INSTITUTE OF INTER-AMERICAN AFFAIRS COLLECTION William E. Bell, a sanitary engineer, husband of Betty Bell, discusses moving his family to Mexico and later to Costa Rica as part of an IIAA field party from 1949-1954. He discusses how Mexican and American engineers cooperated to design and construct water supply systems, sewage systems, and health centers. He discusses flaws in the programs, difference in attitudes between countries towards public health, and differences in the governments and social structures of Mexico and Costa Rica.

19 pp. Interview by James D. Williams, 1985 Donated by the Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, New York. RESTRICTED: May be read but not quoted, cited or reproduced without written permission from the Oral History Research Office of Columbia University, New York.