100 Latin Culture Facts You Must Know

Latin Culture Facts are discussed here.Latin Culture is the set of ideologies, imaginaries, traditions, beliefs, and relationships that make up true character the Latin American people.

Latin Culture Facts You Must Know.

1. Latin culture is a term often used to refer to the cultures of countries in Latin America and regions influenced by Latin heritage.
2. The main languages in Latin America are Spanish, Portuguese, and, to a lesser extent, French.
3. The Latin American region consists of 20 sovereign countries and several dependencies and territories.
4. The term “Latin” comes from the Latin language, which was spoken by the ancient Romans.
5. Latin American cuisine is known for its diversity and includes dishes like tacos, empanadas, ceviche, feijoada, and arepas.
6. Salsa, tango, samba, and merengue are popular dance forms in Latin America.
7. The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, with its capital in Cusco, Peru.
8. The Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas were advanced ancient civilizations in Latin America.
9. Soccer (football) is the most popular sport in Latin America.
10. The Andes mountain range in South America is the longest mountain range in the world.
11. The Amazon Rainforest in South America is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth.
12. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador are renowned for their unique and diverse wildlife, which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
13. The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and is a crucial trade route.
14. Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) is a significant cultural event celebrated in Mexico to honor deceased loved ones.
15. Carnival is a festive season celebrated in many Latin American countries, featuring parades, dances, and vibrant costumes.
16. Latin American literature has produced renowned authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Isabel Allende.
17. The Andean condor is the largest flying bird in the world and is found in the Andes mountains.
18. The Amazon River is the second-longest river globally, after the Nile.
19. The city of Machu Picchu in Peru is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
20. The famous Argentinean dance, tango, originated in the working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.
21. Latin American art is known for its vibrant colors and indigenous influences.
22. The Caribbean region has a rich cultural heritage that combines indigenous, African, and European influences.
23. Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist, is known for her self-portraits and is an icon of Latin American art.
24. Latin American music includes genres like salsa, reggaeton, bachata, cumbia, and bossa nova.
25. The ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico contains impressive pyramids and temples.
26. Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, leading to European colonization.
27. The Mayan calendar system was highly advanced and precise.
28. The Argentinean dance, the tango, was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
29. Latin American countries have a strong tradition of folk music and dance.
30. Mexico is home to the Chichen Itza, a famous Mayan archaeological site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
31. The Panama hat actually originated in Ecuador, not Panama.
32. The world’s largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni, is in Bolivia.
33. The national dance of Brazil is the samba, often associated with Carnival.
34. Latin American countries celebrate their independence from Spain on September 15 and 16 during the “Fiestas Patrias.”
35. Tango was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in 2009.
36. The Carnival of Rio de Janeiro is one of the most famous and extravagant celebrations in the world.
37. The Galápagos Islands are home to species found nowhere else on Earth, such as the Galápagos giant tortoise.
38. Venezuela has the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls.
39. The “Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe” is a significant religious celebration in Mexico.
40. Colombian coffee is renowned worldwide for its quality.
41. Latin American countries have a strong tradition of producing and exporting valuable minerals like copper, silver, and gold.
42. The “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is an iconic symbol of the country.
43. Latin American cinema has produced influential filmmakers like Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón.
44. The Moai statues on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
45. Soccer legends like Pelé (Brazil) and Diego Maradona (Argentina) are considered some of the greatest players of all time.
46. The Galápagos Islands inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
47. The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
48. The Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas dispute between Argentina and the UK remains unresolved.
49. Mexico City is built on the site of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire.
50. Ceviche, a dish made of raw fish marinated in citrus juices, originated in Peru.
51. The Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City commemorates Mexico’s independence from Spain.
52. Salsa music originated in New York City in the 1960s, blending Caribbean and Latin American rhythms.
53. The Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico is one of the most important cultural events in the Spanish-speaking world.
54. The Galápagos Islands were the first UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 1978.
55. The “Rainbow Mountain” (Vinicunca) in Peru is a popular trekking destination.
56. Carnaval de Barranquilla in Colombia is one of the most significant Carnival celebrations in the world.
57. The Amazon Rainforest is home to an estimated 10% of the world’s known species.
58. The famous poet Pablo Neruda was from Chile and won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
59. Tango music was declared part of the world’s cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2009.
60. The ancient Nazca Lines in Peru are massive geoglyphs best viewed from the air.
61. Cumbia, a popular Latin American music and dance style, has roots in African, Indigenous, and European traditions.
62. The Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico often include creating colorful altars (ofrendas) to honor the deceased.
63. The traditional Mexican dish mole comes in various flavors, with mole poblano being the most famous.
64. Latin America has a strong tradition of magical realism in literature.
65. The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro stands atop the Corcovado mountain.
66. “El Grito de Dolores” is the famous call for Mexican independence, shouted by Miguel Hidalgo in 1810.
67. The Carnival of Oruro in Bolivia is another famous Carnival celebration, featuring elaborate dance performances.
68. The Galápagos Islands are a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.
69. Salsa dancing originated in the Afro-Cuban community in Cuba.
70. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and was a significant engineering feat of its time.

 Latin Culture Facts ;Characteristics of Latin American culture :

1.  Name’s origin

The term “Latin American” or “Latin America” was introduced in 1836 by the French politician Michel Chevalier  to distinguish it from Anglo-Saxon America made up of the United States and Canada.

The adoption of this term by the inhabitants of the continent responded, from 1850 on, to the displacement of the term “Hispanic American” then in vogue, due to the colonialist connotations that it had.

At the same time , the use of the term “Latin” has been installed to refer to Latin Americans, although this gentilicio originally referred to the inhabitants of  Latinum , a region of the Roman Empire .

2.  Latin American countries

It is still debated that countries like Haiti belong to Latin America.

The countries that make up the Latin American continent range from North America to South America , and are: Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Chile , Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador , El Salvador, Guatemala , Honduras, Mexico , Nicaragua , Puerto Rico, Panama, Paraguay , Peru , Dominican Republic, Uruguay , Venezuela .

The membership of other Francophone or Anglophone countries in the region such as Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, French and English Guyana or Belize is debated , but traditionally they are not considered part of this cultural ensemble.

3.  Pre-Columbian background

The history of the region dates back thousands of years , since in its region there are two civilizational cradles such as the Inca region or the Mesoamerican region .

Both would have been sources of robust civilizations and expansive empires whose relations with the surrounding ethnic groups were more or less imperial, and which left abundant archaeological and anthropological evidence in their wake, such as the Incas ,  Mayas  or Aztecs , to name the best known.

Those that survived until the arrival of the Spanish colonizers met their end in the bloody war of Conquest of America.

4.  Colonial stage

The Latin American colonial period experienced a complex process of miscegenation.

The conquest by the Spanish and Portuguese empires of the American continent was followed by a colonial stage of more than three centuries, during which a racial caste society was established , that is, segregated on the basis of three groups: European whites, native Indians and black slaves.

Despite the conditions of submission that characterized it with respect to the black and Indian races, the Latin American colonial stage lived through a process of mestizaje and deep and prolonged cultural syncretism , which resulted in the “melting pot” that Latin America is today. .

More in: Colonial times .

5.  The feat of independence

Latin American culture is strongly rooted around its independence feat , in which the forces loyal to the European crown were waged bloody war and the whole of colonial society was fragmented into a significant number of young independent republics.

In this feat , the enlightened thinking of founding heroes such as Simón Bolívar (Caracas, 1783-1830) and José de San Martín (1778-1850) stood out . This emancipatory project also gave rise to the idea of ​​the Great Homeland, the Latin American union and the brotherhood between the peoples of the continent, long assumed by the leftist and revolutionary movements.

6.  The indigenous heritage

In many countries all kinds of traditional dances still survive.

In Latin American culture, the aboriginal element is present, to a greater extent in peoples of long pre-Columbian heritage such as Mexico , Peru or Bolivia, than in other more racially homogeneous such as Argentina or Uruguay, or in the predominantly African-descendant Caribbean.

This presence survives in gastronomy (especially that linked to corn and cassava) , in the surviving indigenous languages ​​(such as Nahuatl or Quechua), as well as in dances , traditional instruments and even in surviving indigenous communities , more or less integrated to Republican Western life.

7.  Diversity

Latin America has a wide gastronomic diversity.

The main characteristic of Latin American culture as a whole is its wide diversity, which both assimilates and distinguishes a Latin American citizen from Guatemala from one from Venezuela and from another from Chile.

This diversity occurs in virtually all areas: linguistic, gastronomic, racial, folk, etc . However, the inherited foundations of the colony provide them with unity in the midst of difference, which makes Latin America one of the most culturally rich continents in the world.

8.  Languages

The predominant language of Latin American culture is Spanish , with an important variety of accents and dialect variants, mainly grouped around five main regions: the Caribbean, the Andean, the River Plate, the Araucanian and the Central American.

The exception to this is Brazil , a Portuguese-speaking country, and the numerous surviving aboriginal languages, very minority in number of speakers and in importance or representativeness of the Latin American group. These include Quechua, Aymara, Wayúu, Nahuatl , Pemón, Yanomami, and many more.

9.  Religion

In the last decades, Christianity has gained strength in Latin America.

The predominant religion in Latin American culture is Catholic, inherited from the European colony in all its countries . However, this Catholicism differs from the peninsular variant in its syncretic character, which coexisted in a more or less veiled way with African and aboriginal traditions and deities, giving them a place under the Christian creed.

For example, celebrations of Catholic saints such as San Juan or Santa Bárbara are carried out through drums and clearly Negroid rites, especially in the Caribbean.

Only in those countries with an important aboriginal presence, such as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, or the Mexican nation, do pre-Columbian deities and practices survive , such as the cult of the Pachamama or Mother Earth.

Santeria of African origin is also present, particularly in the Caribbean region, known for animal sacrifices and its devotion to Yoruba deities.

The evangelical religion, in the last decades, has consolidated its presence in the Latin American continent and represents a religious movement in frank growth. Other religions such as Islamic or Judaic occur in very minority margins .

10.                                    Latin American Literature

The literature Latin America is perhaps one of the arts of the region ‘s most successful in the world , with emphasis highlighted in the poetic production of Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Chile, Colombia and Brazil. Authors from these latitudes have won their place in world literature with six Nobel Prize winners for Literature:

• Gabriela Mistral (Chile, awarded in 1945).
• Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala, awarded in 1967).
• Pablo Neruda (Chile, awarded in 1971).
• Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, awarded in 1982).
• Octavio Paz (Mexico, awarded in 1990).
• Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, awarded in 2010).