Good Neighbor Policy editorial
Kaiser Richmond newspaper Fore 'n' Aft March 30, 1945
Lincoln Cushing, 7/1/2025

On June 14, 2025 singer Vanessa Hernández (known as Nezza) opened a LA Dodgers-S.F. Giants baseball game with “El Pendón Estrellado,” the official Spanish version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 under the Good Neighbor Policy. Nezza, a child of immigrants, had been instructed to sing in English.

GOOD NEIGHBORS

"I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor-the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and because he does so, respects the rights of others ... "

This is the Good Neighbor policy, announced by President Roosevelt in 1933. It has improved our relations with the Latin American countries. It has helped them to help us fight a war. It can make a peaceful, prosperous and strong western hemisphere.

This Good Neighbor policy demands more than dollars, more than the honest efforts of statesmen, more than conventions. The main thing it needs is a bunch of good neighbors-you and I and the guy next door and the guys in Ecuador, El Salvador and Bolivia. We can do much to make Latin American-U. S. relations successful. Or, if we insist upon being stupid, we can hurt these relations.

Statesmen are trying to be good neighbors to Latin Americans who are hundreds of miles away. But that’s not the whole problem. The Latin American countries want us to be good neighbors to ALL Latin Americans. Yes, even the ones who live next door. We can’t convince Mexico that we'll be nice to 19,473,741 Mexicans below the border-if we can’t even be nice to three Mexicans who live across the street.

We cannot build friendly relations with other countries if we insist upon discriminating against American citizens who are descendants of their peoples. If we want the respect of Spanish-speaking nations we must respect the rights of Spanish-speaking Americans. If we want good faith from Latin America we must give equal opportunities to Americans of Latin descent.

We in California are an important test tube for the Good Neighbor policy. The Latin American countries watch our treatment of their people-just as we watch the treatment of our people in Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, etc.

Or we can give our citizens of Latin American origin a bad time. This can undermine our friendly relations with Latin American countries. It can make them think - with some justice – that we're fresh out of democracy and full of hot air and promises.

Illustration by Emmy Lou Packard.

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