Joseph John Jova (1916–1993) was an American diplomat.
'' The New York Times''. April 02, 1993. He served as the

United States Ambassador to Honduras The following is a list of United States ambassadors, or other chiefs of mission, to Honduras. The title given by the United States State Department to this position is currently ''Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.'' See also * Hon ...

from 1965 to 1969, the

United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States The following is a list of people who have served as United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States, or the full title, "United States Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States", with the rank and status of ...

from 1969 to 1973, and the United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1973 to 1977.

Early life and education

Joseph Jova was born in Browston, five miles north of Newburgh, New York, to a prominent European-Caribbean family. His grandfather was a major landowner in colonial Cuba and his grandmother from a New York French family involved in the sugar industry, and later became a prominent

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

manufacturer. He attended

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in Coral Gables, Florida and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1938.

Career

After graduation, he worked for the United Fruit Company in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he applied to all three services but was turned down for being underweight, having suffered amoebic dysentery and other conditions. He was finally accepted into the United States Navy in March 1942, serving as a lieutenant in Panama and Europe. After the Second World War, he took up a growing interest in foreign relations and took the Foreign Service exam in 1946 while still stationed in Paris. The following year he joined the United States Department of State and served as Vice Consul to

Basra, Iraq Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

during the crucial period after the discovery of oil there. In addition to southern Iraq, the small consulate also handled affairs with Kuwait, where the U.S. had not opened an embassy as Britain considered it within their sphere of influence. He was next posted to Tangier, Morocco, arriving on Thanksgiving Day 1949, and participated in negotiations for the Pact of Algeciras. After that, he was stationed in Oporto, Portugal, then transferred to the embassy in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

in 1954 as head of the political section. He returned to the U.S. in 1957 and worked at the State Department as a France-Iberia expert and in personnel. He was appointed deputy chief of mission to the U.S. Embassy to Chile in Santiago, under Ambassador

Charles W. Cole Charles Woolsey Cole (February 8, 1906 – February 20, 1978) was an American diplomat and academic who served as the twelfth president of Amherst College from 1946 to 1960, serving longer in that post than any other president. Biography Cole was ...

. In the summer of 1965 he was appointed Ambassador to

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

, where he served until 1969. He served as representative to the Organization of American States from 1969 to 1973, and

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Mexico since 1823, when Andrew Jackson was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to that country. Jackson declined the appointment, however, and Joel R. Poinsett bec ...

from 1973 to 1977. During his term in Mexico the UN adopted the "Zionism is Racism" resolution ( General Assembly Resolution 3379) that also equated Zionism with Southafrica's Apartheid, after the push of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab countries, and the support of the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

, on the context of the World Conference on Women, 1975 in Mexico. This resulted in a touristic

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

of the American Jewish community against Mexico, which made visible internal and external conflicts of Mexican politics. This was received as a direct attack to the United States, as Jova told to the Interior Minister of Mexico: "The United States is hurt and disappointed with the harmful declarations of President Luis Echeverría, specially because of Mexican attitudes in the international sphere, specially concerning Anti-Zionism and Corea". He served as President of the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. for twelve years after his retirement as ambassador.

Personal life

He was the older brother of architect

Henri Jova Henri Vatable Jova (1919-2014) was an American architect and preservationist. With Stanley Daniels and John Busby, he founded Jova/Daniels/Busby, a multidisciplinary design firm based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. State), Georgia, which designed severa ...

. He met and married his British-born wife, the former Pamela Johnson, in Basra in 1949. They had two sons and one daughter. He died of a thoracic aortic aneurysm in 1993.

Bibliography

*''Private Investment in Latin America: Renegotiating the Bargain'' (1975)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jova, Joseph J. 1916 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American diplomats 20th-century American naval officers Ambassadors of the United States to Honduras Ambassadors of the United States to Mexico American expatriates in Chile American expatriates in France American expatriates in Guatemala American expatriates in Iraq American expatriates in Morocco American expatriates in Portugal American people of Cuban descent American people of French descent Dartmouth College alumni Deaths from cardiovascular disease Leaders of organizations Military personnel from New York (state) Military personnel from Washington, D.C. People from Newburgh, New York Permanent Representatives of the United States to the Organization of American States United States Foreign Service personnel United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy officers Date of birth missing Date of death missing Place of death missing