Chile and Peru: Universities and the Cold War, Peace Corps Volunteers, and Their Transnational Experiences in South America

This paper analyzes the presence of Peace Corp volunteers who worked at South American universities during the 1960s, paying special attention to the cases of Chile and Peru, where anti-American sentiments were expressed more vigorously. In both cases, Peace Corps volunteers were expelled from universities and the episodes were discussed nation-wide through media.

During the Cold War, universities became epicenters of important ideological battles and transnational spaces characterized by the intense circulation of people and ideas. This is why Peace Corps officials, as well as South American political movements decided to transform them in relevant ideological battlefields. Moreover, it was in American universities where volunteers were trained before going abroad. In these places they received training about communism and its dangers as well as classes about American values. All of these took place during the 1960s, a decade marked by the Cuban Revolution and by an impressive expansion of university systems throughout South America.