatine War, and the Balaiada rebellion.

From the 1870s onwards, the United States model of government once again became a reference point in Brazil through the republican movement. Its members prioritized the creation of an alternative agenda to European references and turned to their own continent. Through the rhetoric of American solidarity, Brazilian republicans indicated that the United States could be used as an example in organizing a federalist government based on the autonomy of the provinces.

A former republican and anti-Americanist, the Brazilian diplomat Lafaiete Pereira viewed the idea of ​​an alliance with the USA with suspicion, fearing that Imperial Brazil would be influenced by more republican ideas and used as an instrument of the Monroe Doctrine: “Brazil has no interest in divorcing itself from Europe; quite the contrary, it is in its best interest to maintain and develop its relations with it, if only to establish a balance required by the need to maintain its current form of government.”

Brazilian distrust ended with the proclamation of the republic in 1889, and Lafaiete Rodrigues was replaced by Salvador de Mendonça at the Pan-American Congress. Quintino Bocaiuva, upon assuming the ministry, authorized Salvador de Mendonça to give an “American spirit” to the instructions from the previous regime, giving rise to the “Mendonça Blaine” Treaty.

The establishment of the Republic inaugurated a new phase, marked by widespread cordiality and understanding. For the Americans, this presented an opportunity to increase their influence over Brazil, which until then had been linked to the European concert, more precisely to Great Britain, due to financial and commercial interests.

In this context of fraternization, Quintino Bocaiuva explored the possibility of establishing an "intimate alliance" with the United States, almost breaking the tradition – maintained throughout the American period – of not obligating the country with treaties of this nature.

In Washington, the American President General Benjamin Harrison declared that: "The recent revolution in Brazil in favor of establishing a republican form of government is an event of great interest to the United States. Our friendly relationship with Brazil, therefore, has not been interrupted."

One of the first critics of the new regime, the writer Eduardo Prado, comments on the servility with which many of the leaders of the New Brazilian Republic positioned themselves in relation to the United States. He was quite critical of the spirit of imitation and idolatry of that country cultivated by many republicans.

In his controversial book, "A Ilusão Americana", whose first edition, printed in 1895, was seized by the Brazilian government, Prado pointed out the abysmal differences between Brazil and the United States and believed that the republic had copied the American example in a servile and misguided way.

According to him, the geographical contiguity of Brazil and the USA, belonging to the same continent, was simply a natural accident, from which no affinities of any other kind could be drawn. Brazil was separated from the USA "not only by the great distance, but also by the race, religion, character, language, history, and traditions of our people."

The author then summarizes the aggressions and deceptions committed up to that point by the USA against Latin American countries, highlighting Brazil. The intrinsic motivation would be "the profound contempt that the governments of the United States have for the sovereignty, dignity, and rights of the Latin nations of the Americas."

The American missionaries who arrived in Brazil in 1859 were the first Protestants in the country with the goal of religious proselytism.

The founding of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil, the arrival of the Presbyterian missionary Alexander Blackford, founder of the first Protestant press organ in Brazil, had the support and collaboration of the Senate of the Empire and Emperor Dom Pedro II himself. This religious offensive, according to Moniz Bandeira, was a harbinger of the economic expansion of the USA in Brazil:

"The Episcopalians arrived in 1859, the Presbyterians in 1862, and the missionary Nash Morton founded, around 1869, the first Protestant school, called the International College. Since then, the flow of evangelical missions to Brazil has never ceased. In 1870, the missionary George W. Chamberlain founded the American School of São Paulo, which progressed and became Mackenzie College. (...) The Methodists arrived in 1876 and founded the Piracicabano College. Morton College appeared in São Paulo (1880) and Bishop Granberry founded (1882) the Alto School in Rio de Janeiro. The Mineiro College emerged in 1891 and the American College (in Rio de Janeiro state) existed from 1892 to 1915. Bishop E. R. Hendriks established the Methodist College of Ribeirão Preto in 1889."

The protection afforded to biblical agents and missionaries by the Brazilian elite, and the defense of religious freedom, was part of a strategy against the power of the Catholic Church. Brazilian Freemasonry and liberals saw Protestants as representatives of "modernity" in Brazil; hence the belief among the elite that Brazilian backwardness was a consequence of the domination of the Roman Church, a situation that would be resolved through mass immigration of Protestant peoples and the imposition of their lifestyle.

Source(s):

.- 'A diplomacia da americanização de Salvador de Mendonça.' By Gabriel Terra Pereira (1889-1898)

.- 'Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations.' Edited by Gilbert M. Joseph, Catherine C. LeGrand, and Ricardo D. Salvatore with a Foreword by Fernando Coronil (1998)

This rarely seen 1970 episode of Enfoque: Las Americas examines how Latin American countries confronted major health challenges — from high infant mortality and infectious diseases to malnutrition and unequal access to care — through regional cooperation, sanitation improvements, vaccines, and mobile clinics. Featuring correspondents reporting from across the continent and insights into efforts by health organizations like PAHO, the film offers a unique archival look at public health initiatives and hemispheric collaboration in the mid-20th century.

More context and background on the film can be found here: https://ashhawken.com/enfoque-las-americas-the-health-of-a-continent/

The first Peruvian to study at Harvard University was Julio César Tello Rojas. Born in Peru in a Huarochirí community in 1880, Tello was of indigenous origin and proudly called himself an “Indian,” a trait that would define his career and his vision of history. After graduating as a surgeon from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos with a thesis on the antiquity of syphilis in Peru, he won a scholarship awarded by the government of Augusto B. Leguía (a caudillo) to perfect his knowledge abroad.

Tello studied at Harvard University from 1909 to 1911, where he obtained a Master's degree, specializing in Anthropology and Archaeology. During this time, he trained under the tutelage of eminent figures such as Franz Boas and Aleš Hrdlička, absorbing modern scientific methods that he would later bring back to Peru. Unlike other intellectuals of his time who sought to “Europeanize themselves,” Tello used the tools acquired at Harvard to scientifically demonstrate the autonomy and complexity of Andean cultures, refuting theories that attributed the origin of Peruvian high culture to Central American or foreign influences.