powerful as the first two. Both Brazil and the United States are
nations of immigrants. Although your native language is Portuguese
and ours is English, nevertheless our populations are made up of
people who have come to our two nations from all the countries of the
world. You here in Petropolis have visual proof of this fact before
you every day as you read the names engraved on the obelisk that
dominates your magnificent central square. Men and women from all
over Europe—and from Asia and Africa too—have come to Brazil, as
they have come to the United States, to devote their lives and their
talents to the creation of a great and new nation. Few nations in the
world are fortunate enough to possess the strengths that come from a
population mixture that represents a true multi-national melting pot.
You in Brazil and we in the United States both possess such a heritage,
and we both value it highly.

With all of these attributes in common, it seems hard to believe that
the rank and file members of our two societies have been so long
getting to know each other intimately. Federal government and busi-
ness officials have, of course, long commuted regularly between Brazil
and the United States. But the ordinary citizens of our two nations
still have all too few opportunities to get to know one another on an
individual and personal basis. This opportunity has now been afforded
us, at least in a greater degree than heretofore, by the Partners of the
Alliance Program. This Program has already resulted in an exchange
of numerous visits between citizens of the State of Rio and citizens of
Maryland, and I am sure that these initial contacts represent only the
beginnings of many, many more still to come.

My own trip here, I believe, represents an entirely new role for a
governor of a state of the United States, and I am hopeful that it will
set a precedent that will be followed by other governors in the future.
As I am sure you realize, the governor of a state in both of our countries
normally devotes himself almost entirely to the pressing domestic
concerns of the people of his own state. Foreign affairs and visits to
foreign lands are normally left in the hands of the federal govern-
ment, and occasionally members of the federal legislature. Yet, here
am I, the Governor of one of the fifty states of the United States,
visiting the State of Rio as the guest of Governor Torres and being
given this extraordinary honor by this great Catholic University of
Petropolis. Is this unusual?... Yes... Is it strange?... No. The
only thing strange about it is that such contacts have not taken place
long before this. For it is my firm conviction that we State Representa-
tives—precisely because we are not concerned with so-called "foreign"

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