Chilean Cultural Diplomacy and Cultural Internationalisms: An Entangled History (1927–1940s)

The emergence of Argentinian, Brazilian and Chilean cultural diplomacy in the interwar period was closely correlated to the institutionalisation of what was then called “intellectual cooperation” (Dumont 2018). [...] The Chilean case is of particular interest insofar as its cultural diplomacy best illustrates how, in Latin America, Genevan internationalism and Pan-Americanism were intertwined in a history that played out as much on the regional as on the continental and international level. [...] 1.2 The Information Mission and its Instruments In order to engage in this internationalism, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Af- fairs implemented a systematic information policy about Chile by providing Chilean diplomatic missions with appropriate informational material. [...] Chilean Cultural Diplomacy and Cultural Internationalisms 105appointment of a delegate – usually a diplomat already in post in Paris or in Europe11 – to the IIIC. [...] 13 AUN, A III 46, Report by Francisco Walker Linares presented to the Ministry of Public Edu- cation and the University of Chile to promote the creation of a Chilean commission, June 1930. [...] The 1930s were thus for Chile, as for the other Latin American countries, a decade marked by the entanglement of two cultural internationalisms during which some tried to create a synthesis of regionalism and universalism. Chile is perhaps the most successful example of this process, welcoming not only the First Inter-American Conference of American National Commissions in 1939 but also the first [...] 2.2 Rebirth and Expansion of the CCIC The CCIC was however not able to expand its activities due to the political, social and economic situation in Chile. [...] The CCIC became not only a cog in the wheel of international and inter-American intellectual cooperation, but also a real “centralising department of national culture” (CCIC 1953, 14). [...] Chilean Cultural Diplomacy and Cultural Internationalisms 113cultural diplomacy more broadly, was able to support the objectives of “classi- cal” diplomacy, and that economic interests were far from absent from the ways in which intellectual cooperation was engaged in. [...] The University of Chile and the CCIC participated in this national/American dynamic with an inaugural event in 1938 during which the commission organised an exhibition of Chilean folk art.