Portal:Latin America

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

P:LA

Latin America is a collective region of the Americas where Romance languages—languages derived from Latin—are predominantly spoken. The term was coined in France in the mid-19th century to refer to regions in the Americas that were ruled by the Spanish, Portuguese, and French empires.

The term does not have a precise definition, but it is "commonly used to describe South America, Central America, Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean". In a narrow sense, it refers to Spanish America and Brazil (Portuguese America). The term "Latin America" is broader than Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries, and categories such as Ibero-America, a term that refers to both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries from the Americas, and sometimes from Europe.

The term Latin America was first used in Paris at a conference in 1856 called "Initiative of America: Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics" (Iniciativa de la América. Idea de un Congreso Federal de las Repúblicas), by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao. The term was further popularized by French emperor Napoleon III's government of political strongman that in the 1860s as Amérique latine to justify France's military involvement in the Second Mexican Empire and to include French-speaking territories in the Americas, such as French Canada, Haiti, French Louisiana, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and the French Antillean Creole Caribbean islands Saint Lucia, and Dominica, in the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed.

The region covers an area that stretches from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and includes much of the Caribbean. It has an area of approximately 19,197,000 km² (7,412,000 sq mi), almost 13% of the Earth's land surface area. In 2019, Latin America had a combined nominal GDP of US$5,188,250 trillion and a GDP PPP of US$10,284,588 trillion. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Recognized content - show another

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

Notable cities in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the revolt, which centered in Asunción.

The Revolt of the Comuneros (Spanish: Revolución Comunera) was a series of uprisings by settlers in Paraguay in the Viceroyalty of Peru against the Spanish authorities from 1721 to 1725 and 1730–1735. The underlying cause of the unrest was strong anti-Jesuit feelings among the Paraguayans and dislike for any governor seen as favoring the Jesuits. In the resumption of the revolt in 1730, economic issues came to fore as well. The rebel organization split in its second phase, as the rural poor and the urban elite each formed their own factions with similar grievances against the Jesuits, but incompatible politics. Paraguay had an unusually strong tradition of self-rule; the colonists did not have a tradition of strict obedience to everything the Spanish Crown's governor decreed. This independence helped push the revolt forward.

The beginnings of the revolt were quasi-legal at first. José de Antequera y Castro (1690–1731), a judge for the Real Audiencia of Charcas, was sent to Asunción in 1721 to examine charges of misconduct against pro-Jesuit Governor Diego de los Reyes Balmaseda. Antequera concluded the charges were valid, forced Reyes into exile and later imprisoned him, and declared himself governor by the power of the Audencia in 1722. Antequera also accused the Jesuits of various crimes, demanded that the mission Indians under their care be enslaved and distributed to the citizens of Paraguay, and expelled the Jesuits from their college in Asunción. All these actions had the support of the citizens of Asunción, and governors had been deposed and replaced before without the central government complaining. However, Viceroy of Peru Diego Morcillo, residing in Lima, did not approve of Antequera's action and ordered Reyes' restoration as governor. With the backing of the settlers, Antequera refused, citing the authority of the Audencia as superior to that of the Viceroy. The feud between Antequera and the Viceroyalty continued after Viceroy Morcillo was replaced by the Marquis of Castelfuerte as Viceroy of Peru. Antequera's Paraguayan militia attacked and defeated an allied force of Jesuit mission Indians and Spanish colonial forces during the standoff. The battle tainted the legitimacy of Antequera's claim of governorship, however, and a second force was sent by Castelfuerte against a movement now seen as clearly treasonous. Antequera resigned in 1725 and fled to Charcas, while order was seemingly restored in the province. Antequera was arrested, imprisoned for five years at Lima, and executed. (Full article...)

List of recognized articles

Topics

edit

More did you know - show different entries

... that the cinema of Argentina is one of the most important in the Spanish-speaking world, has had six Academy Award nominations, and has won twice?

WikiProjects

WikiProject South America
WikiProject Latin America (semi-active)

Selected article - show another

From top to bottom, from left to right: Panoramic Image of the City, Fortaleza Ozama, Parque a Colón, Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Obelisk of George Washington Avenue (the Malecón), The National Palace of the Dominican Republic, Las Américas International Airport.

Santo Domingo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsanto ðoˈmiŋɡo] meaning "Saint Dominic" but verbatim "Holy Sunday"), once known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, known as Ciudad Trujillo between 1936 and 1961, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the city and immediate surrounding area (the Distrito Nacional) had a population of 1,029,110 while the total population is 3,798,699 when including Greater Santo Domingo (the "metropolitan area"). The city is coterminous with the boundaries of the Distrito Nacional ("D.N.", "National District"), itself bordered on three sides by Santo Domingo Province.

Founded by the Spanish in 1496, on the east bank of the Ozama River and then moved by Nicolás de Ovando in 1502 to the west bank of the river, the city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World, the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. It is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress in the New World. The city's Colonial Zone was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Santo Domingo was called Ciudad Trujillo (Spanish pronunciation: [sjuˈðað tɾuˈxiʝo]), from 1936 to 1961, after the Dominican Republic's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, named the capital after himself. Following his assassination, the city resumed its original designation. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that despite an attempted "extermination" of homosexuals in the 1960s and 1970s, the LGBT community in Argentina is now the most accepted in Latin America?
... 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 Brazilian computer science researcher and internet pioneer Tadao Takahashi negotiated with drug lords to install internet equipment in his country?
... that Franz Grave, the first bishop of Essen born in Essen, focused on intercultural dialogue with Latin America?
... that the Latin American travesti gender identity has been considered to be a third gender, akin to the hijras of India and the muxe of Mexico?

General images

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

Image 1Fiambre, Guatemalan traditional dish, eaten on November 1, the Day of the Dead (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 2Villa de Leyva, a historical and cultural landmark of Colombia (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 3Countries in Latin America by date of independence (from History of Latin America)
Image 4Holy week, Ouro Preto-MG, 2010. Chrome. Photo: Guy Veloso. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 5The joropo, as depicted in a 1912 drawing by Eloy Palacios (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 6The military junta of Argentina saw widespread repression against those it deemed to be political dissidents (from History of Latin America)
Image 7In 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)
Image 8The Guadalajara International Film Festival is considered the most prestigious film festival in Latin America. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 9Mexican Stock Exchange (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 10A 17th-century map of the Americas (from History of Latin America)
Image 11Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 12Intermediate level international-style Latin dancing at the 2006 MIT ballroom dance competition. A judge stands in the foreground. (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 13The 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 141903 political cartoon: President Roosevelt intimidating Colombia to acquire the Panama Canal Zone. (from History of Latin America)
Image 15Instituto Arnoldo Gabaldón, declared August 30, 1984, as a National Historic Landmark (from Culture of Latin America)
Image 16Left-leaning leaders of Bolivia, Brazil and Chile at the Union of South American Nations summit in 2008 (from History of Latin America)

edit

Selected panorama

Panorama of the Iguazú Falls, in the Brazilian side. Walkways allow close views of the falls from both Brazil and Argentina. The falls, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, are located on the border of the Brazilian State of Paraná and the Argentine Province of Misiones.

edit

Selected picture

Alpamayo

Credit: Brad Mering

Alpamayo, one of the most conspicuous peaks in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range of the Peruvian Andes. It is a steep, almost perfect pyramid of ice, one of a number of peaks that compose the northernmost massif of the Cordillera Blanca..