Latin America

Latin America is often used synonymously with Ibero-America ("Iberian America"), where the populations speak Spanish or Portuguese and the dominant religion is . Puerto Rico, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean territory of the United States, acquired from the Spanish Empire following its defeat in the 1898 Spanish American War, is usually included. This definition excludes the predominantly Protestant English-speaking and Dutch-speaking regions, as well as French-speaking predominantly Catholic regions. Belize, Guyana and Suriname, as well as several French overseas departments, are excluded from the definition.^[26]

Roman Catholic

In another definition, Latin America designates the set of countries in the Americas where a Romance language (a language derived from Latin) predominates: Spanish, Portuguese, or French. Thus, it includes Mexico; most of Central and South America; and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Latin America then comprises all of the countries in the Americas that were once part of the , Portuguese, and French Empires.^[27][28] Puerto Rico, although not a sovereign nation, is often included.

Spanish

The term is sometimes used more broadly to refer to all of the Americas south of the United States, thus including the Guianas (French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname); the Anglophone Caribbean (and Belize); the Francophone Caribbean; and the Dutch Caribbean. This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects (see, for example, dependency theory).^[29] Some sources avoid this simplification by using the alternative phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean", as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.^[30][31][32] A number of academic area-studies programs and centers of Latin American studies are titled "Latin American and Caribbean" studies, such as the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Michigan, New York University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), and University of Washington's Latin American and Caribbean Studies, The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Although the U.S. acquired a large swath of territory from the Spanish Empire and called Spanish borderlands and nearly 20% of the U.S. population identifies as "Hispanic" (or "Latino"), the U.S. is generally not classified as being part of Latin America. However, the significant demographic is sometimes brought under the umbrella of Latin American studies, such as at University of Albany.

[28]

Simón Bolívar, liberator of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Panama

José de San Martín, liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru

Bernardo O'Higgins, hero of Chilean independence

Father Miguel Hidalgo, father of Mexican independence, with the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Vicente Guerrero, insurgent hero of Mexican independence, who joined with Iturbide

Agustín de Iturbide, former royal military officer who brought about Mexican independence and was crowned emperor

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soy, , oranges, guaraná, açaí and Brazil nut; is one of the top five producers of maize, papaya, tobacco, pineapple, banana, cotton, beans, coconut, watermelon, lemon and yerba mate; is one of the top ten world producers of cocoa, cashew, avocado, tangerine, persimmon, mango, guava, rice, oat, sorghum and tomato; and is one of the top 15 world producers of grapes, apples, melons, peanuts, figs, peaches, onions, palm oil and natural rubber;

coffee

Argentina is the world's largest producer of ; is one of the five largest producers in the world of soy, maize, sunflower seeds, lemons and pears, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grapes, artichokes, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, oats, chickpeas, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit;

yerba mate

Chile is one of the five largest world producers of and cranberries, and one of the ten largest world producers of grapes, apples, kiwi, peaches, plums and hazelnuts, focusing on exporting high-value fruits;

cherries

Colombia is one of the five largest producers in the world of coffee, and palm oil, and one of the ten largest producers in the world of sugarcane, bananas, pineapples and cocoa;

avocados

Peru is the world's largest producer of ; is one of the five largest producers of avocados, blueberry, artichokes and asparagus; one of the ten largest producers in the world of coffee and cocoa; one of the 15 largest producers in the world of potatoes and pineapples, and also has a large production of grapes, sugarcane, rice, bananas, maize and cassava; its agriculture is considerably diversified;

quinoa

Paraguay is currently the 6th largest producer of soy in the world and entering the list of the 20 largest producers of maize and sugarcane.

[211]

(*) Data for 2015 rather than 2017, as the newest data is currently unavailable.

Indigenous cultures of the people who inhabited the continent prior to European colonization. Ancient and advanced civilizations developed their own political, social and religious systems. The Maya, the Aztec and the Inca are examples of these. Indigenous legacies in music, dance, foods, arts and crafts, clothing, folk culture and traditions are strong in Latin America. Indigenous languages affected Spanish and Portuguese, giving rise to like pampa, taco, tamale, cacique.

loanwords

The was brought mainly by the colonial powers – the Spanish, Portuguese and French – between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most enduring European colonial influences are language, institutions, customs and Catholicism.

culture of Europe

Additional cultural influences came from the Europe during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, due to growing immigration from Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal; as well as artistic, ideological and technological developments of the time. Due to the impact of ideals after the French revolution, a certain number of Iberian American countries decriminalized homosexuality after France and French territories in the Americas did so in 1791. Some of the countries that abolished sodomy laws or banned state interference in consensual adult sexuality in the 19th century were Dominican Republic (1822), Brazil (1824), Peru (1836), Mexico (1871), Paraguay (1880), Argentina (1887), Honduras (1899), Guatemala, and El Salvador. Today same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, and French overseas departments. South America experienced waves of immigration of Europeans, especially Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Germans, Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians, French, Dutch, Russians, Croatians, Lithuanians, and Ashkenazi Jews. With the end of colonialism, French culture also exerted a direct influence in Latin America, especially in the realms of high culture, Independentism, science and medicine.^[340] This can be seen in the region's artistic traditions, including painting, literature, and music, and in the realms of science and politics.

Enlightenment

whose presence stems from a long history of the Atlantic slave trade. People of African descent have influenced the ethno-scapes of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is manifested for instance in music, dance and religion, especially in countries like Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

African cultures

whose part of the presence derives from the long history of the coolies who mostly arrived during the 19th and 20th centuries, most commonly Chinese workers in Peru and Venezuela, but also from Japanese and Korean immigration. especially headed to Brazil. This has greatly affected cuisine and other traditions including literature, art and lifestyles and politics. Asian influences have especially affected Brazil, Cuba, Panama and Peru.

Asian cultures

The influence of the United States and globalization is present throughout the region, with particular strength in northern Latin America, especially Puerto Rico, which is an American territory. Prior to 1959, Cuba, which fought for its independence with American aid in the , also had a close political and economic relationship with the United States. The United States also helped Panama become independent from Colombia and built the twenty-mile-long Panama Canal Zone in Panama, which it held from 1903—the Panama Canal opened to transoceanic freight traffic in 1914—to 1999, when the Torrijos-Carter Treaties restored Panamanian control of the Canal Zone.

Spanish–American War

Archived November 13, 2017, at the Wayback Machine

IDB Education Initiative

).

Latin American, Caribbean, U.S. Latinx, and Iberian Online Free E-Resources (LACLI

Archived December 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

Latin American Network Information Center

Archived July 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine

Latin America Data Base

Washington Office on Latin America

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Codigos De Barra

at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived September 8, 2008)

Infolatam. Information and analysis of Latin America

Archived October 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

Map of Land Cover: Latin America and Caribbean (FAO)

by Benjamin Dangl, The Nation, March 4, 2009

Lessons From Latin America

at the Wayback Machine (archived June 24, 2010)

Keeping Latin America on the World News Agenda – Interview with Michael Reid of The Economist

at archive.today (archived December 14, 2012)

Cold War in Latin America, CSU Pomona University

Latin America Cold War Resources, Yale University

Latin America Cold War, Harvard University

Latin American Research Centre, University of Calgary