The main purpose of this essay is to delineate the "parallel lives" of Raul Prebisch and Victor L. Urquidi, two Latin American economists moved by an electrifying passion: to understand the structural causes and consequences of Latin American underdevelopment, and formulate policies and measures to the governments in order to moderate the negative effects of the internal and externa] circumstances which distort the development of this region. Prebisch was an intellectual caudillo, an authoritarian prophet who as head of the Economic Commission for Latin American (ECLA) had the talent to absorb and disseminate new ideas which were formally adopted by the governments. He knew how to extract from different authors and col laborators original concepts and recommendations without duly recognizing his debt to them. Prebisch arti-culated an economic paradigm which was very influential in Latin America for three decades. In contrast, Victor L. Urquidi was an intellectual entrepreneur and an investigator of wide horizons and culture. He transformed El Colegio de Mexico in one of the leading academic institution in Latin America. His last book was marked by a deep pessimism concerning the contemporary social and economic evolution of this region. Both of them are waiting a Plutarco to bring up their respective saga.
