1924: United States interest in Chile and other South American countries is limited to their production of rich ores. In Chile, the Chuquicamata copper mine and Tofo Iron Mines produce metals of greater purity than those found in North America.

Today: Chile still produces about forty percent of the world's copper, but advances in transportation have made Chile a major exporter of fish and fruit to the world market.

1924: Farmers in rural California, feeling that their water was being stolen by the government (reflected by the poem's suspicion of a monolithic "them"), dynamited the Los Angeles aqueduct seventeen times in open rebellion.

Today: Ranchers in the western states still fight openly and sometimes violently with the government over water rights.

1924: A right-wing military coup ousts Arturo Alessandri, who had been president of Chile since 1920. Supporters of Alessandri helped him gain back the presidency the following...