Dr. Claudio Calabrese
Institute of Humanities Universidad Panamericana
The first thing I think about, when I hear or read Latin America or Latin America, is diversity; The word “diversity” has several meanings or, as some philosophers like to say, “it is said in many ways.” According to the Dictionary of the Royal Academy (the term has two fundamental ways of being: variety and abundance; naturally both are closely related: variety implies difference and, therefore, quantity of different things. The terms chosen are valid for a cultural and geographical consideration of what we call America (from Alaska to Ushuaia), where culturally two spaces are distinguished: Latin America to the south and the block shaped by the US and Canada. From this perspective, then, there are two large areas that are They differ, fundamentally, in their linguistic uses: in Latin America we speak Spanish, Portuguese, French (to a much lesser extent) and the native languages (Quechua, Guaraní, Aymara, Wayuunaiki, Nahuatl, just to name a few). of them), while the Saxon counterpart has its official identity in English and French (I say “identity”, because here there is also a vast linguistic mosaic, behind the geopolitical expression of the languages that I mentioned). In a historical sense, our Spanish American configuration (a word that I personally prefer) is given by the formation of the concept of a colony under European, mostly Spanish, control; Another of its characteristics (perhaps the most significantly valuable) is the miscegenation between Europeans, slaves trafficked from Africa and native peoples (we must also take into account the abundant Asian and Arab migration since the end of the 19th century).
Under this sign, Latin American culture is extremely diverse, the result of complex processes of syncretism between the Catholic colonizing current, the growing presence of the Evangelical Churches, especially from the beginning of the 20th century and decisively in political expressions of the 21st, the pre-Hispanic religious traditions and the different forms of animism of African origin. Therefore, identity is not something completely defined, so establishing its nature is important in the debate. The geographical variety is no less significant and we can understand it as a metaphor for its multiethnic and multicultural character: all the climates of the world are present, throughout its twenty million square kilometers of surface, the Andes mountain range, the jungles of the Amazon, the cold plains of Patagonia and the warm coasts of the Caribbean, sustained by unmatched wealth (“Latin America”. Author: Editorial team, Etecé. From: Argentina. To: Concepto.de. Available in: Latest edition : October 9, 2023. Accessed: October 23, 2023).
Latin America, however, is not a crucible, a metaphor for the container used to melt matter at a very high temperature, as if the fundamental identities there had been confused, but rather a miscegenation in process, perhaps for a long time yet. Due to the above, the contrast with a geopolitically English-speaking North America (I mean political identity both inside and out) results in an identity space for the search for the so-called “American dream”, which for some decades now has seemed similar. more like a nightmare; The sufferings of the desperate people who make up the migratory flows, crossing Mexico towards the northern border, show the clash of a suffering America in the midst of serious (and chronic) social injustices that create marginality and violence, towards another globally much more prosperous America, where However, there is also violence, of another kind, but violence nonetheless.
To conclude, we give a list in alphabetical order of the Latin American countries and their characteristics.[1]:
Argentina. Located on the Atlantic coast of the American Southern Cone, its capital is Buenos Aires. It is a fundamentally agricultural nation, with a territory of 2,780,000 km², which makes it the largest Spanish-speaking nation and the second largest in Latin America. Its population is almost 40 million inhabitants.
Bolivia. Located in the Andean plateau in South America, its administrative capital is La Paz. It is a plurinational State, whose constitution reflects the ethnic diversity of its population, mostly heirs of various pre-Columbian cultures in the area.
Brazil. Brasilia is its capital. It is the largest nation in all of Latin America (around 8.5 million km² of surface area, equivalent to 47% of the continent) and the one with the largest population (210 million inhabitants), in addition to having the strongest economy in the region. . It is the only country in the region whose official language is Portuguese.
Chili. Located on the Pacific coast of the Southern Cone, its capital is Santiago. It has an extensive coastal territory, 18 million inhabitants and an economy that is mainly mining, wine-growing and fishing.
Colombia. Located in the northern region of South America, its capital city is Bogotá. It has coasts on the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, and is one of the most populated countries in the region, with 50.5 million inhabitants. It is also the second most biodiverse nation on the planet, but paradoxically one of those that suffers the most environmental damage in the region.
Costa Rica. Located in Central America, its capital city is San José. With coasts on the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, its territory is part of the local volcanic region. It has a traditionally stable economy, some 5,137,000 inhabitants and has had no Armed Forces since 1948 by its own decision.
Cuba. Located in the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is Havana. Island nation with an economy dependent on tourism; It has more than 11,600,000 million inhabitants, mostly of African-American descent, and is the most populated country in the Greater Antilles.
Ecuador. Located on the Pacific coast of South America, its capital city is Quito. Despite having a relatively small territory (256,370 km2), its significant number of rivers make it a hydroelectric energy power, in addition to being one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Its population of around 17,500,000 inhabitants has a significant indigenous presence, and along with Spanish it has thirteen aboriginal languages as its official language.
The Savior. Located in Central America, its capital city is San Salvador. With a territorial area of 21,041 km2 and almost 7 million inhabitants, it is the country with the highest population density on the continent.
Guatemala. Its capital is Guatemala City. It is the most populated nation in Central America, with 16,301,286 inhabitants, heirs of both Spanish and ancient Mayan culture. In its surface of 108,889 km2 there is a mountainous relief of various climates, which fosters great systemic diversity.
Haiti. Located between the Caribbean Antilles, its capital city is Port-au-Prince. This French-speaking nation is located on the Island of Hispaniola, along with its Hispanic neighbor, the Dominican Republic. It was the first to become independent from European colonial rule in all of Latin America (1804), and its population is mostly Afro-descendant. Its economy, however, is the most disadvantaged on the continent and one of the poorest on the planet.
Honduras. Located in the north-central part of Central America, its capital city is Tegucigalpa. It is a nation of more than 9 million inhabitants, mainly dedicated to agriculture, of multiethnic descent.
Mexico. Located in the southern region of North America, its capital is Mexico City. With 1,964,375 km2 of territory, it is the third largest nation in Latin America, and one of the most populated in the region, with more than 126 million inhabitants. It is the main tourist destination in America and the sixth in the world, with more than 34 cultural or natural sites considered world heritage sites.
Nicaragua. Located in the heart of the Central American isthmus, its capital is the city of Managua. It possesses a territory of 130494 km2, of volcanic and tropical character, and an estimated population of 6,351,956 inhabitants.
Panama. Located between South America and Central America, its capital is Panama City. Its territory of just 75,420 km2 is located on the Isthmus of Man, where the Panama Canal is located, a system of locks that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. With barely 4 million inhabitants, it is one of the countries with the highest absolute economic growth in the region.
Paraguay. Located in the central area of South America, its capital city is Asunción. It is the fifth smallest country in South America, with 406,752 km2, separated into two regions by the Paraguay River. It is a pluricultural and bilingual (Spanish and Guarani) nation, with a population of around 7,200,000 inhabitants.
Peru. Located on the Pacific Ocean coast of South America, its capital city is Lima. Its territory of 1,265,216 km2 covers very different geographies, between jungles, deserts and the Andean peaks. It was the headquarters of the Inca Empire, whose cultural and ethnic legacy endures. It is the nation with the most biological diversity and the greatest mineral resources on the planet.
Puerto Rico. Located in the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is San Juan. It is an associated State of the United States of America, so its almost 3.6 million inhabitants are also North American citizens. It is a Spanish-speaking island nation, although English also exists as a language.
Dominican Republic. Located in the Antilles of the Caribbean Sea, its capital city is Santo Domingo. It shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and has a population of almost 11 million inhabitants, mostly mestizo or mulatto. It is the most visited tourist destination in the Caribbean.
Uruguay. Located in the eastern part of the Southern American Cone, its capital city is Montevideo. It is the second smallest country in South America, with just over 3 million inhabitants.
Venezuela. Located on the Caribbean coast of northern South America, its capital city is Caracas. Its territory of 916,445 km2 contains the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, as well as a very high biodiversity in its different territorial regions, with very different climates and reliefs, ranging from jungle, mountains, desert, coast and plain. A mono-exporting nation dependent on crude oil, it has been at the center of a regional controversy since the rise to power of the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela since 1998 and subsequently due to the tragic collapse of its economy starting in 2013.
Latin America is variety in every sense, also a place of profound social and political contradictions and, in this scenario, deeply religious, confident in a higher order of realities.
[1] All the information that follows is taken from “Latin America”. Author: Editorial team, Etecé. From Argentina. To: Concepto.de. Available at: (Last edited: October 9, 2023. Accessed: October 23, 2023)
2023-10-27 07:05:07
#call #Latin #America
