“The history of U.S. tourism in Latin America shows that empire is a more nuanced system of inequality, resistance, and negotiation than appears at first glance. Rather than being understood as a series of binary opposites—center and periphery, developed and dependent, modern and nonmodern—the hemispheric empire is in fact a heavily textured and integrated community.”
—Dennis Merrill, Negotiating Paradise: U.S. Tourism and Empire in Twentieth-Century Latin America, pp. 9
During the twentieth century, the United States abandoned its isolationist tendencies in favor of becoming a regional (and eventually, global) hegemon. Part of this plan was the Good Neighbor Policy pursued in Latin America during the first half of the twentieth century, in which the United States promoted regional development and supported stability at all costs. Part of this policy of liberal internationalism was the Pan American Union: born out of conferences held from 1889-1891, the Pan American Union—later the Organization of American States, in 1948—sought to “[foster] commercial relationships in the Americas, and eventually to [facilitate] economic, social, and cultural exchange along with treaties among the American republics.”1 During the interwar period, the Pan American Union facilitated the creation of a friendly relationship between American countries. At the same time, Latin American modernismo took stride. Modernismo, the literary and artistic movement, actively fought against the projected Panamerican ideal, and “promoted the autonomy of the aesthetic sphere as a counterweight to the dehumanizing modernity that it perceived to be emanating from the United States.”2 These tensions, and the a relationship that would later be exploited to the United States’s benefit, all contributed to the creation of a complicated system of inter-American tourism that both illustrates and challenges the colonial/imperialist conventions present in Latin America.
“Tourism is in many ways theater, a dramatic and comedic play in which hosts and guests display their self-importance. Tourism has both reinforced and undermined identities…it helped globalize culture, blurred the lines between the empire’s center and its dependencies, and demonstrated the fragility of national identity in a mobile world.”
—Dennis Merrill, Negotiating Paradise: U.S. Tourism and Empire in Twentieth-Century Latin America, pp. 252-253
Panamerican Airways (abbreviated PanAm) is the iconic airline of the twentieth century. As much as an air hegemon as the United States aspired to be a cultural hegemon, PanAm intricately tied itself to Latin America. After all, its first passenger flight was from the Florida Keys to Cuba on January 16, 1928. Furthermore, the airplane was the ideal mode of transportation throughout the Americas because of Latin America’s rugged and varied topography. The development of airway connections between Latin America and the United States “would greatly facilitate business communications and the development of the region’s ample natural resources. Its stunning scenic beauties and culture could be highlighted to attract American tourists.”3 By the 1930’s, “many people on both continents formed new stereotypes of each other, strongly influenced by Pan Am’s publicity. When World War II broke out, preventing American tourists from traveling to Europe, the southern continent rapidly transformed into a tourist destination into a larger scale for the first time.”4 Thus, the development of airway systems, and the international tourist industry, is representative of Latin America-U.S. relations of the twentieth century and beyond. There is always a fight present between the need to define Latin America’s own identity and also create necessary connections. The struggle between Panamericanism and Latinamericanism is one that is constantly illustrated in these tourist campaigns, and further investigation into their symbolism and repercussions bring to light issues that haunt Latin America to this day.