The Spanish Society for Microbiology and Latin American microbiologists: seventy-five years of joint scientific ventures

As part of this Special Issue of International Microbiology celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM), Guest Editor Rafael Giraldo invited us to contribute an opinion article on the topic of 75 years of joint scientific ventures between Latin American microbiologists and Spanish microbiologists. Since the creation of SEM in 1945 (Pérez Prieto, NoticiaSEM 98:1, 2016) Latin American microbiologists have been participants, both as individuals and as members of the national associations that are currently integrated into the Latin American Association for Microbiology (ALAM). Thus, the histories of Spanish and Latin American microbiology (Chica and Skinner, Int Microbiol 13:159–164, 2010; Chica, Int Microbiol 11:221–225, 2008) have been closely linked over the last 75 years. In order to provide our perspective on the topic, we decided to provide answers to three questions: What are key aspects of the history of Spanish and Latin American Microbiology interactions? What have been some of our personal experiences in which these interactions shaped our careers? What is our outlook for the future of such interactions?