Courtesy of Helen Parker

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, BY MANUEL SAMANIEGO (18TH CENTURY)

there; an exhibition of murals by Ecuadorean painters; the works of Carlos Díaz, a Colombian painter, and of Eudaldo Morales, a Chilean painter.

The museum is open every day except Monday from 9:30 to 12:30 and from 2:30 to 6:00, and has an average attendance of 1,000 a month. It offers frequent free lectures on art and encourages visits from school children and college students.

Señor Delgado is the quiet force behind the patent worth of the museum. A native of Quito, he studied art both there and abroad. He spent six years in Europe, studying museum collections. He has visited the United States three times to make a study of art museums and their methods, once at the invitation of the Department of State, and was Ecuador's official commissioner to the San Francisco Fair. His outlook is modern, though his chief concern appears to be with colonial art. One can sense his scholarship even in a brief encounter, and one can see generous evidence of his taste and sensitivity in the museum he directs.

The Museum of Colonial Art has its own special flavor, unlike the museums of the United States. We have fountains in patios, but we do not have simple folk of the neighborhood sauntering in with their water jars to fill them at our fountains. We have guards, but they are not women, sometimes very pretty women, dressed as they please, sitting about embroidering as they "guard." They really do guard, nevertheless, following the visitor about with vigilance. We seem to care so much about how "big" our museums are and how "big" is our attendance. Perhaps we have to, in our country; but in Ecuador the peaceful, uncrowded charm of the old house lends much to one's enjoyment of the collections.

There are social implications aplenty in the foregoing remarks, of course. The

museum has women guards because they are "cheaper," Señor Delgado explained ruefully. He would prefer men in uniforms. And it is obvious why boys and girls visit the museum's fountain. These aspects will pass, no doubt, when the reasons for them pass. But the museum will remain outstanding in South America as an example of what South Americans I can do to preserve their heritages.

Not far from the museum, inside the open doorway of his windowless shop, sits a sculptor; all day long the chips fly from the wooden saints he is carving. All about him are saints, some old ones that he treasures, some half-fashioned, some garish

in their finished polychrome. One wonders a little what the museum means to this untutored craftsman of 1947. Could he with a little help have been another Caspicara? The Indians who trot along the streets of Quito bending under heavy burdens-what does the museum mean to these who are so numerous in the population of Ecuador? What could it mean?

These are questions the museums of South America have not answered. However, people in the United States live in glass houses. There are parallel problems in every city in our country, and we are only beginning to solve them.

A POSITIVE program for creating international good will between the American Republics is found in the educational tours conducted by the National Education Association of the United States for its members.

The NEA realized the importance of teachers in the formation of international attitudes when it created the Division of Travel Service a little more than two years ago. The major objectives of the travel program include: providing the means by which our teachers and the host teachers in each country may come together under conditions that will result in mutual respect and a better understanding of the problems, economy, traditions, and cultural patterns of each other's nation; offering the teachers important educational, recreational, and social experiences in the regions or countries visited; and giving the teachers the greatest travel values (as well as a good time) at the lowest possible

cost.

Last summer the Travel Service operated sixteen tours to Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the New England states and Canada. More than 450 members of the NEA made up the groups. They represented fortytwo states, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

In effect, these tours are extended field trips planned especially for teachers.

To insure the greatest benefit from travel the program starts long before the tours actually begin. As soon as a teacher makes an inquiry regarding a particular tour, a

selected bibliography of the tour area is sent. A Latin American bibliography is also enclosed in appropriate instances. Hence a knowledge of the life and the history of the tour area and of the problems and achievements in Latin American relations may be gained before the traveler leaves home.

The preparation of the traveler does not rest here. Orientation sessions are held by the experienced tour conductor in the city from which the trip starts. He discusses the mores and traditions of the country to be visited and explains accepted behavior on the part of visiting foreigners.

Once the group arrives in the foreign country another series of orientation sessions is held. At these meetings native professors and specialists interpret not only the historical background of the country but also geographic features and influences as they contribute to current conditions and problems.

For instance, on the tours to Cuba, Dr. Herminio Portell Vilá, director of the Instituto Cultural Cubano-Norteamericano, discussed the geography of Cuba with emphasis on the major agricultural products of the island, and correlated this subject with the life and problems of the Cuban people. At another meeting he spoke to the groups on the history of Cuba, and related points in his talk to the historical monuments and buildings which the tour members were to see. He developed the history of United States-Cuban relations, particularly the changes in these relations following the adoption of the