Portal:Latin America

Latin America is a cultural concept denoting the Americas where Romance languages—languages derived from Latin—are predominantly spoken. The term was coined in the nineteenth century, to refer to regions in the Americas that were ruled by the Spanish, Portuguese and French empires. The term does not have a precise definition, but it is "commonly used to describe South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean." In a narrow sense, it refers to Spanish America, Brazil (Portuguese America), French West Indies and Antillean Creole French speaking Caribbean countries. The term "Latin America" is broader than categories such as Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries; and Ibero-America, a term not generally used that specifically refers to Spanish, French and French Creole-speaking countries and Portuguese-speaking countries sometimes leaving French and British excolonies aside.

The term Latin America was first used in an 1856 conference called "Initiative of America: Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics" (Iniciativa de la América. Idea de un Congreso Federal de las Repúblicas), by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao. The term was further popularized by French emperor Napoleon III's government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to justify France's military involvement in the Second Mexican Empire and to include French-speaking territories in the Americas such as French Canada, French Louisiana, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti and the French Antillean Creole Caribbean islands Saint Lucia and Dominica, in the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed.

The region covers an area that stretches from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and includes much of the Caribbean. It has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km² (7,412,000 sq mi), almost 13% of the Earth's land surface area. As of March 2, 2020, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean was estimated at more than 652 million, and in 2019, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of US$5,188,250 trillion and a GDP PPP of US$10,284,588 trillion. (Full article...)

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The General in His Labyrinth (original Spanish title: El general en su laberinto) is a 1989 dictator novel by Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is a fictionalized account of the last seven months of Simón Bolívar, liberator and leader of Gran Colombia. The book traces Bolívar's final journey from Bogotá to the Caribbean coastline of Colombia in his attempt to leave South America for exile in Europe. Breaking with the traditional heroic portrayal of Bolívar El Libertador, García Márquez depicts a pathetic protagonist, a prematurely aged man who is physically ill and mentally exhausted. The story explores the labyrinth of Bolívar's life through the narrative of his memories, in which "despair, sickness, and death inevitably win out over love, health, and life".

Following the success of One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), García Márquez decided to write about the "Great Liberator" after reading an unfinished novel by his friend Álvaro Mutis. He borrowed the setting—Bolívar's voyage down the Magdalena River in 1830—from Mutis. García Márquez spent two years researching the subject, encompassing the extensive memoirs of Bolívar's Irish aide-de-camp, Daniel Florencio O'Leary, as well as numerous other historical documents and consultations with academics. (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

Topics

More did you know -

... that Frida Kahlo was bisexual, and had affairs with both men and women, including Josephine Baker?

WikiProjects

WikiProject South America
WikiProject Latin America (semi-active)

Selected article -

A coffee plantation in Santo Antônio do Amparo, Minas Gerais

Brazil produces about a third of the world's coffee, making the country by far the world's largest producer. Coffee plantations, covering some 27,000 km² (10,000 sq mi), are mainly located in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná where the environment and climate provide ideal growing conditions.

The crop first arrived in Brazil in the 18th century, and the country had become the dominant producer by the 1840s. Brazilian coffee prospered since the early 19th century, when immigrants came to work in the coffee plantations. Production as a share of world coffee output peaked in the 1920s but has declined since the 1950s due to increased global production. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Héctor Suárez was the first comedian from Latin America to be "roasted" by fellow celebrities?
... that Brazilian computer science researcher and internet pioneer Tadao Takahashi negotiated with drug lords to install internet equipment in his country?
... that the Latin American travesti gender identity has been considered to be a third gender, akin to the hijras of India and the muxe of Mexico?
... that artwork at the Jackson Avenue station in the Bronx depicts images from six Latin American stories?
... that Franz Grave, the first bishop of Essen born in Essen, focused on intercultural dialogue with Latin America?
... that despite an attempted "extermination" of homosexuals in the 1960s and 1970s, the LGBT community in Argentina is now the most accepted in Latin America?

General images

The following are images from various Latin America-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Map of disputed territories in Latin America (from History of Latin America)
Image 2Villa de Leyva, a historical and cultural landmark of Colombia (from Latin American culture)
Image 3Mexican Stock Exchange (from Latin American culture)
Image 4The military junta of Argentina saw widespread repression against those it deemed to be political dissidents (from History of Latin America)
Image 5Countries in Latin America by date of independence (from History of Latin America)
Image 6Intermediate level international-style Latin dancing at the 2006 MIT ballroom dance competition. A judge stands in the foreground. (from Latin American culture)
Image 7In blue countries under right-wing governments and in red countries under left-wing and centre-left governments as of 2023 (from History of Latin America)
Image 8Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City (from Latin American culture)
Image 9The Guadalajara International Film Festival is considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America. (from Latin American culture)
Image 10A 17th-century map of the Americas (from History of Latin America)
Image 11Instituto Arnoldo Gabaldón, declared August 30, 1984 as a National Historic Landmark (from Latin American culture)
Image 121903 political cartoon: President Roosevelt intimidating Colombia to acquire the Panama Canal Zone. (from History of Latin America)
Image 13Holy week, Ouro Preto-MG, 2010. Chrome. Photo: Guy Veloso. (from Latin American culture)
Image 14The joropo, as depicted in a 1912 drawing by Eloy Palacios (from Latin American culture)
Image 15Left-leaning leaders of Bolivia, Brazil and Chile at the Union of South American Nations summit in 2008 (from History of Latin America)
Image 16The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida is the second largest in the world, after only of the Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City. (from Latin American culture)

Selected panorama

Iguazú Falls

Panorama of the Iguazú Falls, in the Brazilian side. Walkways allow close views of the falls from both Brazil and Argentina. The falls, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, are located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones.

Selected picture

A gaucho from Argentina, circa 1868

Gaucho

Credit: Library of Congress

Portrait of an Argentine gaucho, a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil.

Countries

Territories (in bold), dependencies, and subnational entities of a country not located primarily in Latin America are italicized.

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