Gracias Amigos

This 1944 propaganda short, produced by the U.S. Office of Inter-American Affairs, highlights Latin America’s crucial role in securing Allied victory during WWII. Filmed in black-and-white, it opens with a jarring recap of Pearl Harbor and losses at Wake Island and Bataan, narrated by Lowell Thomas, underscoring America’s pre-war illusions of self-sufficiency. As Japan seizes key resource zones, the film pivots to the Southern republics—nations like Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia—stepping up with vital raw materials: rubber for tires, nitrates for explosives, quartz for radio oscillators, sisal for ropes, tin for alloys, and manganese for steel. Footage shows rubber tappers in Amazon jungles, nitrate mines in Chilean deserts, and bustling ports shipping goods north. The 1942 Rio Conference is dramatized, cementing hemispheric solidarity, while scenes of Latin American troops and the strategic Natal, Brazil airbase emphasize military support. A patriotic ode to the Good Neighbor Policy, it credits these allies for filling critical gaps, ending with a salute to their unsung heroism.