There are strong moves to promote humanism in the Spanish-speaking world. In Madrid a major humanist Congress has been held (see front page) which augurs well for the future. In Mexico a new journal Razonamientos has been founded – a rationalist magazine for South America (see the Nettie Column) The next full IHEU Congress will be held in Mexico in November 1996. It will be the first IHEU Congress in the developing world.

Human justice is an essential plant of humanism. And any humanist today must be aware of this on a global scale. The injustice of the developed world’s excessive use of world resources of their offer of loans which become impossible to repay, of the dominance of a small number of affluent countries in world affairs – all point to the need for a fundamental shift, which humanists must play their part in bringing about.

Spain has a freethinking tradition with educationalists and secularists such as Ferrer (executed in 1909) and brilliant film-makers like Bunuel. In Mexico there have been liberal reformers critical of church power such as Jose Luis Maria Mora (1794 –1850) and the influence of positivism in the late nineteenth century. Now there may be a vast future for Hispanic humanism (remember the USA is also to a considerable extent Hispanic).