INTRODUCTION I n 1982 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Gabriel García Márquez the Colombian author of such celebrated novels as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera Márquez in an interview with the New York Times expressed some anxiety about being given the coveted award Even though he was not the first writer from Latin America to receive it he feared that he would be called on to represent Latin America I must try and break through the clichés about Latin America he said in his interview Superpowers and other outsiders have fought over us for centuries in ways that have nothing to do with our problems In reality we are all alone Gabriel García Márquez Colombian novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize Márquez was referring to the way in which Latin American culture is often mis understood and misrepresented Latin America is much more diverse and dynamic than some people have assumed The term Latin America might sound strange since Latin is not spoken in this region However the term is over 150 years old and was invented to refer to the region 4
INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION A map of the Americas in 1780 shows the four Spanish viceroyalties in green and Portuguese territory Brazil in purple 5
THE PEOPLE AND CULTURE OF LATIN AMERICA located south of the border of the United States because these countries and dependent states speak languages derived from Latin Spanish Portuguese and French Even the other languages such as Creole languages spoken in the West Indies are a fusion of Latin languages with other tongues such as African languages Latin American nations are the southern neighbors of the United States However the population of Latin America is much greater than that of the United States For example the United States has approximately 325 million people within its borders In contrast Brazil alone has approxi mately 205 million people It is the fifth most populous country in the world and one-third of the people of Latin America live there Altogether more than 626 million people live in Latin America a region that covers some 15 percent of the The skyline of Panama City the capital and largest city of Panama 6
INTRODUCTION Earth The people and cultures are as diverse as the region itself which includes Mexico Central America South America and the West Indies areas with vastly different features The West Indies and Caribbean are islands for example that enjoy a tropical climate On the other hand many nations on the western side of South America are marked by the Andes Mountains and enjoy cooler climates In yet another example many Central and South American cities are built on coastlines bordering either the Atlantic the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico and those regions are influenced by that feature While these countries are diverse in many ways for example Brazilian culture differs from Peruvian culture which differs from Cuban culture they all have certain broader attributes in common These similarities have been influenced by their shared history 7
