ABSTRACT
The dependency writers, or dependentistas, more than any other group caught the imagination of students, teachers, politicians, and even the public throughout Latin America during the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of the reasons for this impact is that ‘intellectuals in Latin America are important because they are the voices of those who cannot speak for themselves’ (F.H.Cardoso, quoted in Kahl, 1976: 179). The political influence of the dependentistas was such that some were driven into exile when military governments seized power in their home countries.1
