While surfing the Net recently, I came across a website that posed an interesting question: is Latin America Western? Though the site did not give a definite “yes” or “no” to the question, it discussed some of the reasons why people might or might not consider Latin America a part of the West.
The term “West” is somewhat ambiguous these days. “West” and “Western” seem to have joined the ranks of words like “Creole,” “humanist,” and “liberal,” whose meaning varies according to where, when and by whom they are being pronounced. Most people would agree that Canada , the United States , Australia , and Western Europe are clearly part of the West. But they might disagree on where to place East Germany , for instance, which until the fall of the Berlin Wall belonged to the Communist Eastern bloc but which has strong linguistic, historical and cultural ties to Western Europe .
Latin America ’s status as part of the so-called Occident is also shaky. On one hand, a writer for Canada ’s National Post Magazine referred to Colombia as the “most dangerous country in the West.” An Ecuadorian friend similarly tells me that of course his country is Western; after all, it was colonized by Europeans long before many areas of the United States were. Others, though, would hesitate to include Latin America in the Western fold. Some leftists, seeking to create a sense of Third World solidarity, lump the region together with Africa, Asia and the Middle East rather than with Europe and North America . Ironically, many right-wingers too would place Latin America outside the Western pale, not only because the region is not industrialized but because the majority of its inhabitants are not “white” (that is, of unmixed European descent).
My answer to the website’s question is that yes, Latin America is Western. Saying that Latin America is not Western is to my mind a bit like saying that humans are not mammals. In other words, what else could it be? Just as humans possess all the physical features of mammals (hair, the ability to produce milk for their young, and so on), Latin American culture is largely based on that of Western Europe, more specifically Spain ’s and, in the case of Brazil , Portugal ’s.
The first objection to classifying the Latin American countries as Western is that they are not industrialized, at least not to the same degree as those of Europe and North America are. But industrialization is not the exclusive domain of the West. Japan is one of the most industrialized nations in the world, yet it certainly is not Western. The far less technologically developed Philippines is far more Westernized than Japan , due to its three hundred years under Spanish control. While the wish to promote solidarity between Latin America and other Third World areas is commendable, those who do so sometimes forget (or prefer to ignore) that culturally — even if not politically or technologically – the former resembles Europe more than it does Asia or Africa, for example.
Another reason often cited for not including Latin America in the West stems from the fact that most of its people are not “white.” However, Turks are genetically similar to Europeans, but few consider Turkey a Western country. Others might argue that large portions of Latin America, such as Bolivia and Guatemala , are inhabited by people with no European ancestry whatsoever. But the same thing could be said of Canada , where in the most northerly areas of the country the population is mostly Aboriginals and Inuit.
Moreover, most Latin Americans have at least some European ancestry. There are even some with no non-White background at all, such as a former boyfriend of mine who was born in Peru to a German-Northern Italian couple. Even setting Latin America’s “white” inhabitants aside, the average mestizo [1] or mulatto [2] has more in common with his or her European forbears than Indian and/or African ones. He or she in all likelihood speaks a European language — Spanish in most of the region and Portuguese in Brazil — as his or her mother tongue, practises a religion that while not originally from Europe took root on that continent more widely than on any other, and leads a lifestyle similar to that of Spain, Portugal and other Latin countries like Italy and France.
From this standpoint, it’s hard to claim that Latin America is any less Western than the United States or Australia . The difference is of course that the latter two places derive their culture from Britain whereas the former traces its culture to Spain or Portugal .
Undoubtedly Native American and African customs have influenced Latin America . And it’s understandable that countries like Mexico , which broke away forcefully from their “motherland,” Spain , are now stressing their Indian roots over their European ones. Other nations emphasize their “mestizaje” — the term for “racial mixture” in Spanish — in an attempt to recognize their dual (or in the case of places like Brazil with a strong African component, triple) heritages. But the reality is that for most mixed-race Latin Americans — who, by the way, form the majority of the area’s population — their European heritage has played a far greater role in shaping in their world views, social attitudes, and daily lives than has their non-“white” ancestry.
Indeed, the fact that miscegenation — generally involving Europeans and other “races,” though individuals of mixed African and Native American descent also exist — played such a major role in Latin American history is probably the principal reason for that region’s status as part of the West. It’s important to stress that not all Spanish and Portuguese colonies joined the ranks of the Western world. Spanish rule in the Philippines , for example, did not transform the islands into a Latin country. Though Spain did have considerable influence on the Philippines — in converting most of the people to Catholicism, in providing Spanish loan words to the local languages, and in giving the people Spanish first and/or last names — the Filipinos’ pre-colonial Asian culture remained largely intact even after three centuries of Spanish domination — roughly the same amount of time Spain controlled Latin America. Interestingly, miscegenation between Spaniards and Filipinos (or should we say Filipinas, because practically all such unions involved Spanish men and Filipina women) occurred on a fairly limited scale, as very few Spaniards settled in the islands. As historian John Phelan explains, the Philippines failed to become a Latin nation as Mexico did in part because the former lacked a mixed-race population to help Hispanicize the natives and by extension the country.
A friend from Colombia , a man of mixed Spanish and Native American descent who would never have passed for “white” in the United States , admitted to me that he felt “at home” on a visit to Italy because Italy is a Latin country, like Spain and Portugal . Obviously Latin America is not a carbon copy of Iberia . [3] But neither is the United States a replica of England . And just as no one would ever classify humans as fish, amphibians, reptiles or birds, Latin America cannot be anything but Western.
Hey Emilia,
Interesting article.
What is your take on the two “different” countries up on the north end of the continent? (Guyana, which has much in common with Caribbean islands like Trinidad with its Black and East Indian population, and Suriname which I honestly don’t know a lot about except that they are an interesting mix of Black and something else there)
You are right about some of those South American countries being basically white….places like Chile, Peru, Argentina seem to have the whitest populations in South America…..Brazil on the other hand is much more mixed and diverse.
Thanks, B, for the comment. Just a clarification on the countries in Latin America you mentioned – Argentina, Chile, Peru and Brazil – Peru actually has a significant Native population. Chile on the other hand I believe is principally mestizo (mixed White-Indian), but culturally I would say they’re almost 100% European. Even amongst people of mixed race, the Indian cultural element has virtually disappeared for the most part. Argentina is a strange case. While it has always billed itself as a “White” country, recent genetic testing shows that a significant number of people actually have Native American ancestry. Some of its unmixed White inhabitants are not people of Spanish descent but more recently immigrants from other European countries (particularly Italy, Germany, Poland, etcetera). Brazil on the other hand, while I do believe it has important African elements (more so than, I believe, Blacks in the United States), is basically Western in culture. At least that’s my opinion.
With regard to Guyana, Surinam, etcetera, and some of the Caribbean countries, I’m not so sure; I really haven’t investigated. According to anthropologist Pierre van den Berghe, these countries have kept many of their African roots, but they are far more Westernized than almost all of the African countries, most of which were colonized at some point in time by European powers. Still, though, the fact that people in Caribbean countries, such as Haiti, speak a Creole rather than either standard French or an African language seems to illustrate the somewhat unsteady balance between the African and European element in their culture. On the other hand, I think the fact that almost Latin Americans speak standard Spanish rather than a Creole demonstrates that the Western element is dominant in their culture.
But that’s just my opinion. I really can’t give an informed opinion on the Caribbean countries.
Yeah, much of the Caribbean has kept in touch with its African roots. Even the more Spanish of countries in some cases. The islands are their own thing really…not so much like African countries at all…but not entirely western either. The fact that most of them are between 50 and 90% Black helps. The islands are in a class of their own….but I am guessing they may have some things in common with some parts of South America….especially Brazil…but only in some ways.
My backgrounds include Trinidad and Guyana….I have been to Cuba and Dominican Republic as well (I have not seen Guyana before actually). I would like to see South America and compare what I see and experience to my experiences in Trinidad and the other islands I been to.
As for the languages spoken….before getting their freedom and becoming self governing, many of the islands went thru a number of colonial powers running things. Usually it was the French, Spanish and English taking turns running islands as their colonies and taking over from each other. So that had its influence.
One interesting thing I learned is that Haiti, which was the first to emancipate from the colonists, turned and took over the Dominican Republic for a while till the Dominicans fought to take control of their own country some years later.
I agree with you on that bit about language and the lack of Creole in S.A.
Hi, B. Thanks again for your comments. I have found that although the Caribbean countries are, as you say, usually “Black,” a number of people I’ve met from there do have some European ancestry, even if they’d be classified as Black under the so-called “one drop rule” prevalent in Canada and the US. For instance, one of my best friends is a German mulatto from Jamaica. I always joke that she’s very “Germanic,” methodical, no-nonsense, etcetera. I have heard in some of the islands mulattos make up sort of a “second tier,” above the “Blacks” but below the Whites, of whom there are not many. That’s sort of alien to the mentality in North America, where anyone with any African ancestry is considered Black. Personally I don’t like the one-drop rule; under it my biracial niece and nephews would be considered a completely separate race from me. On the other hand, I understand why some people of mixed descent would want to identify with one side over the other.
One Latin American country I’d recommend visiting is Venezuela. I’ve been there, and it’s a great place.
The 3 southernmost brazilian states are over 80% white… thats 22 million whites in those 3 states alone. I would say the state of São Paulo has at least 25 million whites (out of a total population of 40 million). This totals 50 million whites in only those 4 states. Thats more whites than many western european countries.
Dear Aces High,
Thank you for your comment. I also believe that nearly all Latin Americans who are European something else genetically are 100% Western in culture.
Colombia IS NOT a dangerous country, as most people want to make it look like. Colombia has problems but which country doesn’t. I am a Colombian who lived there for many years, and I can assure you that as long as you take minimal precautions, you will be ok. In fact, Bogota, Colombia is safer than many U.S. cities, it’s murder rate is MUCH MUCH lower than that of New Orleans, Lousiana, for instance; and is just as safe as cities like Washington, D.C. I am tired of people thinking that us COLOMBIANS are all murderers and drug traffickers, we are not. In fact, according to surveys, Colombia is considered one of the happies places on earth because people are so extremely proud of their country. It is a country full of culture and interesting things to find out; but the media, like this dumb article, always make sure that everybody knows Colombia as murder capital. Plus, Mexico is in a much worse situation than Colombia nowdays. It is so easy to name bad things but so hard to name the good.
Viva Colombia!!!
Actually, I was in Cartagena and surrounding areas in 2002 and 2003 and never had any security problems. My quote about Colombia being the “most dangerous country in the West” did not come from me; it came from an article in the National Post.
I certainly agree with this article. Latin America is a like a cake. The actual cake is the European cultural component and the icing are the Native/African influences. Overall, the icing gives the cake its sweet flavor, but the most of the cake is not the icing; and that is noticeable. Everywhere in Latin America, people’s aspirations tend to be Western (particularly of the Mediterranean type). The most desired homes tend to be those made of cinder block walls, tile roof, with a wall surrounding the property with ornamental gates at its entry points; much like in Mediterranean Europe. The dress style has always been Western, the language is overwhelmingly Western, the religion is also Western, the art, the food, the music; everything has a strong Western base with Native/African influences that gives it its flavor and style.
Concerning the mention of the Haitian military invasion of the Dominican Republic, let me clear this. The Dominican Republic emerged from what was not just the first Spanish colony in the New World, but also the first European colony in the Americas; the Colony of Santo Domingo (in fact, the name Dominicans derives from Domingo, thus the name the Dominican Republic). This colony was founded in 1492 by Christopher Columbus and contains many of the New World’s firsts (the first European city, the first cathedral, the first court of law, the first university, the first Imperial road, so on and so forth; many of which are still standing). It remained a Spanish colony (with everything that implies in terms of cultural development in which the Spanish component was, and continues to be, the pillar on which Dominican society is based) until 1821 – over 300 years of direct Spanish rule and influence – when a declaration of independence was announced in November of that same year. By February of 1822, Haitian military troops (Haiti had been independent since 1804 – 18 years -) marched over the eastern two-thirds of the island which was still in the process of forming its government and lacked an organized military, and took over initiating its military invasion that lasted for 22 years. Then, after much abuse the Haitians inflicted on the Dominicans, in 1844 a new independence was established and the Dominican Republic was finally born.
I mention this because I got the impression that the poster by the name of “B” above, mentioned the Haitian invasion as a sort of negating the Spanish base on which Dominican culture and society is based on. It seemed that he/she tried to imply that the Haitian invasion did away with over 300 years of Spanish rule. That’s utter nonsense! You don’t erase 300 years of culture and history in a military invasion (it wasn’t even a demographic one, purely military and administrative) in one generation! That is the reason 100% of Dominicans speak and always have spoken Spanish as their mother tongue since birth, have dressed in the Western fashion, its cuisine is highly Westernized, its architecture (including the contemporary kind) is mostly Western – particularly Mediterranean influenced -, its music (Merengue and Bachata) are enjoyed by Latin Americans from Mexico all the way to Argentina and even in places like Spain and Italy! This is the reason why Dominican society feels much more Latin and Western than it does African or ‘Caribbean’. There is a certain feel to Latin American countries, which albeit being different, share so much. This feeling is certainly present in the Dominican Republic and curiously enough, evaporates into thin air the moment one crosses the border in Haiti! Because in the end, Haiti is a different ordeal all together; different not just from the Dominican Republic, but of the entire Western Hemisphere. Except for the upper echelon of Haitian society where French language, culture and aspirations dominates (in part because the top 5% of Haitian society is overwhelmingly Mulatto – French & African -) does a feeling of ‘Latin’ comes into play. That is a sharp contrast from the reality in the Dominican Republic where 90% of the population is racially Mulatto or White. And the Black minority of Dominicans are also highly Westernized. Even the Haitians that migrate to the Dominican Republic, within a few years become quite Westernized since that’s a basic necessity for any foreigner wishing to be assimilated and accepted into Dominican society.
Sorry for making this post so long.
Dear Antonio,
Thank you for writing, and please don’t apologize about making the post long; I’m flattered to have comments on my pieces. By the way, my father’s name is Antonio (he was born in Italy; in my lifetime I’ve known many Antonios: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and even Filipino – the Philippines being a former Spanish colony where most of the people have Spanish first and last names).
With regard to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, I agree that despite sharing the same island, they are in many ways completely different countries, both in their racial background, culture, history, and at this point, environmental record (there is an interesting book called Collapse by a man named Jared Diamond who writes about the Dominican Republic’s success in preserving its environment, while Haiti has basically had theirs ruined).
Regarding race, a number of genetic studies have shown that the racial make-up of Haiti is about 95% African, which is a higher percentage than even such “Black” countries like Jamaica. I suppose that that is what makes the relatively few mixed-race Haitians, like the wife of former dictator “Baby Doc,” stand out so much. The population of Dominican Republic on the other hand has a higher European admixture as well as a significant Amerindian faction, even though the country has no recognizable Native population as do most other Latin American countries; in the Dominican Republic practically all the Native Americans got absorbed into the European-African community.
On the other hand, race doesn’t tell the whole story about a people. As you say, even with their African (and, I would add, Amerindian as well) ancestry, the European cultural component is clearly dominant in the Dominican Republic. This is evident in the fact that Dominicans speak Spanish rather than a creole as their native language (in fact, Latin America is fairly Creole-deficient; the only Spanish creole existing there now is one spoken by descendents of African slaves in Northern Colombia called Palenquero, and this language is gradually dying off and might become extinct in a few generations). In Haiti, on the other hand, the vast majority speak “Creole” (I’m capitalizing the word to distinguish it from a creole language in general). I have known many native French speakers who say they can’t understand Haitian Creole at all when they hear it spoken. As one Quebecois man who had a Haitian neighbour told me, “That’s not French” – which it is not; Creole is considered a spearate language from French. The Dominican Republic, on the other hand, doesn’t speak a Creole, or an African or Native American language for that matter. So I would say that the Dominican Republic is definitely Western. And Haiti? I don’t know if I would call it Western, but on the other hand, I can’t really call it African either; being transported from Africa as slaves, Haitians crossed a line that Africans back in their homeland did not, and it changed them socially and culturally in a significant manner.
Speaking of Santo Domingo, I would love to go there some day. Not for the beaches, though I’m sure they’re beautiful, but for the history and culture. I suppose I’m in awe of the fact that it is the oldest European city in the “New” World; it beats even our Quebec City here in Canada by a century! Regarding the name “Domingo,” I believe it was the name of one of Christopher Columbus’ sons. Back then there was a tradition of naming cities after rulers and other powerful figure, adding a “St.” before (remember in some countries – Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, that is – people celebrated in addition to their birthdays their nameday – the day on which the saint sharing their name died – and after whom they may have been named – died). A similar example is St. Petersburg, Russia, which of course got its name from Peter the Great.
So again, thank you for your post. I’m planning to post an article about Latin America and the Philippines. Stay tuned for that here on Cynics Unlimited!