Frank Tannenbaum, Mexico, and the Cuban Revolution

Frank Tannenbaum is considered one of the leading scholars on Latin American and Mexican studies in the 20^th century. His interpretation of the Mexican Revolution became one of the main historiographical approaches to this major event and influenced subsequent generations of politicians and historians. Professor at Columbia University from 1935 until the end of his life, founder of the Seminar on Latin America in 1943 and the University Seminars in 1944, Tannenbaum was recognized for his versatility and the diversity of his academic interests as well as his social and political relationships.

In spite of his influence in the postwar years both in Columbia University and in the intellectual spheres of some Latin American countries, most of the essays written on Frank Tannenbaum have focused in his relationship with during the first post-revolutionary years. Much less is known about Tannenbaum’s work, writings and professional relations in later decades, as well as to what extent he remained a key figure in U.S.-Latin American relations during the Cold War. Like many others in his time, Tannenbaum was an anticommunist concerned with the Soviets winning prestige in Latin America, therefore affecting negatively the relationship with the United States.  In this context, this paper will explore Tannenbaum’s views on the Cuban revolution and its influence in Latin America. In the early 1960s he became especially concerned with the fact that the Cubans seemed to win the battle for the “hearts and minds” of Latin American intellectuals, who saw the Cuban revolution as liberation from “Yankee imperialism”.