Tracing the Roots of Anti-Americanism in Latin America

Review by Michael Shifter

Alan L. McPherson. Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S-Latin American Relations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003, 257 pp., $39.95

In April 2003, crowds gathered in the main plaza of Miraflores, a middle class district in Lima, to protest the U.S. military action in Iraq. The mood was angry and the speeches were fiercely critical of the Bush administration. Yet, as the protest ended and Peruvians dispersed and went their separate ways, many were drawn to a nearby cinema to see either "Chicago" or "Gangs of New York." After the movies, they went out to grab a bite to eat at an adjacent Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald's.

Such ambivalence and the propensity to compartmentalize feelings towards the United States has historically characterized inter-American affairs. Negative sentiments regarding U.S. policies and politics, for example, have not necessarily implied similar views about U.S. culture, or even its economic system; the realms are separate, yet interrelated. Certain moments and crisis situations have severely tested this uneasy co-existence of anti-American and pro-American attitudes. The Iraq war presents a clear example of such a moment.

Michael Shifter is vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue and adjunct professor of Latin American studies at Georgetown University.