HISPANIC AMERICA1
I
ITS CULTURE AND ITS IDEALS
AS a representative of the University of San Marcos,
the leading Peruvian university, I desire to offer my
fraternal salutation not only to this university, but also to
the universities and colleges of the United States. The
University of San Marcos, the oldest in the New World,
represents the past, with its glorious traditions. Without
doubt, the chief values of Anglo-Saxon civilization in
America lie in its universities, and it is evident that Hispanic
civilization is embodied in the higher institutions that were
left by Spain in her colonies. Therefore the linking of our
university with the colleges and universities of the United
States is, in my judgment, a token of our unity of culture
and of the homage of our traditions to your ideals.
The subject of this, my first lecture, is “Spanish America :
Its Culture and Its Ideals.” It seems that the hour has
come in which, laying aside ancient prejudices, all men of
good will should spread throughout Anglo-Saxon America
an accurate idea as to Hispanic America; and in Spanish
America, a true interpretation of the aims and culture of
the United States.
At the present time, the American continent is the hope
of the world and the basis and support of the new civiliza-
tion. The universal war has brought the centre of economic
1 Lectures by Victor Andres Belaunde, Lecturer in Spanish and Spanish-
American History at the Rice Institute.
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