Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Victor L. Urquidi, 2000
| Creator: | Urquidi, Víctor L. | Project: | United Nations intellectual history project (UNIHP).
(see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files (96 kHz, 24 bit) | | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NotePersonal Assistant to UN Secretary General
Scope and ContentsEarly years: Born in Paris in 1919; Lived in Mexico, Colombia, England, Uruguay, Spain, and US; political interest at early age; interest in economics and international studies; parents' involvement in Spanish Civil War; student at London School of Economics (LSE) and Cambridge; Career: researcher at Bank of Mexico; translator for Mexican journal, Fondo de Cultura Economica; involvement in conferences on postwar prospects for Latin America and Mexico; assistant for Mexican delegation to conference by US Treasury and Inter-American Bank proposal; teacher for Basque Children's Refugee Committee in England; 1947-1949 head of Eastern Latin American Division loan department at World Bank; Special Assistant for Financial Studies, Mexican Ministry of Finance; 1951 office director at Economic Commission for Latin America, ECLA, Mexico City; 1964 professor at Colegio del México; Themes: correspondence with Harry White and the creation of IMF (International Monetary Fund); delegation at Bretton Woods conference; World Bank proposals; negotiating Mexico's debt; relationship with Isidro Fabela; El Colegio and Spanish Republican refugees fleeing to Mexico; independent study; conducting international silver trade for Mexico with Joseph Aboumrad; comparison of poverty in India and Mexico; early interest in League of Nations and international diplomacy; absence of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Far East; internationalist worldview; report on US-Mexican industrial trade relations during WWII; political control over power companies in Latin America; relationship with John J. McCloy, president of World Bank; contention over lending to Venezuela; overvalued currencies in Latin America; 1946 Bank of Mexico conference of central banks in western hemisphere; lack of focus on development at World Bank between 1947-1949; US government's power at World Bank; Latin American distrust of OAS (Organization of American States); involvement in The Marshall Plan; Central American integration proposal at conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; views of Raúl Prebisch; El Salvador-Honduras agreement; import substitution; ideological differences with CEPAL (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean); involvement in first multilateral Central America treaty
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2001
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