Latin America
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Latin_America".

Latin America (Portuguese: América Latina; Spanish: Latinoamérica or América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken.

Definition

• In most common contemporary usage, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
• Strictly speaking, Latin America can designate all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e. languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and creole languages based upon these. Indeed, this was the original intent when the term was popularized by Napoleon III as part of his campaign to install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.^{citation needed} Using this definition, Latin America includes not only all Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, but also the current and former French territories in the hemisphere, including Haiti, Quebec in Canada, Louisiana in the United States, Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, French Guiana in South America, and St. Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland.
• Often, particularly in the United States, the term may be used to refer to all of the Americas south of the U.S., including such countries as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas, where English prevails.
• The former Dutch colony Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba are not usually considered part of Latin America, although in the latter two, a predominantly Iberian-derived creole language, Papiamento, is spoken by the majority of the population.
• In historical terms, Latin America could be defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Empires, which speak languages stemming from Latin. Under this definition, much of the U.S. Southwest, as well as Florida and French Louisiana, would be also included in the region.

The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America, and more generally the stress on European heritage (or Eurocentrism), is simply a convention by which Romance-language and English speaking cultures are distinguished, being the predominant languages at this time in history. There are, of course, many places in the Americas (e.g. highland Ecuador, Bolivia and Guatemala) where American Indian cultures and languages are important, as well as areas in which the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g. the Caribbean, including parts of Colombia and Venezuela, coastal Ecuador, coastal Peru and coastal Brazil).

Etymology

Look up Latin America in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Originally, Amérique latine was a political denomination thought coined by French Emperor Napoleon III, in citing Amérique latine and Indochine as goals for his region's imperial expansion, ^[1] thus justifying French imperial claims to the native peoples and their lands; eventually, Amérique latine denominated the Americas colonised by Spanish, Portuguese, and French settlers between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries; nevertheless, Michel Chevalier introduced his alternate etymology, the Southern Americas, in 1836, in Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord.^[2] In the United States, before the 1890s, Spanish America was the nominal term for the region until early in the twentieth century when Latin America became current. ^[3]

Contemporaneously, Latin America is equivalent to Latin Europe, implying supranationality greater than statehood and nationhood. Supranational identity is expressed through common socio-economic initiatives and organizations, such as the Union of South American Nations; nevertheless, the terms Latin American, Latin, Latino, and Hispanic denote and connote different things.

Many Latin Americans do not speak Latinate languages, but native tongues transplanted by immigration, e.g. German in Paraguay. Moreover there are Latin European-derived cultures resultant from European immigrants blending with the indigenous peoples and with the imported African slaves, thus, they are Latin American, but not Spanish, Portuguese, and French, as usually connoted by the Latin American term.

Francophone Canada (except Québec) and the U.S., such as Acadia, French Louisiana, and places north of Mexico are excluded from the socio-political definition of Latin America, despite significant or predominant populations speaking a Latinate language, because they are not sovereign states and are geographically discrete from Latin America proper; yet, French Guiana, a French dependency, is included. Some Latin American countries do not have a Romance language as the official language, yet are denominated Latin American countries, i.e. Dutch-speaking Suriname, and the Anglophone countries of Belize and Guyana.

To avoid the ambiguities inherent to South America, the term Ibero-America is used in Spain and Portugal in referring to the nations and countries once colonies of itself and of Portugal; Ibero-America derives from the Iberian Peninsula wherein lay Spain and Portugal. The Organization of South American States (OEI — Organzación de Estados Iberoamericanos) extends the definition by including Spain and Portugal (the Mother Countries of Latin America) as member states.

History

Main article: History of Latin America

See also: History of South America for a treatment of pre-Columbian civilisations and a general overview of the region's history.

The Americas are thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska more than 10,000 years ago. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents. By the first millennium AD/CE, South America’s vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed permanent settlements, such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas of Peru and the Aymaras of Bolivia were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.

A view of Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian Inca site in Peru.

Archaelogical sites of Chichén-Itzá in Yucatán Mexico.

The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Caribs, Tupi, Maya, and Inca. The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively.

With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus's voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incans and Aztecs, lost power to the Europeans. Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who disliked the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. European powers, most notably Spain and Portugal, colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the Line of Demarcation in 1493, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century, Europeans occupied large areas of North, Central and South America, extending all the way into the present southern United States. European culture and government was imposed, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming a major economic and political power, as well as the official religion of the region.

Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large proportion of the indigenous population, with epidemics of diseases reducing them sharply from their prior populations. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 20%. Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines. Intermarriage between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies.

Dates of independence of countries in the Americas.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. Resentment grew over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born peninsulares) over the major institutions and the majority population, including the colonial-born Spaniards (criollos, Creoles). Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked the turning point, compelling Creole elites to form juntas that advocated independence. Also, the newly independent Haiti, the second oldest nation in the New World after the United States and the oldest independent nation in Latin America, further fueled the independence movement by inspiring the leaders of the movement, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martin, and by providing them with considerable munitions and troops.

Fighting soon broke out between the Juntas and the Spanish colonial authorities, with initial Creole victories, including Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela, crushed by the Spanish troops. Under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, José de San Martin and other Libertadores in South America, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all Spanish Latin America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. During the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led conservatives who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor (followed by a republic, 1823).

Political divisions

Latin America is politically divided into the following countries and territories:
The countries included in all definitions are:

The more expansive definition can include:

Owing to their geographical location, Belize, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago could be added to this grouping, but they are not culturally or linguistically Latin American. They maintain economic ties with nearby countries, and are grouped by the United Nations in the predominantly Latin American region of South America. All except Suriname are also the objects of long-standing territorial claims by their Latin American neighbors.

Demographics

Demographics 'Notable Latin Americans' Fidel Castro Ricky Martin Juanes Shakira Salma Hayek Pelé Diego Maradona Benicio del Toro Evo Morales Gloria Estefan A few examples of famous Latin Americans

Racial groups

The population of Latin America is a composite of ancestries, ethnic groups and races, making the region one of the most — if not the most — diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: Some have a predominance of a mixed population, in others people of Amerindian origin are a majority, some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry and some populations are primarily of African descent. Most or all Latin American countries have Asian minorities. Europeans and groups with part-European ancestry combine for nearly 80% of the population.^[4]

Amerindians

Amerindians make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and a plurality in Peru.

The aboriginal population of Latin America, the Amerindians, experienced tremendous population decline particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million, though they compose a majority in only one country, Bolivia. In Peru they are a plurality, while in Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico, they are large minorities of more than 25%. Most of the other countries have small Amerindian minorities. In many countries, people of mixed Indian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).

Asians

People of Asian descent are numerous in Latin America. The first Asians to settle in Latin America were Filipino, as a result of Spain's trade involving Asia and the Americas. The majority of ethnic Asians in Latin America are of Japanese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil, home to the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan itself, numbering 1.5 million.^[5] Peru has important Chinese and Japanese communities. Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese are also among the largest ethnic Asian communities in the region. In the Panama canal zone there is also a Chinese minority; descendants of migrant workers who built the Panama Canal.

Africans

A significant number of Latin Americans are of African ancestry

Millions of African slaves were brought to Latin America from the sixteenth century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil. Today, people identified as black constitute important minorities in Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Nicaragua and Ecuador. They compose a majority in Haiti, at more than 90% of the population.

Europeans

Beginning in the late fifteenth century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America — Portuguese in Brazil and Spaniards elsewhere in the region — and at present most white Latin Americans are of Spanish or Portuguese origin. Iberians brought the Spanish and Portuguese languages, the Catholic faith and many traditions.

Millions of Europeans have immigrated to Latin America since most countries gained independence in the 1810s and 1820s, with most of the immigration occurring in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the bulk of the immigrants settling in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Italians formed the largest group of immigrants, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese.^[6] Many others arrived, such as Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Irish and Welsh. Whites make up the vast majority of the population in Argentina, Uruguay, and Southern Brazil. In absolute numbers, Brazil has the largest population of whites in Latin America, Argentina the second and Mexico^{citation needed} the third.

Latin americans of European descent are predominant in the region of the Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil.

Latin American countries attracted European immigrants to work in agriculture, commerce and industry. Many Latin American governments encouraged immigrants from Europe to civilize the region.^[7] Despite their different origins, these immigrants integrated in the local societies and most of their descendants only speak Spanish or, in Brazil, Portuguese. For example, people of Italian descent make up half of Argentina's and Uruguay's population, but only a few of them are able to speak Italian. The only notable exceptions are some communities of Germans and Italians across Southern Brazil who still preserve their languages. Brazil has the biggest population of Italians outside of Italy; São Paulo city alone has more Italians than Rome.^[8]

Immigration from the Middle East took place also since the 19th century, and consisted largely of Christian Lebanese and Syrians. They have generally assimilated into the European-descended population.

Mestizos

Intermixing between Europeans and Amerindians began early and was extensive. The resulting people, known as mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half the countries of Latin America: Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay,Peru and Venezuela. Mestizos additionally compose large minorities in nearly all the mainland countries.

The degree of Amerindian admixture varies with social class. In Chile, for example, it is higher in the lower classes, and almost negligent in most of the middle and upper class mestizos, a vast segment of whom are indistinguishable from whites.^[9]

Mulattoes

Mulattoes are biracial descendants of mixed European and African ancestry, mostly European settlers and African slaves during the colonial period. The vast majority of mulattoes are found in Brazil, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Venezuela. There is also a small presence of mulattoes in other Latin American countries.^[4]

Zambos

Slaves often ran away (cimarrones) and were taken in by Amerindian villagers. Intermixing between Africans and Amerindians produced descendants known as zambos. This was especially prevalent in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.

In addition to the foregoing groups, Latin America also has millions of people of mixed African, Amerindian and European triracial ancestry, mostly in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil but with a much smaller presence in a number of other countries.

Racial distribution

The following table shows the different racial groups and their percentages for all Latin American countries and territories.^[4][10]

¹ May include one or more of the previous groups.

Language

See also: Indigenous languages of the Americas

Romance languages in Latin America: Green-Spanish; Orange-Portuguese; Blue-French

Castillian Spanish is the predominant language in the majority of Latin American countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil, the most populous country in the region. French is spoken in some countries of the Caribbean, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana and Haiti. Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not considered part of Latin America.

Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico; German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, and German-speaking villages in northern Venezuela; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela; and Welsh, in southern Argentina.

In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely-spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America in general is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Ecuador and Chile. In absolute numbers, Mexico contains the largest population of indigenous-language speakers of any country in the Americas, surpassing those of the Amerindian-majority countries of Guatemala, Bolivia and the Amerindian-plurality country of Peru. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is tiny or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Ecuador, while holding no official status, the closely-related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country's constitution; however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the country's highlands. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes. In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as "national languages", along with Spanish.

Religion

Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) atop Corcovado mountain, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

The vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics. However, membership in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America is declining while membership in Protestant churches is increasing, particularly in countries such as Guatemala, Brazil, and Puerto Rico.

Also, indigenous creeds and rituals are still practiced in countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, México and Perú. Various Afro-Latin American traditions such as Santería, Candomblé, Umbanda, Macumba, and tribal-voodoo religions are also practiced, mainly in Cuba, Brazil, and Haiti.

Brazil has an active quasi-socialist Roman Catholic movement known as Liberation Theology, and Brazil is also the country with more practioners in the world of Allan Kardec's Spiritism. Practitioners of the Jewish, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, and Bahá'í denominations and religions exist.

v • d • e Religion in South America Sovereign states Argentina · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Guyana · Panama* · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago* · Uruguay · Venezuela Dependencies Aruba* (Netherlands) · Falkland Islands (UK) · French Guiana (France) · Netherlands Antilles* (Netherlands) · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (UK) * Territories also in or commonly reckoned elsewhere in the Americas (North America).

Emigration

Due to economic, social and security developments that are affecting the region in recent decades, the focus is now the change from net immigration to net emigration. According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombians currently live abroad.^[11] Some 60,000 to 80,000 Argentineans a year have been emigrating, but emigration slowed in 2002 after the bank accounts of many people were frozen, so that they had no money for overseas travel.^[11] The number of Brazilians living overseas is estimated at about 2 million people.^[12] Remittances to Mexico rose from $6.6 billion to $24 billion between 2000 and 2006, but stabilized in 2007. Much of the reported increase between 2000 and 2006 may reflect better accounting, but the slowdown in 2007 may reflect tougher U.S. border and interior enforcement.^[11]

Economy

Economic performance

Aerial view of a financial district in São Paulo, Brazil.

Skyline of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Skyline of Monterrey, Mexico.

Skyline of Mexico City, Mexico.

Skyline of Santiago, Chile.

Skyline of Caracas,at Night, Venezuela.

Skyline of the 7th avenue of Bogotá, Colombia.

Skyline of Lima, Peru.

According to ECLAC,^[13] an economic growth rate of 5.3% is estimated for 2006, equivalent to a per capita increase of 3.8%. This marks the fourth consecutive year of economic growth, and the third consecutive year of rates exceeding 4%, after an average annual growth rate of only 2.2% between 1980 and 2002. A breakdown of the annual rates of GDP growth (in U.S. dollars at constant 2000 prices) is transcribed as follows:

Country	2004	2005	2006	2007a	2008 a
Argentina	9	9.2	8.5a	7.5	5.5
Bolivia	4.2	4	4.6	3.9	5.4
Brazil	5.7	3.2	3.8	5.4	4.5
Chile	6	5.7	4	5.9	5
Colombia	4.9	4.7	6.8	6.6	7.5
Costa Rica	4.3	5.9	8.2	6	5
Cubab	5.4	11.8	12.5	N/A	N/A
Dominican Republic	2	9.3	10.7	8	4.5