/latam/ - LATAM

Pictured: Huntington’s retarded “Clash of Civilizations” thesis, mapped

Serious question. By all cultural, economical and political metrics, Latin America is part of the western world and, dare I say, far more western than many European countries and all of East Asia. Let’s start with the basics.

1. Majority religion in the region is Christianity across all Latin American countries, with Protestant and Catholics being the two biggest denominations there.
   
   
2. All Latin American countries have an European language as the primary language and lingua Franca. Mostly Spanish, but Portuguese in Brazil’s case, and (tentatively FWIW) French in the cases of the French Guyana and Haiti, with said languages being the sole official or co-official language in their country.
   
   
3. All Latin American countries have been republics for much longer than many European states today
   
   
4. With the exception of Brazil which broke ties with the kingdom of Portugal by establishing its own monarchy, all former Spanish colonies waged revolutionary wars of independence modelled after the American and French bourgeois revolutions, and installed in place republican governments modelled after enlightenment principles
   
   
5. Latin American cultures are heavily based on European cultures. Sure, it’s specifically Iberian, but decades of European immigration has brought in influences from other parts of Europe like Italy and Northern Europe. Of course there are African and indigenous influences too, but ultimately LatAm cultures are heavily derivative of European ones, as indicated by both language and religion.
   
   
6. For much of its history, Latin American countries have rarely if ever been involved with Africa and Asia, instead having been more heavily involved in western affairs, of which Latin America’s ones are part of.
   
   
7. A substantial portion of Latin Americans are of predominantly European descent, and even the mixed race majority in LatAm has predominant or slight European ancestry, meaning that they aren’t completely divorced from Europe
   
   
8. In terms of domestic affairs, many are currently western liberal democracies (however flawed it might be) that follow along the politics of both the USA and European domestic politics. Indeed, most Latin American countries are structured after western countries and have been so for centuries.
   
   

Now, I should mention that being western and being peripheral aren’t mutually exclusive since countries like China aren’t western and yet aren’t deemed as peripheral either. So no, being a core country isn’t a strict requirement for”western status”.

All in all, I fail to see why shouldn’t Latin America (or the entirety of the western hemisphere bar Suriname and Guyana for that matter) be deemed as part of the western world and, but extension, have Latinos be deemed as westerners without resorting to double standards and selective bias.