Latin America (Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated from a fusion of the dialect spoken in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal with closely related dialects spoken in territories to the south which had not yet been reconquered by the Christians to the Arabs by the time Portugal was born as a Christian kingdom: América Latina; French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in: Amérique latine) is a region Region is most commonly a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region may be seen as a collection of smaller units or as one part of a larger whole (as in "the New England region of the United States"). Regions can be defined by physical characteristics, human of the Americas The Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total where Romance languages extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, (i.e., those derived from Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian, Spanish and others, are descended from Latin, while) – particularly Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated from a fusion of the dialect spoken in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal with closely related dialects spoken in territories to the south which had not yet been reconquered by the Christians to the Arabs by the time Portugal was born as a Christian kingdom, and variably French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in – are primarily spoken.[2][3] Latin America has an area Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The surface area of a 3-dimensional solid is the total area of the exposed surface, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron. Area is an important invariant in the differential geometry of of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet,[note 6] or by its Latin name, Terra.[note 7]'s surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2009, its population was estimated at more than 568 million[4] and its combined GDP The gross domestic product or gross domestic income (GDI) is a measure of a country's overall economic output. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year. It is often positively correlated with the standard of living, though its use as a stand-in for measuring the standard of living has at 4.26 trillion United States dollars The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents (200 half-cents prior to 1857) (5.99 trillion at PPP Purchasing power parity is a theory of long-term equilibrium exchange rates based on relative price levels of two countries. The idea originated with the School of Salamanca in the 16th century and was developed in its modern form by Gustav Cassel in 1918. The concept is founded on the law of one price; the idea that in absence of transaction)[4]. Latin American expected economic growth rate for 2010 is at about 4%.[5]

Contents

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 France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Saint-Simonian Saint-Simonianism was a French political and social movement of the first half of the nineteenth century, inspired by the ideas of Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas were inhabited by people of a "Latin race The Latins were an ancient Italic people of the Latium region in central Italy, . Although they lived in independent city-states, the Latins had a common language (Latin), common religious beliefs, and a close sense of kinship, expressed in the myth that they were all descendants of Latinus. Latinus was worshiped on Mons Albanus (Monte Cavo)," and that it could, therefore, ally itself with "Latin Europe Latin Europe is a loose term for the region of Europe with an especially strong Roman cultural heritage. The term has been used by some authors like Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo and Lawrence Friedman. Geographically anchored in Southern Europe, the countries using a Romance language , that are also predominantly Roman Catholic, are considered culturally" in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe Germanic Europe is the part of northern Europe which came under the sphere of influence of Germanic culture. This in turn has given rise to the linguistic predominancy of the Germanic languages in this part of Europe. Since the Protestant Reformation, the majority of the people of these regions have followed or declared to follow Protestantism,," "Anglo-Saxon America Anglo-America is a region in the Americas in which English is a main language, or one which has significant British historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural links. Anglo-America is distinct from Latin America, a region of the Americas where Romance languages are prevalent" and "Slavic Europe Slavic Europe is a region of Europe where Slavic languages are spoken. This area corresponds, more or less, to Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and consists of: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the disputed territory."[6] 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.[7] The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao[8] and the same year by the Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo in his poem "Two Americas.[9] The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. Elected President by popular vote in 1848, he initiated a coup d'état in 1851, becoming dictator before ascending the 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 Maximilian I of Mexico was a member of the Imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, during the Second Mexican Empire, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists on 10 April 1864. Many foreign governments refused to recognize his as emperor of Mexico.[10] In contemporary usage:

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 homogenous; 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.

Subdivisions

Darcy Ribeiro has proposed a classification between "witness peoples (yellow)" (Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador), "New peoples (Red)" (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Caribbean nations, Chile and Paraguay) and "transplanted peoples(Blue)" (Uruguay and Argentina).[17]

Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture. Some subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America (the latter contains subdivisions such as the Southern Cone and the Andean states). In terms of culture, society and national identity, Mario Sambarino classified Latin American states into Mestizo-American Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico etc.), Indigenous-America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru) and European-American (Argentina and Uruguay).[18]

In Darcy Ribeiro's classification system Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil et al. are classified as "New Peoples" which merged from the mix of several cultures; Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico are "Witness Peoples", heirs of ancient civilizations; and Argentina and Uruguay, are former "New Peoples" that became "Transplantated Peoples", essentially European, after massive immigration.[18] Under this scheme, the people of the Brazilian Amazon could be regarded as being just as much "Testimony Peoples" as those of the Peruvian Amazon, and the people of the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina could equally be seen as "Transplanted", just like those of the very similar cultures of neighboring Uruguay and Argentina.

History

Main article: History of Latin America See also: History of North America, History of South America, History of Central America, and History of the Caribbean

Pre-columbian history

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

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[19] 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 carribean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia and Perú were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.

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 it's downfall caused by the Spanish invasion.

European colonization

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, Europeans occupied large areas of North, Central and South America, extending from present-day southern Oregon in the United States through 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 proportion of the indigenous population, with epidemics of diseases reducing them sharply from their prior populations. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 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.

Independence (1810-1825)

Simon Bolivar, one of the main Independence movement leaders

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. In Latin America resentment grew among the majority of the population 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.

Consolidation and liberal-conservative conflicts (1825-1900)

This section requires expansion.

World wars (1914-1945)

This section requires expansion.

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.

Late 20th century military regimes

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

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.

Around the 1970s, these regimes collaborated in Operation Condor killing many leftist dissidents, including some urban guerrillas.[20] However, by the early 90's all countries had restored their democracies.

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, DC-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 US 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.

Turn to the left

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

Since the 2000s, or 1990s in some countries, left-wing political parties have risen to power. Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Néstor and Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica in Uruguay, the Lagos and Bachelet governments in Chile, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras (although deposed by the 28 June 2009 coup d'état), and Rafael Correa of Ecuador are all part of this wave of left-wing politicians who also often declare themselves socialists, Latin Americanists or anti-imperialists.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

The population of Latin America is a composite 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 a European-Indian, or Mestizo, population; in others, Amerindians are a majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry; and some countries' populations are primarily Mulatto. Most Latin American countries have varying sizes of Asian minorities. Europeans are the largest single group, and they and people of part-European ancestry combine for approximately 80% of the population.[1] In addition to the following groups, Latin America also has millions of tri-racial people of African, Amerindian, and European ancestry. Most are found in Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil, with a much smaller presence in a number of other countries.

Amerindians make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and about half in Peru. Juniti Saito, head of the Brazilian Air Force and one of over a million Japanese-Brazilians. Salsa dancers of Mulatto heritage, Camagüey, Cuba. Vicente Fox 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.
Ethnic distribution (2005)[28]
Country Population[32] Amerindians Whites Mestizos Mulattos Blacks Zambo Asians
Argentina 40,913,584 1.0% 85.0% 11.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.9%
Bolivia 9,775,246 55.0% 15.0% 28.0% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Brazil 198,739,269 0.4% 53.8% 0.0% 39.1% 6.2% 0.1% 0.0%
Chile 16,601,707 8.0% 52.7% 39.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Colombia 43,677,372 1.8% 20.0% 53.2% 21.0% 3.9% 0.1% 0.0%
Costa Rica 4,253,877 0.8% 82.0% 15.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.0% 0.2%
Cuba 11,451,652 0.0% 65.0% 0.0% 24.86% 11.0% 0.0% 1.0%
Dominican Republic 9,650,054 0.0% 14.6% 0.0% 75.0% 7.7% 2.3% 0.4%
Ecuador 14,573,101 39.0% 9.9% 41.0% 5.0% 5.0% 0.0% 0.1%
El Salvador 7,185,218 8.0% 1.0% 91.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Guatemala 7,833,696 53.0% 4.0% 42.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.8%
Honduras 7,833,696 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 3,360,474 8.0% 10.0% 32.0% 27.0% 5.0% 14.0% 4.0%
Paraguay 6,995,655 1.5% 20.0% 74.5% 3.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5%
Peru 29,546,963 45.5% 12.0% 32.0% 9.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8%
Puerto Rico 3,966,213 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 2.0% 21.0% 38.0% 30.0% 9.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Total 569,212,811 9.34% 36.06% 30.05% 20.42% 3.21% 0.20% 0.72%

Note: Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.

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 some Caribbean islands, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Haiti, as well as in the overseas departments of French Guiana (South America) and in Saint Pierre and Miquelon (North America). Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not considered part of Latin America.

Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico, 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 in general is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is small or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. Another widely used language is known as riverian which is 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 is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes. In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as "national languages" along with Spanish.

Religion

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.[39]

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 US.[48] More than 1.3 million Cubans live abroad, most of them in the US.[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.

Currently, Costa Rica and Chile are the only two countries with positive migration rates.[59]

Health

This section requires expansion with: sourced content.

Education

This section requires expansion with: sourced content.

Crime and violence

See also: Crime and Violence in Latin America

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 (Cuba).[67]

Economy

Standard of living, consumption, and the environment

According to Goldman Sachs' BRIMC 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] (2009) Billions of USD GDP per capita (PPP)[70] (2009) USD Income equality[71] (2001–06) Gini index Poverty Index[72] (2009) HPI-1 % Human Develop.[73] (2007) 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 584.392 14,561 51.3 3.7 0.866 (H) 81.8 6.469 0.9 3.7
Bolivia 45.563 4,455 60.1 11.6 0.729 (M) 64.7 5.492 3.3 0.8
Brazil 2,013.186 10,514 57.0 9.7 0.813 (H) 82.7 6.470 -0.2 1.8
Chile 243.569 14,341 54.9 3.2 0.878 (H) 83.4 6.789 -1.5 3.9
Colombia 401.966 8,936 58.6 7.6 0.807 (H) 88.3 6.176 0.1 1.2
Costa Rica 48.881 10,580 49.8 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 80.339 8,896 51.6 9.1 0.777 (M) 83.0 5.630 3.5 2.2
Ecuador 111.249 7,880 53.6 7.9 0.806 (H) 84.4 6.272 0.4 2.2
El Salvador 42.895 7,365 52.4 14.6 0.747 (M) 77.2 6.164 -3.5 0.9
Guatemala 67.816 4,840 55.1 19.7 0.704 (M) 76.7 5.321 0.6 1.0
Haiti 11.976 1,339 59.2 31.5 0.531 (M) 60.7 4.090 2.9 0.2
Honduras 32.493 4,151 53.8 13.7 0.714 (M) 75.4 5.250 -1.9 1.1
Mexico 1,465.726 13,628 46.1 5.9 0.854 (H) 79.8 6.766 -6.5 5.2
Nicaragua 16.626 2,627 43.1 17.0 0.699 (M) 73.4 5.663 -1.5 0.7
Panama 40.840 11,786 56.1 6.7 0.832 (H) 83.1 6.361 2.4 1.8
Paraguay 28.452 4,533 58.4 10.5 0.761 (M) 77.7 5.756 -4.5 0.7
Peru 251.390 8,639 52.0 10.2 0.806 (H) 78.1 6.216 0.9 1.1
Uruguay 44.029 13,163 44.9 3.0 0.865 (H) 82.3 6.368 2.9 1.6
Venezuela 349.081 12,201 48.2 7.3 0.844 (H) 80.0 6.089 -3.3 6.6
Total 5,991.569 10,617

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

Inequality and poverty

Slums on the outskirts of a wealthy urban area in Sao 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 2006 were Bolivia (60.1), Haiti (59.2), Colombia (58.6), Paraguay (58.4), Brazil (57.0) and Panama (56.1), while the countries with the lowest inequality in the region were Nicaragua (43.1), Uruguay (44.9) and Mexico (46.1). 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]

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.

Largest economic cities

São Paulo.

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

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 20,800 782
3 Buenos Aires Argentina 362 13.52 26,800 651
4 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 201 11.62 17,300 407
5 Santiago Chile 120 5.70 21,100 207
6 Brasilia Brazil 110 3.48 31,600 210
7 Lima Peru 109 8.35 13,100 213
8 Monterrey Mexico 102 3.58 28,500 188
9 Bogota Colombia 100 7.80 12,800 192
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.

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, Bogota, 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 67 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

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.

Art

Main article: Latin American art See also: List of Latin American artists 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.

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 and Salma Hayek, while Mexican Americans such as Robert Rodriguez have also made their mark.

Literature

Main article: Latin American literature See also: List of Latin American writers 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)).

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, 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).

Music and dance

See also: Dance and music of Latin America , Latin American music, Latin pop, and Latin 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]

See also

Latin America portal

Notes and references

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What American companies offer jobs for Americans in Latin America?
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