INTRODUCTION
Geography provides an excellent preparation for a consultant on Latin American problems dealing, as it uniquely does, with not only the physical aspects of the environment but also the social, economic, and political problems of a nation, region, or industry. The trained geographer is well-prepared to read and understand reports from geologists, cliimatologists, and other earth scientists, as well as from historians, economists, and sociologists. Furrthermore, geographers are trained to synthesize, to offer a brief, yet complete, picture of the subject under review.

During the past fifty years, I have had the privilege to serve as a consultant to at least a score of international and national organizations in assignments ranging from the Caribbean to Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. My experience as the founder and first president of the Puerto Rico Planning Board (1942-55) and as Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico (1955-58) and as president of the Government Development Bank was invaluable in my consulting assignments. Twenty years (1965-85) as an officer and director of the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico and three other private institutions was also an excellent background. My geographical training was, nevertheless, the basic preparation for all these jobs as well as for my advising in Latin America.

During half a century as a part-time consultant in Latin America there were many circumstances that required a geographical background. I have seelected my short-term assignment in 1952 as consultant to the United Nations Administration for Technical Assistance as an example of my work in Latin America. On May 21, 1950, Cuzco, Peru, was struck by a violent earthquake that did considderable damage to the city and left hundreds homeless. My task was to coordinate an immediate, short-term relief effort and also to develop a long-term development program.

CUZCO, PERU: A CASE STUDY
In 1952 the Department of Cuzco, one of the largest political units of Peru, included an area of 144,000 sq km and a population of 620,000. Its center was the city of Cuzco, capital of the ancient Inca Empire in the sixteenth century, which numbered some 60,000 inhabitants. The city was a living museum of Inca and Spanish monuments. The city of Cuzco and a large part of the Department of Cuzco are at more than 10,000 feet altitude and frost can occur any night. The Department also extends, however, along the Urubamba River almost to the Amazonian montaña or equatorial jungle plain to a zone known locally as the ceja de la montaña.

One of the most challenging aspects of the job was to suggest solutions to both the immediate and long-standing agricultural needs of the region. Agricultural crops suited to a diverse environment, from the subtropical ceja de la montaña to the cold, frosty upland páramos needed to be re-established. Urban development, housing, infrastructure (roads, electricity, airport), industrialization, and the posssibility of a promising tourist industry, all deserved attention and study and were also subjects of my final report to the United Nations.

Transportation was probably the worst aspect of Cuzco's infrastructure. In order to reach the city from Lima, the capital of Peru, one had to endure a trip in a non-pressurized cabin of an airplane (DC4), which required oxygen for pilots and passengers alike. If the weather in the mountains or altipano was bad, one simply had to return to Lima after two and one-half hours of flying with an oxygen tube in one's mouth. Paved roads were non-existent throughout the Department and the slow railroad to Puno and Arequipa was the best and practically only means for overland passenger and freight transporrtation.

CONCLUSIONS
The 1950 earthquake left 1,900 families (10,000 people) homeless. They built their provisional shacks in a stadium, in a plaza, and along avenues. Official plans were developed to build apartment housing for them, but my recommendation was to use the" aided self-help" method for building small homes of concrete blocks that has been popular in [end p. 69] Puerto Rico since the 1940s. The "aid" comes from the government which supplies, on inexpensive credit, the land and materials. The work is done by the beneficiaries who join as neighbors to build their homes. It was difficult to convince the middle and high class government executives that "self-help" lowered costs and was in keeping with their sound inheritance from Inca times. At the time I was not very successful, but that technique has finally been adopted in Peru and world-wide.

Another significant problem tackled was administrative centralization. To counteract the delays and inefficiency of the Lima bureaucracy, a Junta de Reconstrucción y Fomento Industrial was finally approved with my blessing. Through the application of the holistic, land-man geographic perspective, the Junta de Reconstrucción of the city of Cuzco was ultimately successful in stimulating the economic development of the region. [end p. 70]