REPRESENTING THE AMERICAS DURING THE COLD WAR: LATIN AMERICA AND AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY

This article discusses the results of an analysis of two fields of study and attempts to measure the reaction of US sociology toward current events in Latin America during the period 1945-70. Our field consists of articles from five journals of sociology as well as the doctoral and master's dissertations from all departments of sociology in the United States. The article shows that sociology reacts to current events. Sociology is even, sometimes, also critical of the position of the US government. Furthermore, two process of lexical transformation (de-folklorization and de-exotization) are also framed. These processes show how much, behind the logics of confrontation, the field of sociology represented Latin America in the terms of economic and social currents that, partially, oriented the standpoints of US foreign policy toward Central and South America.