Latin America is one of the two great cultural regions into which the American continent can be divided. It brings together in the same group the American countries whose official language derives from Latin: Spanish, Portuguese and, to a lesser extent, French, and which have a similar history of colonial formation under European control.
Latin America is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the West, which constitutes a challenge when looking for its own and common features.
From a geographical point of view, the Latin American region is no less complex. All the world's climates are present in it, throughout its twenty million square kilometers of surface. To this is added the Andes mountain chain, with its diversity of reliefs, the immense jungles of the Amazon, the cold plains of Patagonia and the warm coasts of the Caribbean Sea.
Characteristics of Latin America
- It has more than half the surface of the American continent, with around 650,000,000 inhabitants.
- Its predominant languages are Spanish, Portuguese and to a lesser extent French. There is also a very diverse set of surviving indigenous languages.
- The region presents high margins of miscegenation and hybridization. This means that there is an abundance of racially indeterminable individuals (mestizos), as well as spaces in which European whites, African descendants or indigenous people predominate. Adding an abundant Asian and Arab migration.
- The region has significant levels of poverty, both urban and rural, and was the scene of highly uneven industrialization throughout the 20th century.
Latin American culture
Latin American culture is extremely complex and diverse, the result of a complex process of syncretism and hybridization resulting from colonization by Spain, Portugal, and France, to a lesser extent.
In addition, slaves from Africa were forcibly introduced. So that it has three fundamental vertices: European culture, African culture, and that of the original American nations.
The most practiced religion is Catholicism. Protestantism has also been on the rise in recent decades. They dominate the European languages, but they coexist with the surviving aborigines, especially in the Andean, Chaco and Mesoamerican regions. Similar diversity also exists in gastronomy, folklore and traditions.
In fact, the Latin American cultural region itself can be subdivided into different internal cultural regions, such as:
- The Mesoamerican region.
- The Central American region.
- The Caribbean region.
- The Amazon region.
- The Andean region.
- The Pacific region.
- The Chaco region.
- The region of the Río de la Plata.
- The Patagonian and Araucanian region.
Latin American Countries and their Capitals
- Argentina: Located on the Atlantic coast of the American South Cone, its capital city is Buenos Aires.
- Bolivia: Located in the Andean highlands in South America, its capital city is La Paz.}
- Brazil: Located in South America, its capital city is Brasília.
- Chile: Located on the Pacific coast of the American South Cone, its capital city is Santiago.
- Colombia: Located in the northern region of South America, its capital city is Bogota.
- Costa Rica: Located in Central America, its capital city is San José.
- Cuba: Located in the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is Havana.
- Ecuador: Located on the Pacific coast of South America, its capital city is Quito.
- El Salvador: Located in Central America, its capital city is San Salvador.
- Guatemala: Located in Central America, its capital is Guatemala City.
- Haiti: Located between the Caribbean Antilles, its capital city is Port-au-Prince.
- Honduras: Located in the center-north of Central America, its capital city is Tegucigalpa.
- Mexico: Located in the southern region of North America, its capital is Mexico City.
- Nicaragua: Located in the middle of the Central American isthmus, its capital is the city of Managua.
- Panama: Located between South and Central America, its capital is Panama City.
- Paraguay: Located in the central zone of South America, its capital city is Asunción.
- Peru: Located on the Pacific coast of South America, its capital city is Lima.
- Puerto Rico: Located in the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is San Juan.
- Dominican Republic: Located in the Antilles of the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is Santo Domingo.
- Uruguay: Located in the eastern part of the American South Cone, its capital city is Montevideo.
- Venezuela: Located on the Caribbean coast of northern South America, its capital city is Caracas.
As we belong to a country that is home to so much cultural diversity from almost all parts of the world, it is important that we know, even to a small extent, these cultures that surround us, since for us it can mean very little but for them it can mean a lot. That is why here, at AyiConnect, you will learn many more details and facts about these cultures.
References:
https://concepto.de/america-latina/
https://humanidades.com/america-latina/
https://elpais.com/cultura/2016/08/21/actualidad/1471804326_314254.html
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