South America

Lyor   Wed Apr 15, 2009 6:26 pm GMT
why South America is called "Latin America" when it has nothing to do with "Latins"? It has no sense. In my opinion "Latins" were only the ancient Romans (that's to say the people who spoke Latin), so what ancient Romans have to do with South America?? It is an inexplicable thing
Guest   Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:28 pm GMT
No, the ancient Romans were not the only Latins, there were other Latin tribes like the Sabines. Also in Spain many ethnic Latins settled , entire cities were built for them like Emerita Augusta, but certainly they didn't populate South America.
explanation   Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:18 pm GMT
south America is not called "latin America" as some people think, even if most of south America is included in the concept of "latin America".

"latin America" just mean what the word in it mean: "latin"+"America", that is to say it represent the parts of America (continent, not USA!) that have been under colonisation of latin countries (mainly Spain and Portugal). Concretly, latin America is the part of America where romance (or neo-latin) languages are spoken, the same way "anglo-America" is the part of America where the influence is english in opposition with "latin-America".

So, Latin-America is not only south America, but also include the spanish speaking countries of central America and some caribean islands (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican republic), but in south America it excludes Surinam and Guyana because those countries are Dutch and English speaking, hence do not have influence from a latin country.
mexico   Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:02 am GMT
Does it include Mexico?
Mua   Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:52 am GMT
<<Does it include Mexico?>>

Duh!

All the way down to Argentina.
wram   Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:02 am GMT
Does "Latin America" include Quebec?
reba   Fri Apr 17, 2009 12:08 pm GMT
Exactly! Why Quebec is not regarded as Latin America since it was colonized by France?
California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Florida etc. etc. should be called Latin America as well since they was colonies of Spain
U   Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:07 pm GMT
Why "Latin America"?
Because "Southern and Central America" would be much too long.
Because "Hispanic America" wouldn't include Brasil.
Because it sounds considerably better than "Iberic America"
Guest   Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:14 pm GMT
Hispanic America does not include Brazil.
Ana   Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:28 pm GMT
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages– particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.

* In most common contemporary usage, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
* Often, particularly in the United States, the term may be used to refer to all of the Americas south of the U.S., including such countries as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas, in all of which English prevails.
* More literally speaking, Latin America can designate all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Indeed, this was the original intent when the term was popularized by Napoleon III as part of his campaign to imply cultural kinship with France and install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico. French-derived areas would include Haiti, Quebec, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana, although Quebec is hardly ever considered "Latin America".
* The former Dutch colony Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba are not usually considered part of Latin America, although in the latter two, a predominantly Iberian-derived creole language, Papiamento, is spoken by the majority of the population.
* Latin America is usually defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, and that speak languages stemming from Latin.


The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America, and more generally the stress on European heritage (or Eurocentrism), is simply a convention by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished, currently being the predominant languages in the Americas. There are, of course, many places in the Americas ( highland Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay) where American Indian cultures and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian languages, are predominant, as well as areas in which the influence of African cultures is strong (the Caribbean, including parts of Colombia and Venezuela and coastal Ecuador).

Spanish is the predominant language in the majority of Latin American countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil, the most populous country in the region. French is spoken in some countries of the Caribbean, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana and Haiti. 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, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico; German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, and German-speaking villages in northern Venezuela and Paraguay; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela; and Welsh, in southern Argentina.