por Latin America o Latin America is the term used to encompass the 20 countries of America that speak a language of Latin origin (Spanish or Portuguese). This region is made up of: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
It covers most of the American continent, starting in North America with Mexico, passing through the regions of Central America and up to South America with Argentina.
In some cases, the French-speaking regions of South America (Haiti and French Guyana) or even territories whose official language is English (Belize and Puerto Rico) are also taken into account as part of Latin America.
However, despite the great extension of the territory and the marked differences between these regions, the countries of Latin America share a large number of historical, linguistic and geographical features.
Latin America, beyond being an area on the map, is a strong cultural bond that unites all the countries that make it up.
What characteristics do Latin American countries share?
Due to its vast historical, geographical, linguistic and cultural similarities, in the development of Latin America, characteristics shared by most of its regions can easily be identified.
Since the discovery of America in 1492, the continent’s evolution has taken different paths, but despite these discrepancies, Latin America has managed to remain a common denominator.
1- The process of conquest
Since the arrival of the first European explorers, all of America has been the headquarters of expeditions for economic purposes, which culminated in the conquest and colonization of the territory.
The Spanish and Portuguese crowns led this process that meant significant improvements for the economic panorama in Europe and a permanent change in America due to the fusion of both cultures.
All Spanish-speaking countries today are a legacy of the conquest by Spain; Brazil is the exception, having been under the rule of Portugal, making it the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas.
2- They share the same linguistic family
No tie unites Latin America more than its predominant language: Spanish. The criterion of union in this region is based on the fact that Romance languages or also called Latin languages are spoken (which is why some people consider French-speaking areas as part of Latin America).
Spanish and Portuguese, for their part, belong to the subgroup of Ibero-Romance languages, so it is easier to unite them.
Similarly, before being conquered, these regions had their own languages, such as Nahuatl (Mexico), Quechua (Peru and Bolivia) and Guaraní (Argentina and Paraguay).
These languages did not completely disappear and even managed to mix with Spanish, forming regional differences in speech and coining terms currently in general use, such as “chocolate” from the Nahuatl “xocolatl”.
3- Leaders in biodiversity
A megadiverse country is one that is home to most of the planet’s biodiversity (regions, climates, and flora).
Latin America leads in the biodiversity scheme, being the region with the most megadiverse countries, since of the 17 existing ones, 6 are located in its territory: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
With dense tropical jungles, deserts, forests, coasts, mountains and an innumerable variety of climates, Latin America represents a substantial part of the planet’s natural wealth,
The Amazon jungle, in Brazil, is considered the point with the greatest biodiversity on earth, since it has hundreds of animal species, more than 30,000 plant species and about 2.5 million different insects.
4- They are similar in their political history
Throughout their history, Latin American countries have distinguished themselves by their social and political struggles.
Almost simultaneously, they began their respective battles to gain independence from Spain at the beginning of the 19th century; Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico, San Martín in Argentina, Chile and Peru, and Simón Bolívar in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.
During the 20th century, military dictatorships predominated, taking place in Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Nicaragua, among others.
For its part, the rest of Latin America was involved in political tensions. At present, countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua defend a policy of revolutionary socialism.
5- Great musical variety
In addition to being an area rich in biodiversity, it is safe to say that Latin America is a bastion of culture and one of the highest representatives of musical richness in the world.
It has recognized and acclaimed musical genres worldwide, such as mariachi, huapango and corrido in Mexico.
In the Caribbean, there is the trova, the salsa, the mambo, the bolero and the rumba (Cuba); merengue and bachata (Dominican Republic).
In South America, samba and bossa-nova (Brazil), tango (Argentina), cumbia and vallenato (Colombia) and reggaeton (Puerto Rico) predominate.
6- Similarities in the religious field
Catholicism predominates in Latin America, with 69% of its inhabitants professing the religion. This came with the Spanish and Portuguese conquests, being the cultural element that most predominates in the entire colonization process.
Until no less than 50 years ago, 90% of the population was Catholic, but as in the rest of the world, these figures have been declining.
As happened with the language, before the European imposition there were already religious practices on the continent; these indigenous religions are still practiced by the inhabitants of the original peoples of America.
There are also religions that originated as a product of the cultural mix of the conquest, such is the case of Santeria, which fuses aspects of Catholicism with West African religions.
7- They carry out similar economic activities
Finally, after sharing a cultural, social and political history, it is not surprising that Latin America has consequently developed similar economic activities.
Due to its strategic position and climate variations, it becomes a fertile place for agriculture and one of the main food exporters.
Such are the cases of Mexico, world leader in avocado production; Colombia, world leader in coffee production and Brazil, world leader in orange production.
8- The national sport
Some Latin American countries have a legislated national sport. For example, in Argentina it is the duck, in Colombia the tejo, in Brazil the capoeira and in Uruguay the jineteada gaucha.
However, in all the countries mentioned above, the most practiced and most federated sport is soccer, being a true passion among the different nations of the continent.
9- Great diversity of races
Since the arrival of the Spanish, Latin America has been a focus of human trafficking due to migration and immigration, usually for economic or political reasons.
Many countries have among their citizens a mixture of indigenous natives, Caucasians, mestizos, mulattoes, blacks, and some minorities such as Asians in Peru.