Latin American culture is the formal or informal expression of the people of Latin America and includes both high culture (literature and high art) and popular culture (music, folk art, and dance) as well as religion and other customary practices.
Definitions of Latin America vary. From a cultural perspective,[1] Latin America generally refers to those parts of the Americas of Spanish and Portuguese culture and language: Mexico, most of Central America, and South America. There is also an important Latin American cultural presence in the United States (such as in California, Florida, the Southwest, and cities such as New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami).
Explanation:
The richness of Latin American culture is the product of many influences, including:
1. Spanish and Portuguese culture, owing to the region's history of colonization, settlement and continued immigration by Spain and Portugal. All the core elements of Latin American culture are of Iberian origin.
2. Pre-Columbian cultures, whose importance is today particularly notable in countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, and is central to indigenous communities such as the Quechua, Maya and Aymara.
3. 19th- and 20th-century European immigration from Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Eastern Europe; which transformed the region and especially countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil (particular the southeast and southern regions), Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic (specifically the northern region) and Mexico (particularly the northern region).
4. Chinese, Indian, Lebanese and other Christian Arabs, Filipino, Japanese and other Asian Diaspora. Mostly of immigration and indentured laborers who arrived from the coolie trade influenced the culture of Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru in areas such as food, art, and cultural trade.
5. The culture of Africa brought by Africans for Trans-Atlantic slave trade has influenced but not all of Latin America. Influences are particularly strong in the dance, music, cuisine, and religion of Cuba, Brazil, Dominican Republic and coastal Colombia.
Latin America has a very diverse population with many ethnic groups and different ancestries. Most of the Amerindian descendants are of mixed race ancestry.
In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries there was a flow of Iberian emigrants who left for Latin America. It was never a large movement of people but over the long period of time it had a major impact on Latin American populations: the Portuguese left for Brazil and the Spaniards left for the rest of the vast region.
Of the European immigrants, men greatly outnumbered women and many married natives. This resulted in a mixing of the Amerindians and Europeans and today their descendants are known as mestizos. Even Latin Americans who are considered "European" usually have some native ancestry. Today, mestizos make up the majority of Latin America's population.
Starting in the late 16th century, a large number of African slaves were brought to Latin America, especially to Brazil and the Caribbean.[citation needed] Nowadays, blacks make up the majority of the population in most Caribbean.
Many of the African slaves in Latin America mixed with the Europeans and their descendants (known as Mulattoes) make up the majority of the population in some countries, such as the Dominican Republic, and large percentages in Brazil, Colombia, etc.
Mixes between the blacks and Amerindians also occurred, and their descendants are known as Zambos. Many Latin American countries also have a substantial tri-racial population, which ancestry is a mix of Amerindians, Europeans and Africans.
