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Italian-Uruguayans for Free Italy: Serafino Romualdi's Quest for Transnational Anti-Fascist Networks during World War II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2020

Pedro Cameselle-Pesce
Pedro Cameselle-Pesce*
Affiliation:
Western Washington University Bellingham, [email protected]
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Abstract

In 1941, the well-known international Cold War actor Serafino Romualdi traveled to South America for the first time. As a representative of the New York-based Mazzini Society, Romualdi sought to grow a robust anti-fascist movement among South America's Italian communities, finding the most success in Uruguay. As Romualdi conducted his tour of South America, he began writing a series of reports on local fascist activities, which caught the attention of officials at the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA), a US government agency under the direction of Nelson Rockefeller. The OCIAA would eventually tap Romualdi and his growing connections in South America to gather intelligence concerning Italian and German influence in the region. This investigation sheds light on the critical function that Romualdi and his associates played in helping the US government to construct the initial scaffolding necessary to orchestrate various strategies under the umbrella of OCIAA-sponsored cultural diplomacy. Despite his limited success with Italian anti-fascist groups in Latin America, Romualdi's experience in the region during the early 1940s primed him to become an effective agent for the US government with a shrewd understanding of the value in shaping local labor movements during the Cold War.

Keywords

Serafino RomualdiItalia LibreUruguayan anti-fascismBureau of Latin American Research
Type
Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 247 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2020

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Footnotes

I am grateful to those colleagues who provided feedback on an earlier version of this paper at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. This article has benefitted greatly from the insightful comments provided by the two anonymous reviewers of The Americas. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge all the crucial assistance and support from the Fulbright Commission in Uruguay, as well as colleagues and archivists in Montevideo.

References

1. “Las actividades montevideanas a través del objectivo,” El País, August 20, 1941.

2. For more biographical information on Serafino Romualdi (1900-67), see his memoir Presidents and Peons: Recollections of a Labor Ambassador in Latin America (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1967). For a rich collection of documentary sources, see Serafino Romualdi Papers, 1936–1968, Cornell University Library, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Ithaca, NY.

3. While the anti-fascist Free Italy movement was originally composed of Italian nationals exiled in France after the German occupation, the movement became more centered in the Americas, as those exiled in France resettled in the United States and various South American countries. Many of the recently arrived Italian exiles joined the Mazzini Society, which was established in 1939.

4. On Italian anti-fascist movements in the United States, see Killinger, Charles, “Gaetano Salvemini: Antifascism in Thought and Action,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 15:5 (November 2010): 657–667CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Cannistraro, Philip V., “Luigi Antonini and the Italian Anti-Fascist Movements in the United States, 1940–1943,” Journal of American Ethnic History 5:1 (Fall 1985): 21–40Google Scholar.

5. Numerous scholars have examined the function of the OCIAA. For example, Sadlier offers an in-depth study on cultural diplomacy and OCIAA activities in Latin America. Sadlier, Darlene J., Americans All: Good Neighbor Cultural Diplomacy in World War II (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012)Google Scholar. On the significance and relevance of the OCIAA for historical research, see Cramer, Gisela and Prutsch, Ursula, “Nelson A. Rockefeller's Office of Inter-American Affairs (1940–1946) and Record Group 229,” Hispanic American Historical Review 86:4 (November 2006): 785–806CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. In a 1943 letter to Max Ascoli, written with the hope of continuing his work for the US government in Italy, Romualdi declared that in the 1920s he had identified “politically” as a “socialist,” having served as provincial secretary of the Socialist Party in Perugia. He also claimed to have been one of the charter members of the Partito Socialista Unitario, which represented the right wing of the left-right divide among Italian socialists. See Serafino Romualdi to Max Ascoli, November 4, 1943, Cornell University Library, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Romualdi Papers, Box 6, folder 10.

7. Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 17.

8. Although the coverage is rarely extensive, several scholarly works examine Serafino Romualdi's significant involvement in postwar labor movements in Latin America and beyond. For example, see American Labor's Global Ambassadors: The International History of the AFL-CIO during the Cold War, Robert Anthony Waters and Geert Van Goethem, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), which includes various chapters that clearly situate Romualdi's considerable efforts for the American Federation of Labor once appointed as its representative in Latin America. A more recent work is Semán's, ErnestoAmbassadors of the Working Class: Argentina's International Labor Activists and Cold War Democracy in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which details some of Romualdi's work in Argentina and other parts of Latin America during Perón's rule (1946-55). Romualdi's general role in labor movements in Latin America is also discussed in other works, including Alexander, Robert J., International Labor Organizations and Organized Labor in Latin America and the Caribbean: a History (Santa Barbara: Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2009)Google Scholar; Levenson-Estrada, Deborah, Trade Unionists against Terror: Guatemala City, 1954–1985 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994)Google Scholar; and Busch, Gary K., The Political Role of International Trade Unions (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other scholars who have briefly examined Romualdi's widespread work in Latin America as an agent of the US government during the Cold War include Becker, Marc, The FBI in Latin America: The Ecuador Files (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Iber, Patrick, Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Romualdi's work in postwar Italy, see Filippelli, Ronald L., American Labor and Postwar Italy, 1943–1953: A Study of Cold War Politics (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar.

9. Newton, Ronald, The “Nazi Menace” in Argentina, 1931–1947 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 351Google Scholar. For example, the South American information network included Florence-born historian and social scientist Antonello Gerbi, who provided the bureau with reports from Peru, where he had lived since the late 1930s. Peru-based Alberto Pincherle, a historian and philosopher from Rome, provided BLAR with a view of the sociopolitical situation in Peru in the early 1940s.

10. On the impact of US fears of a German fifth column in the United States during World War II, see MacDonnell, Francis, Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

11. Despite Terra's apparent political and cultural affinity for fascist Europe, it was Uruguay's trade policy during this period that best provides clarification of the difficulties in Uruguay-United States relations during much of the 1930s. While cultural ties can be more clearly explained by the shared history between Italy and Uruguay, the nature of diplomatic relations between Italy and Uruguay during the period was also a function of Terra's economic pragmatism. Uruguay's trade with Italy reached its climax in the first half of the 1930s. On 1930s Uruguayan-Italian relations, see Ayçaguer, Ana María Rodríguez, Un pequeño lugar bajo el sol: Mussolini, la conquista de Etiopía y la diplomacia uruguaya, 1935–1938 (Montevideo: Ediciones Banda Oriental, 2009)Google Scholar.

12. The historic importance and political use of Giuseppe Garibaldi's image has been investigated by several scholars. For example, Riall's, LucyGaribaldi: Invention of a Hero (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)Google Scholar shows how Garibaldi's image and myth were constructed and later appropriated by various political leaders and movements.

13. Moya, Jose, Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850–1930 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 46–47Google Scholar.

14. In addition to significant immigration from France, the region received smaller numbers of migrants from Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and England.

15. During the most concentrated period of immigration, from 1923 to 1931, Uruguay received some 180,000 migrants who were driven out of war-torn Europe under difficult political and economic conditions and attracted by Uruguay's encouraging economic situation. Nahum, Benjamín, Manual de historia del Uruguay, Tomo II: 1903–2010 (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental. 2014), 117Google Scholar. As in the United States, the ratio of newcomers to the resident Uruguayan population fluctuated at around one-sixth of the population. According to Uruguayan historian Juan Oddone, the departmental census from 1900 (not including Montevideo) showed foreigners at 18 percent of the population (97,415 out of 647,313). The 1908 nationwide census placed those figures at close to 18 percent (181,222 out of 1,042,666). See Oddone, Juan, La formación del Uruguay moderno: la inmigración y el desarrollo económico-social (Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 1966), 55–58Google Scholar. This percentage was even higher in the capital city, Montevideo, where immigrants constituted nearly half the population of 215,000 in 1889 and 30 percent of its population of 309,000 in 1908. See Michael Goebels, “Gauchos, Gringos and Gallegos: The Assimilation of Italian and Spanish Immigrants in the Making of Modern Uruguay 1880–1930,” Past and Present 208 (August 2010): 191–229, esp. 198. Moreover, Goebels points out that estimates of the total net inflow of European immigrants from 1880 to 1930 vary because of unreliable entry statistics. Some scholars cite figures as high as 579,000, whereas more conservative figures estimate calculate European migration to Uruguay at 273,000 between 1880 and 1930. Italians made up roughly one-third of these immigrants to Uruguay, and according to the 1889 and 1908 censuses, they made up 47 and 43 percent, respectively, of Montevideo's population.

16. Oddone, La formación del Uruguay moderno, 58.

17. Michael Goebels, “Gauchos, Gringos and Gallegos,” 207. Additionally, Goebels notes that Spanish immigrants, in contrast to their Italian and French counterparts, became more closely associated with the National Party (Blancos), which traditionally had a landed rural base and protected the interests of native-born Uruguayans.

18. For the leading English-language scholarship on the importance of José Batlle y Ordóñez, see Vanger, Milton I., The Model Country: José Batlle y Ordóñez of Uruguay, 1907–1915 (Hanover, NH: University of New England Press, 1980)Google Scholar; and Vanger, Milton I., José Batlle y Ordóñez of Uruguay: The Creator of His Times, 1902–1907 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19. Oddone, Juan, “Italians in Uruguay: Political Participation and Country Consolidation during Mass Migration,” Center for Migration Studies, Special Issues 11:3 (May 1994): 210–228, 226CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Oddone, “Italians in Uruguay,” 223.

21. Rodríguez Ayçaguer, Un pequeño lugar bajo el sol, 24.

22. According to Uruguayan historian Esther Ruiz, Terra's coup in 1933 ostensibly divided the country into Terristas and fascists on one hand, and anti-Terristas and anti-fascists on the other. See Ruiz, Esther, “Del viraje conservador al realineamiento internacional, 1933–1945,” in Historia del Uruguay en el siglo XX: 1890–2005, Frega, Ana et al. , eds. (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 2007), 85–86Google Scholar.

23. During the previous era, the US legation had shown a concern primarily for Communist activity in Uruguay. US newspapers at times referred to Montevideo as the Communist capital of the Americas. However, in the 1930s, this worry and attention from the legation, like that of the broader US government, transitioned to a more acute concern about fascism.

24. Leon Dominian, “President Terra's Italian Leanings,” US Legation Report No. 777, October 11, 1934, US National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State, RG59.

25. A potential supporter of Mazzolini's work in Uruguay was the local World War I Italian veterans’ group, the Associazione Nazionale ex Combattenti e Reduci Italiani. In late November 1933, the secretary of Montevideo's Fascio (the main fascist association) wrote to the president of the Italian veterans’ group, expressing Mazzolini's astonishment that not every veteran was yet a member of the local Fascio and stating that the minister expected full veteran registration by year's end. Even as the political opposition to Terra's dictatorship persistently called attention to and criticized the danger in the fascist inclinations of his government, Uruguay's economic and political ties with fascist Europe grew stronger during Terra's rule. See Rodríguez Ayçaguer, Un pequeño lugar bajo el sol, 23–30.

26. Leon Dominian, Relation of Italian Minister to President Terra, US Legation Report No. 867. December 7, 1934, US National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State, RG59.

27. Dominian, Relation of Italian Minister to President Terra, December 7, 1934.

28. Dominian, Relation of Italian Minister to President Terra, December 7, 1934.

29. Leon Dominian, “President Gabriel Terra; Activities of Italian Minister in Montevideo,” US Legation Report No. 950, January 30, 1935, US National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State, RG59.

30. For example, Leslie Reed, the US chargé in Montevideo, reported in 1937 that some of the talks delivered by Franco representatives were under the auspices of a women's group, composed of such prominent persons as the wives of Terra and other political leaders. According to the legation, other events that were part of this program had been attended by “representatives of the local Fascist and Nazi organizations.” See Leslie E. Reed, US Legation Report No. 103, December 10, 1937, US National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State, RG59.

31. See Rodríguez Ayçaguer, Un pequeño lugar bajo el sol. Rodríguez Ayçaguer offers an extensive and multi-archival investigation of Uruguay's diplomatic relations with Italy during the Ethiopian affair.

32. La Mañana, “Ayer partieron en el ‘Augustus’ los voluntarios del Uruguay que se dirigen a incorporarse al ejército italiano,” October 3, 1935, Archivo Documental Literario, Biblioteca Nacional del Uruguay, Montevideo.

33. Rodríguez-Ayçaguer points out that while Montevideo's Fascio had 1100 members, the Circolo Napolitano, considered the main anti-fascist bastion, counted on more than 6000 associates. Rodríguez- Ayçaguer, Un pequeño lugar bajo el sol, 28.

34. According to Eugenia Scarzanella, the participation of Italy in the first Italian-Ethiopian war (1895-96), the Italian-Turkish War (1911-12), and World War I (1915-18) helped to strengthen solidarity and ethnic identity among Italians in Argentina. In a climate of heated patriotism, associations, regional circles, newspapers, and social clubs supported Italy in the war. Funds were raised for the war effort and Italian citizens were repatriated, either as volunteers or after being summoned to fight, reaching a total of over 32,000. The response to these conflicts was in clear contrast to the way in which the Italian communities in South America's Southern Cone responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. See Eugenia Scarzanella, “Cuando la patria llama: Italia en guerra y los inmigrantes italianos en Argentina. Identidad étnica y nacionalismo (1936–1945),” Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos (March 2007), https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/3735, accessed December 10, 2019.

35. The most extensive coverage came from the newspaper L'Italiano, which carried the name and picture of each volunteer and emphasized their “most epic and human devotion to the homeland.” L'Italiano, “Elenco dei volontari per l'Africa Orientale partiti da Montevideo,” December 8-15, 1935. El Pueblo and La Mañana, both pro-Terra newspapers, frequently covered the activities of the Fascio in Montevideo and those events that were sponsored or attended by Mazzolini. El Pueblo even carried a notice from the Italian legation calling for the enrollment of volunteers to join Italy's campaign in Africa.

36. For example, an editorial in the Terra-owned El Pueblo newspaper from early September 1935 weighed in on the brewing Italian-Ethiopian conflict and Uruguay's future stance at the League of Nations, neither endorsing “wars of conquest” nor condemning Italy's aggression. Instead, the piece cautioned against a “juridical thesis of inflexible character” and expressed the opinion that “we [Uruguayans] are not and could not be an impartial judge in the matter,” since “we are bound to Italy by ties of extraordinary strength.” See El Pueblo, “El Pueblo: Uruguay y el conflicto italo-abisinio,” September 6, 1935. The editorial also reminded readers of the vast contributions by Italians to the Uruguayan nation, and asserted that, “Italy is in our history, in our customs, in our culture and in the migratory formation of our people . . . and in every home there is a Uruguayan of Italian descent.”

37. William Dawson, US Legation Report No. 168, 833.00 F/18, May 19, 1938, US National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State, RG59.

38. Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 16.

39. For more information on the Mazzini Society, see “Mazzini Society” in The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia, LaGumina, Salvatore J, Cavaioli, Frank J, Primeggia, Salvatore, and Varacalli, Joseph A. eds. (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), 362Google Scholar; On the use of the Mazzini Society by British intelligence during World War II, see Fedorowich, Kent, “‘Toughs and Thugs’: The Mazzini Society and Political Warfare amongst Italian POWs in India, 1941-43,” Intelligence and National Security 20:1 (2005): 147–172CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40. Delzell, Charles F., Mussolini's Enemies: The Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 2Google Scholar. Socialist-oriented Luigi Antonini, for example, represented the “right wing” of the American Labor Party, which sought to remove Communist elements from its ranks. New York Times, “Right Wing Wins Labor Party Row: Antonini Is Re-elected State Chairman Over Rose by New Committee,” April 14, 1940.

41. Killinger, Charles, “Nazioni Unite and the Anti-Fascist Exiles in New York City, 1940–1946,” Italian American Review 8:1 (2001): 157–195Google Scholar, esp. 168; LaGumina, Salvatore J., The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans (Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press, 2006), 214Google Scholar.

42. Luigi Antonini, an extremely influential figure in New York's Italian-American community, had immigrated to the United States in 1908. He served as vice president for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and later as president of the Italian Dressmakers Local 89 in New York City. See Filippelli, American Labor and Postwar Italy, 21.

43. In the 1940s, Fernández Artucio gained much notoriety for his efforts to uncover an alleged Nazi plot in Uruguay. He also published several books on the Nazi threat in South America. See Artucio, Hugo Fernández, The Nazi Underground in South America (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942)Google Scholar. During the war, he served as the Latin American editor for the New York magazine Free World, traveling throughout the Americas and Europe warning of the menace of fascism.

44. John W. White, “Democracy Parley Opened in Uruguay,” New York Times, March 21, 1939, 12. According to White, only two Communist delegates (both from Chile) attended the meeting, because organizers refrained from inviting Communists to avoid “charges made by certain governments that the congress was Communistic.”

45. Luigi Antonini, “The Policy of Democracy in the Struggle Against Fascism: Comments and Conclusions,” presented at the International Congress of American Democracies, Montevideo, March 29-30, 1939, Cornell University, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, in the collection titled ILGWU, Local 89, Luigi Antonini Correspondence, 1919–1968, Box 47, folder 4.

46. This shift in public opinion can generally be explained by various internal and external factors, including an opening of politics in Uruguay with the 1938 election of a more permissive president in Alfredo Baldomir, a bourgeoning Italian-German alliance that was formalized by 1939, and an opposition to growing fascist aggression and crimes in the European theater, which was later exacerbated by the fall of France and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941.

47. El Plata, “Toda la Republica acompaña en su indignación a los duraznenses,” July 2, 1941.

48. By most accounts, the person killed was a 70-year old bystander, Gregorio Morales, a drawing teacher.

49. Washington Post, “Uruguay Riot Links Fascist,” June 30, 1941, 25.

50. Newspapers in Uruguay and the United States carried reports of other attacks on properties of suspected Nazi-fascist sympathizers in response to the Durazno incident. For example, in Montevideo the German café Oro del Rhin had several windows smashed, while in the city of Trinidad, just east of Durazno, two stores owned by suspected fascists were ransacked and left in ruins.

51. El Plata, “En otros departamentos hubo ataques contra casas Nazis,” July 1, 1941.

52. As quoted in El Plata, “La prensa y el crimen de Durazno,” July 1, 1941.

53. A large part of the intense debate concerned the alleged participation in the benefit of Blanco congressman, Alejandro Kayel, who also directed the short-lived pro-Nazi newspaper Libertad. When Libertad was first published, in May 31, 1941, hundreds of student protesters demonstrated at the newspaper's headquarters, which were cordoned off by police. The next day, Libertad mocked the situation by carrying a picture of these students under the misleading headline: “University Students Interrupt Traffic While They Acclaim Libertad.” The newspaper, which lasted less than a month, carried news ranging from Axis gains in the war to stories about a popular desire for isolationism in the United States. These articles generally originated from Germany's Transocean news service. Editorials more directly attacked US imperialism, the Jewish community in Uruguay, and Pan-Americanism. The paper also carried advertisements for the Italian Red Cross.

54. Serafino Romualdi, “Los italianos en la guerra actual,” delivered at the Ateneo institution on August 28, 1941. It is not clear whether Romualdi delivered his speeches in Spanish or Italian. Newspaper reports do not indicate that his interviews or speeches were given in any language other than Spanish. However, most of his correspondence with his contacts in the region during this period (1941-44) was conducted in Italian. There is a possibility that his inability to fully communicate in Spanish might have limited his work to Italian circles.

55. El País, “En el Ateneo aprobaron una declaración antifascista,” August 29, 1941.

56. El País, “Serafino Romualdi habló sobre ‘Los Italianos en la Guerra Actual,’” August 30, 1941.

57. Tribuna (Rosario), “Llegan hoy S. Romualdi y S. Cicotti,” September 10, 1941.

58. La Vanguardia (Buenos Aires), “La unificación democrática de los italianos de América, October 29, 1941.

59. Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 16.

60. An Italia Libre Committee in Uruguay pre-existed Romualdi's visit. The association conducted various actions and meetings that were sometimes covered by the Uruguayan press. However, after Romualdi's visit, a new entity was established, with consulting and executive committees made up of prominent Italian-Uruguayans, which was to be in constant contact with its New York counterpart, the Mazzini Society.

61. Newton's The ‘Nazi Menance’ in Argentina provides one of the most thorough explanations of the reality and myth that accounted for US concerns about Nazi activity in the region. In an earlier work, Newton examined the changing attitudes of Italian-Argentines toward Italian fascism. See Newton, Ronald C. “Ducini, Prominenti, Antifascisti: Italian Fascism and the Italo-Argentine Collectivity, 1922–1945,” The Americas 51:1 (July 1994): 41–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an in-depth discussion of the cultural and political transnational connections between Argentine and Italian fascism during the first half of the century, see Finchelstein, Federico, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919–1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

62. On the function of cultural diplomacy in Latin America during World War II and the role of the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs, see Fejes, Fred, Imperialism, Media, and the Good Neighbor: New Deal Foreign Policy and the United States Shortwave Broadcasting to Latin America (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1989)Google Scholar; and Darlene Sadlier, Americans All. More specifically, on the function of culture and propaganda in Italian-American communities, see Pretelli, Matteo, La via fascista alla democrazia americana: Culture e propaganda nelle comunità italo-americane (Viterbo: Sette Città, 2012)Google Scholar; and Luconi, Stefano, La “diplomazia parallela”: il regime fascista e la mobilitazione politica degli italo-americani (Milan: Angeli, 2000)Google Scholar. For a sweeping discussion of the origins of public diplomacy and the significance of the image of the United States, see Hart, Justin, Empire of Ideas: The Origins of Public Diplomacy and the Transformation of U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

63. As part of its cultural diplomacy campaign to influence public opinion, the Office of the Coordinator sent various cultural ambassadors to Uruguay and other parts of Latin America. For example, in 1940 the OCIAA sponsored the goodwill tour of the acclaimed Italian conductor exiled in the United States, Arturo Toscanini, who visited Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In August and September of 1941, Walt Disney and a group of his artists also visited several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. The footage, music, and inspiration for the Disney movies Saludos Amigos and Three Caballeros came as a result of the trip.

64. Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 17.

65. The exact number of delegates attending the meeting in Montevideo is unclear, but figures range from 400, according to one Uruguayan newspaper account, to 1500, according to the New York Times. See Arnaldo Cortesi, “Free Italy Move Opens in Uruguay: 1,500 Delegates Representing 10,000,000 Nationals in Latin America Attend,” New York Times, August 15, 1942.

66. Frugoni, whose father was a merchant of Genovese origin, was the first socialist in Uruguay's congress and founder of the Uruguayan Socialist Party in 1910.

67. El Día, “En un gran acto celebrando ayer de tarde en el Sodre, la conferencia panamericana de Montevideo lanzó una histórica declaración,” August 18, 1942.

68. El Plata, “Con motivo del Congreso de Italianos Libre: manifestaciones de nuestro canciller,” August 19, 1942.

69. Asociación Italia Libre del Uruguay, “Charla a los inmigrantes italianos de América Latina,” por Serafin Romualdi, Comité Italo-Americano de Educación Democrática, Montevideo, March 1943, 23, Sala Uruguay, Biblioteca Nacional del Uruguay, Montevideo.

70. Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 19.

71. In Uruguay, Precinradio secretly owned two long-wave radio stations near the Argentine border. See “Secret Corp. in Showbiz,” Billboard 56 (May 27, 1944): 4. The purchase of these powerful radio stations in Uruguay was the corporation's main project, which ultimately proved unsuccessful and was discontinued by 1945. See Fox, Elizabeth, Latin American Broadcasting: From Tango to Telenovela (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 22Google Scholar; and Holmes Thomson, Charles Alexander, Overseas Information Service of the United States Government (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1948), 131Google Scholar.

72. Romualdi shared information with key US government officials, including Carl B. Spaeth who worked closely with Nelson Rockefeller and served as the US representative to the Inter-American Committee on Political Defense of the Continent. See Romualdi, Presidents and Peons, 19. This intergovernmental body, created in January 1942 and headquartered in Montevideo, was tasked with checking fascist infiltration in the Americas by proposing Pan-American regulations that worked against the Axis powers, their nationals, agents, or sympathizers.

73. Bruno Foa, Outline of Operation of “Italian” Emergency Plan, in letter to Nelson Rockefeller, December 18, 1942, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 2.

74. Bruno Foa, Operational Plan of New Project, in letter to Max Ascoli, N. Rockefeller, and W. K. Harrison, November 8, 1941, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 2.

75. Foa, Operational Plan of New Project, November 8, 1941.

76. Bruno Foa memo to Max Ascoli, January 6, 1942, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 2.

77. Serafino Romualdi, Needs for Improved Information Service, 1943, Cornell University Library, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Romualdi Papers, Box 6, folder 10.

78. Max Ascoli, On the Present Attitude of the Italians in Latin America, Secret Memo #B-67, Bureau of Latin American Research, July 15, 1943, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 3.

79. Romualdi, Needs for Improved Information Service.

80. Bruno Foa, Outline of Operation of “Italian” Emergency Plan.

81. Confidential memo to Max Ascoli from Bruno Foa, December 12, 1942, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 2.

82. Ascoli, On the Present Attitude of the Italians in Latin America, July 15, 1943.

83. William J. Donovan, Director of Office of Strategic Services, to Harold D. Smith, Director of Bureau of the Budget, June 9, 1943, in OSS, Memoranda Concerning Budgetary Issues/Salary and Expense Forms, 1943, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP13X00001R000100350001-5.pdf, accessed August 1, 2019.

84. See Totalitarian Activities: Uruguay . . . Today, July 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Harry L. Hopkins Collection, Box 143, folder FBI Reports.

85. Donovan to Smith, June 9, 1943.

86. Ascoli, “On the Present Attitude of the Italians in Latin America,” July 15, 1943.

87. Ascoli, “On the Present Attitude of the Italians in Latin America,” July 15, 1943.

88. El Progreso magazine was published by the Círculo Italo-Uruguayo, formed in 1938 with the aim of bringing together Italian exiles, immigrants, and their descendants in the struggle against fascism. This association's membership increased after the outbreak of war, giving it more influence. In turn, the Círculo leadership decided to ramp up their efforts in the summer of 1940, after Italy entered the war, by publishing El Progreso magazine, holding more public actions against fascism, and organizing a more active agenda of cultural activities. While its editors originally called for neutrality, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Pearl Harbor attack made that position untenable. See Bresciano, Juan Andrés, “El antifascismo ítalo-uruguayo en el contexto de la Segunda Guerra Mundial,” Deportate, Esuli, Profughi [Special issue: Violenza, conflitti e migrazioni in America Latina] 11: (2009), 94–111Google Scholar, esp. 97.

89. See Romualdi to Ascoli, November 4, 1943.

90. Confidential memo to Max Ascoli from Bruno Foa, December 12, 1942, Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Bruno Foa Papers, Box 1, Latin American affairs folder 2.