Latin America
| Area |
21,069,501 sq km |
| Population |
560, 287,688 |
| Countries |
20 |
| Dependencies |
4 |
| GDP |
$2.26 Trillion (exchange rate) |
| Languages |
Spanish, Portuguese, French, Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Guaraní, Italian, German, Welsh |
| Time Zones |
|
| Largest Cities |
Mexico City,
São Paulo,
Buenos Aires,
Rio de Janeiro,
Caracas,
Bogotá
Lima,
Santiago, Chile,
Havana. |
Latin America (See also Ibero-America and Use of the word American) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages derived from Latin are officially or primarily spoken. Alternatively, Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America where English, a Germanic language, predominates.
Definitions for what comprises Latin America may vary. From a sociopolitical perspective, including only independent countries, Latin America corresponds roughly to all nations south of the United States including Mexico, most of Central and South America, and the countries of the Caribbean where Spanish, Portuguese, French, or related Creole languages are spoken. Other territories where some languages derived from Latin – such as French, Papiamento, or Kreyol predominate (e.g., Quebec in Canada) – are frequently not reckoned as parts of Latin America. Sometimes, particularly in the United States, the term "Latin America" is used to refer to all of the Americas south of the U.S., including countries such as Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Suriname where languages other than Spanish or Portuguese prevail.
Geopolitically, Latin America is divided into 20 independent countries and several dependent territories. Brazil is by far the largest country in Latin America, both in area and in population. Its official language, Portuguese, puts it apart from other Latin American countries which predominately use Spanish as their official language.
Etymology
Napoleon III brought the term Latin-America to the Spanish, French and Portuguese speaking parts of the Americas, making it an expression equivalent to Latin Europe.
Most of the population in Latin America speaks a 'Romance' (i.e. Latin-derived) language such as Portuguese or Spanish. Traditionally, the elite of Latin American society descended from the descendants of European settlers. On the other hand, many people in Latin America do not speak the official Latin-derived languages, but native languages or languages brought by immigration. There is also the blend of Latin-derived cultures with indigenous and African ones resulting in a differentiation in relation to the Latin cultures of Europe.
Québec, Acadia and other French-speaking areas in Canada, Louisiana, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and other places north of Mexico are traditionally excluded from the social-political definition of Latin America, despite significant populations speaking a Latin-derived language. This is because these regions do not exist as independent states, and they are geographically isolated from the rest of Latin America. French Guiana, however, is usually included, despite being a dependency of France and not an independent country.
The related term Iberoamerica is sometimes used to refer to the nations that were formerly colonies of Spain and Portugal, as these two countries are located on the Iberian peninsula. The Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) takes this definition a step further, by including Spain and Portugal (often termed the Mother Countries of Latin America) among its member states, in addition to their Spanish and Portuguese-speaking former colonies in America.
Political divisions
Latin America is often seen as encompassing the following countries:
And the following dependencies:
In addition, some would add Belize, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, and Suriname to this list, even though they are not culturally or linguistically Latin American. They maintain economic ties with nearby countries, and are grouped by the United Nations in predominantly Latin American regions (South and Central America). However, all except Suriname are also the objects of long-standing territorial claims by their Latin American neighbors.
History
- Main article: History of Latin America
This region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Inca and Maya, before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century. After that time, most of Latin America was colonized by Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, and to a lesser extent, France. In the early 19th century most of the countries in the region attained independence, although a few small colonies remain.
Demographics
The majority of Latin Americans are descended of the mixture, in various degrees, of European (mainly Spanish or Portuguese), Amerindian and/or African ancestry. There are also other smaller foreign elements (South Asias, East Asian, Middle Eastern) in given segements of the population.
This genetic mestizaje (mixture) has profoundly influenced religion, music, and politics, and given rise to a vague identity of those belonging to these mixed cultures; this imprecise cultural heritage is (arguably improperly) called Latinos in American English. Outside of the U.S., and in many languages (especially romance ones) "Latino" just means "Latin", referring to cultures and peoples that can trace their heritage back to the ancient Roman Empire.
Economy
Below is a table showing the Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) prices and the GDP (PPP) of each Latin American country. This can be used to roughly gauge to the relative standards of living in the region. Data are from the year 2005. The Latin American G7 is composed of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
| Country |
GDP (PPP) per capita |
GDP (PPP) |
| international dollars |
millions of international dollars |
 Argentina |
14,087 |
550,000 |
 Chile |
11,537 |
186,733 |
 Costa Rica |
10,316 |
44,579 |
 Mexico |
10,090 |
1,064,889 |
 Uruguay |
9,619 |
32,885 |
 Brazil |
8,745 |
1,552,542 |
 Panama |
7,327 |
22,706 |
 Colombia |
7,303 |
336,808 |
 Dominican Republic |
7,055 |
63,594 |
 Peru |
6,723 |
164,110 |
 Venezuela |
5,801 |
153,331 |
 Paraguay |
4,663 |
29,014 |
 El Salvador |
4,525 |
31,171 |
 Guatemala |
4,136 |
56,736 |
 Ecuador |
4,010 |
56,779 |
 Bolivia |
3,049 |
25,892 |
 Cuba |
3,000 |
33,920 |
 Honduras |
2,793 |
20,549 |
 Nicaragua |
2,779 |
16,052 |
 Haiti |
1,614 |
14,118 |
| Latin America |
8,105 |
4,421,569 |
Sources: Data from table are from an April 2005 report by the IMF and graphics data are from data by the World Bank from 2003 [1]. Data for Cuba is a 2004 estimate from the CIA World Factbook. GDP (PPP) per capita for Latin America was calculated using population data from List of countries by population
Language
The predominant language is Spanish in the majority of the countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil. French is also spoken in smaller countries, in the Caribbean, and French Guiana).
Many nations, especially in the Caribbean, have their own creole languages, derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are spoken in many Latin American nations, mainly Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Mexico. Nahuatl is only 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. Guarani is, together with Spanish, the official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by the mayority of the population.
Other European languages are also spoken, such as Italian in Brazil and Argentina, German in southern Brazil and Argentina, and Welsh in southern Argentina.
Religion
The primary religion throughout Latin America is Roman Catholicism, but one can also find practitioners of Protestant, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Mormon, Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Bahá'í, indigenous, and various Afro-Latin American traditions, such as Santería, and Macumba. Evangelicalism in particular has been sharply increasing in popularity.
Art
Master artists from Latin America include:
Literature
See Latin American Writers
Music
One of the main characteristics of Latin American music is its diversity; contrary to widespread misperception, there is no one specific Latin American style of music. So-called "Latin music" generally covers only Hispano-Caribbean music (salsa, merengue, bachata, etc.), i.e. the styles of music that have been strongly influenced by African rhythms and melodies.
Other musical genres of Latin American include the Argentine tango, Colombian cumbia and vallenato, Mexican ranchera and the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region. In Brazil, samba, American jazz, European classical music and choro are combined into the so-called bossanova music.
Notable classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos worked on the recording of native musical traditions. These traditions have heavily influenced his classical works.
Latin pop, including many forms of rock en español, is very popular in Latin America today.
Film
Latin American film is both rich and diverse. The 1950s and 1960s saw a movement towards Third Cinema, led by filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino.
Cinema in Argentina was a big industry at the first half of the 20th century. After a series of military governments that conditionated culture in general, the industry re-emerged after the 1975-1983 military dictatorship to produce Academy Award The Official Story in 1985. Argentine economic crisis affected the production of films in the late 1990s, early 2000s, but many Argentine movies produced during those years were internationally aclaimed, including Nueve reinas, El abrazo partido and Roma.
In Brazil, the Cinema Novo movement created a very particular way of making movies with critic and intellectual screenplays, a clearer photography related to the light of the outdoors in a tropical landscape, and a political message. Modern Brazilian film industry has become more profitable inside the country, and some of its productions have received prizes and recognition in Europe and in the United States. Movies like Central Station (1999) and City of God (2003) have fans around the world, and its directors have also taken part in American and European film projects.
Mexican movies such as Amores Perros and Y tu mamá también have also been successful in creating universal stories about contemporary subjects, and were internationally recognised.
See also: Cinema of Cuba
See also
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America under GFDL
