Portal:Latin America

Intro

Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish and Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geography, and as such it includes countries in both North and South America. Most countries south of the United States tend to be included: Mexico and the countries of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Commonly, it refers to Hispanic America plus Brazil. Related terms are the narrower Hispanic America, which exclusively refers to Spanish-speaking nations, and the broader Ibero-America, which includes all Iberic countries in the Americas and occasionally European countries like Spain, Portugal and Andorra. Despite being in the same geographical region, English- and Dutch-speaking countries and territories are excluded (Suriname, Guyana, the Falkland Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, etc.), and French-speaking countries and territories are usually excluded.

The term Latin America was first introduced in 1856 at a Paris conference titled, literally, Initiative of the Americas: Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics (Iniciativa de la América. Idea de un Congreso Federal de las Repúblicas). Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao coined the term to unify countries with shared cultural and linguistic heritage. It gained further prominence during the 1860s under the rule of Napoleon III, whose government sought to justify France's intervention in the Second Mexican Empire. (Full article...)

Recognized content -

Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The dictator novel (Spanish: novela del dictador) is a genre of Latin American literature that challenges the role of the dictator in Latin American society. The theme of caudillismo—the régime of a charismatic caudillo, a political strongman—is addressed by examining the relationships between power, dictatorship, and writing. Moreover, a dictator novel often is an allegory for the role of the writer in a Latin American society. Although mostly associated with the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, the dictator-novel genre has its roots in the nineteenth-century non-fiction work Facundo (1845) by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

As an indirect critique of Juan Manuel de Rosas' dictatorial régime in Argentina, Facundo is the forerunner of the dictator novel genre; all subsequent dictator novels harken back to it. As established by Sarmiento, the goal of the genre is not to analyze the rule of particular dictators, or to focus on historical accuracy, but to examine the abstract nature of authority figures and of authority in general. (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

Topics

More did you know -

... that an unrecognized state called The Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia was established in the 19th century by a French lawyer and adventurer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens?

WikiProjects

WikiProject South America
WikiProject Latin America (semi-active)

Selected article -

Satellite image of the Amazon Delta

The Amazon River (UK: /ˈæməzən/, US: /ˈæməzɒn/; Spanish: Río Amazonas, Portuguese: Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the longest or second-longest river system in the world, a title which is disputed with the Nile.

The headwaters of the Apurímac River on Nevado Mismi had been considered, for nearly a century, the Amazon basin's most distant source until a 2014 study found it to be the headwaters of the Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru. The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form the Ucayali River, which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru, forming what countries other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro forming what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters (Portuguese: Encontro das Águas) at Manaus, the largest city on the river. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak complained when a joint declaration was made at a summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that used the term Islas Malvinas?
... that Tural, the setting of the expansion pack Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, is inspired by Latin America and Southeast Asia?
... that Diana Vicezar created recycled housing for street dogs, a recruitment platform for international students, and a podcast about Latin American students in Ireland?

General images

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

Image 1Villa de Leyva, a historical and cultural landmark of Colombia (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 2Exhumation of corpses in the aftermath of the Guatemalan genocide (from History of Latin America)
Image 3The Guadalajara International Film Festival is considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 4Left-leaning leaders of Bolivia, Brazil and Chile at the Union of South American Nations summit in 2008 (from History of Latin America)
Image 5Countries in Latin America by date of independence (from History of Latin America)
Image 6Che Guevara Cuban revolutionary poster (from History of Latin America)
Image 7Ethnic distribution by country. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 8Instituto Arnoldo Gabaldón, declared August 30, 1984, as a National Historic Landmark (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 91903 political cartoon: President Roosevelt intimidating Colombia to acquire the Panama Canal Zone. (from History of Latin America)
Image 10The joropo, as depicted in a 1912 drawing by Eloy Palacios (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 11Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 12Comandanta Ramona of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico (from History of Latin America)
Image 13Intermediate level international-style Latin dancing at the 2006 MIT ballroom dance competition. A judge stands in the foreground. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 14Calls for justice in the wake of the Guatemalan genocide (from History of Latin America)
Image 15The 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 Culture of Latin America)
Image 16Agrarian reform poster, Guatemala 1952 (from History of Latin America)
Image 17Map of Countries in Latin America with Socialist regimes during the Cold War c. 1985 (from History of Latin America)
Image 18Mexican Stock Exchange (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 19Holy week, Ouro Preto-MG, 2010. Chrome. Photo: Guy Veloso. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 20Fiambre, Guatemalan traditional dish, eaten on November 1, the Day of the Dead (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 21Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (from History of Latin America)
Image 22Roll-on/roll-offships, such as this one pictured here at Miraflores locks, are among the largest ships to pass through the Panama Canal. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. (from History of Latin America)
Image 23A 17th-century map of the Americas (from History of Latin America)
Image 24Plaquita, a Dominican street version of cricket. The Dominican Republic was first introduced to cricket through mid-18th century British contact, but switched to baseball after the 1916 American occupation. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 25Pope Paul VI and Salvadoran cleric Oscar Romero (now St Oscar Romero) (from History of Latin America)
Image 26The name Augusto Sandino, Nicaraguan nationalist hero for his struggle against the United States, was taken by leftist guerrillas as the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). (from History of Latin America)
Image 27Fidel Castro and his men in the Sierra Maestra, 2 December 1956 (from History of Latin America)
Image 28In 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)

Selected panorama

Skyline of the City of Buenos Aires, capital and largest city in Argentina, and the most visited city in South America. This picture shows specifically the district of Puerto Madero.

Selected picture

Moai

Credit: Aurbina

Moai are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500 CE.Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-eighths the size of the whole statue. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna).The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most were cast down during later conflicts between clans.

Countries

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

Related portals

North and Central America

Caribbean

South America

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