newest / older / diaryland


AUTHOR / Site Meter / contact / face

also read: [email protected] / sorethroat


PURCHASE THE DIGITAL COLLECTION (2013)

RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV

HOME

2001-01-26

Capriati, a beautiful brute, an Amazon of the sort the ancient world considered old-school, has upset my beloved Hingis, playing with man trouble, in two down in Melbourne, Australia.

With my world thus in ruins I couldn't write anything new tonight, so here's something I wrote today for my normally unsatisfying day job:

By the time John Kennedy took office in 1960, relations between Latin America and the United States had devolved into a long-standing, occasionally violent stalemate characterized by distrust on one side and cynical indifference on the other. Early in his term, seeking to create a dramatic shift onto higher and more fruitful ground, Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress with the express goal of spurring democracy and economic growth throughout a region which knew �the American way� only through the crude exploitations of big American business. John F. Kennedy and Latin America looks back at the amazing improvement in neighborly relations which took place under Kennedy�s (brief *) administration�an improvement marked by the excited and gracious reception which he and his wife enjoyed when they traveled to Latin America on visits of state. In film footage from 1962, you�ll see crowds cheering the Kennedys� arrival in Mexico City�where just a few years earlier, then-Vice President Nixon�s motorcade had been blocked by protesters and buffeted with stones. It helped, of course, that the 35th President, like the vast majority of the people cheering him, was Roman Catholic; it may have helped even more that Jacqueline spoke fluent Spanish (and you�ll probably agree that outfits like the white silk Oleg Cassini gown she wore to a (1961 *) state dinner in Caracas didn�t hurt either). Tributes to the glamorous young couple poured forth from Latin America�s leaders, often materially. Among the gifts they brought back from their travels, and here on display, you�ll find a gold necklace inspired by Aztec design which Jacqueline received from Mexican president L�pez Mateos (Jack got a set of cufflinks, set with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds to represent the Mexican and American flags); a whimsical solid gold coffee measure from the president of Brazil; Inca gold from Peru, pre-Colombian pottery from Panama, an 18th-century devotional icon from Chile�and in every gift, the gratitude and admiration of a people for this vital young leader (feelings which persist, many U.S.-Latin American policy shifts later) is writ large. The exhibition also features official and private documents, photographs, and other memorabilia. On view at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, May 24 � August 31.

(* I forgot to put these details into the piece before I e-mailed it to the senior editor along with a note that I knew I'd gone 114 words over my assigned word count of 250 but that I thought "recent and foreseeable events in Washington" might justify giving this show "a bit" more space. We'll see�she may disagree and edit very harshly, in which case I'll put her version up here and then, as I say, we'll see.)

: back : / : forth :