Latin America

Latin America

Area	21,069,501 km²
Population	561,200,000
Countries	20
Dependencies	10
GDP	$2.26 Trillion (exchange rate) $4.5 Trillion (purchasing power parity)
Languages	Spanish, Portuguese, French, Haitian Creole, Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Mayan languages, Guaraní, Italian, English, German, Welsh, Dutch, Cantonese, Japanese and many others
Time Zones	UTC -2:00 (Brazil) to UTC -8:00 (Mexico)
Largest Cities	1. Mexico City 2. São Paulo 3. Buenos Aires 4. Rio de Janeiro 5. Lima 6. Bogotá 7. Santiago de Chile 8. Caracas 9. Guadalajara 10. Monterrey

Latin America (Portuguese and Spanish: América Latina; French: Amérique Latine) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin (particularly Spanish and Portuguese), are primarily spoken. Latin America is contrasted with the less frequently-used term Anglo-America, designating that region of the Americas where English predominates.

Definition

There are several definitions of Latin America, none of them perfect or necessarily logically consistent:

• In most common contemporary usage, Latin America refers only to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, plus Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.
• Strictly speaking, Latin America can designate all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e. languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) are spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and creole languages based upon these. Indeed, this was the original intent when the term was coined, by a Frenchman. Using this definition, Latin America includes not only all Spanish- and Portuguese- speaking countries, but also the current and former French territories in the hemisphere, including Quebec in Canada, Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and French Guiana in South 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-derivated creole language, Papiamento, is spoken by the majority of the population.
• Sometimes, particularly in the United States, the term Latin America may be used to refer to all of the Americas to the south of that country, including such countries as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas, where English - a non-Romance language - prevails.
• In historical terms, Latin America could be defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish, Portuguese and French Empires. Under this definition, much of the U.S. Southwest, as well as Florida and French Louisiana, would be also included in the region.

The distinction between Latin America and Anglo America, and more generally the stress on European heritage, overlooks the fact that there are many places in the Americas (e.g. highland Peru or Guatemala) where American Indian cultures and languages are important, as well as areas in which the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g. the Caribbean, including parts of Colombia and Venezuela, and coastal Brazil).

Etymology

A terrain map of Latin America

Originally a political term, Amérique latine is considered by some to have been coined by French emperor Napoleon III, who cited Amérique latine and Indochine as goals for expansion during his reign. While the term was intended to help him stake a claim to those territories, it eventually came to embody those parts of the Americas that speak Romance languages initially brought by settlers from Spain, Portugal and France between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. An alternate etymology points to Michel Chevalier, who used the term in 1836.

In the United States, the term was not used until the 1890s, and did not become a common descriptor of the region until early in the twentieth century. Before then, Spanish America was more commonly used.

Atlantis has come to represent an expression equivalent to Latin Europe and implies a sense of supranationality greater than those implied by notions of statehood or nationhood. This supranational identity is expressed through common initiatives and organizations, like the Union of South American Nations. It is important to observe that the terms Latin American, Latin, Latino, and Hispanic differ from each other.

Many people in Latin America do not speak Latin-derived languages, but native ones or languages brought over by immigration. There is also the blend of Latin-derived cultures with indigenous and African ones resulting in a differentiation in relation to the Latin-derived cultures of Europe.

Quebec, other French-speaking areas in Canada and the United States like Acadia, French Louisiana, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and other places north of Mexico are now customarily excluded from the sociopolitical definition of Latin America, despite having significant or predominant populations that speak a Latin-derived language, due in part to these territories' not existing as sovereign states or being geographically separated from the rest of Latin America. French Guiana, however, is sometimes included, despite being a dependency of France and not an independent country. Some countries in the region do not use a Romance language as their official language, but are called "Latin American" countries, in the case of Dutch-speaking Suriname, and the countries of Belize and Guyana, whose official language is English.

The term Ibero-America is sometimes used (mainly in Spain) to refer to the nations that were formerly colonies of Spain and Portugal, to avoid ambiguities present in the term Latin America. The names derives from the Iberian Peninsula, in which Spain and Portugal are located. The Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) takes this definition a step further, by including Spain and Portugal (often termed the Mother Countries of Latin America) among its member states, in addition to their Spanish and Portuguese-speaking, former colonies in the Americas.

History

Dates of independence of countries in the Americas.

Main article: History of Latin America

See also: History of South America

for a treatment of pre-Columbian civilisations and a general overview of the region's history.

The Americas are thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska more than 10,000 years ago. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents. By the first millennium AD/CE, South America’s vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. Some groups formed permanent settlements, such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas of Peru and the Aymaras of Bolivia were the three Indian groups that settled most permanently.

The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Caribs, Tupi, Maya, and Inca. The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively.

With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus's voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incans and Aztecs, lost power to the Europeans. Hernán Cortés destroyed the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who disliked the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. European powers, most notably Spain and Portugal, colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the Line of Demarcation in 1493, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in America subsequently becoming Brazil). By the end of the sixteenth century, Europeans occupied large areas of North, Central and South America, extending all the way into the present southern United States. European culture and government was imposed, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming a major economic and political power, as well as the official religion of the region.

Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large proportion of the indigenous population, with epidemics of diseases reducing them sharply from their prior populations. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 20%. Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines. Interracial marriage between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. Resentment grew over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born peninsulares) over the major institutions and the majority population, including the Spanish descended Creoles (criollos). Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked the turning point, compelling Creole elites to form juntas that advocated independence. Also, the newly independent Haiti, the second oldest nation in the New World after the United States and the oldest independent nation in Latin America, further fueled the independence movement by inspiring the leaders of the movement, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martin, and by providing them with considerable munitions and troops. Fighting soon broke out between the Juntas and the Spanish authorities, with initial Creole victories, such as Father Miguel Hidalgo's in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda's in Venezuela, crushed by Spanish troops. Under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, José de San Martin and other Libertadores, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all of Spanish Latin America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. During the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led conservatives who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor (shortly followed by a republic).

Political divisions

Latin America is politically divided into the following countries and territories:

Independent Countries		French dependencies	Netherlands dependencies	United States dependency
Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Rep. Ecuador El Salvador	Guatemala Haiti Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela	French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin	Aruba Bonaire Curaçao	Puerto Rico

Owing to their geographical location, Belize, the Falkland Islands, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago could be added to this grouping, but they are not culturally or linguistically Latin American. They maintain economic ties with nearby countries, and are grouped by the United Nations in the predominantly Latin American region of South America. However, all except Suriname are also the objects of long-standing territorial claims by their Latin American neighbors.

Population

The population of Latin America is an amalgam of ancestries and ethnic groups. The racial and ethnic composition varies from country to country. This makes the region one of the most diverse in the world. Some have a predominance of a mixed population, some have a high percentage of people of Amerindian origin, some are dominated by inhabitants of European origin and some populations are primarily of African origin. Most or all Latin American countries have Asian minorities.

Demographics

In Peru and Bolivia Amerindians make up the majority of the population.

Many Latin Americans are of European descent. Predominantly white regions include Southeastern/Southern Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

In Bolivia and Peru Amerindians make up the largest segment of the population, while in Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico, they are sizable minorities. In the rest of the region, most people with a Native American lineage are admixed with one or more other ethnic lineages.

Beginning in the late fifteenth century, large numbers of Iberian colonists settled in what became Latin America: Portuguese to Brazil and Spaniards elsewhere in the region. Intensive mixing between the Europeans and the Amerindians occurred and their descendants, known as mestizos, today form the majority of the population in half of the Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Venezuela. There's genetic evidence that Puerto Rico may have a mestizo majority as well.

Large numbers of African slaves were brought to Latin America from the sixteenth century onward, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean region and Brazil. In contrast to most of Latin America (with the exception of Haiti), people of African descendant predominate in most of the neighboring Anglophone Caribbean countries. In Colombia, intermarriage between Africans and Amerindians produced descendants known as Zambos. Meanwhile, mixing between European settler and African slaves produced descendants known as mulattoes. Many Latin American countries have a substantial "tri-ethnic" population, their ancestry being a mix of European, Amerindian, and African, notably in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Brazil.

Millions of European immigrants arrived in Latin America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of them settling in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba and Uruguay. The five largest groups of European immigrants were Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, and Poles. The descendants of these immigrants and the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese colonial settlers together compose some 90% of the current white Latin American population. Other immigrant groups included Russians, Welsh, Ukrainians, French, former Yugoslavians, Irish people and Jews. More than two-thirds of Latin America's white population resides in a continuous area of South America that consists of Argentina, southern Brazil, and Uruguay. Argentina is home to a population of Irish heritage thought to number between 300,000 and 500,000. Argentina's largest influx of Irish immigrants occurred in between 1850-1870 during and following the Great Famine in Ireland. (See Immigration to Argentina and Immigration to Brazil.) During this same period, many immigrants came from the Middle-East and Asia, including Indians, Lebanese, Syrians, and, more recently, Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese, mainly to Brazil. In the late nineteenth century, a small wave of immigrants coming from the United States, mostly from the former Confederate States, settled in Brazil and elsewhere across Latin America.

Racial groups

Latin American countries by racial groups

The following table shows the different racial groups and their percentages for all Latin American countries, except Bonaire, Curaçao, French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Country	Population	White	Mestizo	Mulatto	Amerindian	Black	White and mestizo	Mixed	Other
Argentina	40,301,927	97%							3%
Aruba	100,018							80%	20%
Bolivia	9,119,152	15%	30%		55%
Brazil	190,010,647	49.9%			0.7%	6.3%		43.2%
Chile	16,284,741				3%		95%		2%
Colombia	44,379,598	20%	58%	14%	1%	4%		3%
Costa Rica	4,133,884				1%	3%	94%		2%
Cuba	11,394,043	65%		24%		10%			1%
Dominican Republic	9,365,818	16%				11%		73%
Ecuador	13,755,680	10%	65%		20%	3%
El Salvador	6,948,073	9%	90%		1%
Guatemala	12,728,111				40.5%		59.4%		0.1%
Haiti	8,706,497					95%			5%
Honduras	7,483,763	1%	90%		7%	2%
Mexico	108,700,891	9%	60%		30%				1%
Nicaragua	5,675,356	17%	69%		5%	9%
Panama	3,242,173	10%	70%		6%			14%
Paraguay	6,669,086	30%	65%		1%				4%
Peru	28,674,757	15%	37%		45%				3%
Puerto Rico	3,944,259	80.5%			0.4%	8%		4.1%	7%
Uruguay	3,460,607	88%	8%			4%
Venezuela	26,023,528	41%	49%		1%	7%			2%
Total	561,211,057	33.9%	27%	15.2%	10.9%	4.9%	4.8%	1.7%	1.6%

Notes:
1. Figures do not include mestizos predominantly looking white.

Language

See also: Indigenous languages of the Americas

Romance languages in Latin America: Green-Spanish; Orange-Portuguese; Blue-French

Brasilia, Brazil

Buenos Aires, Argentina

File:Mexico DF City.jpg

Mexico City, Mexico

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 (notably the dependencies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana as well as the sovereign island-nation of 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, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico; German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, and German-speaking villages in northern Venezuela; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela; and Welsh, in southern Argentina.

In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely-spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America in general is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Ecuador and Chile. In absolute numbers, Mexico contains the largest population of indigenous-language speakers of any country in the Americas, surpassing those of the Amerindian-majority countries of Guatemala, Bolivia and the Amerindian-plurality country of Peru. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is tiny or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Ecuador, while holding no official status, the closely-related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country's constitution; however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the country's highlands. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual). In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as "national languages", along with Spanish.

Religion

Although most of Latin America is Roman Catholic, membership in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America is declining while membership in Protestant churches are increasing. Brazil has an active quasi-socialist Roman Catholic movement known as Liberation Theology. Practitioners of the Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Bahá'í, and indigenous denominations and religions exist. Various Afro-Latin American traditions such as Santería and Macumba, a tribal-voodoo religion, are also practiced.

Economy

Asunción, Paraguay

File:BOGOTANIGHT.jpg

Bogotá, Colombia

Buenos Aires, Argentina

File:Caracas-downtown.jpg

Caracas, Venezuela

Cayenne, French Guiana

Guatemala City, Guatemala

Havana, Cuba

La Paz, Bolivia

File:Lim sanisidro03 jm.jpg

Lima, Peru

File:Carretera a Masaya.jpg

Managua, Nicaragua

Montevideo, Uruguay

Panama City, Panama

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Quito, Ecuador

San José, Costa Rica

Santiago, Chile

File:Downtown Santo Domingo.jpg

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Salvador, El Salvador

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

According to ECLAC, an economic growth rate of 5.3% is estimated for 2006, equivalent to a per capita increase of 3.8%. This marks the fourth consecutive year of economic growth, and the third consecutive year of rates exceeding 4%, after an average annual growth rate of only 2.2% between 1980 and 2002. A breakdown of the annual rates of GDP growth (in U.S. dollars at constant 2000 prices) is transcribed as follows:

Country	2004	2005	2006(a)	2007(b)
Latin America	6.0	4.5	5.3	4.7
Argentina	9.0	9.2	8.5	7.5
Bolivia	3.9	4.1	4.5	4.0
Brazil	5.7	2.9	3.7	4.5
Chile	6.2	6.3	4.4	5.5
Colombia	4.9	5.2	6.0	5.0
Costa Rica	4.1	5.9	6.8	5.0
Cuba(c)	5.4	11.8	12.5	n.a.
Dominican Republic	2.7	9.2	10.0	7.0
Ecuador	7.9	4.7	4.9	4.0
El Salvador	1.8	2.8	3.8	4.0
Guatemala	2.7	3.2	4.6	5.0
Haiti	-3.5	1.8	2.5	3.0
Honduras	5.0	4.1	5.6	5.0
Mexico	4.2	3.0	4.8	3.8
Nicaragua	5.1	4.0	3.7	4.0
Panama	7.5	6.9	7.5	7.0
Paraguay	4.1	2.9	4.0	3.5
Peru	5.2	6.4	7.2	6.0
Uruguay	11.8	6.6	7.3	6.0
Venezuela	17.9	9.3	10.0	7.0

(a) Estimate
(b) Projection
(c) Figures provided by the National Statistics Office of Cuba, under evaluation by ECLAC

Source: ECLAC

Growth continues to fall short of other developing regions, however. With the international environment remaining favorable, the volume of goods and services exports was up by 8.4% for the region as a whole and the main export prices rose, which translated into a terms-of-trade improvement equivalent to over 7%.

According to the World Bank in 2006 Latin America had higher export revenues and volumes given the record-high commodity world prices than the previous year. Total GDP growth averaged 4.4% in 2005 and it is expected to grow 4.6% in 2006. The biggest exporter in the region is Mexico; in 2005 Mexico alone exported 213.7 billion USD, roughly equivalent to the exports of all members of Mercosur combined (including Venezuela), which totaled 214.5 billion USD. In the same year, Brazil had the largest nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 1,067,706 million USD, while Chile had the largest nominal GDP per capita in the region, 8,864 USD. Adjusting to purchasing power parity (PPP) instead of using nominal exchange rates, Brazil continued to be the largest in the region, at 1,701,183 million USD, while Argentina had the highest GDP per capita in PPP at 15,937 USD.

As a result of these income gains, and of increased remittances from abroad, growth in national income (7.2%) again exceeded GDP expansion. In addition, other factors, such as growing investor and consumer confidence after several years of sustained growth, real interest rates that remained relatively low despite recent hikes in many countries, a stronger boost to public spending, an expansion in total wages driven by rising employment and a modest upturn in real wages, have helped to make domestic demand into an additional engine for growth. In fact, domestic demand rose by 7.0%, with gross domestic investment up by 10.5% and consumption by 6.0%.

Public spending rose in several countries as a result of larger investments in physical and social infrastructure and higher current spending. But since fiscal revenues climbed even more steeply, the prevailing picture shows central governments with higher primary surpluses (up from 1.7% to 2.2% of GDP as a simple average of 19 countries) and narrower overall deficits (from 1.1% to 0.3% of GDP). Alert to changes in international interest rates and to the effects of surging domestic demand and rising fuel prices, many countries' monetary authorities raised benchmark rates, especially in the first half of the year. In most cases, this did not slow economic activity, given the abundant liquidity. Nevertheless, inflation decreased in most of the countries and, in weighted terms, it came down from 6.1% in 2005 to 4.8% in 2006. Many countries had to deal with downward pressure on the exchange rate because of large inflows of foreign currency generated by stronger export prices or remittances. They took different steps to contain the effects of these inflows but, overall, most local currencies appreciated slightly (3.5% on average).

Fueled by sustained economic growth, job creation continued especially in waged employment. A half percentage point increase in the employment rate was partially offset by a rise in labor market participation. As a result, open unemployment continued the downward trend begun in 2004, albeit more slowly, with a drop of 0.4 percentage points taking the rate to 8.7%. In contrast to the pattern of the last few years, real wages also benefited from increased demand for labor in 2006 and formal sector wages rose by some 3% as a regional average.

The value of the region's merchandise exports rose by 21% and its imports by 20%. Together with higher transfers (over US$ 9 billion net), this improvement of the balance of trade in goods was more than enough to offset the widening deficit on the factor and non-factor services accounts. Hence, the balance-of-payments current account surplus increased from 1.5% of GDP in 2005 to 1.8% in 2006. The capital and financial account surplus was smaller than the previous year, at US$ 230 million. This result reflected external debt-reduction policies, together with the development of domestic financial markets and the accumulation of assets abroad. It also reflected a sharp fall in net foreign investment, which owed much to the Brazilian acquisition of a Canadian firm, while capital flows into the region in the form of foreign direct investment were down slightly in comparison to 2005. The average region-wide performance masks large differences between and within countries. In particular, the international environment has affected exporters of high-demand natural resources, especially in South America (and petroleum-exporting countries in other subregions), in a very different way to the other Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In the light of the risks for the region's future economic development, particularly the risk of a hard or soft landing in the global economy, many countries in the region have taken steps to reduce their vulnerability. Such measures include adopting more flexible exchange-rate regimes, paying down foreign debt, restructuring debt in favour of longer profiles and fixed rates, building up international reserves, strengthening fiscal accounts and reducing the dollarization of their financial systems. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that a global economic slowdown would seriously affect the region's growth and the wellbeing of its population.

Economic expansion is expected to slow slightly in 2007, with the regional GDP growth rate projected at around 4.7%. If these projections are borne out, the region's per capita output will show a cumulative gain of some 15%, or 2.8% per year, in the period 2003-2007.

Inequality and poverty continue to be the region's main challenges; according to the ECLAC Latin America is the most unequal region in the world. Moreover, according to the World Bank, nearly 25% of the population lives on less than 2 USD a day. The countries with the highest inequality in the region (as measured with the Gini index in the UN Development Report) in 2006 were Bolivia (60.1), Haiti (59.2), Colombia (58.6), Brazil (58), Paraguay (57.8) and Chile (57.1), while the countries with the lowest inequality in the region were Nicaragua (43.1), Ecuador (43.7), Venezuela (44.1) and Uruguay (44.9). One aspect of inequality and poverty in Latin America is unequal access to basic infrastructure. For example, access to water and sanitation in Latin America and the quality of these services remain low.

The major trade blocs or agreements in the region Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Minor blocs or trade agreements are the G3 and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). However, major reconfigurations are taking place along opposing approaches to integration and trade; Venezuela has officially withdrawn from both the CAN and G3 and it has been formally admitted into the Mercosur (pending ratification from the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures). The president-elect of Ecuador has manifested his intentions of following the same path. This bloc nominally opposes any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, although Uruguay has manifested its intention otherwise. On the other hand, Mexico is a member of the NAFTA, Chile has signed a FTA with the United States, and Colombia's and Peru's legislatures have approved a FTA with the United States and are awaiting its ratification by the US Senate.

The following table lists (in alphabetical order) all the countries in Latin America indicating Gross Domestic Product (GDP), per capita income in nominal terms and adjusted to purchasing power parity (PPP), Gross Domestic Product in PPP, a measurement of inequality through the Gini index (the higher the index the more unequal the income distribution is), and the Human Development Index (HDI). GDP and PPP GDP statistics come from the International Monetary Fund with data as of 2006. Gini index and HDI come from the UN Development Program. Green cells indicate the 1st rank in each category, while yellow indicate the last rank.

Country	GDP	GDP per capita	GDP (PPP)	GDP (PPP) per capita	Income equality	HDI
	million USD	USD	million USD	USD	Gini index
Argentina	212,702	5,458	621,070	15,937	48.0	0.863 (high)
Bolivia	10,828	1,125	27,957	2,904	60.1	0.692 (medium)
Brazil	1,067,706	5,717	1,804,785	10,022	51.3	0.800 (high)
Chile	145,205	8,864	212,671	12,983	57.1	0.859 (high)
Colombia	135,075	2,888	198,435	8,091	58.6	0.790 (medium)
Costa Rica	21,384	4,858	51,089	11,606	49.9	0.841 (high)
Cuba	40,000	3,500	44,540	3,900	n.a.	0.826 (high)
Dominican Republic	31,600	3,653	76,573	8,851	51.7	0.751 (medium)
Ecuador	40,447	4,776	64,671	4,776	43.7	0.765 (medium)
El Salvador	18,341	2,619	38,617	5,515	52.4	0.729 (medium)
Guatemala	35,304	2,508	60,766	4,317	55.1	0.673 (medium)
Haiti	4,473	528	15,554	1,835	59.2	0.482 (low)
Honduras	8,981	1,213	23,183	3,131	53.8	0.683 (medium)
Mexico	840,012	8,066	1,171,506	11,249	49.5	0.821 (high)
Nicaragua	5,369	908	22,723	3,844	43.1	0.698 (medium)
Panama	17,113	5,211	27,551	8,389	56.4	0.809 (high)
Paraguay	8,773	1,483	31,213	5,277	57.8	0.757 (medium)
Peru	93,268	3,374	185,591	6,715	54.6	0.767 (medium)
Uruguay	19,221	6,007	38,267	11,646	44.9	0.851 (high)
Venezuela	221,608	7,736	233,196	8,306	44.1	0.784 (medium)

Culture

Main article: Latin American culture

A type of traditional Mexican costumes.

European style buildings on Buenos Aires.

The rich mosaic of Latin American cultural expressions is the product of many diverse influences:

• Native cultures of the peoples that inhabited the continents prior to the arrival of the Europeans.
• European cultures, brought mainly by the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French. This can be seen in any expression of the region's rich artistic traditions, including painting, literature and music, and in the realms of science and politics. The most enduring European colonial influence was language. Italian and British influence has been important as well.
• African cultures, whose presence derives from a long history of New World slavery. Peoples of African descent have influenced the ethno-scapes of Latin America and the Caribbean. This is manifest for instance in dance and religion, especially in countries such as Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Literature

Main article: Latin American literature

See also: List of Latin American writers

Pre-Columbian cultures were primarily oral, though the Aztecs and Mayans, for instance, produced elaborate codices. Oral accounts of mythological and religious beliefs were also sometimes recorded after the arrival of European colonizers, as was the case with the Popol Vuh. Moreover, a tradition of oral narrative survives to this day, for instance among the Quechua-speaking population of Peru and the Quiché of Guatemala.

From the very moment of Europe's "discovery" of the continent, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experience--such as Columbus's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of Mexico. During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as Lizardi's El Periquillo Sarniento (1816).

The 19th Century was a period of "foundational fictions" (in critic Doris Sommer's words), novels in the Romantic or Naturalist traditions that attempted to establish a sense of national identity, and which often focussed on the indigenous question or the dichotomy of "civilization or barbarism" (for which see, say, Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo (1845), Juan León Mera's Cumandá (1879), or Euclides da Cunha's Os Sertões (1902)).

At the turn of the 20th century, modernismo emerged, a poetic movement whose founding text was Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío's Azul (1888). This was the first Latin American literary movement to influence literary culture outside of the region, and was also the first truly Latin American literature, in that national differences were no longer so much at issue. José Martí, for instance, though a Cuban patriot, also lived in Mexico and the USA and wrote for journals in Argentina and elsewhere.

However, what really put Latin American literature on the global map was no doubt the literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s, distinguished by daring and experimental novels (such as Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963)) that were frequently published in Spain and quickly translated into English. The Boom's defining novel was Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad (1967), which led to the association of Latin American literature with magic realism, though other important writers of the period such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes do not fit so easily within this framework. Arguably, the Boom's culmination was Augusto Roa Bastos's monumental Yo, el supremo (1974). In the wake of the Boom, influential precursors such as Juan Rulfo, Alejo Carpentier, and above all Jorge Luis Borges were also rediscovered.

Contemporary literature in the region is vibrant and varied, ranging from the best-selling Paulo Coelho and Isabel Allende to the more avant-garde and critically acclaimed work of writers such as Diamela Eltit, Ricardo Piglia, or Roberto Bolaño. There has also been considerable attention paid to the genre of testimonio, texts produced in collaboration with subaltern subjects such as Rigoberta Menchú. Finally, a new breed of chroniclers is represented by the more journalistic Carlos Monsiváis and Pedro Lemebel.

The region boasts five Nobel Prizewinners: in addition to the Colombian García Márquez (1982), also the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1945), the Guatemalan novelist Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967), the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1971), and the Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz (1990).

Art

Palace of Fine Arts, built in the early 20th century in Mexico City.

Main article: Latin American art

See also: List of Latin American artists

Beyond the rich tradition of indigenous art, the development of Latin American visual art owed much to the influence of Spanish, Portuguese and French Baroque painting, which in turn often followed the trends of the Italian Masters. In general, this artistic Eurocentrism began to fade in the early twentieth century, as Latin-Americans began to acknowledge the uniqueness of their condition and started to follow their own path.

From the early twentieth century, the art of Latin America was greatly inspired by the Constructivist Movement. The Constructivist Movement was founded in Russia around 1913 by Vladimir Tatlin. The Movement quickly spread from Russia to Europe and then into Latin America. Joaquin Torres Garcia and Manuel Rendón have been credited with bringing the Constructivist Movement into Latin America from Europe.

An important artistic movement generated in Latin America is Muralismo represented by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo in Mexico and Santiago Martinez Delgado and Pedro Nel Gómez in Colombia. Some of the most impressive Muralista works can be found in Mexico, Colombia New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo remains by far the most known and famous Latin American artist. She painted about her own life and the Mexican culture in a style combining Realism, Symbolism and Surrealism. Kahlo's work commands the highest selling price of all Latin American paintings.

Music and dance

Main article: Dance and music of Latin America

See also: Latin American music

See also: Latin dance

One of the main characteristics of Latin American music is its diversity, from the lively rhythms of Central America and the Caribbean to the more austere sounds of the Andes and Southern Cone. Another feature of Latin American music is its original blending of the variety of styles that arrived in The Americas and became influential, from the early Spanish and European Baroque to the different beats of the African rhythms.

Hispano-Caribbean music, such as Merengue, Bachata, Salsa, and more recently Reggaeton, from such countries as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Panama has been strongly influenced by African rhythms and melodies. Haiti's Compas is a genre of music that draws influence and is thus similar to its Hispano-Caribbean counterparts with an element of jazz and modern sound as well.

Other Latin American musical genres include the Argentine, and Uruguayan tango, the Antillean Soca, and Calypso, the Central American (Garifuna) Punta, the Colombian cumbia and vallenato, the Chilean Cueca, the Ecuadorian Boleros, and Rockoleras, the Mexican ranchera, the Nicaraguan Palo de Mayo, the Peruvian Marinera and Tondero, the Uruguayan Candombe, the French Antillean Zouk, and the various styles of music from Pre-Columbian traditions that are widespread in the Andean region. In Brazil, samba, North-American jazz, European classical music, and choro combined to form bossa nova.

The classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) worked on the recording of native musical traditions within his homeland of Brazil. The traditions of his homeland heavily influenced his classical works. Also notable is the recent work of the Cuban Leo Brouwer and guitar work of the Venezuelan Antonio Lauro and the Paraguayan Agustín Barrios.

Arguably, the main contribution to music entered through folklore, where the true soul of the Latin American and Caribbean countries is expressed. Musicians such as Yma Súmac, Chabuca Granda, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Mercedes Sosa, Jorge Negrete, Luiz Gonzaga, Caetano Veloso, and others gave magnificent examples of the heights that this soul can reach.

Latin pop, including many forms of rock, is popular in Latin America today (see Spanish language rock and roll).

More recently, Reggaeton, which blends Jamaican reggae and dancehall with Latin America genres such as bomba and plena, as well as that of hip hop, is becoming more popular, in spite of the controversy surrounding its lyrics, dance steps (Perreo) and music videos. It has become very popular among populations with a "migrant culture" influence - both Latino populations in the U.S., such as southern Florida and New York City, and parts of Latin America where migration to the U.S. is common, such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Film

Main article: Latin American cinema

File:Panslabyrinthofelia.JPG

Scene from the movie "Pan's Labyrinth". Directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro

Latin American film is both rich and diverse. Historically, the main centers of production have been México, Brazil, Cuba, and Argentina.

Latin American cinema flourished after the introduction of sound, which added a linguistic barrier to the export of Hollywood film south of the border. The 1950s and 1960s saw a movement towards Third Cinema, led by the Argentine filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. More recently, a new style of directing and stories filmed has been tagged as "New Latin American Cinema."

Argentine cinema was a big industry in the first half of the 20th century. The industry re-emerged after the 1976-1983 military dictatorship to produce the Academy Award winner The Official Story in 1985. The Argentine economic crisis affected the production of films in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but many Argentine movies produced during those years were internationally acclaimed, including Nueve reinas (2000) and El abrazo partido (2004).

In Brazil, the Cinema Novo movement created a particular way of making movies with critical and intellectual screenplays, a clearer photography related to the light of the outdoors in a tropical landscape, and a political message. The modern Brazilian film industry has become more profitable inside the country, and some of its productions have received prizes and recognition in Europe and the United States, with movies such as Central do Brasil (1999) and Cidade de Deus (2003).

Cuban cinema has enjoyed much official support since the Cuban revolution, and important film-makers include Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

Mexican cinema in the Golden Era of the 1940s boasted a huge industry comparable to Hollywood at the time. Stars included María Félix, Dolores del Rio and Pedro Infante. In the 1970s and 1970s Mexico was the location for many cult horror and action movies. More recently, films such as Amores Perros (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001) enjoyed box office and critical acclaim and propelled Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñarritu to the front rank of Hollywood directors.

It is also worth noting that many Latin Americans have achieved significant success within Hollywood, for instance Carmen Miranda and Salma Hayek, while Mexican Americans such as Robert Rodriguez have also made their mark.

See also

• Anglo America
• Hispanic America
• Ibero-America
• United States-Latin American relations
• Americas (terminology)
  • Use of the word American
  • America (disambiguation)
  • Free Trade Area of the Americas
  • Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas
• Caribbean
  • Association of Caribbean States
  • Caribbean Community
  • Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States
• Central America
  • Central American Common Market
• North America
  • North American Free Trade Agreement
• South America
  • Andean Community
  • Mercosur
  • Union of South American Nations
• Latin Union, Latin Europe, Latin Africa
• Latino, Latino Canadian, Afro-Latin American, Asian Latin American, White Latin American, Latin American British
• List of Latin Americans
  • List of Latin American artists
  • List of Latin American writers
• Latin American culture
• Latin American studies
• Irish settlement in Argentina

External links

General information

• The Washington Post Interactive Map of Politics in Latin America
• Andean Community official webpage
• Council on Hemispheric Affairs
• Latin American Network Information Center
• Latin America Working Group
• Washington Office on Latin America
• Politics in Latin America
• Infolatam. Information and analysis of Latin America

News

• The Council on Hemispheric Affairs An independent source of Latin American news and opinion
• Business News Americas Daily news and research on Latin American business and industries.
• BBC - South America Creates Single Market
• Latin Business Chronicle Weekly news on Latin American business and technology.