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"Latin American" redirects here. For Latin American people, see Latin Americans.

Latin America

Area	21,069,501 km²
Population	569 million^[1]
Pop. density	27 per sq km (70 per sq mile)
Demonym	Latin American, American
Countries	21
Dependencies	10
Languages	Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, Mayan languages, Guaraní, French, Aymara, Nahuatl, and others.
Time Zones	UTC-2 to UTC-8
Largest cities	^[2] 1. Mexico City 2. São Paulo 3. Buenos Aires 4. Rio de Janeiro 5. Lima 6. Bogotá 7. Santiago 8. Belo Horizonte 9. Guadalajara 10. Caracas

Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.^[3]^[4] Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2009, its population was estimated at more than 568 million^[5] and its combined GDP at 4.26 trillion United States dollars (5.99 trillion at PPP).^[5] The Latin American expected economic growth rate for 2010 is at about 4%.^[6]

[edit] Etymology and definitions

The idea that a part of the Americas has a cultural affinity with the Romance cultures as a whole can be traced back to the 1830s, in particular in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas were inhabited by people of a "Latin race", and that it could, therefore, ally itself with "Latin Europe" in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe", "Anglo-Saxon America" and "Slavic Europe".^[7] The idea was later taken up by Latin American intellectuals and political leaders of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, who no longer looked to Spain or Portugal as cultural models, but rather to France.^[8] The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao^[9] and the same year by the Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo in his poem "Two Americas.^[10] The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico, as a way to include France among countries with influence in America and to exclude Anglophone countries, and played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.^[11]

In contemporary usage:

In one sense, Latin America refers to territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico — mainly Spanish America and Brazil. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.^[12]
Particularly in the United States, the term more broadly refers to all of the Americas south of the United States, thus including: English-speaking countries such as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas; French-speaking Haiti and Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana; and the Dutch-speaking Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and Suriname. (In the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Papiamento – a predominantly Iberian-derived creole language – is spoken by the majority of the population.) 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.)^[13] As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.^[14]^[15]^[16]
In a more literal definition, which remains faithful to the original usage, Latin America designates 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, and French, and the creole languages based upon these. Although French-influenced areas of the Americas would include Quebec, this region is rarely considered to be part of Latin America, since its history, distinctive culture and economy, and British-inspired political institutions are generally deemed too closely intertwined with the rest of Canada.^[17]

The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America, which can be criticized for stressing only the European heritage of these regions (that is, for Eurocentrism), is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Neither area is culturally or linguistically homogeneous; in substantial portions of Latin America (e.g., highland Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay), American Indian cultures and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian languages, are predominant, and in other areas, the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g., the Caribbean basin—including parts of Colombia and Venezuela)—and the coastal areas of Ecuador and Brazil.

[edit] Subdivisions

Common subregions in Latin America

Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture. Some geographical subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America (the latter contains further politico-geographical subdivisions such as the Southern Cone and the Andean states). It may be divided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America and Portuguese America.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Latin America

[edit] Pre-columbian history

Main articles: Settlement of the Americas, Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, and Pre-Columbian era

The Americas were thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now known as the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska well over 10,000 years ago. The earliest known settlement, however, was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is some disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. 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. The earliest settlements in the Americas are of the Las Vegas Culture^[18] from about 8000 BC and 4600 BC, a sedentary group from the coast of Ecuador, the forefathers of the more known Valdivia culture, of the same era. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. These groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia and Perú were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.

A view of Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian Inca site in Peru. One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

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. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, until its downfall caused by the Spanish invasion.

[edit] European colonization

Main articles: European colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonization of the Americas, and Portuguese colonization of the Americas

Archaeological site of Chichén-Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico. One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus's voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who did not favor the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. The European powers of 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 South America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal had been joined by others, including France, in occupying large areas of North, Central and South America, ultimately extending from Alaska to the southern tips of the Patagonia. European culture, customs and government were introduced, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming the major economic and political power to overrule the traditional ways of the region, eventually becoming the only official religion of the Americas during this period.

Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion 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 25%. 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. Intermixing 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.

[edit] Independence (1804–1825)

Main articles: Latin American wars of independence, Spanish American wars of independence, and Brazilian Declaration of Independence

Simon Bolivar, one of the main Independence movement leaders

Haiti, sometimes counted among the Latin American nations, was the first to gain independence, in 1804. This followed from a violent slave revolt led by Toussaint L'ouverture on the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The victors abolished slavery. Haitian independence helped inspire independence movements in Spanish America.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned on the global scene as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. Resentment grew among the majority of the population in Latin America over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born Peninsulares) in the major social and political institutions. Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked a turning point, compelling Criollo 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 juntas and the Spanish colonial authorities, with initial victories for the advocates of independence. Eventually these early movements were crushed by the royalist troops by 1812, including those of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela. Under the leadership of a new generation of leaders, such as Simón Bolívar of Venezuela, José de San Martin of Argentina, and other Libertadores in South America, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all Spanish America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, had gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. In the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led a coalition of conservatives and liberals who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor. This First Mexican Empire was short-lived, and was followed by the creation of a republic in 1823.

[edit] Consolidation and liberal-conservative conflicts (1825–1900)

This section requires expansion.

[edit] World wars (1914–1945)

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Cold War (1946–1990)

In the 1950s, the Cold War moved close to the United States, in Latin America. The nations of Latin America faced many critical problems, including widespread poverty and poor health care. The United States feared the politics of socialism and communism would be particularly appealing to the countries of Latin America. At the same time, many United States citizens worried about the threat to their own security and businesses in Latin America. This led the United States to take up a very aggressive military strategy of containment. Through the Cold War, the United States removed many democratically elected leaders of Latin American countries through covert C.I.A. operations and replaced them with leaders who were more friendly to the United States' interests.

Arguably, this interference with the democratic system in these countries created a blowback because many Latin Americans rejected the United States involvement. Many of the leaders who were put into power positions by the United States became dictators and oppressors as well.

[edit] Late-20th-century military regimes

This section requires expansion.

Military dictators Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina and Augusto Pinochet of Chile.

Main article: Operation Condor

By the 1970s, leftists had acquired a significant political influence which prompted the right-wing, ecclesiastical authorities and a large portion of the individual country's upper class to support coup d'etats to avoid what they perceived as a communist threat. This was further fueled by Cuban and United States intervention which led to a political polarization. Most South American countries were in some periods ruled by military dictatorships, supported by the United States through the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance in the context of the Cold War. Around the 1970s, these regimes collaborated in Operation Condor killing many leftist dissidents, including some urban guerrillas.^[19]

Beginning in the 1980s and by the early 1990s, all countries had restored their democracies.

[edit] Washington Consensus

Main article: Washington Consensus

The set of specific economic policy prescriptions that were considered the "standard" reform package were promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries by Washington, D.C.-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the US Treasury Department during the 80's and 90's.

In recent years, several Latin American countries led by socialist or other left wing governments—including Argentina and Venezuela—have campaigned for (and to some degree adopted) policies contrary to the Washington Consensus set of policies. (Other Latin counties with governments of the left, including Brazil, Chile and Peru, have in practice adopted the bulk of the policies). Also critical of the policies as actually promoted by the International Monetary Fund have been some U.S. economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Dani Rodrik, who have challenged what are sometimes described as the "fundamentalist" policies of the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury for what Stiglitz calls a "one size fits all" treatment of individual economies.

The term has become associated with neoliberal policies in general and drawn into the broader debate over the expanding role of the free market, constraints upon the state, and US influence on other countries' national sovereignty.

This politico-economical initiative was institutionalized in North America by the 1994 NAFTA, and elsewhere in the Americas through a series of like agreements. The comprehensive Free Trade Area of the Americas project, however, was rejected by most South American countries at the 2005 4th Summit of the Americas.

[edit] Turn to the left

Left-leaning leaders of Bolivia, Brazil and Chile at the Union of South American Nations summit in 2008.

[edit] Demographics

Main article: Latin Americans

[edit] Ethnic groups

Amerindians make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and Guatemala, and almost half in Peru.

Juniti Saito, head of the Brazilian Air Force and one of over a million Japanese Brazilians.

Mulatto Salsa dancers, Camagüey, Cuba.

Vicente Fox is an example of a Caucasian Latin American.

Garinagu (Zambos) celebrating in Guatemala.

A representation of a Mestizo, in a Pintura de Castas during the Spanish colonial period of the Americas.

The population of Latin America is comprised of a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups, and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: many have a predominance of European-Amerindian, or Mestizo, population; in others, Amerindians are a majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry; and some countries' populations are primarily Mulatto. Black, Asian, and Zambo (mixed Black and Amerindian) minorities are also identified regularly. Europeans/Whites are the largest single group, and along with people of part-European ancestry, they combine to make up approximately 80% of the population,^[1] or even more.^[20]

Amerindians. The aboriginal population of Latin America, the Amerindians (native Americans), arrived thousands of years ago, during the Lithic stage. In post-Columbian times they experienced tremendous population decline, particularly in the early decades of colonization. They have since recovered in numbers, surpassing sixty million (by some estimates^[1]), though with the growth of the other groups meanwhile, they now compose a majority only in Bolivia and Guatemala, and at least a plurality in Peru. In Ecuador, Amerindians are a large minority that comprises two-fifths of the population. Mexico's 14%^[20] (alternatively 30%^[1]) is the next largest ratio, and actually the largest Amerindian population in the Americas, in absolute numbers. Most of the remaining countries have Amerindian minorities, in every case making up less than one-tenth of the respective country's population. In many countries, people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry make up the majority of the population (see Mestizo).
Asians. People of Asian descent number several million in Latin America. The first Asians to settle in the region were Filipino, as a result of Spain's trade involving Asia and the Americas. The majority of Asian Latin Americans are of Japanese or Chinese ancestry and reside mainly in Brazil and Peru; there is also a growing Chinese minority in Panama. Brazil is home to perhaps two million people of Asian descent, which includes the largest ethnic Japanese community outside of Japan itself, estimated as high as 1.5 million, and circa 200,000 ethnic Chinese and 100,000 ethnic Koreans.^[21]^[22] Ethnic Koreans also number tens of thousands of individuals in Argentina and Mexico.^[23] Peru, with 1.47 million people of Asian descent,^[24]^[25] has one of the largest Chinese communities in the world, with nearly one million Peruvians being of Chinese ancestry. There is a strong ethnic-Japanese presence in Peru, where a past president and a number of politicians are of Japanese descent. The Martiniquais population includes an African-White-Indian mixed population, and an East Indian population.^[26] The Guadeloupe, an East Indian population, is estimated at 14% of the population.
Blacks. 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.^{[citation needed]} Today, people identified as "Black" are most numerous in Brazil (more than 10 million) and in Haiti (more than 7 million).^{[citation needed]} Among the Hispanic nations and Brazil, Puerto Rico leads this category in relative numbers, with a 15% ratio. Significant populations are also found in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. Latin Americans of mixed Black and White ancestry, called Mulattoes, are far more numerous than Blacks.
Mestizos. Intermixing between Europeans and Amerindians began early in the colonial period and was extensive. The resulting people, known as Mestizos, make up the majority of the population in half of the countries of Latin America. Additionally, Mestizos compose large minorities in nearly all the other mainland countries.
Mulattoes. Mulattoes are people of mixed European and African ancestry, mostly descended from Spanish or Portuguese settlers on one side and African slaves on the other, during the colonial period. Brazil is home to Latin America's largest mulatto population. Mulattoes form a majority of population in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and are also numerous in Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador. Smaller populations of mulattoes are found in other Latin American countries.^[1]
Whites. 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 Iberian traditions. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico contain the largest numbers of whites in Latin America. Whites make up the majorities of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay, and depending on source, in Cuba, also.^[20]^[27]^[28] Of the millions of immigrants living in Latin America since most of the area gained independence in the 1810s–1820s, Italians formed the largest group, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese.^[29] Many others arrived, such as French, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Estonians, Latvians, Jews, Irish and Welsh. Also included are Middle Easterners of Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian descent; Most of them are Christian. Whites presently compose the largest racial group in Latin America (36% in the table herein). Whether as White, Mestizo, or Mulatto, the vast majority of Latin Americans have white ancestry.
Zambos: Intermixing between Africans and Amerindians was especially prevalent in Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, often due to slaves running away (becoming cimarrones: maroons) and being taken in by Amerindian villagers. In Spanish speaking nations, people of this mixed ancestry are known as Zambos or as Garinagu in Middle America, and Cafuzos in Brazil.

In addition to the foregoing groups, Latin America also has millions of tri-racial peoples of African, Amerindian, and European ancestry. Most are found in Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, with a much smaller presence in other countries.

**Ethnic distribution, in 2005**^[20] – **Population estimates, as of 2010**^[30]
Country	Population^[30]	Amerindians	Whites	Mestizos	Mulattos	Blacks	Zambos	Asians
Argentina	40,134,425	1.0%	85.0%	11.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.9%
Bolivia	10,907,778	55.0%	15.0%	28.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Brazil	192,272,890	0.4%	53.8%	0.0%	39.1%	6.2%	0.0%	0.5%
Chile	17,063,000	8.0%	52.7%	39.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Colombia	45,393,050	1.8%	20.0%	53.2%	21.0%	3.9%	0.1%	0.0%
Costa Rica	4,253,897	0.8%	82.0%	15.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.0%	0.2%
Cuba	11,236,444	0.0%	37.0%	0.0%	51.0%	11.0%	0.0%	1.0%
Dominican Republic	8,562,541	0.0%	14.6%	0.0%	75.0%	7.7%	2.3%	0.4%
Ecuador	13,625,000	39.0%	9.9%	41.0%	5.0%	5.0%	0.0%	0.1%
El Salvador	6,134,000	8.0%	1.0%	91.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Guatemala	13,276,517	53.0%	4.0%	42.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.8%
Honduras	7,810,848	7.7%	1.0%	85.6%	1.7%	0.0%	3.3%	0.7%
Mexico	111,211,789	14.0%	15.0%	70.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
Nicaragua	5,891,199	6.9%	14.0%	78.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.2%
Panama	3,322,576	8.0%	10.0%	32.0%	27.0%	5.0%	14.0%	4.0%
Paraguay	6,349,000	1.5%	20.0%	74.5%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
Peru	29,461,933	45.5%	12.0%	32.0%	9.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
Puerto Rico	3,967,179	0.0%	74.8%	0.0%	10.0%	15.0%	0.0%	0.2%
Uruguay	3,494,382	0.0%	88.0%	8.0%	4.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Venezuela	26,814,843	2.7%	16.9%	37.7%	37.7%	2.8%	0.0%	2.2%
Total	561,183,291	9.2%	36.1%	30.3%	20.3%	3.2%	0.2%	0.7%

Note: Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. In terms of culture, society, and national identity, Mario Sambarino classified Latin American states, based on Elman Service's classification, into "Mestiza America" (Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia), "Indigenous America" (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico) and "European America" (Argentina and Uruguay).^[31] In Darcy Ribeiro's classification system, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, and the Caribbean are classified as predominantly "new peoples", which emerged from the fusion of Europeans, Amerindians and/or Africans; Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Central America and Mexico are predominantly "witness peoples", the heirs of ancient civilizations (Andean and Mesoamerican), while Argentina and Uruguay are "transplantated peoples", essentially European after massive immigration in the 19th century.^[31] However, under this scheme most Brazilian Amazon peoples can be regarded as "Witness Peoples", in the same way as Peruvian Amazon peoples; most Southern Brazilian peoples, i.e., Riograndenses, can be considered "Transplanted peoples" like those of the very similar cultures of neighboring Uruguay and Argentina; and so on.^[32]

[edit] Language

Spanish and Portuguese are the predominant languages of Latin America. Portuguese is spoken only in Brazil, the biggest and most populous country in the region. Spanish is the official language of most of the rest of the countries on the Latin American mainland, as well as in Puerto Rico (where it is co-official with English), Cuba and the Dominican Republic. French is spoken in Haiti and in the French overseas departments Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon; it is also spoken by some Panamanians of Afro-Antillean descent. Dutch is the official language in Suriname, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles. (As Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not necessarily considered part of Latin America.)

Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico, as well as in nearby countries that may or may not be considered Latin American, like Belize and Guyana (English is used as a major foreign language in Latin American commerce and education); German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, portions of northern Venezuela, and Paraguay; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela; and Welsh,^[33]^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37]^[38] in southern Argentina.

Most widely spoken Pre-contact languages distribution area in Latin America, at the beginning of 21st century: Quechua, Guarani, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Mapuche

In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America is generally 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, Panama, Ecuador, and Chile. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is either small or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish, Elvish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. Another widely used language is known as riverian (also known as nicolacian), which is spoken in rural parts of Mexico.^[39] 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, along with Spanish, is 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 languages. 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.

[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Latin America

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

The vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics.^[40] About 71% of the Latin American population consider themselves Catholic.^[41] Membership in Protestant denominations is increasing, particularly in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico.^{[citation needed]}^{[dead link]}

[edit] Migration

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. About 10 million Mexicans live in the United States.^[42] 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006.^[43] According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombians currently live abroad.^[44] The number of Brazilians living overseas is estimated at about 2 million people.^[45] An estimated 1.5 to two million Salvadorans reside in the United States.^[46] At least 1.5 million Ecuadorians have gone abroad, mainly to the United States and Spain.^[47] Approximately 1.5 million Dominicans live abroad, mostly in the United States.^[48] More than 1.3 million Cubans live abroad, most of them in the United States.^[49] It is estimated that over 800,000 Chileans live abroad, mainly in Argentina, Canada, United States and Spain. Other Chilean nationals may be located in countries like Costa Rica, Mexico and Sweden.^[50] An estimated 700,000 Bolivians were living in Argentina as of 2006 and another 33,000 in the United States.^[51] Central Americans living abroad in 2005 were 3,314,300,^[52] of which 1,128,701 were Salvadorans,^[53] 685,713 were Guatemalans,^[54] 683,520 were Nicaraguans,^[55] 414,955 were Hondurans,^[56] 215,240 were Panamanians,^[57] 127,061 were Costa Ricans ^[58] and 59,110 were Belizeans.

For the period 2000–2005, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela were the only countries with global positive migration rates, in terms of their yearly averages.^[59]

[edit] Health

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[edit] Education

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[edit] Crime and violence

Crime and violence prevention and public security are now important issues for governments and citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean region. In 2004, violence was the main cause of death in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras.^[60]^[61] Homicide rates in Latin America are among the highest in the world. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, homicide rates increased by 50 percent. The major victims of such homicides are young men, 69 percent of whom are between the ages of 15 and 19 years old. Many analysts agree that the prison crisis will not be resolved until the gap between rich and poor is addressed. They say that growing social inequality is fuelling crime in the region. But there is also no doubt that, on such an approach, Latin American countries have still a long way to go.^[62] Countries with the highest homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants were: Guatemala 57.9, El Salvador 49.1, Venezuela 48, Honduras 59, Colombia 33, Belize 30.8, Brazil 25.7, Dominican Republic 23.56, Puerto Rico 18.8, and Ecuador 16.9.^{[citation needed]} More than 500,000 people have been killed by firearms in Brazil between 1979 and 2003.^[63]^[64] Cuba has the lowest crime rate in the western hemisphere.^{[unreliable source?]}^[65]Havana is often regarded as the safest large city in the Western Hemisphere.^{[unreliable source?]}^[66] Countries with relatively low crime are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay.^[67]

[edit] Economy

[edit] Standard of living, consumption, and the environment

According to Goldman Sachs' BRIC review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico.^[68] On a per capita basis most Latin American countries, including the largest ones (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia), have per capita GDPs greater than that of China in 2009, while the majority of Latin America is substantially more developed than China.^{[citation needed]}

The following table lists all the countries in Latin America indicating a valuation of the country's GDP (Gross domestic product) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP), GDP per capita also adjusted to the (PPP), a measurement of inequality through the Gini index (the higher the index the more unequal the income distribution is), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and the Quality-of-life index. GDP and PPP GDP statistics come from the International Monetary Fund with data as of 2006. Gini index, the Human Poverty Index HDI-1, the Human Development Index, and the number of internet users per capita come from the UN Development Program. The number of motor vehicles per capita come from the UNData base on-line. The EPI index comes from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Quality-of-life index from The Economist Intelligence Unit. Green cells indicate the 1st rank in each category, while yellow indicate the last rank.

**Summary of socio-economic performance indicators for Latin American countries**
Country	GDP (PPP)^[69] (2010 estimates) Billions of USD	GDP per capita (PPP)^[70] (2010 estimates) USD	Income equality^[71] (1992–2007) Gini index	Poverty Index^[72] (2009) HPI-1 %	Human Develop.^[73] (2010 estimates) HDI	Envirnm. Perfrm.^[74] (2008) EPI	Quality of life^[75] (2005) index	Annual economic growth^[76] (2009) %	Emissions per capita^[77] (2004) ton CO2
Argentina	609.015	15,030	50.0	3.7	0.866 (H)	81.8	6.469	0.9	3.7
Bolivia	47.706	4,575	58.2	11.6	0.729 (M)	64.7	5.492	3.3	0.8
Brazil	2,138.453	11,225	55.0	8.7	0.813 (H)	82.7	6.470	-0.2	1.8
Chile	256.813	14,939	52.0	3.2	0.878 (H)	83.4	6.789	-1.5	3.9
Colombia	510.841	9,091	58.5	7.6	0.807 (H)	88.3	6.176	0.1	1.2
Costa Rica	50.916	10,686	47.2	4.6	0.854 (H)	90.5	6.624	-1.1	1.5
Cuba	111.1^[78]	9,700^[78]	N/A	4.7	0.863 (H)	80.7	N/A	1.4^[78]	2.3
Dominican Republic	80.869	8,896	50.0	9.1	0.777 (M)	83.0	5.630	3.5	2.2
Ecuador	114.827	8,021	54.4	7.9	0.806 (H)	84.4	6.272	0.4	2.2
El Salvador	43.641	7,442	49.7	14.6	0.747 (M)	77.2	6.164	-3.5	0.9
Guatemala	70.007	4,874	53.7	19.7	0.704 (M)	76.7	5.321	0.6	1.0
Haiti	11.033	1,211	59.5	31.5	0.532 (M)	60.7	4.090	2.9	0.2
Honduras	33.371	4,175	55.3	13.7	0.732 (M)	75.4	5.250	-1.9	1.1
Mexico	1,537.213	14,151	48.1	5.9	0.854 (H)	79.8	6.766	-6.5	5.2
Nicaragua	17.033	2,635	52.3	17.0	0.699 (M)	73.4	5.663	-1.5	0.7
Panama	43.176	12,242	54.9	6.7	0.840 (H)	83.1	6.361	2.4	1.8
Paraguay	30.158	4,710	53.2	10.5	0.761 (M)	77.7	5.756	-4.5	0.7
Peru	269.142	9,107	49.6	10.2	0.806 (H)	78.1	6.216	0.9	1.1
Uruguay	46.862	13,961	46.2	3.0	0.865 (H)	82.3	6.368	2.9	1.6
Venezuela	342.231	11,726	43.4	6.6	0.844 (H)	80.0	6.089	-3.3	6.6
Total	6,270.231	11,119		10.1	0,794 (M)	76.2		0.2	2.0

Notes: (H) High human development; (M) Medium human development

[edit] Inequality and poverty

Slums on the outskirts of a wealthy urban area in São Paulo, Brazil: an example of inequality common in Latin America.

Inequality and poverty continue to be the region's main challenges; according to the ECLAC Latin America is the most unequal region in the world.^[79] Moreover, according to the World Bank, nearly 25% of the population lives on less than 2 USD a day. The countries with the highest inequality in the region (as measured with the Gini index in the UN Development Report^[71]) in 2007 were Haiti (59.5), Colombia (58.5), Bolivia (58.2), Honduras (55.3), Brazil (55.0), and Panama (54.9), while the countries with the lowest inequality in the region (although still very high) were Venezuela (43.4), Uruguay (46.4) and Costa Rica (47.2). One aspect of inequality and poverty in Latin America is unequal access to basic infrastructure. For example, access to water and sanitation in Latin America and the quality of these services remain relatively low.

According to the World Bank the poorest countries in the region were (as of 2008):^[80] Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras. Undernourishment affects to 47% of Haitians, 27% of Nicaraguans, 23% of Bolivians and 22% of Hondurans.^[81]

Many countries in Latin America have responded to high levels of poverty by implementing new, or altering old, social assistance programs. These include Mexico's Progresa Opportunidades, Brazil's Bolsa Escola and Bolsa Familia, and Chile's Chile Solidario.^[82]

[edit] Trade blocs

Computer factory in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Néstor Kirchner, Cristina Fernández, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Nicanor Duarte, and Hugo Chávez at the signing of the founding charter of the Bank of the South.

The major trade blocs (or agreements) in the region are the Union of South American Nations, composed of the integrated Mercosur and Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Minor blocs or trade agreements are the G3 Free Trade Agreement, the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). However, major reconfigurations are taking place along opposing approaches to integration and trade; Venezuela has officially withdrawn from both the CAN and G3 and it has been formally admitted into the Mercosur (pending ratification from the Paraguayan legislature). The president-elect of Ecuador has manifested his intentions of following the same path. This bloc nominally opposes any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, although Uruguay has manifested its intention otherwise. On the other hand, Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Chile has already signed an FTA with Canada, and along with Peru are the only two South American nations that have an FTA with the United States. Colombia's government is currently awaiting its ratification by the U.S. Senate.

[edit] Largest economic cities

Mexico City

The following table provides estimated GDP figures for the largest metropolitan areas in Latin America in 2008 and a GDP projection for 2025.^[83]

São Paulo.

**Ten largest Latin American metropolitan areas**
Rank	Metropolitan area	Country	GDP (PPP) Billions of USD	Metro. pop. in 2006^[84] Millions	GDP (PPP) per capita USD	Projected GDP (PPP) in 2025 Billions of USD
1	Mexico City	Mexico	390	19.24	20,300	745
2	São Paulo	Brazil	388	18.61	20,800	787
3	Buenos Aires	Argentina	362	13.52	26,800	651
4	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	201	11.62	17,300	427
5	Santiago	Chile	120	5.70	21,100	207
6	Brasilia	Brazil	110	3.48	31,600	210
7	Lima	Peru	109	8.35	13,100	193
8	Monterrey	Mexico	102	3.58	28,500	188
9	Bogotá	Colombia	112	7.80	15,800	215
10	Guadalajara	Mexico	81	3.95	20,500	150

Note: The GDP data are for 2008 while the population data are for 2006. The GDP per capita figures were obtained by dividing these two sets of data, so the results may not accurately reflect the GDP per capita for 2008.

[edit] Tourism

Income from tourism is key to the economy of several Latin American countries.^[85] Mexico receives the largest number of international tourists, with 21.4 million visitors in 2007, followed by Brazil, with 5.0 million; Argentina, with 4.6 million; Dominican Republic, with 4.0 million;, Puerto Rico, with 3.7 million and Costa Rica with 1.9 million ^[86] Places such as Cancun, Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Cartagena de Indias, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Margarita Island, São Paulo, Salar de Uyuni, Punta del Este, Santo Domingo, Labadee, San Juan, La Habana, Panama City, Iguazu Falls, Puerto Vallarta, Poás Volcano National Park, Punta Cana, Viña del Mar, Mexico City, Quito, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lima, La Paz and Patagonia are popular among international visitors in the region.^{[citation needed]}

**Performance indicators for international tourism in Latin America**
Latin American countries	Internl. tourist arrivals 2007^[86] (x1000)	Internl. tourism receipts 2007^[86] (million USD)	Receipts per arrival 2007 (col 2)/(col 1) (USD)	Arrivals per capita per 1000 pop. (estimated) 2007^[86]^[87]	Receipts per capita 2005^[88] USD	Revenues as % of exports goods and services^[85] 2003	Tourism revenues as % GDP^[85] 2003	% Direct & indirect employment in tourism^[85] 2005	World Ranking Tourism Compet.^[89] TTCI 2009	Index value TTCI^[89] 2009
Argentina	4,562	4,313	945	115	57	7.4	1.8	9.1	65	4.08
Bolivia*	556	205*	475*	58	22	9.4	2.2	7.6	114	3.33
Brazil	5,026	4,953	985	26	18	3.2	0.5	7.0	45	4,35
Chile	2,507	1,419	566	151	73	5.3	1.9	6.8	57	4,18
Colombia	1,193	1,669	1,399	26	25	6.6	1.4	5.9	72	3.89
Costa Rica	1,973	1,974	1,000	442	343	17.5	8.1	13.3	42	4.42
Cuba	2,119	1,982	935	188	169	n/d	n/d	n/d	n/d	n/d
Dominican Republic	3,980	4,026	1,012	408	353	36.2	18.8	19.8	67	4,03
Ecuador	953	637	668	71	35	6.3	1.5	7.4	96	3.62
El Salvador	1,339	847	633	195	54	12.9	3.4	6.8	94	3.63
Guatemala	1,448	1,199	828	108	66	16.0	2.6	6.0	70	3.90
Haiti*	n/d	n/d	685*	n/d	12*	19.4	3.2	4.7	n/d	n/d
Honduras	831	557	670	117	61	13.5	5.0	8.5	83	3.77
Mexico	21,424	12,901	602	201	103	5.7	1.6	14.2	51	4.29
Nicaragua	800	255	319	143	36	15.5	3.7	5.6	103	3.49
Panama	1,103	1,185	1,074	330	211	10.6	6.3	12.9	55	4.23
Paraguay	416	102	245	68	11	4.2	1.3	6.4	115	3.24
Peru	1,812	1,938	1,070	65	41	9.0	1.6	7.6	74	3.88
Uruguay	1,752	809	462	525	145	14.2	3.6	10.7	63	4.09
Venezuela	771	817	1,060	28	19	1.3	0.4	8.1	104	3.46

Note (1): Countries marked with * do not have all statistical data available for 2006 or 2007. Data shown is for reference purposes only (2003 for Haiti and 2005 for Bolivia.^[88]
Note (2): Green shadow denotes the country with the best indicator. Yellow shadow denotes the country with the lowest performance for that indicator.

[edit] Culture

Main article: Latin American culture

Latin American culture is a mixture of many cultural expressions worldwide. It is the product of many diverse influences:

The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas.

Indigenous cultures of the people who inhabited the continent prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Ancient and very advanced civilizations developed their own political, social and religious systems. The Maya, the Aztecs and the Incas are examples of these.
Western civilization, in particular the culture of Europe, was brought mainly by the colonial powers—the Spanish, Portuguese and French—between the 16th and 19th centuries. The most enduring European colonial influence is language and Roman Catholicism. More recently, additional cultural influences came from the United States and Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, due to the growing influence of the former on the world stage and immigration from the later. The influence of the United States is particularly strong in northern Latin America, especially Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory. In addition, the United States held the twenty-mile-long Panama Canal Zone in Panama 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. South America experienced waves of immigration of Europeans, especially Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Germans. With the end of colonialism, French culture was also able to exert a direct influence in Latin America, especially in the realms of high culture, science and medicine.^[90] This can be seen in any expression of the region's artistic traditions, including painting, literature and music, and in the realms of science and politics.
African cultures, whose presence derives from a long history of New World slavery. Peoples of African descent have influenced the ethno-scapes of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is manifested for instance in dance and religion, especially in countries like Belize, Brazil, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Haiti, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

[edit] Art

Main article: Latin American art

The Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, built in the early 20th century.

Beyond the rich tradition of indigenous art, the development of Latin American visual art owed much to the influence of Spanish, Portuguese and French Baroque painting, which in turn often followed the trends of the Italian Masters. In general, this artistic Eurocentrism began to fade in the early twentieth century, as Latin-Americans began to acknowledge the uniqueness of their condition and started to follow their own path.

From the early twentieth century, the art of Latin America was greatly inspired by the Constructivist Movement. The Constructivist Movement was founded in Russia around 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin. The Movement quickly spread from Russia to Europe and then into Latin America. Joaquin Torres Garcia and Manuel Rendón have been credited with bringing the Constructivist Movement into Latin America from Europe.

Presencia de América Latina (Presence of Latin America), by Mexican muralist Jorge González Camarena. Located in the lobby of the Casa del Arte, University of Concepción in Concepción, Chile.

An important artistic movement generated in Latin America is muralism represented by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo in Mexico and Santiago Martinez Delgado and Pedro Nel Gómez in Colombia. Some of the most impressive Muralista works can be found in Mexico, Colombia, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Painter Frida Kahlo, one of the most famous Mexican artists, painted about her own life and the Mexican culture in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. Kahlo's work commands the highest selling price of all Latin American paintings.^[91]

Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero is also widely known by his works which, on first examination, are noted for their exaggerated proportions and the corpulence of the human and animal figures.

[edit] Film

Main article: Latin American cinema

Latin American film is both rich and diverse. Historically, the main centers of production have been México, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and Argentina.

The Official Story

Latin American cinema flourished after the introduction of sound, which added a linguistic barrier to the export of Hollywood film south of the border. The 1950s and 1960s saw a movement towards Third Cinema, led by the Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. More recently, a new style of directing and stories filmed has been tagged as "New Latin American Cinema."

Mexican cinema started out in the silent era from 1896–1929 and flourished in the Golden Era of the 1940s. It boasted a huge industry comparable to Hollywood at the time with stars such as María Félix, Dolores del Rio and Pedro Infante. In the 1970s, Mexico was the location for many cult horror and action movies. More recently, films such as Amores Perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001) enjoyed box office and critical acclaim and propelled Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñarritu to the front rank of Hollywood directors. Alejandro González Iñárritu directed in (2006) Babel and Alfonso Cuarón directed (Children of Men in (2006), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in (2004)). Guillermo del Toro close friend and also a front rank Hollywood director in Hollywood and Spain, directed Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and produce El Orfanato (2007). Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro), and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are also some of the most known present-day Mexican film makers. Rudo y Cursi released in December (2008) in Mexico directed by Carlos Cuarón.

Argentine cinema has also been prominenent since the first half of the 20th century and today averages over 60 full-length titles yearly. The industry suffered during the 1976–1983 military dictatorship; but re-emerged to produce the Academy Award winner The Official Story in 1985. A wave of imported U.S. films again damaged the industry in the early 1990s, though it soon recovered, thriving even during the Argentine economic crisis around 2001. Many Argentine movies produced during recent years have been internationally acclaimed, including Nueve reinas (2000), El abrazo partido (2004) , El otro (2007) and the 2010 Foreign Language Academy Award winner El secreto de sus ojos.

Amores perros (2000) a film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

In Brazil, the Cinema Novo movement created a particular way of making movies with critical and intellectual screenplays, a clearer photography related to the light of the outdoors in a tropical landscape, and a political message. The modern Brazilian film industry has become more profitable inside the country, and some of its productions have received prizes and recognition in Europe and the United States, with movies such as Central do Brasil (1999), Cidade de Deus (2003) and Tropa de Elite (2007).

Cuban cinema has enjoyed much official support since the Cuban revolution and important film-makers include Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

It is also worth noting that many Latin Americans have achieved significant success within Hollywood, for instance Carmen Miranda, Salma Hayek, and Benicio del Toro, while Mexican Americans such as Robert Rodriguez have also made their mark.

[edit] Literature

Main article: Latin American literature

Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez signing a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude in Havana, Cuba.

Pre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Aztecs and Mayans, for instance, produced elaborate codices. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of European colonizers, as was the case with the Popol Vuh. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the Quechua-speaking population of Peru and the Quiché (K'iche') of Guatemala.

From the very moment of Europe's "discovery" of the continent, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience—such as Columbus's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of Mexico. During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as Lizardi's El Periquillo Sarniento (1816).

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, interviewed in 1971.

The 19th century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the Romantic or Naturalist traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focussed on the indigenous question or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism" (for which see, say, Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo (1845), Juan León Mera's Cumandá (1879), or Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões (1902). The 19th century also witnessed the realist work of Machado de Assis, who made use of surreal devices of metaphor and playful narrative construction, much admired by critic Harold Bloom.

At the turn of the 20th century, modernismo emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío's Azul (1888). This was the first Latin American literary movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly Latin American literature, in that national differences were no longer so much at issue. José Martí, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the U.S. and wrote for journals in Argentina and elsewhere.

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes

However, what really put Latin American literature on the global map was no doubt the literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s, distinguished by daring and experimental novels (such as Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963)) that were frequently published in Spain and quickly translated into English. The Boom's defining novel was Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad (1967), which led to the association of Latin American literature with magic realism, though other important writers of the period such as the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes do not fit so easily within this framework. Arguably, the Boom's culmination was Augusto Roa Bastos's monumental Yo, el supremo (1974). In the wake of the Boom, influential precursors such as Juan Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier, and above all Jorge Luis Borges were also rediscovered.

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

Contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of writers such as Diamela Eltit, Giannina Braschi, Ricardo Piglia, or Roberto Bolaño. There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimonio, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as Rigoberta Menchú. Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic Carlos Monsiváis and Pedro Lemebel.

The region boasts five Nobel Prize winners: in addition to the two Chilean poets Gabriela Mistral (1945) and Pablo Neruda (1971), there is also the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1982), the Guatemalan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), and the Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz (1990).

[edit] Music and dance

Salsa dancing

Latin America has produced many successful worldwide artists in terms of recorded global music sales. The most successful have been Roberto Carlos who has sold over 100 million records, Carlos Santana with over 75 million, Luis Miguel, Shakira and Vicente Fernandez with over 50 million records sold worldwide.^[92] One of the main characteristics of Latin American music is its diversity, from the lively rhythms of Central America and the Caribbean to the more austere sounds of the Andes and the Southern Cone. Another feature of Latin American music is its original blending of the variety of styles that arrived in The Americas and became influential, from the early Spanish and European Baroque to the different beats of the African rhythms.

Caribbean Hispanic music, such as merengue, bachata, salsa, and more recently reggaeton, from such countries as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,Trinidad, Cuba, and Panama has been strongly influenced by African rhythms and melodies. Haiti's compas is a genre of music that draws influence and is thus similar to its Caribbean Hispanic counterparts, with an element of jazz and modern sound as well.^[93]^[94]

Another well-known Latin American musical genre includes the Argentine and Uruguayan tango, as well as the distinct nuevo tango, a fusion of tango, acoustic and electronic music popularized by bandoneón virtuoso Ástor Piazzolla. Equally renown, the samba, North American jazz, European classical music and choro combined to form bossa nova in Brazil, popularized by guitarrist João Gilberto and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Other influential Latin American sounds include the Antillean Soca and Calypso, the Honduras (Garifuna) Punta, the Colombian cumbia and vallenato, the Chilean Cueca, the Ecuadorian Boleros, and Rockoleras, the Mexican ranchera, the Nicaraguan Palo de Mayo, the Peruvian Marinera and Tondero, the Uruguayan Candombe, the French Antillean Zouk (Derived from Haitian Compas) and the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region.

A couple dances Argentine Tango.

The classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) worked on the recording of native musical traditions within his homeland of Brazil. The traditions of his homeland heavily influenced his classical works.^[95] Also notable is the recent work of the Cuban Leo Brouwer and guitar work of the Venezuelan Antonio Lauro and the Paraguayan Agustín Barrios. Latin America has also produced world-class classical performers such as the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire and the Argentine pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.

Arguably, the main contribution to music entered through folklore, where the true soul of the Latin American and Caribbean countries is expressed. Musicians such as Yma Súmac, Chabuca Granda, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Mercedes Sosa, Jorge Negrete, Luiz Gonzaga, Caetano Veloso, Susana Baca, Chavela Vargas, Simon Diaz, Julio Jaramillo, Toto la Momposina as well as musical ensembles such as Inti Illimani and Los Kjarkas are magnificent examples of the heights that this soul can reach.

Latin pop, including many forms of rock, is popular in Latin America today (see Spanish language rock and roll).^[96]

More recently, Reggaeton, which blends Jamaican reggae and dancehall with Latin America genres such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop, is becoming more popular, in spite of the controversy surrounding its lyrics, dance steps (Perreo) and music videos. It has become very popular among populations with a "migrant culture" influence – both Latino populations in the U.S., such as southern Florida and New York City, and parts of Latin America where migration to the U.S. is common, such as Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Mexico.^[97]

Peru: Lost language unearthed in a letter found

Emily Schmall 22.09.2010.

Archaeologists say scrawl on the back of a letter recovered from a 17th century dig site reveals a previously unknown language spoken by indigenous peoples in northern Peru.

A team of international archaeologists found the letter under a pile of adobe bricks in a collapsed church complex near Trujillo, 347 miles (560 km) north of Lima.

The complex had been inhabited by Dominican friars for two centuries. "Our investigations determined that this piece of paper records a number system in a language that has been lost for hundreds of years," Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, told Reuters.

A photograph of the letter recently released by archaeologists shows a column of numbers written in Spanish and translated into a language that scholars say is now extinct. "We discovered a language no one has seen or heard since the 16th or 17th century," Quilter said, adding that the language appears to have been influenced by Quechua, an ancient tongue still spoken by millions of people across the Andes.

He said it could also be the written version of a language colonial-era Spaniards referred to in historical writings as pescadora, for the fishermen on Peru's northern coast who spoke it. So far no record of the pescadora language has been found.

The letter, buried in the ruins of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru, was discovered in 2008.

But Quilter said archaeologists decided to keep their discovery secret until the research showing evidence of the lost language was published this month in the journal American Anthropologist.

"I think a lot of people don't realise how many languages were spoken in pre-contact times," Quilter said. "Linguistically, the relationship between the Spanish conquistadors and the indigenous was very complex."

(Reporting by Emily Schmall; Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Capitalist storm clouds loom: Havana cuts 1m state jobs

Cuban workers told to become entrepreneurs in bid to boost island's private sector

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent guardian.co.uk, 14.9.2010.

The seafront at Havana. Cubans are having to deal with the possibility of widespread redundancies as the state struggles to manage a mixed economy. Photograph: Desmond Boylan/Reuters

It was supposed to be the start of a brave new world in which the customer was king. But the teenage boy in the barber's chair stared at his reflection, aghast and almost crying. "What have you done?" he asked, caressing uneven clumps on a shorn scalp.

The barber, a fortysomething man with a grubby white coat, put down the scissors, lit a cigarette, and shrugged. "Looks OK to me. Don't know what you're on about."

The young customer examined his head from different angles, each worse than the last. "It's like …" – he struggled for words – "a tennis ball. A bald bloody tennis ball." The barber took another drag and put out his hand. "Forty pesos. Have a nice day."

The scene on Neptuno street, a crumbling, sun-bleached quarter near downtown Havana, was a taste of Cuba's challenge in transforming its socialist economy with a sweeping privatisation drive.

Authorities announced yesterday they will lay off more than 1 million state employees in the island's biggest economic shake-up since the 1960s. Cuts begin immediately, with 500,000 jobs due to go by March. Loosened controls on private enterprise will, it is hoped, jumpstart the private sector and turn former public workers into entrepreneurs.

"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls [and] losses that hurt the economy," said the official Cuban labour federation, which announced the news.

"Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-state employment, among them leasing land, co-operatives and self-employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years," it said.

In fact, the changes started in April with a pilot scheme to privatise barbers and hairdressers. Formerly state employees – about 85% of the labour force works for the communist state – they were told to take over their own salons, charge whatever they wanted, pay tax – and court customers.

As the barber showed, providing good customer service, let alone expanding market share, is an alien concept to many accustomed to receiving the same pittance wage regardless of job performance. "I don't want to take over this place," Luis, the barber, who preferred not to give his surname, told the Guardian. "How do I know it'll make a profit? How do I pay suppliers?"

Like it or not, those are questions many more Cubans will soon be asking after receiving their pink slips. The authorities, according to a 26-page party document leaked to the Associated Press, have a plan for them to raise rabbits, paint buildings, make bricks, collect garbage and pilot ferries across Havana's bay.

Some of those let go will be urged to form private co-operatives, others will be directed towards foreign-run companies and joint ventures, and others will be encouraged to set up their own small businesses.

The Communist party document admitted lack of experience, insufficient skill levels and low initiative could sink new enterprises. "Many of them could fail within a year," it says.

After half a century of official certitude about being its socialist course, Cuba is entering new waters. Its final destination remains unclear. "A hybrid is evolving which can't be said to be any one thing," said Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations thinktank. "We're seeing a uniquely Cuban transition but within the global economy."

Unemployment last year was officially 1.7%, but with average monthly salaries of only $20, supplemented by a ration book and free health care and education, many Cubans make minimal efforts, prompting an old joke: "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." Che Guevara's dream of creating a "socialist man" motivated by moral rather than material incentives has long been abandoned.

This week's announcement – widely reported across state media – has been trailed since Raul Castro succeeded his brother Fidel as president in 2008. "We have to erase forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in the world in which people can live without working," he told the national assembly last month. The decades-old US embargo – a crippling, punitive measure – could no longer be blamed for all the island's woes, he said.

It was no longer possible to protect and subsidise salaries on an unlimited basis and cuts will affect all government sectors, said the labour federation. "Losses that hurt our economy are ultimately counterproductive, creating bad habits and distorting worker conduct."

Workers at the ministries of sugar, public health, tourism and agriculture will be let go first, according to the Communist party document. The last in line will be those at civil aviation and the ministries of foreign relations and social services.

To ease the pain, authorities hope to energise the stunted private sector by encouraging Cubans to raise animals, grow vegetables, drive taxis, repair vehicles, make sweets and dried fruit and seek building work.

Leftwingers abroad may feel let down by the cuts, but Cuban officials believe the thriving black market is an indicator that the private sector will soak up surplus labour. Such consensus would contrast with Britain, Ireland and Greece, among others, where cutbacks have triggered vocal protests.

One Havana-based western diplomat was less sanguine about Cuba's response, especially as there were simultaneous cuts in subsidies for food, cigarettes and other products which people used to barter. "People knew this was coming, but now it's here, it's real, and they're worried. Bosses will get rid of the least productive employees, the ones who don't work or show up for work. The type of people who may lack the get up and go to start a business. People wonder if there will be a rise in crime, or social protests."

Europe was enduring its own economic travails but was at least accustomed to unemployment, said the diplomat. "People here aren't used to being threatened with losing their job. They may complain their salary is only $15 a month, but that's $15 more than nothing."

The US journalist who elicited Fidel Castro's apparent admission that Cuba's economic model does not work has insisted the quote accurately reflected the former president's views. Castro confirmed uttering the nine-word remark,, which caused widespread astonishment, but said he had been misinterpreted and that he had meant the "exact opposite".

At the end of a lunch in Havana Castro told Daniel Goldberg, a correspondent with the Atlantic magazine: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."

The comandante was in full flow, touching on many different topics at the same time, said Goldberg. "I don't want to call it a throwaway line but it was kind of semi-stream of consciousness."

Goldberg said he was surprised at Castro's subsequent attempt to explain away the remark. "I don't know how you can interpret that as its opposite. The 84-year-old had made similar admissions before, said the journalist, and economic changes underway on the island made it "a truism that the Cuban model isn't working".

Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert who also attended the lunch, backed Goldberg's version and said Castro's apparent U-turn was aimed at a domestic audience. "He wanted to say that although we're changing our model that doesn't mean we're importing US-style capitalism," she said.

Castro's spate of public appearances and comments, said Sweig, were "spontaneous" but fitted the economic reform strategy of his brother and successor, Raul Castro.

Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing

Former Cuban president says state-run model 'doesn't even work for us' in offhand remark to US journalist Jeffrey Goldberg

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent guardian.co.uk, 09.09.2010

Fidel Castro, pictured earlier this month, criticised Cuba's state-dominated system. Photograph: Desmond Boylan/Reuters

It was a casual remark over a lunch of salad, fish and red wine but future historians are likely to parse and ponder every word: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more."

Fidel Castro's nine-word confession, dropped into conversation with a visiting US journalist and policy analyst, undercuts half a century of thundering revolutionary certitude about Cuban socialism.

That the island's economy is a disaster is hardly news but that the micro-managing "maximum leader" would so breezily acknowledge it has astonished observers.

Towards the end of a long, relaxed lunch in Havana, Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, asked Castro if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting. The reply left him dumbfounded. "Did the leader of the revolution just say, in essence, 'Never mind'?" Goldberg wrote on his blog.

The 84-year-old retired president did not elaborate but the implication, according to Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert from the Council on Foreign Relations who also attended the lunch, was that the state had too big a role in the economy.

Raúl Castro has been saying the same thing in public and private since succeeding his older brother two years ago. With infrastructure crumbling, food shortages acute and an average monthly salary of just $25 (£16), it has become apparent that near-total state control of the economy does not work.

But for Fidel to acknowledge the fact could be compared to Napoleon musing that the march on Moscow was not, on reflection, a great success.

"Frankly, I have been somewhat amazed by Fidel's new frankness," said Stephen Wilkinson, a Cuba expert at the London Metropolitan University. "This is the latest of a series of recent utterances that strike me as being indicative of a change in the old man's character."

The remark should not, however, be interpreted as a condemnation of socialism, added Wilkinson. "That is clearly not what he means, but it is an acknowledgement that the way in which the Cuban system is organised has to change. It is an implicit indication also that he has abdicated governing entirely to Raúl, who has argued this position for some time. We can now expect a lot more changes and perhaps more rapid changes as a consequence."

Raúl has said Cuba cannot blame the decades-old US embargo for all its economic ills and that serious reforms are needed. Fidel's statement could bolster the president's behind-the-scenes tussle with apparatchiks resisting change, said Sweig.

Agriculture has been a big disappointment. The lush Caribbean island of 11 million people could be a major food exporter but central planning and state-run co-operatives have produced chronic shortages, prompting an old, bitter joke that the revolution's three biggest failures are breakfast, lunch and dinner. Raúl's reforms are not going well: food production fell 7.5% in the first half of the year.

Once propped up by the Soviet Union, Cuba's lifeline is now cheap oil from Venezuela, where President Hugo Chávez considers Fidel a mentor.

Chávez swiftly followed another surprise statement of Castro's – accusing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of antisemitism – with an announcement that he would meet Venezuelan Jewish leaders. The move was "a direct result of Fidel's statement", according to Goldberg.

• This article was amended on 10 September. Headings on the original characterised Fidel Castro as saying that communism does not work. This has been corrected.

Marxist reforms?

The remarks about Cuban economic policy are not the only surprise statements made recently by the former Cuban leader. Others include:

• He feels responsible for the "great injustice" of the persecution of Cuban homosexuals in the 1970s.

• He laments Jewish suffering over the centuries, defends Israel's right to exist and accuses Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of antisemitism.

• He appears to regret urging the Soviet Union to nuke the US during the 1962 missile crisis. "After I've seen what I've seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn't worth it all."

UNDP: First Human Development Report for Latin America & the Caribbean: 23.07.2010.
Inequality stands in the way of human development in Latin America and the Caribbean, but it can be reduced

San José, Costa Rica — Latin America and the Caribbean is the most unequal region in the world. Ten of the 15 countries with the highest levels of inequality are in the region. This inequality is persistent, self-perpetuating in areas where social mobility is low and it poses an obstacle to progress in human development. According to the first ever Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean “Acting On The Future: Breaking The Intergenerational Cycle Of Inequality”, published today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), there is a need for specific, comprehensive and effective public policies to reduce inequality.

The report finds that it is possible to reduce inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean. It proposes the design and implementation of public policies on three fronts to lift the region out of the inequality trap. These policies must have an impact on people (“reach”), address the set of constraints that perpetuate poverty and inequality (“breadth”) and empower people to feel they are in charge of their development destinies (“ownership”).

According to the report, factors at household level and within the political system serve to perpetuate inequality. Achieving a clearer understanding of these factors will make it possible to design policies that successfully combat poverty and achieve meaningful reductions in inequality in the region.

“This report reaffirms the critical importance of the fight against poverty, while indicating that it is necessary to go further,” said UNDP Regional Director Heraldo Muñoz. “Inequality is inherently an impediment to progress in the area of human development, and efforts to reduce inequality must be explicitly mainstreamed in the public agenda.” For UNDP “equality is instrumental in ensuring meaningful liberties; that is to say, in terms of helping all people to share in meaningful life options so that they can make autonomous choices,” he added.

The President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, emphasized the value of the report: “The success of government action depends on the deployment of information like that offered in the report. Continuity of inequality across generations presents us with a critical factor in human development, one that demands our special attention.”

“This report highlights that inequality in itself is a concern. We must therefore make it an issue and a policy matter in the development agenda of the region and its countries. It is our obligation that the fruits of development contribute to the general well-being and not only to that of a few.”

Women, indigenous populations and those of African descent are the groups hardest hit by inequality. Women in the region are paid less than men for the same work, they have a greater presence in the informal economy and they face a double workload. Furthermore, when compared to those of European descent, twice as many members of indigenous and African descended populations, on average, live on US$1 per day.

The report also introduces a new type of indicator which shows how inequality impacts human development. According to this estimate, the Human Development Index of countries in the region would diminish, on average, by between 6 and 19 percent if the index were corrected to reflect inequality.

Rebeca Grynspan, UNDP Associate Administrator, pointed out that: “Inequality is a source of social vulnerability. For that reason, as the report shows, it’s critical to advance knowledge of the factors explaining inequality in human development in Latin America and the Caribbean and its persistence from one generation to the next. That would allow the proposal of a strong framework for development of targeted policies that drive a more equality-based development.”

The proposed comprehensive and carefully designed policy would reduce inequality in the region and have an impact on the conditions and constraints facing households, as well as on factors that influence autonomy and aspirations to achieve mobility. The quality and effectiveness of political representation and the State's capacity to redistribute income are other key factors to take into account, according to the report.

The study indicates that the most common public policies in the region have focused on specific aspects of combating poverty without considering the deep-seated nature of deprivation and its systemic relationship to inequality. The report also shows that income and education levels are some of the factors responsible for continuing inequality in human development. Nevertheless, there are other structural causes of political and social origin that reflect historical factors, lack of equality of opportunity and lack of empowerment, resulting in states of marginalization, oppression, and domination.

“In order to break the ongoing cycle of inequality it’s necessary to implement comprehensive social policies financed with more progressive fiscal arrangements,” said Luis Felipe López Calva, UNDP Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Lowering inequality helps to create connected societies in which economic growth and social cohesion are strengthened. Conversely, inequality perpetuates itself, as much for economic reasons as for reasons of political economy, the report concludes.

The launch of the report was presided over by the President of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla, alongside UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan, and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Heraldo Muñoz.

The report and related press materials are available online: www.idhalc-actuarsobreelfuturo.org
See also...

Latin America portal

Latin American integration

Notes & References

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^ Stepan, Nancy Leys (1991). "The Hour of Eugenics": Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. in passim. ISBN 0-8014-9795-7. http://books.google.com/?id=NuUxkMC1ePYC.
^ "Frida Kahlo " Roots " Sets $5.6 Million Record at Sotheby's". Art Knowledge News. http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Frida_Kahlo_Roots_$5.6_Million_Record-at-Sothebys.html. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists
^ Dr. Christopher Washburne. "Clave: The African Roots of Salsa". University of Salsa. http://www.planetsalsa.com/university_of_salsa/clave/clave_roots.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
^ "Guide to Latin Music". Caravan Music. http://www.caravanmusic.com/GuideLatinMusic.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
^ "Heitor Villa-Lobos". Leadership Medica. http://www.cesil.com/0998/enbass09.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
^ The Baltimore Sun. "Latin music returns to America with wave of new pop starlets". The Michigan Daily. http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1999/sep/09-28-99/arts/arts6.html. Retrieved 2006-05-23.
^ "Daddy Yankee leads the reggaeton charge". Associated Press. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9410287/from/RL.3/. Retrieved 2006-05-23.

Books

Azevedo, Aroldo. O Brasil e suas regiões. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1971. (Portuguese)
Enciclopédia Barsa. Volume 4: Batráquio – Camarão, Filipe. Rio de Janeiro: Encyclopædia Britannica do Brasil, 1987. (Portuguese)
Coelho, Marcos Amorim. Geografia do Brasil. 4th ed. São Paulo: Moderna, 1996. (Portuguese)
Moreira, Igor A. G. O Espaço Geográfico, geografia geral e do Brasil. 18. Ed. São Paulo: Ática, 1981. (Portuguese)
Vesentini, José William. Brasil, sociedade e espaço – Geografia do Brasil. 7th Ed. São Paulo: Ática, 1988. (Portuguese)
Julio Miranda Vidal: (2007) Ciencia y tecnología en América Latina Edición electrónica gratuita. Texto completo en http://www.eumed.net/libros/2007a/237/

External links

Latin Intelligence Service
Latin American Network Information Center
Washington Office on Latin America
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Infolatam. Information and analysis of Latin America
Map of Land Cover: Latin America and Caribbean (FAO)
Lessons From Latin America by Benjamin Dangl, The Nation, March 4, 2009
Keeping Latin America on the World News Agenda – Interview with Michael Reid of The Economist

Latin America

[edit] Etymology and definitions

[edit] Subdivisions

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-columbian history

[edit] European colonization

[edit] Independence (1804–1825)

[edit] Consolidation and liberal-conservative conflicts (1825–1900)

[edit] World wars (1914–1945)

[edit] Cold War (1946–1990)

[edit] Late-20th-century military regimes

[edit] Washington Consensus

[edit] Turn to the left

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Ethnic groups

[edit] Language

[edit] Religion

[edit] Migration

[edit] Health

[edit] Education

[edit] Crime and violence

[edit] Economy

[edit] Standard of living, consumption, and the environment

[edit] Inequality and poverty

[edit] Trade blocs

[edit] Largest economic cities

[edit] Tourism

[edit] Culture

[edit] Art

[edit] Film

[edit] Literature

[edit] Music and dance

Peru: Lost language unearthed in a letter found

Capitalist storm clouds loom: Havana cuts 1m state jobs

Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing

Marxist reforms?

Notes & References

Books

External links

'We will have no water and that will be the end of the world for us'