that on balance the conference was a positive event. This view was strengthened after the defeat of Blaine's proposals on arbitration and the customs union, and the approval of less sweeping alternates proposed by the Latin American delegations. Martí was especially impressed by the value of having key figures in Hemisphere diplomacy meet and work together for an extended period of time. Beyond the formal resolutions, Martí observed, there were important human relationships which would result in closer ties between the diverse nations of the Hemisphere. In many ways, this was the enduring legacy of the Conference: the regular pattern of inter-American meetings at five-year intervals for many decades to come. Coupled with the establishment of a permanent secretariat, a library, and a data bank on matters pertaining to trade, commerce and transportation, the conference provided concrete instruments for consolidating Martí's "nuestra America". In following Martí's writings from the beginning to end of the First International American Conference of 1889–1890, one senses a subtle change in Martí himself. His sometimes harsh criticism of Blaine and the U.S. government becomes more muted as he realizes that the Latin Americans, standing together and working with their U.S. hosts, could forge a greater mutual understanding. For Martí personally there was an important sequel in this world of inter-American conference diplomacy: in 1891 he was appointed Uruguay's delegate to the International Monetary Congress, which met in Washington from January to April 1891. As he watched the delegates depart in May 1890, Martí notes the way they have changed over the long seven months of personal and official contact: "They are leaving now, wiser and silent, the delegates who came from the nations of America to deal, at Washington's invitation, with American issues. The Central Americans are returning, more "centralamerican" than when they arrived, because when they arrived they were suspicious of each other, and now they return together as if they understood that this way of proceeding will be better for them. In the conversations all manner of things are emerging, little by little, without the caution seen in the official contacts: the curious notes, the correcting of misunderstandings, the astonishments". Martí quotes a U.S. delegate whom he labels "converted": "Now I am convinced that I have spent my years chasing butterflies". One important by-product of the conference which Martí notes as being significant was the increased respect the U.S. government now had for