Latin America is a collective region of the
Americas where
Romance languages—languages derived from
Latin—are predominantly spoken. The term was coined in France in the mid-19th 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 and
Brazil (
Portuguese America). The term "Latin America" is broader than Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries, and categories such as Ibero-America, a term that refers to both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries from the Americas, and sometimes from Europe.
The term Latin America was first used in
Paris at a conference in 1856 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 of
political strongman that 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,
Haiti,
French Louisiana,
French Guiana,
Martinique,
Guadeloupe 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. 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...)
The Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 was a
naval blockade imposed against
Venezuela by
Great Britain,
Germany, and
Italy from December 1902 to February 1903, after
PresidentCipriano Castro refused to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European citizens in recent
Venezuelan civil wars. Castro assumed that the American
Monroe Doctrine would see Washington intervene to prevent European military intervention. However, at the time, United States president
Theodore Roosevelt and his Department of State saw the doctrine as applying only to European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se. With prior promises that no such seizure would occur, the U.S. was officially neutral and allowed the action to go ahead without objection. The blockade saw Venezuela's small navy quickly disabled, but Castro refused to give in, and instead agreed in principle to submit some of the claims to international arbitration, which he had previously rejected. Germany initially objected to this, arguing that some claims should be accepted by Venezuela without arbitration.
President Roosevelt years later claimed he forced the Germans to back down by sending his own larger fleet under and threatening war if the Germans landed. However he made no preparations for war against a major power, nor did he alert officials at the State Department, War Department, Navy Department or the Senate. (Full article...)
PresidentRafael Correa went to the police headquarters in Quito despite recommendations from his own security personnel not to attend and make things worse. He was ill-received, delivering a harsh speech in which he accused the police ranks of treason to the people and the country, and dared them to kill him. After he was pelted by the police ranks, and a tear gas canister went off, Correa was escorted to a hospital in the same compound. According to El País, The New York Times, El Correo and Correa himself, the policemen then surrounded the building and prevented him from leaving. From the hospital, Correa declared a
state of emergency and said that a "coup d'état was taking place", and attributed responsibility to the government's opposition. According to state news agency
ANDES, police radio recordings from the night of 30 September revealed that the police intended to kill Correa. Thousands of civilians came out to support Correa and gathered around the hospital in which he was held hostage. Clashes occurred between rebellious police forces and loyal army and police forces, who successfully took Correa out of the hospital after he had allegedly been held for 10 hours. (Full article...)
... 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 Brazilian computer science researcher and internet pioneer Tadao Takahashi negotiated with
drug lords to install internet equipment in his country?
... 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?
Image 5In 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 12Intermediate level international-style Latin dancing at the 2006 MIT ballroom dance competition. A judge stands in the foreground. (from Culture of Latin America)
Cueva de las Manos (
Spanish for Cave of Hands) is a
cave or a series of caves located in the
province of
Santa Cruz,
Argentina, 163 km (101 mi) south of the town of
Perito Moreno. It is famous for (and gets its name from) the
paintings of
hands. The art in the cave dates from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago.Several waves of people occupied the cave, and early artwork has been
carbon-dated to ca. 9300
BP (about 7300 BC). The age of the paintings was calculated from the remains of bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create
silhouettes of hands.
The site was last inhabited around 700 AD, possibly by ancestors of the
Tehuelche people. It was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991.
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Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Curaçao
Dominica
Dominican Republic
French Guiana
Ecuador
El Salvador
Grenada
Guatemala
Honduras
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Mexico
Montserrat
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Uruguay
Venezuela
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