Roland H. Ebel Collection of
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes Materials, 1917-(1958-1963)-1997
COLLECTION GUIDE
Prepared by Philip S. MacLeod, April 2000.
Roland H. Ebel is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Tulane
University, where he taught from 1965 until his retirement in 1994. He
specializes in Latin American Politics, with an emphasis on Central
America, and in particular Guatemala. Dr. Ebel received an A.B. in
History from Wheaton College; an M.A. in Education from Northwestern
University; and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State
University. Among his notable publications are Political Modernization
in Three Guatemalan Indian Communities (New Orleans, 1969) and
Political Culture and Foreign Policy in Latin America: Case Studies
from the Circum-Caribbean (New York, 1991). The present collection was
donated to the Latin American Library by Dr. Ebel in February, 2000. He
used these materials during the research of Misunderstood Caudillo:
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes and the Failure of Democracy in Guatemala.
(Latham, Maryland, 1998).
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes was born in Pueblo Nuevo in the Department of
Retalhuleu, Guatemala in 1895. Ydígoras graduated from the Academia
Militar de Guatemala in 1915. In 1941, he received the title of Engineer
from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. He was a general and
served as military governor of the Departments of Retalhuleu, Petén,
Jalapa, and San Marcos (1922-1939). He was also the chief of the highway
department (1939-1944). In 1950, Ydígoras Fuentes stood as a candidate for
President of Guatemala, but lost the election to Jacobo Arbenz. Ydígoras
ran and was elected President of Guatemala in 1958, but was forced from
power in 1963 when former President Juan José Arévalo returned to
Guatemala. He lived in exile in El Salvador for a number of years after
his overthrow. Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes died in Guatemala City in 1982 at
the age of 87.
Collection Arrangement
I) Correspondence, 19??
1 item in 1 folder
II) Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes Materials (1919-1987)
60 items in 10 folders
III) Miscellaneous Articles on Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes (1950-1997)
44 items in 4 folders
IV) Miscellaneous Field Programs--Guatemala (1959-1963)
4 items in 3 folders
V) State Department Publications
a) Joint Weeka
342 items in 24 folders
b) American Embassy Dispatches
499 items in 22 folders
Collection Overview
This collection spans the years 1919 to 1997, with the majority of
documents dating between 1958 and 1963, the period of the Ydígoras Fuentes
Presidency. The vast majority of the collection consists of materials
issued by the U.S. State Department. These items include nearly all issues
of a weekly publication entitled Joint Weeka, sent to the
Department of State by the American Embassy in Guatemala between 1958 and
1963. These reports mainly dealt with Guatemalan political affairs. The
other series of State Department publications are a number of dispatches
from the American Embassy in Guatemala and U.S. Embassies in other Central
American nations. Many of these materials were not declassified until the
1980s and 1990s.
The portion of the collection identified as the "Miguel Ydígoras
Fuentes Materials (1917-1987)" contains several private documents provided
to Dr. Ebel by Miguel Ydígoras-Laparra, President Miguel Ydígoras
Fuentes' son. Memos addressed to Dr. Ebel, concerning the content of
these papers, are attached to the documents and signed by Miguel
Ydígoras-Laparra. This section of the collection also contains a
day-by-day schedule of President Ydígoras Fuentes' activities (1958-1959)
and a copy of the third part of his unpublished memoirs "Memorias del
General de Brigada e Ingeniero Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes."
The collection also includes United States Agency for International
Development reports, and newspaper, popular magazine and scholarly
articles that deal with Guatemala. There is only one item of
correspondence in the collection, but it is an interesting letter
addressed to Dr. Ebel by former CBS News correspondent Burt Quint,
concerning his recollection of Guatemalan affairs during the return of
Juan José Arévalo in 1963.
For more details see the printed collection guide in the LAL
office.
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Last updated: April 25, 2000